Busy whirlwind days...Friday night, Wayne's friend from Frankfurt (Horst) and friends from Finland (Marko and Leila) joined us for dinner at our hotel, the Park Hotel in Rodermark, a suburb of Frankfurt. Wayne has known Horst and Marko for many years through prior business associations. Fortunately, they all speak good English!! Too bad the U.S. doesn't begin second languages in elementary schools as many European countries do.
I talked with Leila a bit about the Finnish school methods and found it to be most sensible and really forward thinking. Wish the US would adopt a great many of the methods.
On Saturday, Horst toured us all around Frankfurt after a delicious lunch at an Italian restaurant that has been owned by friends of his for many years. (In the Hotel Garibaldi) This is the second time Wayne and I have eaten there and it has been wonderful every time. We had an early dinner in an old part of Frankfurt know for its Applewine, a kind of apple beer. We had traditional German food and then went back to the hotel for a nightcap.
Sunday, after breakfast, Horst drove us along the Rhine River to wine country and the Ruddeshiem area where we had lunch on the way at the Johannesburg Schloss, a huge mansion formerly owned by some long ago "princes". There are many, many acres of grape vine,s and the area is a major wine producer. The views from the schloss were spectacular and I will post more pics on Facebook whenever I have enough band width on wi-fi to do so. After lunch, we wondered around Ruddesheim looking at shops and churches and quaint old German streets. Very cute town. After a glass of wine, we headed for the airport in Frankfort to drop Marko and Leila off for their return flight to Helsinki. Horst chauffeured us to our hotel, joined us for a nightcap and a busy day was at an end.
Monday, we said good bye to Frankfurt and set a goal of reaching Bastogne, Belgium by evening.
The day was very rainy, but we did do a little drive-by site seeing in Trier, Germany which has a massive old Roman city "gate", beautiful cathedral, and an old Roman amphitheater. It was too cold and rainy to do much more than look, take a few photos, and jump back into the car.
From Trier, we drove on through Luxembourg into Belgium and to Bastogne, known for it's place in WWII and the Battle of the Bulge in which many Americans and other Allied soldiers died. The Allies eventually defeated the Germans, but at a very high cost. We plan to visit various WW II memorials and museums tomorrow before going North in Holland.
A few notes....the intensely yellow fields that we thought we mustard are really Rapeseed fields that are grown to produce canola oil. They are so beautiful and so brilliant. It was good to know exactly what they are.
...and as we drove into Bastogne, we saw what we thought were medium sized cows...NOT...they were gigantic pigs!! There were some babies too. Amazing porkers!!!
...and, as those who have traveled in Europe know, the toilet paper is like paper towels paper (the cheap kind), and hotels rarely have washcloths.
...and, there are virtually NO Laundromats. We are in sink washing mode and fortunately, since we expected this, had generally quick drying clothes.
Tonight we are at a Best Western Hotel (imagine that). It is clean, pleasant, and quite friendly. After we checked in, we walked a few blocks to the town square and had dinner at a small French restaurant. It was a challenge, since the people there spoke no English and my French is minimal, but it all worked out and the food was good. There was a little boy there, one of the staff's children, who was dressed to the "nines" in a little suit and tie, who helped wait on us. I asked if I could take his photo and he gave a big smile and then got very serious for the pic. I will post it on FB.
We are back at the hotel, catching up with emails and blog and then will plan our day tomorrow.
Here's hoping for warmth and sun!
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