Day Trips: Europa Park and Koblenz, Germany

 

We haven't done much cooking the past couple of weeks, because we have been so busy exploring! Things are finally opening up in Deutschland! Memorial Day weekend we enjoyed a fun day at Europa Park, an amusement park in Rust, Germany. Then we got treated to another 4-day weekend, and decided to check out Koblenz! We have been soaking up the amazing culture, history, and nice sunny weather. 

Europa Park is a large amusement park in Rust, Germany. It is near the French border. The park has tons of things to offer and had most information available in English, which is always a relief. They had lots of shows, but we were too busy going on rides to check those out this visit. I was surprised at the amount of great restaurants in the park. Unsurprisingly, there was also a beer and wine stand around every corner! The Germans definitely enjoy their adult beverages. 

Inside this dome was one of my favorite rides, the Can-Can Coaster! If you ever get to go this indoor coaster is a must! A bonus of going during COVID times was the limited number of ticket sales. The lines were always short.

This was my daughter's first 'big kid' roller coaster! It is called Blue Fire and has a loop, four corkscrews, and goes from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds! We had to bribe her to get on, but when it was done she wanted to go again! 

After we were done in the park we checked into our airbnb, then headed to a delicious dinner at a local steak house. It felt amazing to be able to do something 'normal' for the first time in over a year. 

Our next trip was to Koblenz! School is out and we were ready to keep exploring! Here you can see where the Rhine and Mosel rivers meet. In the picture above, you can see the two different colored waters merging. We took a cable car ride over the river and up to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. 

The fortress housed a fantastic museum. The grounds also had a great playground area and a beautiful biergarten, but it was a bit windy up there for our taste. We headed back down to explore the rest of the city. 

We wandered through the gardens of the Basilica of St. Castor while we decided where to go next. 

We stopped by a biergarten along the river to enjoy some refreshments, including a nutella crepe! 

We wandered around town until we found a place we wanted to try for dinner. We had to wait a bit for a table to open up, but we were able to snag one outside. We ended up at Einstein Cafe, which had a whole seasonal menu full of spargel (white asparagus) items. My husband tried out the rumpsteak with spargel and hollandaise sauce.

We ended the day with a stop at this amazing fountain, where we had to toss some coins in for wishes obviously. After that we reluctantly loaded into the car and headed home. It was a lovely city and we will definitely be coming back! 

Thanks for reading about some of our fun adventures! I hope to share many more soon! 

Sending good vibes your way! 

- Lauren