Nationalpark Eifel ranger walking tour

Tweet

Looking for a nice place to recharge your batteries? Nationalpark Eifel in the NRW region at the border with Belgium and Germany is the perfect place to disconnect from everyday life and reconnect with nature and yourself.

I went on a ranger walking tour through the nature park with ranger Sasha and had such a fun time ! You can do all kinds of fun activities while making your way through the forest. Just follow the path and at the very end of it you'll be rewarded with a stunning view over the Rursee lake.

Join Sasha and I for a walk through Nationalpark Eifel in the vlog I made for you below...

Drachenburg, legendary castle of dragon slayer Siegfried

Tweet

Ever heard the legend of Siegfried the dragonslayer? He became invincible after slaying a dragon and bathing in its blood. He only had one weak spot on his body because part of his skin was covered by a leaf while he was bathing in the dragon's blood. This would also lead to his demise.

Now the place where all this happened was on the top of Drachenfells rock which you can find in Königswinter. On this hill you will also find the magnificent Drachenburg castle. Absolutely one of the most impressive castles I've seen in Germany.

I discovered it via my Destination Challenges in the NRW region.

Watch my vlog about it below and discover some more photos of this stunning place.

FUN outdoor activities to do in Sauerland, North Rhine-Westfalia

Tweet

Looking for nature and fun outdoor in the NRW region? Then Sauerland is the place to be !

My Destination Challenges in Sauerland helped me discover the beautiful lake 'Möhnesee' aka 'Westfalisches Meer' and the hills of Winterberg where I went mini golfing and mountain biking at Erlebnisberg Kappe.

It's needless to say that I spent an active day.

The coolest public transport system in the world: The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal

Tweet

Little did I know that Wuppertal had such a fun surprise in store for me.

Wuppertal is the home to a suspension railway referred to as the 'Schwebebahn'. It's basically a 13 km metro system that floates mainly over the 'Wupper' river.

It's said to be the safest and in my opinion also the coolest public transport system in the world.

Let me take you for a ride in the video below ;-)

Wildschönau valley things to do in Summer in Tirol, Austria

Tweet

The Wildschönau is valley an absolute pearl in the Tirol mountains of Austria. Such a beautiful and charming region. Couldn't get enough of the landscapes!

I explored the region while tackling Destination Challenges in the Wildschönau valley :-)
Here's what I came across in this beautiful part of Tirol.

Hiking in Valle di Ledro, Trentino

Tweet

Valle di Ledro is a hikers paradise. You can hike around the lake, into gorges and up to wonderful flower fields with a million dollar view over Ledro Lake.

Hiking my way around Valle di Ledro triggered my love for hiking once again. Let me show you which hikes I went on...

Canyoning in Trentino: Valle di Ledro Valley

Tweet

Looking for a proper adrenaline rush in Trentino? Go canyoning the Nero river in Valle di Ledro.
WHAT. A. RUSH! 

Steven and I surely stepped out of our comfort zone here. We jumped from cliffs, rappelled down waterfalls and slide down the rapids back to the Ledro valley. 

Luckily we had a great guide with us that showed us the ropes with confidence and a smile. Big thanks to our guide Andrea from Mmove through nature for giving us an experience of a lifetime!

I did canyoning in Catalonia before but this was definitely a more advanced level... :-)

Let me show you how it all 'went downhill' in my photo reportage below...

Things to do in Rovereto, Trentino

Tweet

Rovereto is the gateway to Trentino and offers a wide variety of culinary, cultural and historical activities. Steven Herteleer, my travel buddy, and I were put to the test for 2 days of Destination Challenges in the city.

This is how we discovered the city and its region. Let me show you what we found...

How to become an astronaut in Toulouse, France

Tweet

My Destination Challenges in Occitanie kicked off in Toulouse at cité de l'espace! An how!!!
I had to step into the footsteps of an astronaut! An absolute dream coming true. :-)

Cité de l'espace is the heart of space travel in Europe and there you can learn all about the final frontie and become an astronaut for a day.

I had such a wonderful afternoon visiting the Ariane rocket & MIR space station replica and of course moon walking and taking a spin on the rotation chair just like astronauts do...

Find my vlog and photo log from the day below... ;-)

The Ruhr district Halde art installations

Tweet

Fan of art and hiking? Then you'll have an amazing time in the Ruhr district in North Rhine-Westphalia. You can find a bunch of enormous art installations on top of mountains aka 'Halde' in different places across 'Das Ruhrgebiet'.

My 4th Destination Challenge in NRW was to find 3 of them and to pay them all a visit.

Here's what I found...

Exploring the castles of Münsterland in NRW

Tweet

Little did I know that there are so many castles to be found in the Münsterland region of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. On my 3rd Destination Challenge in the region I had to find minimum 5 different castles.

I quickly got a list of locations on Facebook so Rose and I went on a little castle hunt around Münsterland. Apparently the region is sprinkled with over a hundred castles.

Find out which castles I found below...

Goethe in Frankfurt

Tweet

My final Destination Challenge in Germany transformed me into Goethe for a day and that was the start of a wonderful adventure around his hometown Frankfurt.

