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Published: August 7th 2007
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Pretty
The green, rolling landscape of Germany This morning I woke up and walked like a zombie down to breakfast - only half awake. 5 hours is NOT enough sleep. I piled my plate full of food, scarfed it down, drank copious amounts of coffee and hopped on the coach. It was at this point, when Pom Pom was trying desperately to get us all settled and ready to go, that Amanda realized that her camera charger was still in the room. She snuck out the back door of the coach and into the hotel. Damian pulled the coach over to the exit of the parking lot, waiting impatiently for her to get back. I think he and Pom Pom were getting anxious, but what happened next lightened the mood. We were all watching as poor Amanda came sprinting out of the hotel, into the parking lot and onto a coach that was definitely not hers 😉 We laughed so hard as she came bouncing out the backdoor of that coach, looking confused for a second before running over to us. As we drove off, Pom Pom tried to sternly tell us that we couldn't be that slow getting out of the hotel in the morning or we'd
Boat
The Loreley Star taking us to St. Goar
...I'm a poet. miss activities, but he was still giggling himself over what had just happened. Amanda was a good sport about it too.
The ride out of The Netherlands was long and fairly uneventful. We crossed the border and entered Germany - country #5 😊 Pom Pom played a bunch of music on the coach, and none of it was annoying enough to warrant listening to my iPod and blocking out the rest of the world, so I spent the majority of the time just staring out the window, taking in the scenery. It was neat to watch the landscape change from very flat to hills full of vineyards.
Our service stop was somewhat intense (or, I thought so at least). It was our first real instance of non-English speaking people. I got by on pointing as I ordered a cold burger-like sandwich...stayed away from the sausages that were as long as my arm. Sara and I sat with Pom Pom and Damian and talked over our lunches. We had a good laugh over Pom Pom's "Oral Fixation" mints and the fact that my sandwich was litterally as big as my head before getting back on the coach. After lunch
Willkommen
Getting off in St. Goar
;) we were introduced to our day song for the trip, the song that would play every morning as we headed into a different city: "Kickstart my Heart" by Motley Crue. FUN!
The last bit of the drive through the Rhine Valley was fun - Pom Pom made us do "formal" introductions via his game "Who is Your Daddy and What Does He Do?" So we all got to
wedge in to the front right hand seat and basically answer a list of questions about where you're from, what you do, favorite movies, embarassing moments, that sort of thing. Many people were highly entertaining. After this long drive, we were dropped off on the Rhine River and waited just a few mintues to board the cruise that would take us down the river to the little town of St. Goar. We staked out some good seats on the upper deck of the Loreley Star, and proceeded to melt a little under the hot sun as we sailed by rolling hills, castles and vineyards. It was nice and relaxing, though after about an hour I was ready to get up and do something other than admire beautiful scenery.
We were
Cuckoo
Yup. That's me and a clock. dropped off at St. Goar, a very quiet, very sleepy town. Perfect place to be on a Sunday, as there wouldn't be much that we were missing out on anyway. We were taken to a beer stein store and saw the world's largest beer stein, which was, incidentally, right across the street from the world's largest freehanging cuckoo clock. I browsed the stores, settling on a small cuckoo clock fridge magnet (I don't know why...cuckoo clocks freak me the heck out), took some pictures and then planted myself on a bench to wait for the rest of the group to meet up so we could drive to the hotel.
We checked into Winzerhaus, a short drive away, which turned out to be an adorable, quaint hotel with old fashioned keys(!). Loved it. We dropped our things off and headed to the dining hall. What was on the menu? Why, soup and schnitzel, of course. Damian came around to chat with us, and I was starting to think of him as my personal drink-man. He let me taste his beer, which was really quite good, and then checked on the water situation for me, which was nice, since I was
St. Goar
The main drag. heh terribly lazy and didn't want to get up. I ate everything in front of me (again, famished), went to my room to freshen up, and then went downstairs to meet everyone going to the wine tasting.
We walked over to the wine tasting place, which was about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Sara, John, Damian and I walked together with the group, and I had a funny chat with Damian as we made our way up the hill. Crazy guy he is. Love it. We got there and went inside. We were all seated at a looong table in the cavernous stone building and were shown a short film about wine making in the region. A funny older German man told us about the grapes and the wine and presented us with 5 different wines: one red, three whites and an icewine. The icewine was soooo good. i thought about getting some, but decided against it. The whole thing was a lot of fun, and I felt very important as I demonstrated the correct way to taste wine as I'd learned from the multiple tastings I'd had to do for a job I used to have.
Winzerhaus
Our adorable hotel in Germany Once the tasting was finished, we walked back down the trail to the hotel and hung out on the stoop for a while as it got dark. After trying, unsuccessfully, to use the phone, I decided to get myself a beer, because, well, you can't not drink beer in Germany, and though I already had wine in my system and usually don't mix, I was counting on those German beer purity laws to ward off a hangover in the morning. I ordered my beer and brought it outside. Pom Pom looked at me and laughed and said "That beer is HUGE! What is it with you and oversized foods?" I shrugged and laughed as I took a big gulp. I walked over to where Jeff was standing and chatted with him for a minute before a man sitting at a table asked where I was from. When I told him I was from Canada, he thought that was great and told me all about the places in Canada that he'd visited. The men at the table were Dutch, so Jeff and I just HAD to tell them how much we'd loved their country. The man who'd spoken to me initially
Evening
Walking to the wine tasting asked what we did in Canada, Jeff told him he was a paramedic, and then when I told him I was an actor, he didn't understand, and had to ask the guy next to him what I meant. Ha. When he clued in, he thought that was lovely and told me to come to Holland and be the next big star. Then he asked if I could sing. Well...I made the mistake of saying yes, so they made me sing a few lines of a song for them, and they got it on video. Yup. I serenaded a table of Dutch bikers in Germany. Hilarious.
When my beer was finished I excused myself, went across the street for a while to visit the other part of the hotel, and by 12:30 I was scurrying back to my room and hopping into bed. It had been a fairly relaxed day, but I was tired. Small town Germany was really nice. I'm not sure how much I'd like a big city in Germany. I think I might find it intimidating. In any case, soon enough it would be auf wiedersehen to Germany.
It kind of hit me today that I
And this was BEFORE the wine
Joe and Sangeeta at their own romantic table...completely unaware of the goofball behind them have so many experiences under my belt already and it had only been a few days since the tour started! I could now go home and tell people about the beauty of the Rhine Valley and the craziness that is Amsterdam. And there was still so much more to see
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