Oh mon dieu, it's been a long time since I have written in here...about three weeks I believe since the last significant entry. It's been a fairly eventful chunk of time, I must say, which means I have a lot I can write about, a lot that I've forgotten about, and my major excuse for not publishing anything earlier.
First, just to put you guys at ease, I did get my hair cut. I walked into Frankie's Römer Friseur (Frankie's Roman Hair Salon) with a picture of myself after a fresh haircut and told him I wanted my hair done as such. I think he did a fairly good job, at the very least I was content with the way it turned out, and that's what's important. I also have a slightly different beard variation, nothing too exciting, but I'm feeling refreshed and renewed to endure the summer heat.
For the sake of the clarity of my memory, I'm actually going to start with more recent events, and then work my way backwards. Yesterday my friend Jake and I took a train ride down to the nearby city of Koblenz. The name is derived from latin confluenza, which as you may guess would mean confluence in Enlgish, as the city is at the point where the Mosel River flows into the Rhein. I was pretty excited to go, considering it's prime wine country in Germany, but I muss confess that I was a little disappointed once I got there. We didn't have a specific plan of what we wanted to do, but even just walking around, there wasn't a whole lot to see. The city was flattened during WWII and was rebuilt ASAP right afterwards, so much of the architecture is very utilatrian. None the less, there was still some classic German buildings which were pretty cool.
One of the unique parts of Koblenz is the Deutsche Ecke, or German Corner, which is right where the two rivers meet. There's an enormous monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I there, which is pretty impressive to see in person, although the throngs of children that were there on a tour detracted from it a bit...which was kind of the problem with Koblenz. There was always something that detracted from a real cool sight, whether it be a group of cyclists standing in front of you, power beer stands next to a monument, or trucks in front, well, pretty much everything. It turns out that they were gearing up for a festival and a marathon, so it was a little atypical, but I am not enticed to go back to the city at all.
The Kaiser Wilhelm I Monument, compete with....tent and power box?Oh, and click the picture to enlarge it, you can see a man standing in the monument, which gives you a good idea of the scale. It was huge.
One of the neat parts about Koblenz, though, is that the geography there is considerably different to what it's like by me, only 45 min up the Rhein. It's very hilly down there, and there are castles and castle ruins all along the slopes on the river banks. It's such a cool sight, one that you really wouldn't see in America.
After bumming around for a while, Jake and I made are way to the village of Winningen, which his father had explored on an earlier trip here. Stepping out of the trainstation there was like walking into a different world. It was full of tiny old houses on the slopes of a hill. The streets were narrow, and vines stretched across the streets to link the houses on either sides. It was fantastically beautiful. Some houses had the bottoms of barrels imbedded in the wall, indicating that wine was produced or sold there. And that's what the village was all about: wine. It was really obvious, though, that tourists weren't common around these parts, but people were still very friendly to us on the streets.
Jake and I walked around soaking it in for a while, than afterwards we stopped in at our first wine house, which had terrific atmosphere. The room we were in was opened to the outdoors, and the wooden walls were covered with vines. We sat at a table next to a group of cyclers, and were stared at throughout the time there by the people sitting behind us. The English speaking definitely made us stick out, but that was okay because we were there for the wine, which turned out to be just as good as everything else in Winningen.
We had a glass and a plate of bread and cheese and thenmoved down to another wine house down the road, which was setup kind of like a garden with tables in it, complete with massive rabbits in hutch on oneside ; ) The wine there was even better than at the first place we stopped, although service was slow enough to bore a snail. We probably would have had at least another glass a piece if our waitress came around more often, but it just didn't happen. While we were there, it started to rain pretty hard, and all the tables under cover got taken pretty quickly, so Jake and I just moved our chairs under the overhang and scooted a plastic crate in between and continued our wine sampling. I tell you, Mom, there's nothing like drinking Mosel Riesling in the Mosel River Valley. It's pretty damn cool.
After bumming around for a while, Jake and I made are way to the village of Winningen, which his father had explored on an earlier trip here. Stepping out of the trainstation there was like walking into a different world. It was full of tiny old houses on the slopes of a hill. The streets were narrow, and vines stretched across the streets to link the houses on either sides. It was fantastically beautiful. Some houses had the bottoms of barrels imbedded in the wall, indicating that wine was produced or sold there. And that's what the village was all about: wine. It was really obvious, though, that tourists weren't common around these parts, but people were still very friendly to us on the streets.
Jake and I walked around soaking it in for a while, than afterwards we stopped in at our first wine house, which had terrific atmosphere. The room we were in was opened to the outdoors, and the wooden walls were covered with vines. We sat at a table next to a group of cyclers, and were stared at throughout the time there by the people sitting behind us. The English speaking definitely made us stick out, but that was okay because we were there for the wine, which turned out to be just as good as everything else in Winningen.
We had a glass and a plate of bread and cheese and thenmoved down to another wine house down the road, which was setup kind of like a garden with tables in it, complete with massive rabbits in hutch on oneside ; ) The wine there was even better than at the first place we stopped, although service was slow enough to bore a snail. We probably would have had at least another glass a piece if our waitress came around more often, but it just didn't happen. While we were there, it started to rain pretty hard, and all the tables under cover got taken pretty quickly, so Jake and I just moved our chairs under the overhang and scooted a plastic crate in between and continued our wine sampling. I tell you, Mom, there's nothing like drinking Mosel Riesling in the Mosel River Valley. It's pretty damn cool.
The final stop.And that's about it...we hopped on the train and headed home, which took much longer than it should have because of poor weather, I believe. It was probably one of the more worthwhile days that I had here, though, and definitely the best in terms of amount of satisfaction per euro. I would be very disappointed if I didn't make it back there before I went home.
Okay, that's it for this post, stay tuned for the next! Much love.
Jon
1 comment:
I shall pick up a bottle of Mosel Riesling, sit on the deck overlooking the lake and toast to your speedy return! Love you mom
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