You probably know Goethe, as a passionate writer (and lover) :-). His most famous work would be FAUST. 😈

It was such a pleasure to follow into his footsteps from his birthplace 'The Goethe House' to places where he fell in love, got inspired and wrote. 

Let 'Goethe' show you around... 😉

Steinau an der Strasse, home of the brothers Grimm

Tweet

Once upon a time 'Roos' and I ended up in a cute little town called Steinau an der Strasse, home of the brothers Grimm.

Visiting the town is like entering the fairy tale world of the brothers Grimm. You'll find famous fairy tale characters everywhere you look and at almost every corner I got catapulted back to my childhood bedroom memories.

Truly a magical place!

Did you know that the brothers Grimm didn't write the stories themselves? They basically collected legends and stories that were told in different German villages and beyond. They did this because they were afraid that otherwise these stories would get lost over time. They were responsible though for shaping the stories in a consistent ways and coined phrases like 'Once upon a time' and 'They lived happily ever after'...

For my destination challenges in Steinau an der Strasse I played the Spessart Im Glueck discovery game. How it works is that you visit the following website (https://blog.spessart-tourismus.de/zufallsreise/) where you then generate your own fairy tale adventure.

Give it a try it's loads of fun :-)

For my Spessart im Glueck adventure I had to find minimum 6 items related to the 'Puss in Boots' fairy tale in Steinau an der Strasse.

Find out about my fairy tale adventure below...

With a steam train to the heart of Harz

Tweet

One of the coolest experiences in the Harz mountain area was taking a steam train to a place called Brocken, the very top of the mountain range in the heart of Germany.

You hear the train approaching from far and you just get overwhelmed with joy when you finally see it. It's like stepping back in time and boarding for a magical adventure to the top of Brocken which was a place where witches held a yearly gathering... How cool is that!

a Lusatian Lakeland cycling adventure (Lausitzer seenland)

Tweet

This is what I loved about tackling Destination Challenges in Germany! One day I was seed bombing Berlin and the next I found myself in the heart of the 'Lusatian lakeland' in the very South East of Brandenburg.

Talking about a contrast!

I first arrived at the Marina camping by the Senftenberger See (Lake) where I immediately was welcomed for some morning SUPping. I can tell you that it woke me right up... ;-)

Seed bombing Berlin

Tweet

Planting seeds and fun usually isn't something that you find in the same sentence but the concept of seed bombing makes this totally possible. My 3rd Destination Challenge in Berlin was all about planting plants in a fun and guerilla kind of way with the help of Seedbomb city.

You basically grab some seed bombs and start bombing your neighbourhood! Like this you make your city greener every day :-)

SO. MUCH. FUN!

Berlin Bulli Tour

Tweet

My road trip adventure tackling Destination Challenges around Germany brought me back to Berlin!

Some of you might know how much I love this city and I was happy to hear that on my first Destination Challenge I had to visit as many landmarks as possible with my VW Bulli called 'Roos'. But that was not all, I was challenged to invite people to join me on this impromptu Berlin Bulli Tour...

Potsdam palaces cycling tour

Tweet

You can find Potsdam right beside Berlin and it's really an oasis of tranquility and history. Not only is the town home of lots and lots of lakes but you'll also find many different palaces from different times.

My Destination Challenge in Potsdam was the following:
🇩🇪 Which king built the new palace? 
🇩🇪 What is the highest palace? 
🇩🇪 Find 5 tourists that can pronounce the name of the palace correctly. (Loving this one 😊) 

I left 'Rose', my van, behind, jumped on a bicycle and started exploring Potsdam. Find out below how that went ;-)

Archery weekend in the woods of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with my friend Volker aka 'Der Viking'

Tweet

There are certain people in life that you keep crossing paths with and my friend Volker is one of these people. This story is a nice example of just that...

The past week I've been tackling Destination Challenges in North Rhine-Westfalia and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Now I take on these challenges Monday to Friday and last Friday I happened to be in Waren, a cute town by Muritz lake.

Turned out that my friend Volker was only 20 km away in Grünow bei Neustrelitz. He was spending the weekend with his archer friends from Bogenclub Neubrandenburg and immediately invited me to join them for a fun introduction to archery.

Honestly, I could use some peace and quiet after a quite intense week road tripping around Germany.
Couldn't have spent the weekend any better...

Visiting Zunft Kölsch brewery Bielstein in Das Bergische Land

Tweet

What Altbier is for the Düsseldorf area is what Kölsch beer is for the Cologne area! 

For my second Destination Challenge in the North Rhein-Westphalia region I had to find an all above the ground Kölsch brewery in the middle of nature! 

It didn't take long for my friends and followers on social media to figure out that the place to be for me was the Bielstein brewery in Das Bergische Land which is known for its Zunft Kölsch beer. 

Kölsch is like Altbier a top fermented beer with a crisp and dry after taste and it's linked to the region just like for example Champagne is linked to the region where it's produced. 

I have to say that Kölsch is really a refreshing beer that goes down very easy. ;-)

Below my beer report of the day :-)