Arrival in Deutschland

Well I've been in Germany for about a day and a half now. I arrived in Frankfurt at 7:30 AM (12:30 AM Texas time) on Tuesday. Meike and her mom picked me up at the airport and we drove about an hour to where they live, a town called Muelheim-Kaerlich which is close to the city Koblenz. It was great to see them, as it has been 4 years since I've seen Meike (she came to Austin for the second time in summer '05) and 5 years since I saw her mom Gisela (I lived with them in June '04). After relaxing for a bit at their house, we headed to a nearby town called Winningen to visit a winery and have a wine tasting. This area of Germany is very famous for a kind of wine called Riesling white, made from grapes grown on the very steep slopes of the Mosel river. Winningen is very cute and quaint, and I enjoyed walking through and looking at all the buildings. We also stopped at a little cafe and had a cappucino on our walk to the winery. Here Meike's mom instructed us to act very interested in different wines, so we could taste a variety for free :). We tried 4 different wines (2 whites, 1 rose, 1 red) and all were very good. Then they showed us through the winery and we saw the barrels they stored the wine in, the grape press, etc. which was very neat because I've never been to a winery before. After that we headed home and between the wine and the lack of sleep, I was ready for a nap. When I woke up from my 2 hour nap, Meike's dad Gunter was home from work. We all sat out on their porch (they have the most beautiful Japanese-style garden I've ever seen) and chatted and then ate dinner. We had some of the wine that we bought at the winery with dinner and then Meike's dad found out that I liked beer so the beer quickly came out after dinner. I guess it is just my luck that Meike's mom is a wine connoisseur and Meike's dad is a beer connoisseur! I have no idea how much I drank, because everytime I was half way through with my glass, he filled me back up. I drank a very good dark beer, but unfortunately I can't remember the name of it at the moment. By 10:30 PM, I was feeling a bit tipsy and still very tired from my long day of traveling, and happily went to bed.

The next morning I slept in and did a bit of reading. We took the day easy, sitting on the porch and talking and then Meike and I got ready to leave at 2 pm for our flight to Berlin. We arrived in our hostel tonight around 8 pm, had some dinner, and talked about our plans for the next four days. Which brings me to right now, sitting on my laptop in the hostel bar (but no beer for me tonight). Tomorrow we plan to go to a free 3.5 hour walking tour of Berlin, which should be a great introduction to the city.

Well I was hoping to get some pictures embedded in here, but it doesn't seem to want to cooperate and my laptop is about to die, so I will try again later and a description will just have to be sufficient for now. Goodbye until next time...