Collage of different images taken from both countries. (From left to right: Downtown Frankfurt from Main Tower, The Royal Palace of Amsterdam, Neroberg Temple, Frankfurt skyline, Nürburgring sign, Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof interior, “Die Wasserfälle von Tivoli” at Städel Museum, Heiliggeistkirche, and Schloss Biebrich.)
I’ve recently made it back home after taking a once-in-a-lifetime vacation to Germany and The Netherlands. From visiting the many landmarks around Frankfurt, driving on the famed Nürburgring Nordschleife, visiting Heidelberg, and taking a day trip to Amsterdam. It was an amazing trip that I may never get to experience again! In this blog post, I go into detail about what we’ve experienced throughout our 10-day vacation in these two countries.
Amsterdam Day Trip
After arriving and winding down for a day at the Courtyard Hotel in Wiesbaden-Nordenstadt, we decided to take the train from Frankfurt Flughafen to Amsterdam Centraal to see parts of the city. I managed to purchase a round-trip train ticket for around $910, which took about 4 hours to get to Amsterdam and over 5 hours back to Frankfurt. However, the non-stop Amsterdam train line was canceled, and I had to go to Deutsche Bahn’s information desk to suggest another train to go there. We ended up taking a train to Mainz, Koblenz, Bonn, Cologne, Arnhem, Utrecht, and Amsterdam Centraal. It was a pain in the ass that got us there 2 hours later than anticipated.
Upon arriving in Amsterdam, I was amazed at the landscape and the vast amount of people who commute on bicycles. It could be why this city is considered the “Bike Capital of the World,” as kids and adults tend to travel from place to place on bikes. Other than that, I ended up exploring parts of Damrak Street where I saw some landmarks, such as the Royal Palace, Madame Tussauds Amsterdam, Dam Square, and Oude Kerk Amsterdam. Then, I explored the canals westward from the town’s center. I had plans to try out a canal cruise for an hour, but time was winding down due to that train delay earlier in the day. Also, I wanted to visit the Anne Frank House as my last stop for this day trip, but all tickets had to be ordered online. That wasn’t posted on the website last time I recall. Despite that ordeal, I traveled back to the train station to head back to Frankfurt. Passing by the many sex shops and museums on the way because prostitution is legal in this city. We got back at around 12:45 AM to the Frankfurt train station and got an Uber back to the hotel to start the next day.
Wiesbaden & Frankfurt
The next several days were spent checking out what’s in show at Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. We went to some cool buildings, castles, and a couple “tourist traps.” One in particular was the former largest cuckoo clock (Große Kuckucksuhr) in downtown Wiesbaden, where the clock chimes every half hour. When the clock reaches the top of the hour, it does cuckoo stuff, but in a disappointing fashion IMO. Other than that, I managed to see some cool churches and architectural buildings from many centuries ago. A few in particular were the Spielbank Wiesbaden, Hessisches Staatstheater, Evangelische Marktkirchengemeinde, and Marktplatz. After exploring these buildings, we decided to check out an interesting hot spring park nearby called Thermalquelle Kochbrunnen. This park has a fountain fed from an underground hot spring and a bustling plaza connected to it. The next day, we checked out the remaining parks and landmarks in Wiesbaden, such as Neroberg Temple, Schloss Biebrich, and Schloss Park.
In Frankfurt, there were a lot of things to do in this city. My nephew and I decided to stop at an art museum called Städel Museum. It houses a large collection of fine and contemporary art at this facility. We first checked the downstairs contemporary art section, and there were some interesting, neat, and weird art pieces. Some were I wouldn’t consider as “art.” For example, there was an art piece that had blotches of oil on the canvas, another one had perfect squares, and one had nearly the entire canvas painted with red and dark orange lines. On the upper level of the museum, that’s where the fine art exhibits are located. There were tons of masterpieces from centuries ago from different countries. We saw most of it until security kicked us out because the museum was closing for the day. Then, we decided to rent a pair of e-scooters from Lime and rode around town to explore. After stopping by Eschenheimer Anlage Park, we headed back to the hotel to rest for the day.
