The Allies are back!

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The Allies are back!
Frankfurt has been a breath of fresh air after our 11 day tour of Russia. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoyed my time in both St Petersburg and Moscow; I could spend a great deal longer further experiencing the history and culture of Russia, as well as the approaching minus degree Celsius temperatures, however, for a first time visit, a change of pace was definitely welcomed after the 11th day. Little things like having to carry your passport around you at all times whilst in Russia slowly became more like having a ball and chain around your foot. The heightened sense of alert you had to maintain; watching out for pickpockets, and being prepared to mime what you are after to non-English speaking people became quite exhausting to think of (though I must stress we did not see or experience any pick pocketing). It was nice to finally be rid of all these things and just relax a little.

We checked into our hotel just after 5.00pm. Immediately after checking-in we looked up the tours on offer at Green Line Tours conveniently located across the road from the Savoy Hotel where we were staying. The tour group boasted many tours ranging from full day excursions to brief half day ones held in the afternoon. Tours featured river cruises, wine tasting, tours of gothic castles and other city based trips. Given that Tuesday was now next to gone and we were due to leave for the airport at 7.30pm on the Thursday, Michelle and I booked a day tour going from 10am-7.30pm for the following day and a 2hr city tour for the Thursday morning. With our tours booked and the sun well and truly gone there was little more to do than to have dinner, finding an Irish Pub only three doors down from our hotel. We both felt like we were eating dinner at midnight and although it was only 8pm in Frankfurt we kind of were since our bodies were still on Moscow time, some four hours ahead of Frankfurt.

The next morning we headed straight out for the tour shop across the road to begin our day tour of the Rhine River. The Rhine is one of several prominent rivers running through Frankfurt. This particular river system is host to some magnificent gothic styled castles and a number of vineyards running parallel either side of the river. Our tour included a guided coach tour to the Rhine where we then boarded a riverboat making our way up the Rhine. The tour also included a restaurant lunch and wine tasting.

Due to the approaching off-season, where even the Germans try to flee the country during the winter months, our tour group was relatively small consisting of about four different country groups, 11 people in total. Amongst them were four Aussies, Michelle and myself, along with an elderly couple from Melbourne. A very nice couple Michelle and I befriended from the island of Samoa, two couples from Dubai which were also a delight to talk to and last but not least a middle-aged business man who could only speak Portuguese.

Unfortunately for him, no one else on the tour spoke Portuguese, including the tour guide. During lunch, which we had before the river cruise, the Portuguese man downed four glasses of Red wine within thirty minutes. The rest of our group sat back in amusement, finally all agreeing that since he can't understand a word of English he may as well just sit back and enjoy himself. On the river cruise our tour group was joined by three other tour groups, where the Portuguese found some fellow people he could communicate with. In celebration of his new found comrades he had two stines (1ltr mugs) of beer. Needless to say when it came to the wine tasting at the end of the evening he had his head buried between his legs not even capable of facing the sample of wine before him.

The Rhine looked even better than advertised on the brochures. The water was a dark blue and the hilly landscape on either side was full of vines ripe with fruit. Perched every couple of miles along the hillside were castles, each and every one unique with its own splendor design. Also along either side of the river were bustling rail lines with both electric passenger trains and diesel powered cargo trains shunting through into the hillside tunnels and out into and amongst the small near-medieval styled villages at the base of the escarpment.

The only thing amiss with the day was the level of foggy haze between the river boat and hill side didn't play too nicely with photography, with each and every snap taken requiring dramatic enhancement through Photoshop.

After the Rhine river cruise which ran its course of two hours we made our way to the bus which took us to our final stop; wine tasting. I had been good all day, saving myself for the tasting, hoping to go back for seconds and even thirds, sampling the whole of the vineyard. Unfortunately this was not to be.

I can tell you right now, my number one purchase for the next adventure overseas is going to be a compact laptop. I am currently somewhat squashed up, having my chair back as far as it can go to compensate for the passenger in front who has put their chair back - I can only just get the laptop screen upright and just millimeters off having to suck in my stomach to fit the laptop infront of me. The Singapore Air flight from Frankfurt to Singapore whom yours truly is currently on has so far been pretty comfortable. Almost limitless video on demand covering a pretty broad selection of TV shows and movies. The service is very good, though with everyone else on this flight asleep but me it makes it very easy for the hostess's to keep up with the regular scotch n' coke requests. The TV panel in the chair is pretty impressive; it comes with Video in ports to plug your laptop video feed into it and use it as another screen, there is also usb, cat-5 and 240 volt power on the armrest. Though unfortunately the power on the armrests don't work on most of the chairs, yes, the kind hostess even checked the empty seats for me. All I will say is the future of flying is looking pretty cool! Where was I?

