Germany

Germany visit
We are getting champs, at booking parking, and getting to these huge city airports!! Our gate at Manchester was D51!! And there was ABCE as well. Frankfurt has 1400 international flights a day!! Certainly a little different to Blenheim
We had an amazing time with our wonderful friends, Sigi and Manfred, who we met in NZ with Trish and Barry, our Chch friends.
We zoomed down the motorway to their lovely home in a nearby city of Darmstadt.
The autumn colours were magnificent. They took us for a trip on a ferry on the Rhine, such a busy waterway, with cruise ships, tankers of all shapes and sizes. Continuous traffic of trains and cars on the banks of the river. . Not long and we were out of the city, and into a gorge, which was lined with steep vineyards, all golden leaves, amazing the walls and structures of these vines. All along the way are castles, built in the 12th and 13th century, standing majestic overlooking the river. All have been restored, some are private residences!! Others are hostels or hotels.
We had lunch in a fascinating place all very dark and intimate and historic, down a very narrow alley. Tried the local new unfermented wine and onion tart, a local delicacy. Then we went to another winery, all very different to Marlborough, and sat in the sun and view, for coffee.
We went by tram and train into central Frankfurt the next day, cobbled streets, busy modern city with all the ancient magnificent buildings intermingled. Amazing markets, oh!! The cheeses, veggies, meats, salamis etc, Great salesman!!
We so enjoyed the hospitality of Johanna and Wolfgang, also Trish and Barry’s friends. Magnificent home, delicious food and fun and laughter. How we wished we could speak the language!! But they all have a wonderful command of our language. We played golf on Saturday, glorious day, 25degrees. The course was unbelievable, bunkers, water everywhere!! It was girls against the boys?? Bugger!! the boys won, convincingly.
Sigi and Manfred have just bought a new home , so we were fortunate to be able to see it before they redecorate it, it will be lovely, when they put their stamp on it. They showed us all sorts of interesting places in their home city, and all too soon we had to depart , again down that busy autobahn. Arrived back to rain at Manchester Airport after a wonderful few days seeing and learning about Germany from Sigi and Manfred and their friends.