by Katherine

          For dinner our first night in Malaga, I had plans to go to another restaurant, but it was randomly closed (but we made it another day for lunch). We had to go to another restaurant, but I had a map of a whole bunch of good ones that I had researched before we left. So we went to Gorki, which was in the center of town.

by Katherine

          I didn't know much about Malaga before we visited other than one of my friends' aunt lived there. She had been, and said it was absolutely beautiful and Ryanair conveniently flew there from Nuremburg so Malaga got written into our plans. It certainly helped that when I was doing research I came across pictures of the Alcazaba, which is my kinda castle. It's beauty made me really want to visit. 

          One thing you need to know, you always hear people talk about the Alcazaba, but really there's two fortifications that actually do require separate entrance. The Gibralfaro is the castle that sits higher on the hill, while the Alcazaba sits lower on the hill. Though connected by castle walls, there is no way for visitors to go from one to the other internally. Since we got a late start and weren't exactly sure where we were going, we ended up doing them on different days. We started with the Gibralfaro, which might very well have been the prettiest part of the entire trip.

by Katherine

          For Spain, we went for hotels that were affordable, but modern and stylish, and of course conveniently located. We were staying for 3 nights in Malaga and 4 nights in Barcelona so we wanted a room that we would feel comfortable to kick back in. In Malaga, we stayed at Husa Guadalmedina, which was a close walk to almost anything we wanted to do. The room was clean and comfortable and was pleasing to the eye. There was plenty of room for our suitcases and stuff to be thrown about. And the shower was pretty nice too (though, not nearly as nice as the one in Munich). Our only concern was that the AC wasn't working. But we never bothered to ask the front desk because it didn't overly bother us, so we can't comment on if it was a huge problem or not. Overall, though, the hotel was great for what we wanted and would stay here again!

by Bradley

                 Key Words
                   English Friendly

      Would We Come Back? 
    I don't think so, you could stop most places just for a bite at lunch.                Nothing special here.


          We needed a quick lunch so we walked through downtown Malaga looking for a place for a bite. We decided to eat here because they had an English menu and the waitress seemed friendly...and oh yea...we saw octopus on the menu.

          After sitting down they brought us a small ramekin of olives which is always nice. They kept us satisfied while we waited for our food. The octopus salad was very tasty; it was a little slimy for my liking, Katherine didn't think it was slimy, but the flavor was great and the veggies were fresh and crisp.

by Bradley

          Let me start by saying, Yea, I'm an idiot, how could I not have heard of Malaga before planning a trip there? It's crazy I had never heard of it before Katherine suggested it but I hadn't and was so pleasantly surprised when I learned!

          Malaga is in the south of Spain and right on the water. The tropical plants and ocean views are beautiful! And I haven't even mentioned the awesome castle atop a hill looking over the city.

          Downtown Malaga does not disappoint either, the entire ground is smooth polished stone. It is highly decorated and looks amazing everywhere you go. We joked that we needed our slippery shoes from Hohenzollern Castle to skate through this city. I consider this the second most beautiful place a have been thus far, the first being the Amalfi Coast in Italy!

by Katherine

          One quick last post about Germany from the Nuremburg Airport as we were off to Spain. So firstly, the airport was pretty easy to navigate, no real problems, but the food in the morning was practically nonexistant and I needed some food! 

          One thing I had looked forward to in Germany were the pretzels, especially the ones with cheese, but as I learned almost instantly when we first got to Germany, getting a pretzel in the middle of the day is just no good; the cheese is hard and the pretzel cold. I wanted a good warm, fresh, tasty prestzel but Tim and Stephanie said we could probably only find those first thing in the morning.  Luckily, the one place serving (limited) food at the airport had a pretzel with cheese. Though it was not all I had hoped for, it was pretty decent. It was still a bit warm and the cheese actually had a pseudo-meltiness to it. And the dough was much softer. Overall, it made me want more...but we were off to Spain!

by Katherine

          So now that we've just about finished posting about our experiences in Germany, I thought we'd conclude with a recipe for my favorite German dish: spätzle! Turns out it's really easy to make, much, much easier than homemade gnocchi or pasta. 
          Only hard part is dripping the batter into the pot. I think it would be way easier if I had an actual 
spätzle maker, like here, where it actually sits on the pot and has more surface area. That would make it far less messy and much faster to drip into the pot.
          Our other problem was that the holes on the grater were too small. We would have preferred the spätzle dumplings to be larger and more defined, so that it was a little less mushy. But overall, it was really frickin delicious!!! And I will definitely make it again! We paired it with a German Riesling to make for a perfect evening!

by Katherine 

          So let's be real, the best part of a fest is the food. Though, I do have to say I was incredibly saddened that it was my last day and I wouldn't get to have a German salad or spätzle, the two best things about German cuisine. But I was able to find a whole load of new stuff at the fest! Our favorite was easily the fried cauliflower and mushrooms. Fried is always good, mushrooms are always good, but what surprised us the most was how amazing the cauliflower was. Brad thought he might have liked it even more than the mushrooms. And then they put this herb infused dipping sauce on it. So so good!
         
          Tim introduced us to langos, a fried dough with your choice of toppings. We of course got garlic and cheese, two staple ingredients in all things delicious. This wasn't your average fried dough; it was amazing! The flavors all melted together into you mouth and the dough was crispy and flavorful itself.

by Bradley

          Our last day in Germany we went to the Nuremburg Volksfest. When we first got there Katherine mentioned how it was not how she pictured a German fest. I had been to a couple before and this one was different from those I had previously experienced but I knew that they all had their own sort of feel.

          The Nuremburg fest was much like an American carnival except the food you can buy is amazing and maybe a little more extravagant as well as the rides are bigger and they last for a longer duration. Katherine is not a huge fan of rides so we started out with the swings; it was a gentle ride, albeit chilly, and that got Katherine interested in trying another ride.

by Katherine

          Since we were in Bamberg, I wanted to at least walk around a little bit, rather than just chill at the bar all day. There is a church (St. Michael's Church) up on a hill, which I wanted to go to, since we had climbed every other hill in every other city (and would only continue to do so). It looked like it might take a while to get to, but according to Tim, we would be able to walk up, around, and back in an hour or so. We didn't even have a map, but we pretty much just headed toward the church, hoping we'd end up there eventually. Turns out, Bamberg is much smaller and easier to navigate than we thought. From the bar, we made it to the base of the hill in like 7 minutes. And the hike up the hill was probably only another 10 minutes, a very easy walk, especially compared to some of the treks from the trip. At the top, you could see all of Bamberg, including the Bamberg Cathedral, which stood tall above everything else.