Coming from Morocco, the modern touches Germany had to offer were much appreciated. Cologne was our first stop in Germany. Siting along the Rhine River, Cologne has a beautiful city line with the ultra-impressive Cologne Cathedral towering over the city. After exploring the town we decided to book one of the main tourist attractions, Team Escape. The object of the game: escape the dim lit set of rooms before the 60 minute timer expires using wit and strategy. The game began with the two of us handcuffed to a fence that split the room in two. As the clock began to count down, we had to escape our restraints before using objects and clues in the room to decipher a series of number code locks that prevented us from moving forward into the next area of the rooms. It was a very clever and unique experience for the both of us.

Leaving Cologne, we jumped on a train to Kaiserslautern to stay with Teresa and Randy, a friend’s parents who recently moved to Germany. They were two of the most hospitable people I have ever met. Our first night they cooked us a steak dinner and waiting for us the next morning was biscuits and gravy! I’ve never felt so home while on the road.   From Kaiserslautern, Teresa and Randy took us on a day trip to one of Germany’s oldest cities, Trier. Following a quick viewing of the Porta Nigra or the Roman Gate dating back to 200 AD, we visited the Trier Imperial Baths. The baths were very advanced for their time and were initially constructed during the 4^th century AD. Strolling through some of the subterranean passageways, it was hard to imagine how they could have constructed a bathhouse that offered so much at that point in history.  My last day in Kaiserslautern was spent in bed with terrible stomach pains. The Curse of Tarifa must have still had some tricks up its sleeves. If there was a place to be sick, it was definitely at Teresa and Randy’s house. It was much better relaxing in a home like setting than some of the hostels we have stayed at.   The next morning, with an achey stomach, we jumped on a train to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest. Unfortunately, instead of drinking my goal of 6 liters of beer, I intravenously took a liter of IV fluids with a small dose of pain medicine as we spend the afternoon in the urgent care part of the hospital due to my stomach. After some blood work and an ultrasound they concluded that I had some sort of stomach infection. I either contracted it in our last days in Tarifa or early in Morocco (my moneys on the Curse of Tarifa with the luck we had there). Following a couple days of resting up, it began to feel a little better.