The journey begins!


August 27, 2018.....
When it arrives it’s almost surprising.  Even after months of planning, preparation, and anticipation, D Day, Departure day, Deliverance, Deutschland!   Last minute chores to prepare our house for evacuation.  Leaving behind not just day to day responsibilities but our son Stuart and his wife Sara and their newly adopted sons - Dayshawn and Michael!  We will keep them and all of you our family, friends, and neighbors in our hearts as we return to the Iberian Peninsula, one of Carol’s and my favorite places on this small rotating globe!
  We start this journey in Germany with dear friends we met and traveled with on another adventure. We fly into Frankfurt and though this will be Carols first time in Germany it will be 2 weeks shy of my first overseas trip when I flew to Frankfurt 42 years ago.
.....and so it begins!

September1, 2018......
After a long flight we arrived at Frankfurt  Airport at 1:30 pm on the 28th and joined our friends Silvia and Jurgen who picked us up for the ride back to their place in Freisen in western Germany.
my memories from my only previous trip to Germany are surely colored by my 22 years at the time as the first things that pop into my head are youth hostel encounters and Octoberfest along with some of the locales we saw between Frankfurt, Munich and onto Austria.
The last few days it has been the endless forests of the Saarland here in western Germany and all the beautiful architecture of the houses and the magnificence of the castles, monasterys, and Roman ruins going back 2 millennia.

                                            the Porta Nigra in Trier, Germany
          http://www.zentrum-der-antike.de/en/monuments/the-porta-nigra/the-porta-nigra.html

So, what exactly have we been doing??
Well, we have been doing lots of cycling around Freisen where we are staying and then yesterday a long ride along the Rhine from Mainz to Bingen.   We have visited Trier a beautiful city just near the border with Luxembourg. We have had some wonderful meals with Silvia and Jurgen including Rouladen which Jurgen and I made together, and an interesting and tasty stuffed dumpling dish called gefüllte klöße  ~
 https://www.kochbar.de/rezept/404383/Mit-Hackfleisch-gefuellte-Kloesse.html

                                          Rouladen ~ beef rolled with mustard, pickles, onion, & bacon


                                                  
                                                           gefüllte klöße
            
                                                          visiting Trier with Jurgen and Silvia


our bike ride along the Rhein

Visiting Mainz & Rudesheim am Rhein


             The ferry across the Rhein from  Rudesheim am Rhein to Bingen

So that is our tale so far!  Nest up Cycling the Mosel and after Carol & I will do  a 5 day tour of our own to Heidelberg then venture into the Alsace region of France before returning for a couple more day excursions near Freisen.

Stay Tuned!

Don and Carol

 

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 2, 2018 at 1:54 PM

    Thanks for the update. It looks like lot's of fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jim ShankSeptember 2, 2018 at 2:22 PM

    Looks like you're having a great time and great weather to boot.

    I'll be looking forward to your next update.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 2, 2018 at 2:23 PM

    Hi guys, actually it is Deborah. So glad we get to go back to Spain with ya'll even if it is only in Cyber land. Have a great trip and thanks for the updates. The Pearson-Moyers clan in NC

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownSeptember 2, 2018 at 2:46 PM

    Happy to get your blog this time! shadow is just fine looks like a wonderful trip! Happy to go along with your blog

    ReplyDelete
  5. Patty LewisSeptember 2, 2018 at 9:46 PM

    What fun! I have great memories of our trip to Germany in 1975. We visited the Bemises in Bingen.
    And spent a day touring along the Rhein with their daughter and husband and new baby.
    We also stayed in Osnabruck with our German teacher's parents who gave us a tour of this ancient city all in german. Thanks for jogging my memory. Be sure to visit some of the wineries there.
    Patty

    ReplyDelete

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