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I need to make it known that I am the absolute worst road trip partner (possibly in the entire history of road trips).
Not only am I an inept driver, it seems I was also born without any inner compass, which means maps are (ironically, as a travel blogger), my kryptonite.
I had high hopes and dreams of exploring Germany’s romantic road last weekend, a plan quickly dashed by my lack of navigation skills and complete inability to stay awake in moving vehicles. You know how children unfailingly doze off in cars? That’s me, except far less cute.
I’m much better at looking smug while eating pretzels.
This is how I ended up 100km off course during said road trip. The initial plan was to grab a bus up to Frankfurt, rent a car, take a detour to Eltz Castle and then onwards to Würzburg, where we’d drive along the Romantic Road down to Munich.
These were great plans, except for one fatal flaw: they counted on me being able to accomplish basic tasks… which I am not. After loading up the Google Maps route, I perked up as chief navigator and informed my boyfriend “It’s only 1.5 hours away!”. We got on the ever speedy Autobahn and those were the last words I remember, until I was gently nudged awake about an hour later.
“Are we almost there?” my boyfriend asked. I felt silly (but not surprised) that I fell asleep, but I assumed there weren’t many turns or exits anyway. I picked up my phone and realized that… nope, we were nowhere near Eltz Castle, and were in fact, en route to Cologne, about 100km away from where we had intended to go.
SOOO, I guess we were going to Cologne!
There are worse places to end up, I guess.
Now, this accidental detour wasn’t my first time in Cologne, but it was the first time I’d seen it so empty. I have to admit – it was really nice to step into the epic Cologne Cathedral without a huge crowd mobbing the front square. The city was setting up for Karnevale (with big festivities this weekend), but there was barely anybody on the streets. With shops not yet open, and because apparently I hate myself, I decided to climb the cathedral’s tower, which was a thigh blasting 533 steps. A good morning workout to jolt me out of my zombie-like state!
We spent a little while exploring the city centre. I have to say, Cologne’s Old Town is ridiculously pretty, with picture-perfect sights like this that we got to enjoy all to ourselves. Not a bad place to chow down on a pretzel, I’d say. It was a short stop (mostly for a driving break/sustenance) but a pretty happy accident all in all.
After fuelling up with some breakfast and (maybe 10) energy drinks, we made the drive to Eltz Castle, our initial 1st stop.
I have to say: Eltz Castle is a sight truly worth the detour. I mean, hey, after all, this is travel guru Rick Steves’ favourite castle (sorry for that nerd fact), and for a guy who’s travelled a ton and seen (I assume) his fair share of castles, that’s a rather big deal. We visited knowing full well that it would be closed. After all, it’s super off-season for them, but I desperately wanted to prance around, play princess, and see the prettiness for myself.
To reach the castle actually requires a 15-20min walk through the forest (which, I promise, is much less shady than I make it sound). The suspense was killing me. Every time we turned, I expected to see the castle towering above me, Disney intro style. When we finally caught our first glimpse of it, we saw the castle from the side, and I have to admit, I was a bit surprised by how normal it seemed….
though gorgeous nonetheless!
It was a very quiet day to visit, with no more than 2 or 3 groups of people there at a time. All the better, since I hate crowds and had lugged a helium heart balloon with me (for a rather cheesy Romantic Road photo shoot I had planned). As I shamelessly posed #forthegram, I got the craziest surprise ever…
I was almost run over by a van!
Like huh?? Where did it even come from?! It was the most bizarre sight, seeing a regular van pull up to the old wooden door of this fairytale castle. An old man climbed out of the car, opened the door and proceeded to drive in, worriedly peeking at me to ensure I wasn’t going to follow them in. Yeah it’s okay man, I’d be terrified of the crazy girl with the balloon too.
Since my boyfriend is more of an athletic explorer type, we went on a little trek around the grounds to get a new perspective on the castle. That’s the thing – Instagram ever only shows you one side, so it was really cool to be able to climb up some hills and dangle my feet off some (very muddy) rocks and see the castle from a whole new perspective.
