The 3 Rs and the Passion

Chris here again! I've caught up on some sleep (mainly on the bus) and German TV leaves a "lot" to be desired so here I am bogging again! David has become a "BLOG HOG" so I have to assert my way back into the driver's seat!!

The 3 Rs are the Rhine, Rudesheim and Rothenberg. We arrived in Frankfurt from Israel on Tuesday and drove to Rudesheim which is and lovely little country village on the Rhine. We opened our bedroom window and looked out over a very big vineyard. This area of Germany is the largest white wine growing area and has been under vineyards for some hundreds of years. We went for a cruise on the Rhine the following day



The view of the vineyard from our bedroom window in Rudesheim.




Lunch on the Rhine river cruise - with some of our tour companions!



Vineyards on the side of the hills along the Rhine!

The Rhine is a very busy highway!!

and floated past vineyard after vineyard, most of them on the side of the hill. I believe in some cases the people harvesting the grapes need harnesses and ropes to let them selves down the side of the hill. Amazing! The cruise was extremely interesting on the way up to St Goar and of course I took photos of every castle along the 35 miles that we cruised down, but funnily enough I was totally over castles on the journey back and paid them NO never mind. How come there are some many castles in Germany - many of them on the Rhine????

The cruise over, David caught up on some shut eye (exhausting stuff this travelling!) and I wondered the shops. Having been in a few German villages now - the shops are now all looking the same. Amazingly the same souvenirs can be bought in any of the shops (except perhaps Oberammergau - but more on this later).

Rothenburg - medieval town

David on the wall that surrounds the town
of Rothenburg.

So, moving on from Rudesheim to Rothenburg! Loved Rothenburg! What an amazing little "walled" city with an amazing history! It has been plagued, embattled, deserted, blown up and bombed. The buildings are magnificently restored and maintained and I am totally in love with it! The big thing here in Germany are the Christmas shops - acres of Christmas paraphernalia - some of it new and interesting - so of course of imbided. Of course, we now have collected enough stuff that we have to send some home by post.

This is an illegal photo taken in the Christmas
shop - before I knew I couldn't take
pictures! Oops!

From Rothenberg we travelled to the town of Oberammergau for the Passion Play. That's for tomorrow's blog. Time for sleeping now!

Thank you to those who have been following the blog, we really appreciate your interest in our travels. I love to read your comments too!

PS I was only able to follow the Grand Final this morning on the internet by "live" score updates and through Heather (Mellow) on Skype who was also giving me updates. Can you believe it - A DRAW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I have to wait another week! Agh!!!

I have a Collingwood supporter on the tour - so we have been niggling each other all week - now we have to do it for another week!

Blessings to all - missing you - sort of!!! Chris (and David.)