The next day in Frankfurt was with the rest of my family. The first place we stopped was a castle north of town called Burg Kronberg. It’s a medieval castle that was renovated some time ago and has vast gardens, museums, and dated architecture. Exploring that castle took about an hour to do. After checking out the castle, we headed back to Frankfurt to explore what we could do for the rest of the day. We checked out an observatory deck on top of Main Tower in downtown Frankfurt, where there are breathtaking views of the downtown skyline and beyond. After checking that out, we decided to eat at an American restaurant before heading back called What’s Beef. It’s pretty much your typical burger joint that’s common in the United States but in Europe.
Nürburgring Nordschleife
As a car and racing enthusiast, I wanted to take the opportunity during this vacation to drive on the 20.6 km (12.9 mi) track. First, I rented a car through a race car rental agency called, Ringfreaks. They are based in Kelberg, Germany, about 8 km (5 mi) from the Nürburgring. I booked a Volkswagen Golf GTI for 5 laps in the morning hours on March 31, 2024. This cost me €774 as I included an all-inclusive package, which includes free fuel and toll passes. I picked up the car at around 7AM, about an hour before the track opened, and drove the car to the parking lot to wait for the signal that the track was open.
At around 9:10 AM, marshals gave the signal to open up the track. It was a foggy and rainy morning, which was probably why they delayed the opening time by an hour. For the next 20 minutes, I gathered my thoughts and emotions to prepare to drive on this track. This is why I prepared myself for many days on Gran Turismo, BeamNG.drive, and other racing simulators to get an idea of the track so I don’t crash the car and become a causality. For my first lap, I did a “dry run” to get an idea of the car, the track, and the road conditions, as they were still wet from the rain. After running a successful lap, I got back on the track to do my second lap. I decided to push it a bit further than my last one as I got a good feeling of the track and the car. On my third lap, I brought my nephew along for the ride, which went smoothly. For my fourth lap, I got my mom involved. During the run, there were a couple cautions on the track as a couple people wrecked. One of them was on Schwedenkreuz, where a Hyundai Tiburon wrecked on the hairpin and into the gravel. Another wrecked a few kilometers down the road, where they lost their front bumper. Other than that, it was full speed throughout the rest of the track. On my final lap, I drove the car by myself and tried to push myself as much as I could without wrecking the car. That wrecked car at Schwedenkreuz was still there, but the other wrecked car was gone. That lap seemed to be the best one I’ve done, except for slowing down for the caution flag. It is a slight downer that I got passed by a Fiat 500 and a Suzuki Swift, but hey, it was a hell of an experience driving on the longest road courses in the world!
Heidelberg
On the last day in Germany, we drove down to a mid-size town called Heidelberg. It’s well known for its old bridges and a large medieval castle near the town’s center. First, we checked out some of the plazas on the way to the castle, such as Kornmarkt and Karlplatz. Then, we checked out the Heiliggeistkirche, which is an evangelical church inside Marktplatz. After visiting those plazas, we walked up a steep path to get to the entrance to the castle called Schloss Heidelberg. You could explore parts of the castle for free, but you had to pay to get inside the courtyard and explore the other parts. One interesting part of the castle is that there’s part of a collapsed tower that exists today. According to a historical marker, the tower collapsed because the French attacked the castle that was believed to store gunpowder during the Palatinate War of Succession, or the Nine Years’ War. Overall, it’s an awe-inspiring experience checking out the entire castle for a few hours. On the way back to the hotel, I had the audacity to drive 210 km/h (130 mph) in a rented Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDI on the Autobahn in a no-speed limit zone. It may have shed some time off the journey, but at least it gave me the thrill of driving at a high speed SAFELY without endangering anyone.
Conclusion
After spending my hard-earned money on this experience, it was worth every penny! From seeing ancient architecture to driving at triple-digit speeds. I had an excellent time being out here! I thought about going to Stuttgart to see the Porsche and Mercedes car museums. However, it would’ve strained us out more in terms of time to make it to those car museums. If I had the opportunity to visit Germany again, I would make my way to Stuttgart and Munich, visiting all of the car museums to see some of the most prestigious vehicles ever built. Overall, this vacation is like no other that I’ve personally experienced! Also, I will edit the Nürburgring video, as I recently obtained the videos from Ringfreaks, where the onboard camera recorded all my 5 laps driving on the track. I plan to upload that within one to two weeks from now.
TRIZE 