Germany

The Italian food in Germany was pretty darn good!

Kaiserslautern

Eat, Eat, and Eat

K-town is based outside of Ramstein AFB in Germany. It's populated with mostly English speakers and military service men and women. If you ever wanted to feel like you were at home, you go to one of the many restaurants in K-town. Their street-food is known as Doner, similar to a wrap or Gyro. Pancakes in Germany are served with powdered sugar. If you desire syrup, you must ask and it may not always be available.

More food in K-town!

Big Emma will give you more than your hearts desire in portions! Alte Feuerwache offered the best italian food! Liami was an incredible Sushi spot.

The Black Forest

The Black Forest is a beautiful region in Southwest Germany, which shares borders with France and Switzerland. Although I didn't have much information about this area, my visit was unforgettable. One of the highlights was going zip-lining, where we were treated to breathtaking views. The Hirschgrund-zipline provided an exceptional experience. Despite our tour guide not speaking English, she did an amazing job demonstrating what to do. The zip lines themselves were quite impressive, with one of them being a staggering 1870ft long and 272ft high. It was definitely worth the trip. However, it's important to note that there is some hiking involved to reach each zip line, so being in decent physical shape is necessary to fully enjoy the tour. After the thrilling adventure, we explored the local town, visited a lively day market, and relaxed with a refreshing beer at a charming local restaurant.

Europa Park and Rulantica

Similar to Epcot at Disney, Europa-Park is ranked one of the best theme-parks in the world. Rulantica is Europa-Park's waterpark creatively themed and modern amenities. A group of us decided to stay on-site in a Teepee at Camp Resort.

The website made it easy enough to book our day park tickets, lodging, and waterpark tickets. Europa-Park is huge, you could spend a few days there, but we did it in about 5 hours. Its setup is very similar to Epcot with different countries as themes. Check out the website to learn more about the rides. I linked it above.

There are several lodging choices but for fun we decided to stay in a Tee Pee at Camp Resort. It was a large tent with 8 beds inside! Pretty basic, we had to bring our own pillows and blankets. The site had nice bathrooms/showers and a restaurant.

My favorite, and one I'd visit again is Rulantica. It was very well designed for families. Once you enter the park, you are issued a wristband either by a vending machine or at the ticket counter. The wrist band is used to make purchases while in the park. At the end of the day, you return the wristband to the vending machine and pay for everything you purchased. It was the perfect way to not worry about having your belongings with you at all times. The lazy river and wave pool are inside an atrium type building. The larger water slides are situated indoors and outdoors. The outdoor grounds feature a large pool with swim up bar, cabanas and lounge chairs, volleyball courts and a kids play area. The layout of Rulantica was really cool and the food and drinks were delicious.

Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden is designated by UNESCO World Heritage Site as a great spa town. One of the main reasons I wanted to visit is because I heard about the spas and that it was a more "boujee" part of Germany. I specifically chose Friedrichsbad Spa because of its history. This spa is nude and costs 40 Euro for one visit. Once you pay, you are taken to a locker room to place your belongings before entering the first station. You walk through a series of stations that include a shower, saunas of varying temperatures, and thermal water baths with different depths and temperatures. The experience ends with a cup of tea in a large sunroom. This was perhaps one of the most unique and relaxing experiences I've had abroad. I was proud of myself for trying something different!

Note: I did go on a Tuesday afternoon and there was only one other individual in the pools when I was.