Ein Wunderbares Ende

          We drove all the way from Venice to Frankfurt in one day. It was a 14 hour drive. It’s hard to do those long drives when we spend the whole day previously walking around all day. Well it’s okay because we did get to Frankfurt with literally no more money for gas. We went without food that day because we didn’t have enough money. We were so tired and hungry when we arrived at Nathan’s parents’ house, but they took good care of us. It was so nice to be looked after for a while. We had spent the last month not knowing where we were going to sleep or what to eat. It was really nice to not have to worry about that for a week. First thing the next morning we did our massive amount of laundry. It took quite a while, but the weather was good enough to dry the clothes outside. We were taken on a shopping trip to ‘Lidl’ where Nath’s parents bought us whatever our hearts desired and then some. My hearts desire was a chocolate treat called, ‘Duplo.’ They are one of my many favorite chocolates from Europe. 

It has been so long that I am not sure of the order of events, but I know we did the following things: We walked around most of Frankfurt with Nathans mum, Luz, in search of a tower that we could ride to the top that overlooked Frankfurt. We were lost for ages but it was really fun touring the city. We did find the tower and the view from the top was pretty amazing. It was really just fun to be spending some time with Luz alone. Nathan said that he heard stories from his mum that he hadn’t known before. It was a really great day.

Another day in Germany we went to Heidelberg. It is this fabulous city a few hours drive from Frankfurt. We went up this crazy steep hill on the most rickety old train that was pulled up by one cable. It was pretty terrifying but gorgeous when you get to the top. Nathan and I have never seen so many spectacular views in such a short few months. The view from the top of Heidelberg was one of the best. There is also a castle about halfway up the hill that we stopped at. Nathan’s dad, John, told us how in the castle there is a really big barrel. He said that we would think that we saw the big barrel, but it isn’t the big barrel, the big one is much bigger than the small ones up front. True to his word, we saw a really big barrel and thought it was the biggest one, but just around the corner was a ridiculously large barrel. It was so big we climbed quite a few steps up to get on top of it. Crazy big barrel. 

           Our last big outing was my favorite. We went to Rudesheim along the Rhine river with both John and Luz. It was a life goal come true. I have always wanted to take a boat ride on the Rhine, since taking 4 years of German and learning about it. It was just as beautiful as I had hoped. We rode the boat up the river a ways and got off at our stop. We had a quick treat, ice cream and hot chocolate (Nath’s parents are so good to us!), and had lovely conversations. I love hearing stories about Nathan when he was younger.

Next we got on a ski lift type of thing that took us up to the top of this mountain along the Rhine. This view really might have been my favorite. It was so surreal to be doing something like this. As we rode up to the top we teased John by raising the safety bar. I think we found it more funny than he did. Once at the top we walked along a trail that would take us back to where we started. It was a lovely tree covered area, with outlooks at the most beautiful views.  At the end of the trail there is a much safer looking gondola that takes you back down to the bottom over oceans of vineyards. Gorgeous. As we rode down Nathan and I looked out over this beautiful place realizing this was our last day in mainland Europe. We were to fly out the next morning. It was sad to say goodbye to the most beautiful places I have ever been to, but it was lucky that we still had three weeks in England when we returned. It was a perfect end to our little adventure around Europe.