Loreley in May

Bridal suite at Hotel Hindenburg in Königswinter. Super nice setup!

A little living room  with TV.

The quote over the bed says, "Take your time to dream. It is the way to the stars." Just what a newlywed bride and groom will be taking the time to do.

"Fun size" Ritter Sports for after the "dreaming."

Best meal of the entire trip, this sesame crusted Rotbarsch or ocean perch dish at the Rheinhotel Loreley was phenomenal. Really fresh seared soy sauce-laced baby bok choy and veggies with a ginger lemon risotto.

View the next morning.

Taking the retro tram to the top of the Drachenfels.

The amazing view at the top inspired many a poet.

A little exploring at the top brings us unexpected sights like this cool old building.

Schloss Drachenburg having a good hair day.

You also had the option of taking donkeys to the top of the Drachenfels.

Back down from our Drachenfels adventure, we head to the river to catch a ferry to Bonn for some lunch.

Sights while waiting for the ferry.

This guy has the right idea on the ferry and we follow suit with a round of beers for the pleasant cruise ahead.

Some nautical style.

Cool retro office building in Bonn.

In a square, seeking food.

Back at Königswinter that night we feast with the sunset in the background.

Another day, another city. We're now in Rudesheim and have made our way over to St. Goarshausen to check out the Loreley.

No siren-like mermaid here but Truffles! We check out the sites at the top of the cliffs near the Loreley overlooking the Rhine.

Get this view's autograph.

Bucolic beauty is aplenty in Germany.

Castle Katz (cat in German) has a sister castle. I'll give you one guess what it's called and it's not Castle Hund (dog).

The perfect peaceful little model town for Godzilla's next attack.

The hills are alive!

At the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz with our homeboy, German Emperor William I.

Truffles, just thrilled to be here.

A symbol of Germany's longing for unity, the German Eck sits at the corner, or Eck, where the Moselle river meets the Rhine.

The Drosselgasse area of Rudesheim is a carefully curated area of Disney like shops and restaurants in picture perfect condition. Many a tourist has gladly emptied their purses here for some overpriced but tasty food and a stereotypical German experience complete with oompa oompa bands, pretzels, and beer.

An example of the carefully tended Disney-like feel in Drosselgasse.

I opted for the strange as usual. Blood sausage is delicious to me but this one was spiced with too much cloves. Couple that with the fact that a pigeon pooped on me during dinner and you have the perfect comic-relief evening.

It has become an unspoken yearly tradition to make an amiable journey on the beaten path within the Fatherland somewhere with our friends, the Von Kries's. This year found us in the perfectly manicured riverside town of Königswinter and Rüdesheim right next to the Rhine river. The weather came right out of a romanticized German storybook and we had a glorious sun filled four-day mini-holiday complete with the vibrant rolling green hills everybody in the U.S. associates with The Sound of Music--which happens to be Austria, by the way. Completely different country.
No stay near the Rhine would be complete without a trip down it in a ferry and we took ours with a day trip from Königswinter to Bonn. Sipping beer on a clear sunny day afloat atop sparkling waters makes for the perfect buzz as you head into Bonn's downtown to do some shopping and sightseeing. Our meals in the evening ended in blissful strolls down the length of the river back to our hotel where we whiled away the evening on the rooftop of the Hotel Haus Hindenburg, having some good beers and conversation. The Loreley was just as much of a fairytale scene come to life and we got our yearly dose of the pastoral German utopia.

Funny aside: Our group of six--Jürgen, Rafaela, Georg, Vincent, Mario and Me--were having the complimentary breakfast buffet in the Hotel Haus Hindenburg dining room one morning, just buttering our next little bread rolls, when Rafaela and I overheard the conversation from the table of four adults next to us. Two middle aged women and men, very obviously American, were talking about our table aloud to one another because they apparently had no idea that most people in Europe can speak English. So embarrassing for me to see. Their table along with ours and one more party of three in a little table across the room were the only people dining that morning so I wonder what made them think we wouldn't be able to hear or understand them. It was really hard to concentrate on buttering our bread rolls as the ladies in the group were nonchalantly gossiping:

"Well that's not fair, four guys and two girls?"
"I think they might be married, look, the blond one looks pregnant." (Rafaela is not pregnant.)
"Did you see when they came in?"
"Yeah, they came sometime in the afternoon yesterday."
"Are they all staying in one room, you think?"
"No, I think they have three or four separate rooms, I saw the keys missing from downstairs." (Meaning the little hotel key rack with the corresponding room numbers above them.)

It went on in the same vein for about two minutes more. We were more amused than anything and I must admit I continued speaking German so they wouldn't have a clue we could understand them because it was entertaining to see how far they would go in their conversation. Unfortunately for us, that was the most interesting bit of the entire exchange.