Blogs from Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Europe - page 13

I created this blog so my friends and family can keep up with my exciting adventures in Europe! I made a promise to myself to write in this blog at least once a week during my 4 month journey, but am hoping to have time to do it more often. So Day 1 in Germany... We left Detroit Saturday evening at 4:30pm and arrived this morning @ 6:25 am. It was a nine hour flight!! I was really dreading it but it turned out not to be that bad. The airplane had AWESOME movies which kept me pretty occupied. We were served dinner on the airplane and had a choice or chicken with mashed potatoes or spaghetti (take a guess what I got) and wine! The flight attendance were not shy on filling up our glasses! ... read more

For the next adventure, we stayed at an apartment in the picturesque village of Bernkastel-Kues. The village itself is on the Mosel River and seems to be a magnet for tourists and retirees. The first night, we wandered into the village and discovered a band playing in the centre town square. They were belting out english tunes and the crowd was really enjoying it, as we did. The next day, we hit the road to go to one of the most well preserved castles in Germany - Eltz Castle. This is one of the few castles that was not destroyed since the various sections were built. It was beautiful and the hiking in the area was well marked and provided good exercise and views. The path led us next to Trier. A great historical location, we ... read more

Freinsheim is a small, quaint, walled, village located in the Palantine vineyards. Freinsheim has been continuously inhabitate by humans for about 5000 years. Throughout the years the village has sustained substantial damage most notably in 1689 in the Nine Year' War when only the foundations of the Wall were left standing. Every July they host the Stadmauer or City Wall Festival. The narrow streets along the Wall are lined with vendors offering regional specialties and local wines. We attended this festival through the USO tours available to military families. Typically, we would have a couple of beers but this particular festival celebrates wine so we tried a Weinschorle which is mixture of 2/3 wine and 1/3 sparkeling water(basically a spritzer). According to Maria, our USO guide, the good people start off consuming Schorles in ... read more

Picking up Oma, Opa & Bea Day 3 July 10, 2014 I Wake up , what a good night sleep. I like these HARD beds in Europe. Kirsten however is not a happy camper, she only sleep for maybe 3-4 hours. Sorry. We get cleaned up and head down stairs for breakfast. I was so disappointed. I was hoping for a Solar Powered Robot named Helga serving me breakfast. NOPE! A real person, well maybe next year. We pile into the car and head toward the airport. About half way there I get a text from Bea. We’ve landed. I text her back and say we’ll be there in 5 minutes. Kirsten drives through the arrival land and sends me in. I make my way to the baggage claim area and in about 5 minutes I ... read more

Today we went to Trier, the oldest town in Germany, and then we were just a Couple of miles from Luxembourg, so we had to go even though you do not score passport stamps and Then we went to Aachen which had a marvelous old chUrch and Then we were just a little ways from Belgium so we went there too so today we scored two new countries and we found a mcd and I had chicken. Connie here. Things I learned today: even though Sue and Dave already told me this, I saw it in action today. If you are ordering one of something, hold out your thumb like you are hitch hiking. If you want two, hold up your pointer finger. Pointer finger up in the US means one, here it means two. Sue ... read more