Last of the vacation shots

Yes, Lisa, we are back. Can you all tell since I've stopped blogging again? :-)

Here's the last of our vacation stuff...

We spent our day in Ruedesheim in the next town over...called Assmannshausen. Yes, you read that correctly. Is anyone else reminded of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer gets the wrong license plates?

Ah, anyway, we took the train over one town, and spent a couple of hours with a winemaker by the name of August Kessler. Our two hour visit was really a nice time, spent talking about the current economic status of the US, exchanging ideas, and of course, trying some of August's incredible wines. All of his stuff is very high-end, and we were surprised that he actually opened some of what he opened (read: the most expensive bottles he opened retail for over $100 in the US). We were sad to learn that he doesn't currently have a distributor in Illinois (or in Wisconsin for that matter) but were happy to be able to give him some suggestions of possible distributors.

The scenery around that part of Germany is beautiful, even when it's cloudy. Here's a shot of Assmannshausen from the road leading in to town:

In any case, by the time we were finished with our visit, we decided to walk back to Ruedesheim, rather than take the train. It took about 50 minutes, and would've been nicer if the bike path hadn't ended, but what can you do? I'm still glad we walked. By the time we got back, we had just enough time to pick up our luggage and grab some lunch before hopping on the train back to Frankfurt. Trey did take a few more pictures, though. Here's one of the Asbach vineyard:

Our evening in Frankfurt was nice, as well. Trey has a friend from college (or high school?) who went to grad school in Germany, then met a German guy, got married and now lives there. We found (actually I found (!)) a fun local place with good food (albeit no Semmelknoedl - those are more Austrian anyway) and good beer, and then went back to their place for some wine and horn playing.

The next morning we decided to head to the airport and do some last minute shopping there, rather than shop a little bit in the city before heading to the airport. Unfortunately, we discovered that the Frankfurt airport sucks, so sorry to those of you who were going to get gifts from Europe and instead are getting American stuff. Add to that the fact that our luggage ended up being overweight (Onkel Sepp just gave us too much chocolate!) and the trip didn't end on the best note, but what can you do? The rest of it was such a dream that I didn't care.

So, that concludes the vacation blogging. Usually being gone for a week is enough and has us ready to go home, but not this time. We missed our cats, but that was it. :-)

Trey got right back to work Saturday while I did laundry and housework, and I jumped back in on Sunday. Luckily next week is Thanksgiving and I get a little bit of a break again!