Our first week in Germany

Heinz, Martina, Jonas, Ken and I enjoy a piece of cake and a coffee, tea or hot chocolate at a nice cafe renovated from an old farmhouse.

If you look very close you will see Ken, Heinz and Jonas standing at the base of the windmill...look very close!

A beautiful view from the castle where we had "einen kleinen kuchen und kaffee". A small town on the Rein river below.

Looking DOWN the stairs into the cave, >450 steps down...>450 steps up.

Can you guess what this is?
It is an insect house in a garden, inviting flies and bugs to the house instead of to your table.

Rapunzal, Rapunzal, let your hair down...from a castle tower. A room at a castle hotel has a great view from its balcony, it's yours for around 200 euros p/p per night, this price does include some extras.

Ken enjoyed his mini ride. A can opener was almost needed to get him out, I think he would like to take this car home.



After spending a busy weekend in Calgary visiting with my family, one last time, Ken and I boarded our plane to Germany. We were both hoping that leaving Canada at midnight and arriving in Frankfurt at 6 p.m. the next day would make it easier to adjust to the time change. We thought that if we could stayed awake for most of the 9 1/2 hr flight and then visit a little with our friends when we landed we would sleep easily through the night...wrong! We have been here a week now and have just started to sleep through the last two nights. The flight over was a pleasant surprise for us. From the comments we heard from other people we thought maybe we would have to wear our helmets and riding gear while being strapped to the wing of the plane during the flight because service in the airline business had been cut so badly. We brought our own food, pillows, earphones, everything short of toilet paper(actually I had that too if worse came to worse)but the food and the service on board was good(maybe a little squishy)and we enjoyed 3 movies(one of which was Mama Mia that made me want to return to Italy this trip instead of heading north), a dinner with wine and breakfast. And we even got to sit together without my having booked advanced seating!!! We didn't end up having to pay for extra luggage, our carry-ons, checked and one piece of camping luggage all checked in at 1/2 kilo less than what was allowed.

Franz, Sabina, Mel, and Vitor were at the airport to greet us with 2 cars, which were needed to carry all of our luggage, one of the cars included Vitor's cherry red '67 Mustang-nice. The four days with Franz and Sabina were busy, spending time seeing the sights around Weisbanden, visiting a castle for a little coffee and cake, going down close to 100 metres in a cave, Ken took a ride in an orginal '79 mini, and taking drives thru the beautiful countryside. Franz and Sabina were more than generous, we love to visit them. Our plan after leaving Franz and Sabine in Weisbaden was to take the train north to our friends in Asendorf, the trip involved a quick train change that had us scurrying with our 5 big pieces of luggage. Heinz, Martina and Jonas welcomed us to their home in the countryside just outside Asendorf, a cute house amidst the fields of rap seed and corn(which are grown for biofuel)here also you will find windmills for power standing in the fields. The cake and coffee is very good up in this region and we have spent time trying local traditional dishes. Martina works at an asparagas farm and we have enjoyed this dish here and also at Fraz and Sabina's place...fantastic!

But...the most important thing you will find here is...Kens Africa Twin! The bike looks like new, and boy is Ken happy! Heinz has done a great job getting it ready for us and our trip, and as I write this Ken is packing the pannier and can't stop smiling. Checking the bike is the first thing he does in the morning and the last thing he does at night. The bike will work perfectly, we may not even have to strap bags to the outside of the bike as origanally planned, everything should fit inside. Our plan was to leave this morning but after looking at the weather forcast for the next few days we decided to spend one more day here and start our trip tomorrow, heading to Copenhegan, Denmark and then to Finland instead of Norway where the weather is much colder and rainier. Here also the rain and cooler weather have hit the region and yesterday it rained most of the day, hopefully tomorrow will bring brighter skys as it is always nicer start a trip in nice weather...even if it doesn't stay.

Franz, Sabina, Ken and I are having a coffee and cake at the castle overlooking the Rein. Thank you for giving our trip such a great start!