Deutschland

Today we had a nice hotel breakfast with American flags on our tables. The German hotel was nice and patriotic. We boarded the coach and had a stop at a small village where we did some shopping and a lot of people got chocolate at the supermarket. It was still early so not many people were out and it was a nice picture opportunity with some traditional German buildings and a church. We re-boarded the coach to head to Boppard.
To get to the town, we had to go down some windy roads and hills. Once we finally made it down, we spent a lot of time in two shops where we saw beer steins, coo-coo clocks, music boxes and much more. We all picked out a beer stein as our team souvenir. Jess bought a coo-coo clock to ship home. We also had lunch in the village. Jess tried the schnitzel and Hannah ordered that for lunch. It was actually really good. For those of you who don’t know, schnitzel is pork. Also, for those of you who are followers of Jeff and his photos, Hannah got some amazing shots of him in several strange get-ups (tee-hee). After our shopping ventures, we boarded a boat to have a cruise down the Rhine River. The cruise was an hour and a half and we saw some beautiful scenery with mountains and castles. We learned about the different castles and ended our cruise in the only part of the river where you can see three castles at once. We all enjoyed the cruise; it was very relaxing and the weather was beautiful, although Jess left her sunglasses on the bus and Hannah had sun burnt legs. You should have seen the dude try to dock the boat. It was like watching a professional NASCAR driver parallel park. We boarded the coach again after our boat ride to go to Hein Hauck’s vineyard.
The vineyard was really nice. Hein Hauck talked about how to make the wine and about his vineyard. He also taught us the proper way to taste and drink wine. First, you lift your glass and look at the wine to see how clear it is. A good wine is bright. Then you swirl your wine gently in a counterclockwise motion (unless you’re in South America) while smelling at the same time. Then you take a sip and swish it around your mouth to get the general taste and if you like it, you drink it. We all tried three different types of wine and had a barbeque dinner after. After we ate, we were able to explore the vineyard some. There were walkways along the grape vines where we could see the growing process of the grapes. We boarded the coach and before we could even get the coach started, we were engulfed in a Star Spangled Banner sing off. Four participants came up to sing for us and we voted for our winner. This started our community singing on our way to the hotel. We’re in the hotel now and need to pack and get some sleep for our early departure tomorrow morning. See you all soon! Happy reading and happy 4th of July!!! Thank you so much f or following along on our adventures and we really appreciate the support!
P.S. Hannah’s creeper photos of Jeff will be posted soon. :-)