Bonjour! I’m writing from the high speed train to Cologne. It feels so good to finally be on the way, living the dream of full time travel. We are reaching the end of our first week of this trip, and it’s been such a wonderful start.
I’ll take us back to the very start at Auckland Airport. Jerry managed to snag us a sliver of luxury in the Air New Zealand lounge, thanks to some credit card perks from earlier in the year. We drank our fun cocktails, loaded up on food for dinner, and then boarded our flight to New York.
What does one do for 15-16 hours on a plane, I hear you ask. Apparently in our case, not a lot! We both managed one movie, ate our first meal service, and reclined those Economy seats…I somehow then fell asleep for NINE hours, which is pretty much unheard of. Jerry, not quite as fortunate as me, managed about two hours of actual sleep, but chatted with one of the flight attendants, discovered all the extra snacks he could get, and generally buzzed with excitement about being on his favourite form of transport. I promptly convinced myself I was developing deep vein thrombosis, as you do. Not a lot of sleep after that.
We had 6 hours to kill in JFK in New York. Usually we’d stop for a couple of days to break up the journey, but we were racing to catch up with mum, Sarah, and Steve, who flew out two days before us. Around five hours would’ve been a comfortable stopover at JFK, considering the rigmarole that is US customs and security. I will say, I don’t rate US airports, particularly terminal 1 at JFK. It felt like we’d travelled back to the nineties, and not in a fun way. If we could’ve, we would’ve gone a different route, but it was astronomically cheaper to transit the US. Savings win!
Our flight to Frankfurt was pretty unremarkable. This was a Lufthansa leg, so we added another airline to our list (for those who are interested, cough Jerry cough). 42 hours after we left Cherry Lane, we had made it. We couldn’t have our first day without a Christmas market, and we were only in Frankfurt for the night. Frankfurt’s market at Romerberg was modestly sized compared to what’s coming, but it was beautiful. We had our first 4:30pm sunset and crashed for the night.
As it turns out, jetlag is great for early morning travel planning. Over the past week, we’ve gradually progressed from waking at midnight, all the way til 4am, so we’re nearly at a normal hour! Those wakeful periods have helped us research local restaurants, train routes, and review weather, so we can’t complain.
Our first full day in Europe was a traaaaavel day. It was a bitsy train day, as we wanted to stop in Heidelberg for a few hours to explore. We were already planning on having several trains, but our introduction to the German rail network was a wee bit of a fiasco, with our first two trains of the day being cancelled, and many more delays across the day. We really got to play the Eurail app, in preparation for the rest of the trip.
It was worthwhile stopping in Heidelberg. Handy hint, they have a great tourist centre outside the train station, with super helpful staff who can help with getting bus tickets and tickets for Schloss Heidelberg and the funicular! Schloss Heidelberg was epic, although there were a LOT of tour groups for us to get lost amongst. We saw a barrel that holds 220,000 litres of wine, with a platform on top that was once used as a dance floor, and thought of my winemaking sister, Leah.
This day was also the first real test of wearing the bags, as we had them on our backs all day. Luckily, they (and our backs) held up well. 10kg is definitely the max weight we want to be carrying, so that means no crazy shopping sprees for me, or I’ll have to sweet talk mum into letting me carve out a corner of her suitcase…
Six train rides later, we arrived in Strasbourg, France. This was where we connected with the McElliTucker team. It was an indescribable feeling to spot them coming through the crowd, at the foot of the Strasbourg Cathedral.
Strasbourg has been a pastel dream. You can really see the inspiration for Beauty and the Beast in the Alsace region. I have had so many moments where I had to stop myself and wonder - is this real? Are these real houses? Do people actually live here? The half-timbered houses are such a delight, and so iconic. By being a border city, Strasbourg has both French and German roots. We’ve enjoyed the unique cultural blend.
Strasbourg titles itself “The Christmas City”, and it has earned its title. Kilometres of fairy lights with different designs, markets peppered across the city, and the smell of gingerbread on every corner. I’ve collected my first Christmas decoration here, to add to our (soon to be laden) Christmas tree. I’ve also had my first vin chaud, the soul warming drink of the markets.
During our time here, we added in a day trip to Colmar. I couldn’t believe that the half timbered houses could get more beautiful, but there ya go. As Eli mentioned, Le Petit Venice looks like an AI generated image, rather than a real place. Here, we tried tarte flambée, also known as flammkuchen, which is a staple of the region. Thanks Helena for the recommendation!
As we sat around the table at lunch, Sarah, herefore known as “Sarah the Spontaneous”, turned to us and said, “why don’t we go to Basel for afternoon tea?” Well, the opportunity to pop across the border, only another 45 minutes away, seemed like too good of an opportunity to miss. Plus, this was the only way we could afford Switzerland - no accommodation!!
Basel had our favourite market food so far, apple doughnuts and hot mulled apple cider, “glühmost”. It is our new food of the moment, and we’re on the lookout for more.
Jerry and I also had our own celebrity meeting, when we met Kara and Nate in the line behind us for apple doughnuts.
Flashback time: When Jerry and I had Covid in 2021, we were really hit by fatigue. We spent several days in bed, unable to do much more than lie there. It was at this time that we discovered Kara and Nate’s travel YouTube, and proceeded to watch hours of their travels across the world. We started talking about how we didn’t want to miss our chance to travel at this stage of life, and how we wanted to do it in a big way. Meeting them on day five of our trip felt like such an epic full circle moment.
We did make it back to Strasbourg that night, despite a ticketmaster at the train station gleefully informing the five of us that we’d certainly not be going back tonight, seeing as our spontaneity hadn’t factored in our lack of passport wearing… Suffice to say, the extra grey hairs mean we’ll definitely be keeping our passports on us daily from here on out.
Our final night in Strasbourg culminated with dinner at Le Tire Bouchon, a traditional winstub. This was a highlight of our time in Strasbourg, sitting around the table and chatting about the adventures so far. We tried escargot, which was a hit with Steve, mum, and I (Sarah and Jerry watched apprehensively). I enjoyed Munster au gratin, which I can only compare to having an entire baked camembert to myself for dinner. Bliss. The crème brûlée was a standout… What a meal. This might also be the cutest winstub in Strasbourg, decorated with teddy bears and Christmas garlands on the outside.
We’re back on high speed trains today, zooming off at 200km/h in the direction of Cologne. Feeling cheerful and chipper, with the first packed lunch of many to come.
Jerry’s Stat of the Week: We have travelled 20,407 kilometres by plane, and 912 kilometres by train this week.
Tschüss!
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