*The Rhineland*

The Town Square

I have been more than impressed by what Frankfurt and western Germany have had to offer me. Between the massive amounts of culture between Madrid and what I'm going to absorb in Paris, it was a great idea to come here...if for nothing else, to eat some real food. Not to say that Spain didn't have good food, it just never felt familiar, which, on an experience level, is good to try, but...a fella's gotta eat, and they know how to eat in Germany. Oh...and I bought a pair of German Adidas's.



The first day we (me and a guy named Andy) just walked around trying to replace what little Spanish we knew with what less German we know. Going from Spain to France to Germany within the span of a day is tough not only on the constitution, but on the vocabulary as well, it seems. It's weird though, the small amounts of German that I can muddle through feel a lot more natural coming out of my mouth...I would hate to say that it has anything to do with my lineage or any racial nonsense like that, but I can't see what else would put me at ease saying these words more than Spanish or French. Maybe it was the character Nightcrawler from the X-Men comic books...who knows.


Today, we decided to see if we could find Eltz Burg Castle...one of the places that had been recommended to me. We knew that it was closed to tourists, being that it's not the season, but we figured we'd go anyway.

The train ride alone was worth the time...





...AND THAT WAS JUST THE TRAIN RIDE!!!

Once we get to where we think we're trying to get to, we start walking and ask for directions from the first hotel we find. The manager, who seemed to be on a beer break of some sort (maybe the off-season from tourists is his beer break, but who am I to judge), seemed to think that we wouldn't even be able to get up to the castle because the way would be blocked.

Figuring out Plan B has never been much of a problem for me and fortunately Andy seems to be the same way...can't go to the castle? Lets hike to the top of one of these hills then...

On the way up I think we figured out that the crops that were being grown on these steep inclines were grapes, but I'll get to that train of thought in a second...

The hike up to the top was EXACTLY what I needed. This trip isn't the most stressful situation that I've ever been in, but it's been harder than I thought it would be, that's for sure (I think mostly due to the fact that I associate being away from home with being in the Navy, and when I was in the Navy I didn't have a wife(ish) at home). That being said, I also think that being in these massively urban environments has made long for a little open space, which is exactly what I got on our little hike up to the top of the hill.

















On the way home I started to ponder where exactly we had been and I realized that between the Rhine river, western Germany, and Vineyard...that we had been in the Rhineland, a place that I had always heard of, but never even considered as place that I might find myself. It's amazing what falls into your lap when you're being oblivious.