Eguisheim and Riquewihr, France

While visiting Colmar, we hit the road to a couple other nearby towns. The Alsace region of France has a seemingly endless number of adorable little towns to explore. Our time was short, so we focused on Eguisheim and Riquewihr. 

This is a popular photo spot in Eguisheim. Some say it inspired Disney's Beauty and the Beast. We were really lucky to find the area devoid of many tourists so we could take a few pictures uninterrupted. 

This shows the same spot but a little farther behind with wisteria framing the shot. The spring flowers around the towns were gorgeous!

We stopped for a coffee at a shop that is 125 years old (if I read the French correctly). It was a lovely spot next to the square with views of a fountain and a church.

Our next stop in Riquewihr started with lunch. We opted for pizza and tarte flambé. I indulged with a limoncello spritz which was the perfect refreshing drink.

Each little town seemed to have a small train to learn some of the history and see the town. We took the little train ride in Riquewihr which drove us up into the surrounding vineyards for an amazing view of the town below. 

The pictures do not do the town justice. It was picturesque and pleasant. You can stop to taste wine at a number of wine shops serving Alsatian wines. You can pick up Alsatian gingerbread. You can shop for pottery or antiques. There is a wealth of possibilities and I cannot wait to return to explore some more!

Dining in Bulgaria

I have had a few people ask me about the food in Bulgaria. We ate really well and inexpensively there. 

Charles enjoys Thai food and we don't eat it very often. I found a highly rated Thai restaurant and had it in mind for his birthday dinner, but we ended up eating there the night before instead. It was so good! I had the yellow curry and a Thai beer. 

We are a dessert every night kind of family. Our first night we did not want to venture back out for gelato so we decided to try out the room service. Check out this fancy looking dessert! 

Another type of restaurant we tried while in Sofia was a BBQ joint. Being Southern BBQ lovers, we had to see what Bulgarians are doing with their BBQ. We were pleasantly surprised. We also tried some Bulgarian beer. I did not really care for mine (pictured above), but Charles' was good. I took a picture of our BBQ platter, but it turned out blurry. That's what I get for not checking before digging in. Our platter had a great sampling of different items--ribs, pulled pork, sausage, pickles, bread and corn. It came with a pineapple BBQ sauce. Mmmm! 

For birthday breakfast, we walked about 15 minutes to a place that came very highly rated on Google. When we arrived, they had a sign that said closed for renovations. Sadness abounds! Around the corner was a very hipster coffee shop called Chucky's so we gave that a try. The coffee was good. I had lemon cake and Charles had banana bread. Not exactly birthday level special, but we made do. 

One of our afternoon treats was bubble tea from a tiny place down the street from our hotel. I had green apple fruit tea and was not going to get any pearls, but the owner insisted so I chose cherry. It was very refreshing. 

This was Charles' choice for breakfast one of our mornings. It's a Bulgarian fried dough. Mine was topped with Nutella and bananas and Charles had honey and walnuts. It was pretty tasty!

For Charles' birthday dinner we tried Bulgarian food. The restaurant was down the street from our hotel (did I mention how conveniently located our hotel was???) and it was so affordable. We ordered a bottle of wine, an appetizer and two entrees for the grand total of about $40 USD. Wow!

Our wine was a Bulgarian white wine and it was very refreshing and light. 

The appetizer menu included several different dips to choose between. We chose this one which had garlic, tomatoes and cream cheese served with bread. It was delicious.

Bulgarian food has some similarities with Greek food. My meal, for example, was like puff pastry stuffed with chicken, spinach and cheese. It was really, really good. Charles' entrée was like a pot pie with several meats in the filling. 

Our very amazing hotel left Charles a birthday treat! What a fun surprise to come back to the room to this. 

Our very first meal in Sofia was at Supa Star, a soup restaurant. Each day they have a variety of different soups to choose from. It was quick, filling and delicious. Plus, like many of our other stops, was right down the street from our hotel. This is the broccoli soup. 

Can you have a European vacation during the summer without gelato? We didn't think so!

Prague

Our first overnight stay outside of Germany since moving here was in Prague. This city has been high on my travel wish list for a while and I left feeling like we hardly saw any of it. Our three day weekend just wasn't long enough. There were so many museums and buildings to see but we just did not have time to see it all. 

We stayed at Hotel Klarov on the other side of the river from Old Town. The hotel was lovely and probably a little fancier than we normally book. Each room at that hotel is named after a famous musician and we stayed in the Joan Baez room. I was hoping for Queen, but what can you do! Breakfast was included, but it was the pretty standard free hotel breakfast so nothing exciting. A big draw for the hotel was free parking was included with our stay. 

Even though it was across the river, it was an easy walk to the Old Town. 

For our first night, we booked an hour at the Original Beer Spa. I came across this concept during my research phase and thought it sounded interesting enough to try. It was super relaxing!

When you arrive for your appointment, you can start drinking beer while you wait for your room to be ready. They had two options--a light and a dark beer. 

