Saturday, August 2, 2008

Germany, part 1: Frankfurt

What an amazing vacation!

We drove up to Philly and spent the weekend at my parent's place. Only a quick trip to Victory Brewing was worth mentioning - they have redone the whole place, and it looks MUCH better these days. Good times, good food, and good BEER!

Anyway, Dawn and I were in the plane to Germany Monday afternoon. We flew into Frankfurt, where we were scheduled to stay for three days. After scrambling about to figure out the trains, find our hotel, check in and feel the place out, it was time for a beer!



I, of course, HAD to do my "beer geek" thing...



The following day we did a day trip to Stuttgart in an attempt to research Dawn's family. She has already tracked back to 1540, and was attempting to go further. Unfortunately, it was pretty much fruitless, despite some really nice people trying to help us out.

The last day in Frankfurt, we did a Rhine river tour. Cold, rainy, but a very nice trip up the river. We hooked up with a cool Australian couple, and we joked the whole trip, snapping pics of churches and castles. Lots and lots of churches and castles. DAMN, there are lots of churches and castles in Germany! One of the many:



Anyway, by the time we got off the boat for a quick wine tasting, I was feeling rather ill. I believe I was done in by a salad I had in Stuttgart the day before. Either way, by the time I got back to the hotel, I was running a pretty good fever and couldn't go more than about 15 minutes between bathroom trips. I threw down some Tylenol and went to sleep at about 9PM, as Dawn left to grab some dinner and go to the historic area for a little shopping.

I awoke at 10:45, feeling MUCH better. Dawn was still not back. By 11PM, I figured she ran off with a young Frankfurter (pun intended) and I was going it alone... LOL. Actually, she got VERY lost, and wandered around for hours until she finally hopped a bus and got back to the main train station. She was a bit shaken, and had developed some huge blisters on her feet, but she was safe, thankfully.

More to come: Cologne!

BTW, if you aren't interested in all my prattling, click here for all the pics, good and bad.

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