Day 3

Wine tour down the Rhine River. We were excited for this one. We were lucky enough to have the tour bus meeting place right in front of our hotel. Our Canadian friends were also on this tour so naturally I continued to rebuild our relations with our neighbors to the North. Tim, Jackie, Andre and Caroline from Ottawa were a crack up. A tour group presents many characters and this one was no different. We entered the bus with many people speaking another language which really helps to limit any negative interaction. Well… that was short lived! A typical American woman entered the bus and in typical American fashion began to greet everyone at a Decibel level of 90+. She was from AZ so look out Tony and Pam! Where do you think she sat? Yup, right behind us! Here we go again! Butterbean begins to make several conversational attempts. Each attempt resulted in a bruising squeeze on my leg from Lori. We weren’t out of Frankfurt and I already had point tenderness on my left leg. Of course the Canadians recognized the problem and kept eyes forward for the next hour making no eye contact. Lori and I could not say a word to each other without her peeking over the seat to comment.

We arrived about an hour later at the restaurant (more Schnitzel) where we would have lunch. Lori darted to the front of the line so that she would have first choice of a table with limited additional seating. Her plan soon became clear. Walked into the restaurant and had to choose between sitting in a booth with my Lori or at a 6 spot table with the Canadians? I didn’t want to be rude but Lori won out. That left 2 vacant spots at the Canadian table. Well all of my relationship building went right down the tubes when “she” walked in. There was no where for the Canadians to hide and “she” talked the whole time. There must be a food shortage in Canada because they finished their meal awfully fast and were out the door. Once we finished our lunch we ran into the Canadians outside. Boy, they sure let us know. lol!

We cruised down the Rhine which is about 1200 miles long and about 75 ft deep in spots. We saw many castles while we sat and drank wine with our new friends.

The wine tasting was next and I wish I had a picture of how much they served us. It looked like dew in the bottom of a thimble. I don’t know how we were supposed to get a taste out of that!

We ended the night at a restaurant (The Legacy) in our hotel. Awesome ribs and pulled pork.