For the Christmas spirit, I decided I wanted to check out Leavenworth as several had mentioned about this little town, known as the ‘Bavarian’ town to be a replica of traditional Germany. I had just been to Germany in Sept, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look.
From the Youtube videos that we watched before heading out, Sheepie was already complaining at the fact that the buildings were not made of stone like in Germany. I was disappointed to find out that it wasn’t an authentic German town. I thought that the original settlers from Germany somehow gathered there and started the town. Instead, it used to be another usual American town until they switched for tourist reason only. There are several language mistakes, like “Gift Haus” (Haus is ‘house’ in German). However, they didn’t bother to translate the word Gift into German – well I guess then visitors wouldn’t know what it is. Unfortunately, the word ‘gift’ in German means poison. So if you know German, it can be entertaining, as with any time one is ‘trying’ to translate from one language to another. I see similar things in happening in Asia.
Our first stop in Leavenworth – the gasoline station!
See my first Idea Rabbit video on Youtube! (yes! finally!!! I’m venturing out onto video too!)
We left Vancouver, BC around 11am or so and arrived in Leavenworth around 6pm. It was already dark, perfect for the lit Christmas lights. With the exceptionally warm winter of 2014, there weren’t any snow, even though it was snowing while we drove through the snow covered forests to the town. It was however super cold.
The word ‘Gift’ in German means ‘poison’. So the Poison House! LOL
Being the day of Christmas, not much was open, especially at this time. We got to take lots of photos but was quite a challenge to find a place to dine. There was King Ludwig open, but there was a huge lineup, so we ended up at Wok About Grill – a Mongolian fast food that had just opened that month.
Read Wok About Grill review here.
With it being the holidays, finding accomodation online prior to going was also time consuming. Most places were all booked out, and only really expensive places were still available. Since we were going there to check out the city and not the hotel, I booked at the Wedge Mountain Inn in Dryden – about a 10 minute drive from Leavenworth for $79.99 USD a night. The manager was originally from Germany but came to America at a young age.
Read Wedge Mountain Inn review here.
The next day, we had breakfast at the cafe next to the inn called the Big Y Cafe. Afterwards, we checked out and headed east to Wenatchee since Sheepie was curious to what that town was like. So we drove around and checked it out, also doing some super deal shopping at Walmart.
Read Big Y Cafe review here.
We drove through some really interesting terrains. Very different from what we have in Canada. Lots of hills and valleys but Sheepie was puzzled at why there were very little vegetation. The hills seemed to be composed of very loose soil and looked unstable.
We returned to Leavenworth to see the stores open and streets bustling with tourists. If you’re not a crowd-person, then this might not be for you. The town’s core attraction is about a dozen or so blocks, so you can easily go through the entire thing. The town reminded me of being in Germany and it was a nice trip from Vancouver.
We were drawn to the colourful neon lights and the interesting interior. We were greeted by friendly staff and sat at a table on the ground floor. As we suspected from the window, the interior had a nice atmosphere and gave a Mexican flair. The upstairs seemed like it was more of a bar scene.
It was hard to understand our server with a strong accent, but we finally decided to get the Tower Sampler $16.95 USD which serves 2-4 adults. It came on a 3 tier server, topped with a combination platter of cheese and chicken quesadillas, chicken tacquitos, mini burritos (bean and cheese and jalapeno poppers. There are tomatoes, sour cream guacamole (yum!), bean dip and ranchero salsa for dipping.
Since we were driving around and eating at odd times, the portion was perfect for us. Everything tasted really good, though perhaps not the weight-friendliest with cheese, deep fried, beans and meat! We were all happy with the place, and when we were looking around the town more after our meal, we talked to a person who recommend that this restaurant was better than the other Mexican place which was just down the road. So I’m glad we did.
