We had a fun day of sightseeing in Germany. We started out in Frankfurt. We went by bus to the Rhine River Valley. Once we got there we started out by having lunch in a funny restaurant along the river. I felt like I was at Grandma Jean’s house. For those of you that don’t know Grandma Jean, that means that there were knick knacs EVERYWHERE. The walls were mural painted, there were statues everywhere. Even the toilet seats were painted. Scott said there was a soccer game in the urinal. You tried to score a goal by peeing on the balls to make them go into the nets! The food was good, and it was included in the tour. Here is the door to the restaurant.

After that we got on a boat to see some of the villages and castles along the river. Unfortunately the weather was terrible. It was cold and windy and rainy most of the day. I was so excited to go on this tour to try to get some neat photos. The conditions didn’t make for very good photography. But I think I was able to capture the day, anyway.

The scenery along the Rhine was really beautiful. I loved seeing all the little villages and the architecture of the buildings. There were so many small villages. Scott and I couldn’t help wondering what people did for work in those small towns. But the houses were really neat.

The Rhine Valley is known for it’s wines. There were vineyards all up and down the river. Some of them were even on the steep hillsides. It was crazy and hard to imagine how they pick the grapes on the mountains.

We got to sample some of the local wines. Ice wine is the specialty of the area. Germany apparently drink it for very special occasions. It was a very sweet white wine, but I really liked it. It is one of the most expensive wines, and once they explained how it was made, I understood why. They harvest the grapes when they are frozen. They must do it the first night that the temperature reaches 7 degrees. When it does they rush out to the vineyard and pick the grapes at night, while they are frozen. Then they press the grapes frozen and only use the few drops of grape juice that isn’t frozen solid. But all that work is worth it. It is a really delicious wine.

We had a really nice day. It was kind of a whirl wind trip, but it was fun to see some of the culture and learn something about this area. Tomorrow morning we head home. We will spend another long day on the plane. It has been a really fun trip and Scott and I had a great time just spending some time alone together.