Yes, typically on wine tours and particularly tastings that I have done in the past, one approaches the tasting bench and points at particular bottles of wine and the server will pour a quarter glass for your evaluation. If you're lucky, the server behind the bar will know their wines and suggest a specific order to sample them in and provide a brief summary on the life of the grape you are currently tasting. Although the wine sampling in this particular instance was carried out by a German woman who definitely knew her wines the wine portions themselves were not that generous, measuring to just over a quarter of a shot glass each, with one sampling of each wine per person.

I found the wine itself to be mediocre. Although I do not question that the quality to be far superior to that of Australian wine (the host assured us that her wine had no added sugar, which I learned is responsible for the nasty headaches that some people (fortunately not me) get from their third or fourth glass) my Australian pallet just did not appreciate it fully and I found the wines on the most part either too bland or too naturally sweet, there was no middle ground. One wine did impress me however; although it tasted more like an alcoholic fruit drink than wine. It was more in the genesis of it that impressed. The wine called ‘Ice Wine' founded in Germany exists now in Germany, Canada, New Zealand (and two other places I cannot recall). What is particularly unique about this wine is how it is produced. On the first frosty winters morning of the season where the temperature is a perfect minus seven degrees Celcius, the grapes are harvested. During this temperature the grapes are frosted over by a thin layer of Ice. The harvesting process for this particular wine is done by hand. At the very same time the grapes are picked in the dead calm of night well before sunrise the barrels of grapes are rushed down the slope of the vineyard into the refinery where the grapes, still in their frosted state are crushed. In this state only pure grape juice is processed. To put it another way, it takes 12kilograms of grape to make an ordinary bottle of wine, for Ice Wine however, since all you get from a grape is just a drop or two of pure grape juice, 80 kilograms of grapes are required to make a bottle. Once the morning breaks it is all over, that is the Ice Wine harvest for the year. An entire years vintage of Ice wine harvested in just one night. When the morning sun hits the vines, the icy layer around the grape will melt away turning it back into just an ordinary grape for what in comparison is just ordinary wine. This makes the wine very unique, and the fact that it also has a potentially unlimited shelf life (requires re-corking every 20 years), it is a collectors dream.

So the tasting part was a bit of a letdown but I did learn a lot about the wine process and keeping wines. Such as, white wines once open, provided that they are refrigerated will last for two or three weeks. If storing wines, ensure that you either store the bottle with the nose down (so the cork is always completely submerged) or if laying on its side make sure you rotate the bottle 180 degrees every six months (something I plan to do as soon as I get home) and obviously, keep out of direct sunlight or keep in a wine fridge.

By the time the wine tasting was over our Portuguese friend had stumbled outside for some fresh air. The whole way home on the coach he was passed out in the front seat.

The next day we did a city bus tour around Frankfurt. The city itself is rather impressive, like most European cities (although somewhat self inflicted) it too suffered its fair share of damage during World War II. Even back then Frankfurt was considered the financial capital of Europe. Today Frankfurt is a dazzling clash of both modern and historic architecture side by side. The city itself, from what I observed at least is almost as popular for its adult shops and strip clubs as it is for its many wondrous cathedrals. Although the strip clubs that I observed seemed to be all located on one street which makes them far easier to avoid than the many cathedrals around the area. I had to laugh at one of them though, the location of the most prominent of strip clubs the ‘Dolly Buster Center‘ I thought was rather apt; for right next door to it was McDonalds. So children, line up here for your ‘happy meal' while your parents go for their ‘happy moment' in the building next door!

In less than an hour of being in Frankfurt walking around the streets I fell in love with the place. I can't pin point exactly what it is that captivated me, I believe it to be more a combination of things; the mish-mash of classical and modern architecture, a electric-tram system running through the city, the Rhine River just on the other side extending outwards to gothic style castles and quaint medieval style villages. This city has it all, all within walking distance or a brief drive. I definitely want to come back to Frankfurt and take a lot more time exploring what this city has to offer.

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