Europe - Part 1

On August 6th our 3-week European adventure began!  We took a flight from Seattle to Frankfurt.  Flight time was almost 11 hours!

Once we landed we were picked up by Heike (Renee's Aunt) and Lea (her cousin) and brought to their house for tea with some relatives!

Left to right: Lea, Fritz, Brian, Renee, Hilde & Devil

Renee and Lea!

We had a very traditional German meal the first night - The appetizer was bread smothered in cheese and vinegar soaked onions!  YUMMY!

The next day Lea took us for a bike ride to show us some surrounding area.

We biked past some traditional German houses...

...through some fields...

...and past a field of geese.  Lea explained that man in the village will take orders for one if you have a hankering for some fresh fowl.

Visiting more relatives in Wolkskehlen.  This is one of Renee's grandmother's sisters, Albina.

One of Renee's father's best friends, Heinz ALSO happens to live in the village, so we couldn't resist dropping in.  He served us some delicious apple wine!

 

That evening Heike and Lea took us to a strange area known as Felsenmeer.  It is a historic battlefield that marks a dispute between two giants who had an argument and threw rocks at each other.  It was insane.  Look closely at the picture to see the people climbing below to give you an idea of how huge it was.

Nobody knows where this "column" came from.  It is among the rocks and it's origins are unknown.  Maybe one of the giants' toothpicks?  We'll never know!

 

We spent quite a while climbing up the rocks.

The next day we stopped in a the Kozoil factory!

Here are some Kozoils that didn't quite make it!

Brian was excited to find a restroom that didn't require any knowledge of the German language :)

After some purchases at the factory we headed the the UBER cute village of Rüdesheim.  We caught a boat there that took us on a beautiful ride down the Rhine to view the castles.  One of Lea's school friends came along for the ride.

A castle from the 13th century.

After the boat ride it was time to head to downtown for some shopping on the cute cobblestone streets.

Architecture doesn't get much more German than this.

We stopped for ice cream and Lea showed us what "spaghetti ice cream" was.

After fulfilling our sweet tooth we took a tiny cablecar up to a famous monument (the "niederwalddenkmal")  The ride was very peaceful and the view was spectacular!

You MUST click this picture to see the view!

Renee looking for wildlife.

So much fun!  Now only one thing left to do....remember where we parked the car! 

TO BE CONTINUED...