The way it all began!
Train Station
Pizza Place
Jeff's Old Neighborhood
HaHa That's me all afternoon taking pics from the car!
These are everywhere!!!
Our Cute Rental Car
Our Hotel
Dinner!
Below is Me waiting for Jeff to finish journaling.....I NEED TO TX MY FRIENDS!!!! But, it cost .50 a text! OUCH!
March 11, 2009 (p.m.)
Well it didn’t take but 2-3 hours in Frankfurt for me to decide that I was tired of big cities and ready to head to the beautiful Rhine Valley to explore castles and eat authentic German food. We stood in line 45 minutes to get our rental car and it took another hour-and-a-half to get from the airport to downtown Frankfurt (which is not where I intended to go in the first place, but the GPS was not receiving a signal at that time and I had to trust the road signs and an old fashioned paper map). Dangit!
In the end, it all worked out. We parked the rental car at a park near the area where I used to live and headed off to my favorite pizza place – Pizzeria da Benitos. Of course those who know me well know that I have bad food allergies and cannot eat pizza, but I thought Sonya would enjoy a little slice of the best pizza on this globe. Long story short, when we arrived at da Benitos we learned that the previous owner who I knew well 26 years ago had sold the place to someone else who spoke no English and was not very friendly. A local German customer translated for us. He seemed to enjoy practicing his English. But since the place had changed hands and I couldn’t eat pizza anyway, we decided to eat Chinese food at a little restaurant down the street. It was excellent! No regrets at all.
We spent the rest of our time walking around my old neighborhood, the park where we used to sled down a hill and across a lake, the former Frankfurt American High School, and the place where the U.S. Army PX used to stand (which is now the Police Headquarters for the city). I loved my little stroll down memory lane, but I was so ready to see the “real” Germany – ancient churches, small villages that dot the country side, castle ruins around every corner of the Rhine River, hillsides covered with vineyards, and cuckoo clocks. So we hit the autobahn and drove like the Germans.
Instead of the quickest route to St. Goar, I selected the more scenic route up the west side of the Rhine. Boy, are we glad we did. It was stunning seeing all the beauty of this area. It can only be described in pictures (see posted pics in our blog). Herr Velich, our very gracious host at Hotel am Markt, checked us into our room at 4:00 p.m. As far as I can tell we are the only ones staying at the hotel tonight. It’s more like a bed and breakfast than a traditional hotel. Our room is on the second floor and offers a very scenic view overlooking the Rhine.
Since we still had a lot of daylight left we decided to visit Burg Rheinfels, the largest castle in the valley, located directly behind and high above St. Goar. Unfortunately it is only open to visitors on the weekends this time of year, but we enjoyed a stroll around the ancient castle grounds anyway, followed by a short visit in a local cuckoo clock shop.
When we returned to the hotel we ate a delicious meal prepared by Herr Velich’s son and enjoyed fellowshipping with our server, Darren. You could tell he was excited to be around a couple of Americans who he could practice his English with. We have certainly enjoyed getting the complete attention of the hotel staff. We could get used to this ;-)
Now it’s time to retire for the night, but first here are the misc. notes for the day…
· My old neighborhood in Frankfurt (Hicog) is still home to many American and other international government officials, so unlike when I lived there, the vehicle entrances and exits are guarded now – another result of 911 I’m sure. As we walked around the neighborhood snapping pictures we were approached by a female security guard who asked us if we lived there. I explained my story to her and she was actually very understanding. She said that they had been watching us and then politely told us to put the camera away and to continue walking through the housing complex to the park on the other side (our next destination). I didn’t get to take any photos of my old apartment since I didn’t want to take any chances of our itinerary being delayed by unnecessary imprisonment. Hey, that’s two close calls within the past two days. Whew!
· One thing I’ve learned during my visits to my old stomping grounds in England and Germany is this… You can go back and visit places as many times as you want, but you cannot go back in time. In the end, it’s the people you know who make memories special, not places. In the words of Christian songwriter and singer, Sara Groves, “At the end of your life relationships are all you’ve got.”
