October 5, 2006

Miltenberg was an excellent stop because we do not have to board a coach or start out on a walking tour. After a relaxing morning of sleeping, reading, and eating, we were eager to get some fresh air. We headed out with the map and warm fleece because it was sunny but cool, in the 60s. We started off by going the wrong way, but soon find ourselves back on course and in an absolutely lovely town. The half timber houses were pretty impressive, and I loved how people were growing grape vines up their buildings and even across streets. We saw one man harvesting grapes. It was even better than expected, because there were so many craft shops. If I lived near here I would have been in heaven. There were also many toy shops selling trains and the like. In any case, we did some shopping, including a suitcase, had some ice cream, pastries, and bratwurst. It was a lovely timeWe enjoyed the hot tub before dinner, and it became apparent that both of us are ready to go home. This has been an amazing honeymoon, but were also ready to see how we will get along with real life. We intend to enjoy the next few days, but we also know that going home will not be a sad event. After dinner we went to a vanilla cookie baking demonstration. It was so funny. We did the daily soduku puzzle while we waited and in between slow bits. It was the craziest cooking show I've ever seen! The man separating the eggs was just too hilarious. They went through a lot of eggs to get it right. At the end, the lady knighted the two men as "Vanilla Cookie Bakers" and one of them said “once a King, always a King but once a knight is enough!” Total insanity, I tell you!Today we crossed into the Rhine River. It is much wider than the Main River, but just as beautiful. We are now firmly in the midst of fall as we've seen the leaves change from green to yellow to brown (they seem to miss the red and orange colors here). We've seen so many ducks and swans today to. In fact, we saw quite a few over the last few days. We fed swans off of our balcony/sliding glass door yesterday! After lunch we're set to go to a mechanical music Museum in Rüdesheim and then in the late afternoon we will sail through the Rhine Gorge. It should be beautiful.