After bidding farewell to my dream home, we made a quick detour to Frankfurt to visit Chipotle (where all my burrito dreams came true) and then continued onwards (in the night) to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Naturally, this didn’t go according to plan either. Thanks to yet another Google Maps disaster, for an hour, we drove towards another Rothenburg that wasn’t actually where we meant to go. For a variety of reasons (including severe sleep deprivation), I lost it.
And I started bawling like a baby.
“I’m… just… so… bad… at… MAPS!!” I remember heaving through the lamest sobs known to man. It was at that point that my tears mixed in with my day-worn eyeliner and I started looking like I’d been dumped at prom.
Some Class A consoling later (gold star for boyfriend!), I picked up the shambles of my dignity and watched Google maps and every sign like a hawk. By some miracle, we made it to Rothenburg ob der Tauber before midnight, through its epic city walls and into the cozy bed of our guesthouse, strategically positioned above a lovely Italian restaurant.
When in the morning, it was a blue sky day in Rothenburg and I finally got to see the medieval town that we had driven into, I could have cried (out of happiness this time). I’ll have full guides on Eltz Castle and Rothenburg ob der Tauber coming soon, but for now, just take a peek at these picture-perfect photos:
So in all, despite many wrong turns (literally) and more than a few missteps on my part, what started as a romantic weekend did end up being one… with a few unexpected stops, 100% more Chipotle and much less of the Romantic Road than expected. Still, it was one for the books. Hopefully you enjoyed that tale of misadventure, and stay tuned for more guides on the spots I visited!
So, tell me, what’s the most random reason you ever ended up somewhere? Leave me a comment so I feel less dumb!
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Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
What a cute story! I loved that you visited Cologne spontaneously instead of wasting the opportunity. 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
https://charmainenyw.com
Christina Guan says
haha I mean we were so close! why not right? 😉 thanks for reading, Charmaine!
Samantha Elisabeth says
Cracking UP. This sounds legitimately like something I would do, though by this point in my life none of my friends trust me with navigation after leading them all down the wrong path during our friendship. They’d honestly just trust using their phone’s audio over me haha.
And hey at least all your getting lost and random detours brought you to beautiful places anyway! I remember realizing Eltz Castle was near-ish to Frankfurt when I had a 14 hour layover, but as soon as I saw driving and 15-20 minutes walking through forest, I knew I’d never make it there and back because I’d get lost somehow haha. Maybe next time!
Christina Guan says
so glad to hear I’m not alone lol. The amount of times my friends have threatened to murder me over my poor navigation skills… lol! Yeah Eltz Castle isn’t far from Frankfurt, but for those who are navigationally inept (aka us), better safe than sorry 😛 Hope you get to see it for yourself sometime soon though!
Tanja (the Red phone box travels) says
cool! a true adventure:) nice photos!
Christina Guan says
Thanks, Tanja! <3
Stacey says
Great post and definitely gets me even more in the mood for our upcoming road trip in Germany in May. Can’t wait for your upcoming posts about Rothenburg as we’ll be visiting there on this trip, but Eltz Castle will have to wait until the next trip. And yes, one reason I’ll be visiting too is because of Rick Steves! 🙂
Is it terrible of me that I cracked up when you said you started crying? It’s only because I could totally see myself doing the very same thing (and then feeling a bit silly afterward but hey, sometimes a good cry just makes it all better). 🙂
Christina Guan says
ahh Rothenburg is so gorgeous! Just make sure you go to the right one 😉 hahah. And yes it’s okay, feel free to laugh at my tears. I felt like the biggest fool while crying my eyes out… I knew how dumb it was but still couldn’t stop myself! Good to hear you would have done the same. <3
Chelsie | Wayfare West says
Ahah, well it all made for a great story.
I’ve got a friend who, while also in Europe, didn’t change trains when she should’ve and ended up getting kicked off the train in a tiny country town in the middle of the wrong country. She had to wait hours at a train station that was literally a platform, no food, nothing. She wandered around the town in about 5 minutes.
