Germany!

I love how inexpensive it is to travel within Europe. It makes weekend trips to see old friends possible! Right after our excursion in Northern Ireland with Ron, I hopped a flight to see my good friend Taylor and her husband in Germany. Taylor's husband is in the military so the night I got in we headed right to a hail and farewell party to honor incoming and outgoing families from the area. It was a new experience for me, but very enjoyable, nice to spend an evening meeting meeting so many nice people!

 The next morning we headed out to explore their adorable town, Ladenburg. 

 I revert right back to being a high schooler with Taylor... (well let's be honest, I never really grew up haha)

 Later that afternoon we headed to Weinheim and met up with a few of Taylor's friends to wander around Christmas markets!

 That evening, the husbands joined us and we all went to more Christmas markets!

 The lights were so beautiful at night!

 The next day we headed over to Heidelberg.

 After some breakfast we hiked up to the Heidelberg Castle

The view from the castle is just amazing, I love the cute houses lining the river - so very German looking!

 Inside the castle there are all sorts of things to explore, starting with a few GIANT wine barrels :)

Also inside the castle is the German Pharmacy Museum. It was so interesting to see the old bottles, beakers and everything!

 It was a bit of a misty day, but nothing Ireland hadn't prepared me for haha so we enjoyed looking around

 There was even a Christmas market inside the castle grounds!

 After shopping around a bit we walked across to another beautiful view of the river and the castle again

Taylor, Chris, and I in front of the Heidelberg Castle

We headed down from the castle to shop around some more at, you guessed it, CHRISTMAS MARKETS!

 I love that even though it was a misty rainy day, there were still tons of people out and about enjoying the markets and warming up with gluvine!

I loved looking around Heidelberg, such a lovely town!

The next morning brought a beautiful sunshiny day so Taylor and I headed over to Speyer. 

 Another cute little German town, we had a lovely breakfast then wandered in and out of shops and around markets most of the day! 

 We went to check out the amazing Cathedral 

 Such a huge beautiful church! Less ornate than most of the Irish and English cathedrals I have recently been in, but still a massive grand building! 

We didn't spend too long in the cathedral since it was such a beautiful day we wanted to walk around outside enjoying it!

It was so wonderful to get to experience Germany and visit with Taylor and Chris and all of their friends! I only wish I had more time, I will just have to plan a trip back one of these days!