Day Trippin'

Gianna missed two days of school this week for some educational day trips with Grace and Marian. On Monday, we toured the Rhine River Valley by car. Unfortunately, the castles were closed for tours on Monday, but we were still able to check out the exterior while taking in some beautiful views of the valley. We stopped in St. Goar for lunch and had some local fish and Reisling wine. My trout came with the head still attached; Gianna asked if the fish was sleeping. We watched the boats go down the Rhine, did a little shopping, then made our way back to Frankfurt.

On Tuesday we headed down to Rothenburg, a medieval walled city set up for tourists to enjoy. We stopped for lunch where I got this enormous apfel with quark wood fired bread. It was delicious. Gianna and I had been to Rothenburg before, so we splurged and took a horse and carriage tour of the city. It was very relaxing; Gianna fell asleep halfway through. It was probably very informative too, if I could understand more German. I got Gianna an ice cream cone and delt with some rude shop keepers. Then I sat in gum. The day started to go downhill from there. After encountering some more rude shopkeepers, we hit the road back to Frankfurt. The GPS lead us astray, we found our way back to the gas station where we had rented the car, but accidentally returned the keys in the drop box before pulling it away from the pumps. Oops. Grace and I pushed the tiny Opel out of the way and called Europcar to tell them what happened. "Kein Problem" was their response. Thanks Europcar! This morning Dan took Gianna to school and I took Grace and Marian to the train station for the next leg of their adventure: Amsterdam. You can see more photos from Museum Fest, the Rhine Valley, and Rothenburg here.