With that, I’ll close for the day. Guten abend (good evening).
Well it didn’t take but 2-3 hours in Frankfurt for me to decide that I was tired of big cities and ready to head to the beautiful Rhine Valley to explore castles and eat authentic German food. We stood in line 45 minutes to get our rental car and it took another hour-and-a-half to get from the airport to downtown Frankfurt (which is not where I intended to go in the first place, but the GPS was not receiving a signal at that time and I had to trust the road signs and an old fashioned paper map). Dangit!
In the end, it all worked out. We parked the rental car at a park near the area where I used to live and headed off to my favorite pizza place – Pizzeria da Benitos. Of course those who know me well know that I have bad food allergies and cannot eat pizza, but I thought Sonya would enjoy a little slice of the best pizza on this globe. Long story short, when we arrived at da Benitos we learned that the previous owner who I knew well 26 years ago had sold the place to someone else who spoke no English and was not very friendly. A local German customer translated for us. He seemed to enjoy practicing his English. But since the place had changed hands and I couldn’t eat pizza anyway, we decided to eat Chinese food at a little restaurant down the street. It was excellent! No regrets at all.
We spent the rest of our time walking around my old neighborhood, the park where we used to sled down a hill and across a lake, the former Frankfurt American High School, and the place where the U.S. Army PX used to stand (which is now the Police Headquarters for the city). I loved my little stroll down memory lane, but I was so ready to see the “real” Germany – ancient churches, small villages that dot the country side, castle ruins around every corner of the Rhine River, hillsides covered with vineyards, and cuckoo clocks. So we hit the autobahn and drove like the Germans.
Instead of the quickest route to St. Goar, I selected the more scenic route up the west side of the Rhine. Boy, are we glad we did. It was stunning seeing all the beauty of this area. It can only be described in pictures (see posted pics in our blog). Herr Velich, our very gracious host at Hotel am Markt, checked us into our room at 4:00 p.m. As far as I can tell we are the only ones staying at the hotel tonight. It’s more like a bed and breakfast than a traditional hotel. Our room is on the second floor and offers a very scenic view overlooking the Rhine.
Since we still had a lot of daylight left we decided to visit Burg Rheinfels, the largest castle in the valley, located directly behind and high above St. Goar. Unfortunately it is only open to visitors on the weekends this time of year, but we enjoyed a stroll around the ancient castle grounds anyway, followed by a short visit in a local cuckoo clock shop.
When we returned to the hotel we ate a delicious meal prepared by Herr Velich’s son and enjoyed fellowshipping with our server, Darren. You could tell he was excited to be around a couple of Americans who he could practice his English with. We have certainly enjoyed getting the complete attention of the hotel staff. We could get used to this ;-)
Now it’s time to retire for the night, but first here are the misc. notes for the day…
· My old neighborhood in Frankfurt (Hicog) is still home to many American and other international government officials, so unlike when I lived there, the vehicle entrances and exits are guarded now – another result of 911 I’m sure. As we walked around the neighborhood snapping pictures we were approached by a female security guard who asked us if we lived there. I explained my story to her and she was actually very understanding. She said that they had been watching us and then politely told us to put the camera away and to continue walking through the housing complex to the park on the other side (our next destination). I didn’t get to take any photos of my old apartment since I didn’t want to take any chances of our itinerary being delayed by unnecessary imprisonment. Hey, that’s two close calls within the past two days. Whew!
· One thing I’ve learned during my visits to my old stomping grounds in England and Germany is this… You can go back and visit places as many times as you want, but you cannot go back in time. In the end, it’s the people you know who make memories special, not places. In the words of Christian songwriter and singer, Sara Groves, “At the end of your life relationships are all you’ve got.”
With that, I’ll close for the day. Guten abend (good evening).
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