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You are here : Overview Europe Germany

Travelogue : Backpacking (Central/Eastern) Europe

Jager blackouts; "Good Pants, Bad Pants"; Czech Republic pick pocketers; Kutna Hora bone chapel; German sausages and Hofbrauhaus; Biergartens; Austria bike riding; Pub crawls; tons of new friends and an amazing journey.... and not to mention, random make-outs!

Germany: Schokolade Museum

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Highlights of the Schokolade Museum:

*The Chocolate Waltz-- to which, I used my musical abilities to read the notes and proceeded to serenade Adam (in German).

*Interesting information such as people trading 100 cacao beans to purchase a male slave, or that there once was a Guatemalan emperor named "Cocoa"

*People busting out their fine silver and saucers to drink chocolate

*How shady companies used olive oil and brick dust to increase the volume of chocolate, thereby forming the chocolate league for the safety guidelines in preserving the cacao

*The Lindt's chocolate factory!

*Chocolate cake and "milk" (or, rather creamer...ick)

Taking the Schokolade Express

The famous Fischmarkt

The Lindt Chocolate Factory's behind me!

On the Rhine

The entrance into the Chocolate Museum!

The process of making chocolate:

1. Cut fruit down with a machete or sharp knife

2. Cut open the fruit and let the milky substance ooze out

3. Pile up the cacao beans and let them ferment

4. Rake the beans

5. Using a sharp metal object, cut the bean open and extract the bitter cacao powder. Grind the powder into a paste, add milk, cream, sugar and voila, chocolate is born!

A chocolate seat cushion by Thomas Rentmeister-- would you eat this?

Brought to you by the makers of Saw

The 5-cylinder mill

The Chocolatier circa 1960's

A chocolate baby is born

The song I serenaded Adam with LOL

Fancy wares to serve chocolate drink in

I scared Adam... AGAIN (lol)

Cacoa is found in rainforest-like conditions

Into the chocolate hall

The gnome that lays golden bars

The chocolate gallery

Mmmmm the smells of chocolate makes me hungry

The chocolate process

The chocolate balls get formed

Chocolates get packed up

Soccer ball-sized chocolate!

This was pretty cool...

The finished product

The Giving Tree...that gives CHOCOLATE!

The "oompa loompa" lol

We sample the wafer dipped in fresh chocolate... it was so yum!

Into the chocolate store:

Usually, I'm not a big fan of chocolate. I hardly buy it, and I rarely eat it. But it's like that one time when I saw the movie "Chocolat", something about smelling, and watching and being around it made me want to devour it today.

"I'll take you to the candy shop..."

Chocolate w/ tomato bits...

These were a hit w/ my students!

Chocolate clams

A bitter piece

Ah, but of course

For the handyman

Chocolate sardines... ew

And, now for our slice of chocolate cake!

We sat in the outdoor area overlooking the Rhine River

Adam digs into his chocolate goodies

Adam takes a sip of his creamer

mmmmm cake and "milk" (creamer)

For nappy-heads only

Even the restrooms were 'chocolate-themed'

After taking the Schokolade Express back to the hostel, Adam and I showered, got ready and headed back out for some dinner

Having a bit of fun...

During our dinner, a 'local sheriff' (employed by the establishment of course) told us dinner folks that we would need to be vigilante about keeping in the peace, and that if we noticed anything out of the ordinary, when we reported the 'crime' and if we spun the 'wheel of alcohol', landing on our table number, we'd get our entire drinks comped that night!

Well, luckily, we were sitting at my lucky number '14' table and I went in to spin the wheel (I was the only volunteer! haha). The 'sheriff' recruited two 'gentleman' to keep me company. Well, these gentleman had to tell me which direction to spin the wheel, and when I spun, the spoke fell to....number 14! I was so happy!

Well, the sheriff then asks me:

"So what crime can you report that happened tonight?"

I picked my brain real quick, and I replied, "Earlier, sir, there was a woman sitting and her pants were low, so we saw her buttcrack."

He laughed, "Unfortunately, here in Germany, that is not a crime!"

I laughed. "Well back in America, it's considered indecent exposure!"

He discussed this with his fellow workers (management) and after much whispering and glancing in my direction, they decided to comp us our entire drinks for free! We'd only drank about $20 worth, so it wasn't a big deal. On top of that, they gave me some German vodka and a round of pictures were taken.

Adam ended up being such a gentleman and paid for dinner so that way, I would feel like I had the entire "winning experience". So sweet!