Driving in the Rain.... We’re Driving in the Rain......

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Driving in the Rain.... We’re Driving in the Rain......



March 16 ,17 & 18, 2024



We wake up to the rooster crowing, well that’s what Kirsten says. I had my ears out, LOL.

I roll out of bed and stumble into the shower; I hear Kirsten say hurry up I have today’s agenda planned.

WHAT! I thought we were going to lay around and rest today? We were until the sun came out, now I have things for us to do. So, hurry up, breakfast is ready. I’m showered and dressed, eating my breakfast as Kirsten tells me about our day.

First, were going to Brauhaus Kloster Machern. Where there is a museum that has Tour de France bicycle exhibit. OK, you’ve got my attention. Second, we’re going to the village Cochem where they are having an Easter fest. And last were going to cruise along the Mosel and find a nice places to have coffee and cake.

Ok, after breakfast we’re out the door and Kirsten is talking to the chickens as were walking toward the car. Here chickee, cluck, cluck, I just keep walking toward the car. Kirsten is wondering if we should grab some of the eggs from the hen house. I throw my hands up and say not even no! But hell no!

The museum is only 10 minutes over the mountain in Bernkastel-Kues. It turns out it’s a Kloster, that also has a bier garden and winery. Ok, cycling, bier garden and wine ...no wonder I love these Kloster’s. These monks have it all figured out.

The museum isn’t open yet and Kirsten heads to the wine cellar shop, me I vander into the brewery and find the rest room. After cruising through the bier hall, which happened to be the old chapel, very cool area, I found my way to the wine cellar while walking past the bier vending machine. Is that not the coolest?

Kirsten is walking around with her arms full of stuff, she is so excited and says this will all fit in our luggage isn’t it GREAT! I’m thinking, Oh Yea!

The museum turns out to have lots of religious stuff, old toys and yes, a display of older Tour De France stuff. The cycling stuff was very enjoyable to see, along with the old toys and religious pieces. We spent an hour touring the museum.

Ok, we’re off toward our second stop, the Easter Festival. Again, just down the Mosel a few miles. We arrive and it takes us longer to find a parking spot than it took us to get there. We parked grabbed our lunch and head into the festival. People and booths everywhere, the plaza is covered in Easter decorations.

They have Easter egg trees here, you know like Christmas trees back home but decorated with Easter eggs, and they are not plastic eggs they are the real thing, painted with extreme detail and fragile. DO NOT TOUCH! After walking and seeing everything, we sit down at a bench and have lunch and people watch.

We’re now heading up the Mosel and enjoy the towns and after an hour or so we park in the quiet town of Zelland find us a café for coffee and cake.

Back at our apt we rest up and for dinner we just snack off all our left-over food stuff while relaxing and reading our books until we both are dosing off.

Gute Nacht



Again, the sun is up, and the rooster is crowing, Kirsten is loving this place. She would steal a chicken if she could catch it. Amazing, they are fast when they need to be. They are asking who’s this crazy woman chasing me.....

We’re packed and on our way to Frankfurt, yes, we have reservations at our Holiday Inn Express by the airport. We have stayed here many times over the years, one of our favorite restaurants is across the street and is very good.

We check in and decide to go downtown Frankfurt, thinking we could find more Easter festival stuff. That’ll be a NO! Too many people there for us!!

So back into the car and Kirsten fights our way out back toward our hamlet where she found a nice quite bier garden just down the street. After a couple biers we went to our room and napped.

We’re scheduled to fly home Monday March 18^th, but the flights filled up and Tuesday the 19^th looked significantly better. So, since we’re no longer punching a time clock and the houses are running on autopilot. We moved our flight to Tuesday.

We walked across the street, had a wonderful dinner, and walked back to our room, in the rain of course. Yes, we had our umbrellas.

Once in our room we both fell asleep reading.

Gute Nacht.



We both slept like babies, we finally wandered down for breakfast around 8:30 am. We decided today we would vonder around, yes, it is raining but if we’ll find a cute town and we’d stop. Always staying within an hour of Frankfurt.

The first village we found was Michelstadt very cute, we walked around in the rain and stopped in a café and had coffee and a croissant filled with cream cheese. Mmmmm, very good.

At our next stop, we found rocks. Felsenmeer is the name of this area where millions of years ago, as in 340 million, the glaciers melted away, the tectonic plates collided, and the boulders came popping up out of the earth. It looks like a water fall of boulders, quite impressive.

Then we visited Darmstadt, where Ludwig build this tower with five fingers, and there is a Russian Orthodox cathedral next to it. Now this isn’t the crazy Ludwig down around Munich.

Well, we were expecting to find a cute German town. That will be a NO! This city was anything but old, except for the Russian Orthodox cathedral. So, after checking out the tower and cathedral we were back on the road.

Kirsten has decided not to waste a good opportunity to go shopping in a big city.

So, she grabs the phone from me and quickly enters shopping nearby. Yes, for the next hour plus, I napped nicely in the car while Kirsten had a great time shopping at the German Targets.

Back at our room, we begin the ritual of cramming/packing everything into the suitcases that we can. Ok, it’s more like Kirsten is running this show, everything has a value assigned to it. That’s including me. The high value items go in first and so on.

Old dirty clothes, they are the least valued items. I’ve learned to bring your old underwear and old shirts and old jeans because they can and will be left behind.

Ok the ritual has ended, and I survived the cut. I know the day will come when Kirsten looks at me and says, SORRY! THERE’ S NO MORE ROOM STEVIE.......

In the meantime, to show my worth, I’ve picked us a nice restaurant for this evening, The Golden Apple, we’ve eaten here before and we will eat here in the future. Basically, this is our portal back into America, so we get to know where all the good stuff is, which makes our return trip easier.

Ok, were ready for tomorrow and we’re reading our books till we dose off. Tomorrow 6 am will arrive soon.

Gute Nacht



It’s 7 am were up, dressed, fed and on our way to the airport. Checked the car in that we drove 2440 Km on this trip. We’re checked in and through security and waiting at the gate.

On our flight home, I thought I would fill you in on discoveries from this trip.

Things that have changed:

· Google Maps, how in the world did we ever make it without Google maps? They’ve even mapped the wine bike paths. Go figure......

· Apple Air Tags, these things are awesome, after dinner and a few drinks followed up with a shot of Grappa, you wonder how to get home. You just pull up Apple’s Find App and select your luggage and presto it shows you the way home. Amazing......

· Your phone remembers where you parked. I know this is old tech, but when you’re in a new place, old tech comes in handy. Just saying....

· And last reservations, we’ve surrender, yes, we declare defeat, YOU NEED TO CALL AHEAD FOR RESERVATIONS. PERIOD.......

· Toilet signs, Mens/Ladies, way more than you could imagine. I’m only posting my favorite.....

With today’s tech we had a rolling hot spot, so as Kirsten is driving, I’m Googling.....

· Who invented Easter, great question. Follow the Wiki link on Eoster the goddess of fertility.... You’ll love this link....

· Cost of electricity is Germany compared to America, so basically in Germany today Germans pay a healthy $.80 - $1.0 kwh for electricity. So next time you look at your electric bill check and see what you pay. It’s significantly less.

· Solar panels vs Wind turbines, seems wind turbines make people and animals feel too sick if they get too close to them. So, always stay within 1 km from them.

· And last, the weather channel is equally as wrong in Germany as it is in America. Just saying.....

That pretty much wraps up our trip.

For all the folks who didn’t figure it out, this is our 20-year wedding anniversary.

Time flies when you’re in love.



Steve & Kirsten

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