As for me, I’m a bit of a control freak and very seriously map out how I’m getting places the day before. I’m always terrified I’ll end up lost and stuck somewhere I shouldn’t be.
Christina Guan says
oh my gosh, that sounds like something I would do!! Actually, something similar happened to me once. Long story short, trains in Germany often split once they reach certain destinations (and carry onto different end stations) and I didn’t know this… so basically I sat on this train that split and ended up in the middle of nowhere, SUPER far from where I was meant to go haha. I think I need a level-headed person like you to travel with!
Alaine says
I did this once while driving through a snowstorm in VT! It was kind of bad because my ex was so mad then proceeded to drive through small winding streets to get us back on track and then we almost fell off a cliff! The car got stuck in some heavy snow and I had to get out the car and push! It was so scary…
Loved the postcard perfect pictures! The castle looks like a storybook Disney castle!
Christina Guan says
“almost fell off a cliff” omg Alaine that’s terrifying!! Glad to see you made it out alive to tell the tale haha and thanks for reading <3
Lia @ Practical Wanderlust says
I am so terrible at maps too! My husband would never trust me to navigate – GPS is a must for us! We had a similarly disastrous road trip experience in France, complete with accidentally driving right into an ancient castle and getting stuck! Whoops… we make great road trip partners, don’t we?
Christina Guan says
what?!?! you drove INTO a castle? that’s amazing hahaha and makes me feel much better about myself. Some of us just weren’t born with any sense of direction, hey? Thanks for reading, Lia <3
Megan | Red Around The World says
This sounds exactly like me. Me and my boyfriend were driving from Utah to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. I was in charge of directions, which I shouldn’t be, put in the park and we were off! Next thing i know were driving down a questionable dirt road in my Smart Car and end up at river at least an hour from where we needed to be. That day I learned to always put in the park visitors center.
Christina Guan says
Hahaha now I can tell my boyfriend “at least we didn’t end up in a river” 😛 That’s an amazing story lol and a great learning experience 😉 Thanks for sharing, Megan!
Katie @ The Budget Backpack says
Bahaha! I tried to walk from central Kyoto to Fushimi Inari and it hit the point where I knew I was lost, but was way too stubborn to turn around because I didn’t want the people on the street to see me turn around. I was like “whatever… I’ll just explore whatever is over here” and thought I was wandering aimlessly through a random neighborhood – BUT NOPE. I saw a huge group of people led by someone with a flag, so I followed them and ended up exactly where I had wanted to go in the first place lol. Turns out my sense of direction was ok, but my sense of time/distance was waaaaay off.
Christina Guan says
haha I love that you just casually meshed into some kinda tour group and hoped they would take you to the right place! That’s so me too haha. I hate looking dumb in public, so I would never turn around and let anyone know I was lost. Glad you got there eventually 🙂 <3
Stella the Travelerette says
That’s so funny that you got so lost you ended up in Cologne! I also get lost really easily. I like to “brag” I’ve been lost on six continents. Eltz Castle sure is gorgeous though! It looks just like something out of a fairy tale. I hope to be able to see more of this part of Germany soon. I’ve been to Munich and Neuschwanstein Castle, but that’s it.
Christina Guan says
Those are some pretty impressive bragging rights!! 😉 Ah Neuschwanstein and Munich are lovely (I live here now!!) but there’s loads more to see in Germany. I hope you come back soon! 😀
maegan white says
This is still a beautiful story! I fall asleep immediately in cars too LOL. Your pictures were stunning either way but I am glad you made it to your original destination. When we went to Italy, I booked everything at 2AM bc why not?! Big Mistake! We ended up not booking enough days in Rome or Florence BUT we got to stay 1 night in Cortona and La Spezia (both of which were SOOOO amazing) Wouldn’t have changed it for the world!
