Hotel Engel Bad Kreuznach

first off, excuse the weird typing....broken keyboard...

What a strange 2 days we've had. So if it is 34F aNd pouring raIn, what do you do on holidAy? thAt 's right, you get yourself to A theme paRk! We spent all of a cold, wet yesterdAy At holiday park, one of europes lArgest theme paRks. we went to ride the laRgest roller coAster drop on earth- 85 degrees down- but imAgine our suprise when we pAy our 20 euro only to find ...

YES! We made it Germany. We got here at about 10 am local time, about 4am ET.

After waiting for over 10 hours in BWI and then a 7-hour flight with very little sleep, we were happy to be here but also exhausted. Unfortunately, there were no rooms at the lodging near the terminal. My choices were to wait here ...

We’re docked at Rudesheim and scheduled for a different type of tour today. A little fake train took us to where we boarded two-seated gondolas for a cool and breezy ski lift type of ride to the top of the hill (600 meters) where we visited the monument to the original unification of Germany under Bismarck. From this vantage point we had a great view of the town below and the Rhine River.
After ...

... from with educational stands of animals, seeds and crops as well as meat and beer. So the ease of a good meal was at every other stall with lots of Charcoal fire pits after much thought we ended up with HUGE rotisseried Ham cobs and a couple of beers.

We then spent the day meandering the cities shopping district before going down to the river and returning to the coach station at 4pm, for the long trip back.

... it was 4 trains away to Bacharach in the Rhine Valley. We made it to Wurzburg, then Frankfurt, and then Mainz... and then we missed the last train out to Bacharach. Thinking we were going to spend the night in a train station and NOT in castle, we reluctantly asked the clerk what we could do... she handed us a voucher, said to go get a taxi, and he would drop us at our door! So we basically LOVE the German Train system, especially since it was ...

... the WW1 sacrifice of the local reserve infantry division based in the town. It seems a bit sad that the Germans don't remember their war dead as we do in Australia. Yes they were on the losing side and there were atrocities committed (by both sides), but many of the soldiers fought just as bravely as their enemies.

Rhine

We shared our Rhine River cruise with lots of German ...

Few events taking place in Germany will beat this one - the Rhine River in Flames. This refers to a fireworks event with a near 80 year tradition (since 1931) along the Rhine. Every summer, a 45 minute extravagant fireworks event takes place along the Rhine river in four cities and I have also included the upcoming event dates:

Bonn: 01.05.2010, 07.05.2011, 05.05.2012
Rüdesheim ...

... Army all these years and never having actually been stationed in Germany. Such a shame! I really could have gotten used to a place like this ... and the drive south towards Austria made me want to live there even more! The countryside was absolutely beautiful ... and seeing that I'm half Germany (other half Italian) ... ah, all I can do is sit back and sigh! Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland ...

... the pathetic voices, the lack of wit, and the general paleness of the poor, adulterated creation. But despire that awful experience with that sexually frustrated llama, the day was awesome, and the people were, above all, awesome. I have been told that in general the southeners seem to be friendlier than the northerners, and today i saw that. So thankyou to all the people who made it such a pleasure to be here.

14 September 2005 CAM If ever there were serious Germans then this was the place. If your not a banker or some other white collar business type then Frankfurt is not the place for you. With just about every major German bank's headquarters having their own building and other financial companies as well there ...