Some emails are more amazing than others!

Once in a while, someone will ask me if I blog for a living and I'll laugh and respond, "I Wish!"
But if I was 100% honest I'd have to say while money would be nice, the emails I get make it all worthwhile. And even though I get the occasional email, some of them are more mind-blowing than others. Karin, I hope you don't mind that I shared.


Dear Mr. Schwartz,

I want to let you know that, through you, I had an awesome journey last year. To explain why I have to go back a little.

In February 2015 my husband was on a business trip at Milford. He called me during his stay and he was very excited while telling me that they have got there something called 'Over-the-Rhine' in Downtown Cincinnati. This intrigued me, too, since we were both born and raised at the Rhine valley in Germany. So I did some research and learned that so many German immigrants settled in Cincinnati and they have strongly influenced the history of the area. It was amazing how many sources you can find on the internet to dig into the history of that city. I walked around the streets using Google Streetview and was very impressed by the changes over the last ten years. I fell in love with the rehabed buildings, all the beautiful businesses, the Roebling Suspension Bridge, the river, both riverfronts, the Union Terminal (unfortunately closed at my visit, but I saw the murals at the convention center), etc. The list is endless. One of my main sources for the today spirit of the city was (and is) your Blog and your pictures on Instagram. As someone from Germany loving to walk and loving to bike I always thought that it is not possible to go to any bigger city in the US and explore it by foot. This was due to experiences friend of mine had made in the past. From you I learned that Downtown Cincninnati and OTR are walkable neighborhoods. So, over the time I started planning to join my husband on one of his next business trips to Milford. Suprisingly he was willing to join me for one week before his meetings started. So we headed to Cincinnati in mid-october last year. And what should I say? The city outperformed my expectations in so many ways. We stayed near Fountain Square in the old Enquirer Building. We arrived Wednesday evening and we were a bit unsure whether this was the best choice, because when we went out for dinner at around 7 pm, the Central Business District was more or less deserted. I think people working there had already gone home and the people looking for a drink or for dinner weren't there yet. So we where a bit concerned whether we would like to stroll through a nearly abandoned neighborhood in the evening in the upcoming days. But what surprise, leaving the Hotel the next evening was a completly different experience. It was the start of the fabulous BLINK! festival. We had no idea that it was taking place at this date nor what it was all about. What a pitty if we had missed it. So the city was anything but deserted for four days. Lucky us. We realy enjoyed our stay and walking around. Up to Findlay Market, down to the river, we even walked to the Montgomery Inn Boat House. Ok we took an Uber to go back. One day we took the Purple People bridge to Newport. Going back via Covington and the Suspension Bridge. I never would have left without using the Roebling Bridge at least once. Time was really to short to visit all places I had on my list. So I definitely have to come back one day. At least to see the rehabed Union Terminal in all it's glory.

This trip was the highlight of 2017 for us. Dreaming me back every time I open your blog. It would be so nice sitting at Moerlein's Lagerhouse with a Barbarossa in front of me looking over the river.... BTW, exceptional good beer choise in your city. I have to admit as a German. I am a bit bored of Pils and Wheat beer that's omnipresent here. I am always looking for a good craft beer though.
After I left my husband did arrange a trip around the basin for his colleagues from Germany staying with him. Some of them had bin in Milford several times before, but did not know much about this great city even though they thought they had already seen everything of interest. They visited Rhinegeist (brillant name!), Findlay Market, Taft's Ale House, the Carew Tower observation deck, rode the street car, etc. They were very impressed and thankful for the nice day downtown.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to you. Thanks again for your continuous effort to promote Cincinnati as really intriguing city. Sorry for my long text. I could have said it in three words: Love your City!

Karin from K-Town, Germany

PS: K-Town is the nickname of Kaiserslautern, since we have a huge military community here with 50000 people from the US. You may already have heard of Ramstein Airbase.
PPS: Barbarossa the emperor once had some sort of castle here in my city so I definitely had to try the 'Barbarossa' beer at Moerlein's
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