Hilton Mainz

When we woke up today, it was cold and sunny, about 2 C (35 F)... and WINDY! The market had set up on the Plaza am Dom. We walked around the market where we saw all the hustle and bustle of people buying fruits, vegetables, breads, cheeses, meats, eggs, jellies, honey, and wines. What was interesting was that the market magically appeared around 8 AM, and then would magically disappear around 3 pm! The Germans are very efficient in putting together and taking down the market. It was quite a s...

Our friend, Bill, found a ICE Train to Köln (Cologne) today, so we got up early to get ready and make our way to the train station. We travelled along the Rhine River up to Koln. What was so cool was getting to see all the castles overlooking the Rhine along the way. They were quite beautiful perched on the tops of the mountains with winding vineyards running down the side of the mountains. The towns were typically in the Rhine valley right along the river with boat docks for passing ferries ...

Well, I am up bright and early, not needing an alarm clock because my phone is vibrating off the night stand. I pick it up and read the email: it is from Delta Our flight is canceled! Panic. I read further... we have been booked on another flight! I read further, and find we leave only ½ hour later and instead of going through wonderful (not) JFK we are going to Altanta and then straight to Frankfurt. There is a reward to flying on one airline and being a frequent flyer. This is the flight we...

We land and I am nervous. I got a speeding ticket on the Autobahn three years ago. Yes, I know.... I thought so too. However, YES, you CAN get a speeding ticket on the autobahn! Anyway, I tried to pay it, really I did, well sort of did.. but couldn't get any answers as to where to pay, how much, whatever. Really rather strange. So, I was concerned that this would catch up with me the next time I had my passport checked in Germany. I actually hadn't landed in Germany for 2 years because someon...

Today was cruise day. The weather was stunning. Sunny and 65 degrees. We had a great breakfast - the Hilton on the Rhein has the best breakfast buffet every - and went to the dock to buy our tickets for the 8:45 departure. We bought a map of the Rhine with pictures of the catsles and towns on it. It turned out to be easy to follow, even I could do it. Each town had their name painted on a big sign. We had a seat at the front of the ship and had a nice little table. It was rather windy which m...

Marksburg Castle and Rudeshiem Well, we are up early and take the bus to the train station. I wish we would have known that buses were included in our Rhineland Pfalz ticket. It was sure nice to start the day without discovering yet another route to the banhof. We find the correct train again, and are actually beginn ing to give the illusion of being quite knowledgable about train travel. Residents and tourists alike were asking us for information. Oh, if only they had known what trouble that...

We awoke to our first dreary day--we really have been lucky not to have had more rain--but were a little disappointed because this was our day for the Rhine cruise, and a very picturesque day it should be. We voted and decided that we should have only stayed in Hiltons, this place is enormous--to get to our room we have to cross a glass bridge to another building. It looks like Hilton bought out another hotel and just combined the two. Anyway I digress. We finally found a breakfast that outdi...