Christina Guan says
Oh my gosh, so good to hear I’m not the only one that does that haha. It’s the same in movie theatres and anytime it gets dark, really. My boyfriend and I joke that I have selective narcolepsy lol.. it’s so bad! I can never survive a car ride or movie without falling asleep 🙁 And yes I’ve done the whole 2am booking thing too and it never ends well! La Spezia is an awesome place to get “stranded” though!! I loved it there <3
Lindz @ I've Been Bit! says
Hahaha I love this story!! Mishaps like this make for some of the best travel adventures and stories! My boyfriend and I play the f*ck up rule when it comes to directions, so when one of us messes up its the others’ turn to be navigator haha. Once we had switched 6 or 8 times within a half hour I’m glad you were able to see everything you wanted to though – and more!
Christina Guan says
That’s an amazing rule!! Would never work for me because I’m never right lol but glad you guys found a system that works for you 😀
Sophie says
Once while taking a train I fell asleep and stayed that way until the end of the line. I went way over my ticket fare, but no one ever noticed and I just decided to change my plans rather than catch a train back right away. On another trip my fiance and I were running late and our train was about to leave. I was running behind my fiance as he led the way and jumped onto the train behind him just as the doors closed and the train pulled out. We got on the one heading the opposite direction :/
Christina Guan says
hahah oh noooo! I’ve had my fair share of train troubles too, like once I got on one that was gonna be splitting and heading into two different end stations… I definitely wasn’t sitting in the right one and ended up in the middle of nowhere hahah. I hate myself sometimes.
Stephanie Fox says
Great story haha! I loved Cologne last year especially the old town. I like how you show Eltz castle from a different perspective too, great photos of a very memorable trip gone wrong!
Christina Guan says
yes it all worked out in the end! Thankfully 😉 Thanks for reading, Stephanie!
Sonja says
Haha this is so me! I’m terrible at navigating. But I hate driving. So I often get us lost haha. These places look so beautiful though so definitely worth it in the end!
Christina Guan says
Yeah now that the trauma’s worn off, I’m like “okay that was a nice trip” hahah. I adore road trips but am ironically very bad at them… Glad to hear you’re the same!
Katie @ The Katie Show Blog says
OMG wow that sounds like an epic adventure! I’m also really glad to know that I’m not the only one who falls asleep easily in moving vehicles! I’m the same in planes, trains and weirdly at the dentist lol!
Christina Guan says
hahah I’ve never fallen asleep at the dentist! I think I’m always too stressed out for that, but glad to hear I’m not alone in my weird sleeping habits. Thanks for reading, Katie!
Tanya Korteling says
This is a great post, it makes a change to hear an honest down to earth travel story as opposed to a guide!
I can completely relate to falling asleep when navigating too!
Keep these great posts coming!
Christina Guan says
Sometimes it’s fun to branch out of the guides every so often 😉 Thanks so much for reading, Tanya!
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says
It is so beautiful! What a great place to “get lost” in 😉
Christina Guan says
Yeah I could’ve had it much worse hehe. Thanks for reading, Rebecca!
Kaitlyn says
Oh my goodness!! I hope you still had a lovely time. XOXO!
Christina Guan says
Definitely did! Thanks for reading, Kaitlyn 🙂 <3
Kelly | A Pair of Passports says
I love this so much! We always, always get lost – and then start blaming each other – and then end up arguing. However, at the end of the day we end up loving that time on the road together and the stories we have from it. And, on a side note, this is like the most beautiful mess up road trip ever, haha!
Christina Guan says
Ahh luckily for me, my boyfriend has totally accepted how useless I am so we rarely argue about it… mostly because I just start crying out of my own incompetence and he feels bad right away hahah. I do feel like the misadventures make for the best memories/stories, so that’s good! And yes I agree – it coulda been much worse 😉 Thanks for reading, Kelly!
Edith says
I’m glad your boyfriend was supportive and that you didn’t waste your mistake’s opportunity. I think I would be too nervous to even think.
Beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing!
Christina Guan says
Haha yes I’m very lucky – he’s a super “go with the flow” kind of guy. Thanks so much for reading, Edith! <3
Harshad says
I liked your easy going and fun filled narration of your trip. The information in your blog and also blog about Eltz castle are going to be useful for our road trip on same route coming up in the end of this month.
Very happy to visit your post.