As always, my holiday in Germany was filled with rest and relaxation, but during this springtime season of the year, I enjoyed the added bonus of virtually endless white asparagus and strawberries.

My Beautiful Springtime Journey To Southwest Germany

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I think the picture above says it all…a beautiful sunrise on the morning of our departure. Our time in Germany’s southwest corner included beautiful sunsets and sunrises nearly every day.

Late springtime in Germany is the season for the freshest, juiciest, sweetest locally-grown strawberries and delicious white asparagus, two food items I enjoyed each day just as much as my coffee. After eating German strawberries, you really cannot go back to our pesticide-laden strawberries in California…they are just not the same.

Of course, every trip in Germany includes plenty of great coffee (I have my favorite two spots in Lörrach and do not deviate from them) and plenty of ice cream, particularly Spaghettieis, a German ice cream dish made to resemble a plate of spaghetti with vanilla ice cream extruded through a Spätzle press, giving it the appearance of spaghetti. It is then placed over whipped cream and topped with strawberry sauce (to resemble tomato sauce) and white chocolate shavings (to resemble parmesan cheese).

And no trip to Baden-Württemberg would be complete without dinner at my favorite steakhouse, Höllsteiner Hof, in Steinen. I sneer at the snobs who look down on filet mignon and will be happy to argue that it is a far better cut of meat than ribeye. We tried chicken, fish, and ribs as well…the food here is great, the atmosphere tranquil, and I love the playground to keep the kids occupied.

One night we tried a Vietnamese restaurant and also had more ice cream…

There was plenty of home cooking during this trip as well, and the avocados (from Spain) were also very good.

We did do more than eat or drink. There were nightly walks and many runs through the forest.

We visited the castle ruins of Rötteln and window shopped in the city.

It has become somewhat of a tradition for the kids to buy new shoes while in Germany (though with the EUR having strengthened so much against the USD this year, I’m not so sure about next time).

Like the USA, Germany has “Coinstar” machines as well and Augustine and I took a bucket of small-value coins Heidi and I received for our wedding that had been sitting in her room for 11 years, and we traded them in for bills.

We brought home a piece of artwork that had to be very carefully wrapped and we picked up some packing supplies at Bauhaus, the German equivalent of Home Depot or Lowe’s.

All in all, another good trip to Germany…they all are, but this one was particularly delicious.