Once in the room, the lady put a bucket of the beer, hops and barley into the whirlpool tub. The Czechs believe beer baths are very beneficial for your skin. Mine was pretty soft afterward. It felt a little weird having the barley and hops floating around us in the whirlpool, but it was relaxing. Right next to the tub is a tap with both the light and dark beer so you can drink as much as you would like. We were also given slices of their beer bread to enjoy while soaking. Two slices had some kind of (what we think was) potato spread. We are not completely sure though. 

After soaking for about 30 minutes, the whirlpool jets turn off and you are supposed to lay on the straw bed. The smell of the fresh straw was amazing. Sheets were provided so we did not lay directly on the straw. Super relaxing! 

Overall, it was a neat experience and I am glad that we tried it out!

On our second day, we walked over to Prague Castle and walked around the grounds and inside some of the buildings. I really enjoyed the church. It had a variety of styles for the stain glass windows and I appreciated that one was the Art Nouveau style which is seen throughout Prague. 

On our way to Café Savoy for coffee and a snack, we stopped at the John Lennon Wall. It is one of those while you're in Prague you might as well see it things. It was cool to see the variety of languages, colors and styles on the wall. 

In the late afternoon we took a food tour with Taste of Prague. We took ZERO pictures on the tour (epic fail on my part), but it was really enjoyable. Our tour guide, Martin, was friendly and full of information. We were the only two on the tour and he was great to converse with. We ate delicious food. Our first stop was to a local beer hall where we tried Czech beer from Pilsner, fried cheese, sausages, bread and pickled Carp (yes, even I tried the fish... It wasn't my favorite, but I can at least say I gave it a shot). 

On our second stop we visited a local butcher that specializes in using the whole animal and local ingredients. The restaurant was in an old bank and had a really cool style. We tried some pickled veggies, pork and beef--both cooked and tartar (tartar was a first for me). There we had a dark Czech beer which was my favorite beverage of the tour. 

Our third stop was a small local restaurant with amazing food! We had tapioca chips, beef with an apricot sauce, chicken with an Indian butter sauce and a Czech rose wine. I am not normally a fan of rose wines, but this one was delicious. 

Our final stop was a huge restaurant doing everything--coffee roaster, bakery, restaurant, pastry chef, etc. It was in an old factory and the food was delicious. We tried a gin and tonic (the restaurant makes their own tonic, of course) with seasonal fruits. We're not big gin fans, so it wasn't our favorite but still cool to try. The savory dish was called burnt potato soup which Martin explained is nostalgic for Czechs as it reminds them of summer camp as a kid. The soup had smoked carp in it, but if he had not told me that I would not have known. It was delicious and creamy. We also tried their coffee and a couple desserts which were probably my favorite part because I love sweets. 

The really great thing about this tour is that they provide you a guide book for Prague with tons of recommendations on restaurants, cafes, bars, shopping and more. Plus Martin told us several times throughout the tour that whenever we travel to other European cities to reach out to them and they will give us restaurant recommendations there, as well. What a great value! 

On our last morning in Prague we decided to skip the hotel breakfast and headed to a local café called Cocovanka. It had a boho vibe. We both ordered a Café Latte. I enjoyed an apple tart and Charles had some kind of lacey cookie thing. 

As I said in the beginning, I feel like we hardly saw anything of Prague so I think we will have to visit again during our time in Germany. 

Beer (or hard cider) cheese

The very first time I made this recipe was for an Oktoberfest party we hosted. I made it again last year for a St. Patrick's Day themed bunco game night. My friend Alysha liked it so much that she has requested it several other times since then. It's so easy to put together and tastes amazing! You can serve it in a fondue pot or right from a stove top sauce pan.

It tastes delicious served with pretzels, bread of any kind, broccoli and green apple slices. Really you could dip old tennis shoes in this and it would taste amazing!

Beer Nut Bread

For our second loaf of bread we chose Beer Nut Bread. The recipe came from a Betty Crocker Bread Machine cookbook that I borrowed from the library. I don't remember the last time I borrowed a book from the library. It came out really well and did not collapse like our first loaf! Here is how you can make it!

Ingredients:
For 1 1/2 lb
3/4 cup beer (it says you can use nonalcoholic beer)
1/3 cup water
3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shredded smoked cheddar cheese (we used regular cheddar cheese)
1 Tablespoon butter, softened
3 cups bread flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons quick active dry yeast
1/2 cup salted peanuts

For 2 lb 
1 cup beer
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup cheddar cheese
2 Tablespoons butter
4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 teaspoons yeast
2/3 cup peanuts

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients except peanuts in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Add peanuts at the Raisin/Nut signal. Betty Crocker recommends that if you do not have this signal, to add the nuts 5-10 minutes before the last kneading cycle ends. Your manual should be a guide on this.

Select Basic/White cycle. Use Medium or Light crust color. Do not use delay cycles. Remove baked bread from pan, and cool on wire rack.