Rhein

Okay, Wednesday finally got us to the Rhein River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine - yes, we crossed him before! And, yes, he is a guy...Old Father Rhein!

This time we went to the city of Rüdesheim http://www.ruedesheim.de/en/index.html and walked the little streets. Drove to the Niederwald Denkmal (which is overlooking the Rhein) http://www.ruedesheim.de/en/index.html Went shopping for souvenirs, and ate a Bratwurst. Luckily we have plenty of water with us as this is the hottest July on record for Germany! And no AC!!!!!!!!!!!!

We then crossed the Rhine on the ferry, as there are no bridges on that stretch, and drove to the Palatinate where we were going to have coffee and cake at a qaint little coffee shop which belongs to my mom's cousins daughter! Go figure that one out. But, with our luck, this was the day she closed her shop for a rest day (usually it is closed on a Monday, but they had some celebration over the weekend which didn't stop until Tuesday). We knew of a different place though and went to the top of the Donnersberg http://www.donnersberg-touristik.de/englisch/index_eng.htm (and no, we did not get to see any of the roman village). After which we went to my mom's cousins house for some homemade liquor...no, we only had two shots.

As my aunts were along for this trip we also went to the old castle which they all remembered as a ruin and their "playground"!!! Now, who can say they had a castle as a playground? Well, my parents homes both had a castle and the