For our fall getaway this year, Russ and I decided on Hermann, Missouri. The past several years, we've done a fall getaway to a fun town in Missouri and our post-tax day spring getaway to one in Kansas. So far in Missouri, we've enjoyed St. Joseph, Weston, and Rocheport. The only time I've been to Hermann was over 7 years ago when I was pregnant with Evelyn, so I was ready to go back, and Russ had never been. It was a great destination!
Our first stop when we arrived in town was the visitors center, where we talked to the sweet volunteer and loaded up on brochures of fun things to do.
We looked over our brochures while we enjoyed a delicious lunch at the 4th St. Pizza shop.
Then we walked downtown to the historic county courthouse. It was quite impressive sitting on top of the hill with its copper dome. The inside was beautiful, too, and reminded us of a 'mini' state capitol building.
We continued walking and found the cool Black Shire Distillery. There were really nice views from their courtyard area.
While downtown, we stopped in at the Hermannhof Winery. The self-guided tour of their cellar was really cool (literally and figuratively).
Russ pondered a bit on this quote by Martin Luther. . .
. . . and we purchased some really good wine that would be prophetic of our afternoon.
When the volunteer at the visitors center asked what kinds of things we liked to do, I said we really enjoy touring old churches. When she heard this, she told us we had to visit St. Martin's Church and the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows, which were located just outside of town.
First we walked through St. Martin's Church, which is only used for worship on special occasions.
The beam with the crucifix on top was a very unique feature of this historic church: "Redemisti nos Deo in sanguine tuo." You have redeemed us, O Lord, with your blood.
I especially loved this gorgeous stained glass at the front of the sanctuary, depicting Jesus' great love for children. He loves us all as his children, and I was picturing myself in his embrace as these little ones were in the image.
There was a cool little museum behind the sanctuary with a lot of the history of the church and school that used to stand on the grounds. Then we toured the Shrine right next door. This was especially interesting, as I'd never seen a shrine before.
There are still pilgrimages twice a year to this shrine (although I never did figure out who exactly is involved in these pilgrimages or where they come from). There were stories of people in the past who have been healed of their physical ailments after coming to this shrine, and how crutches were left because they weren't necessary anymore.
Behind the shrine was a huge outdoor seating area where they have worship during the pilgrimages. The outdoor altar area was really beautiful, too.
For me, the most meaningful part of this whole area was the outdoor stations of the cross. I'd seen the stations many times in many churches, but being able to walk through nature and truly meditate on what Jesus did on that day impacted me greatly.
It finished with Jesus on the cross and the sepulchre below.
The final building we toured here was the original log building built in 1852, which is the home of the "White Lady" (who has since been painted and no longer all-white).
We left the beautiful church grounds and headed back to Hermann, where we enjoyed some views of the mighty Missouri River.
Then we found a couple of spots that reminded us of our girls. . .
. . . and we found lots of signs of our firstborn. (Sorry, Oliver! We were thinking of you even if we didn't find anything that overtly made us think of you.)
The Alpenhorn Kitchen sign was inside our B&B for the night, the Alpenhorn Gasthaus.
We had the luxury of staying in one of the cozy cabins on site, Das Land Haus.
We got checked in and got ready for our dinner at Stone Hill.
We enjoyed a bottle of their very fanciest wine. They called it "Concord." We had fun trying some authentic German cuisine including schweineschnitzel, beef sauerbraten, and a locally-produced wurst.
After dinner, we hung out at a cool little place downtown called UnColor.
We got some yummy coffees and desserts. . .
. . . and then played some games. The mind games were really challenging and that Scrabble board was awesome; we may have to upgrade at home.
When we got back to our cabin, we took advantage of having the hot tub to ourselves for the night. It felt so good on this freezing night! This picture is from the next morning, showing the frost on the hot tub and everything else.
We caught up with one of their resident sheep, Hansel, as he hobbled around the property. As Adrian the owner said, Hansel suffered from rheumatism and had a hard time getting around. He was definitely friendly, though, as he came right up to me to be petted.
Breakfast didn't start until 9, so Russ and I took some time before that to take a self-guided tour around Herman via their app. We walked through the "Gemusegarten", an outdoor kitchen garden. The app told us that in season, visitors are encouraged to sample the produce. It wasn't exactly in season, but Russ sampled anyway. He was probably the last person to try a cherry tomato this year. When I asked him what a frozen tomato tasted like, he said it was like a tomato slush. Yum.
Our tour also took us to the Concert Hall and lots of other historic downtown buildings. . .
. . . as well as the larger-than-life statue of the warrior Hermann, the town's namesake.
As we walked around, we also enjoyed all of the beautiful colors of the season.
We found a nice look out point from which we could see the courthouse and a couple of church steeples. It was really pretty.
We'd had a fun morning, and hadn't even had breakfast yet! We headed back to our B&B. . .
. . . and were served a really delicious 3-course breakfast, starting with a strawberry pomegranate smoothie, continuing with a scrumptious apple bread pudding, and finishing with a savory omelette. It was all SO good.
Once we'd finished our breakfast and got checked out of our B&B, we found our way to the Hermann Trolley, where we hopped on for a fun day.
Our first stop on the trolley was Adam Puchta, where we sampled some yummy wines.
Then we returned to our site for dinner the previous night, Stone Hill.
We make some pretty good-looking Germans!
The setting is really pretty at this winery.
Hearing all about the long history of this winery during the tour was fascinating.
We finished up at Stone Hill and then checked into our B&B for our second night, the Wohlt House. August Wohlt was the first mayor of Hermann, and this was the house he built for himself back in 1884. Our room was the "Winter Garden" room and it was really cute!
There were still a few hours of daylight, so we continued checking out some of the local establishments. We toured through the "Husband's Daycare" aka the Hermann Wurst Haus, home of free samples of lots of smoked meats. Hands down, my husband's favorite place on our trip.
Next was my turn, as we found some fun treats at the Chocolate Box.
Walking through town, Russ decided to try some frozen grapes straight off the vine. Not sure they were much better than the frozen tomato from earlier in the day.
We still had a couple of wineries left to visit before the day was done. Next up, we headed out to the beautiful Oak Glenn winery, where the views were really stunning.
Our last winery of the day was a bit out of town, but well worth the additional drive: Bias Winery and Gruhlke's Microbrewery.
My sweet husband had his fill of wine by this point and was excited to try some of their brews. He ended up taking his favorite home.
I loved the cute gnome embossed on our new growler of pilsner.
For dinner our second night, we headed out to the Harvest Table Restaurant. Our appetizer was a delicious bread in a pot, and it literally was served in a terra cotta pot.
After dinner, we hung out at the Hermann Crown. The outside area would have been a little better if temperatures had been above freezing, but the place was really fun anyway!
We listened to some live music inside and ate some popcorn and enjoyed our laid-back night.
We enjoyed another wonderful night's sleep and hit one more winery on our way home. Thanks to Grandmas who kept the kids so we could have this time together. This quote sums it up pretty well:
I'm so thankful for my husband and this time together!
