A visit from our Portland friends!

Our second set of house guests were due to arrive just a few days after John and Maureen.  No problem, I didn't need to sleep!  After a quick house cleaning, guest room prep, haircut, grocery shopping, German lesson, and hitting the gym, I was beyond ecstatic to meet my high school friends Stacy and Doug at the Kaiserslautern Hbf on Wednesday as they were arriving via ICE train from a week in Paris.  It had been about six years since we'd all seen each other and the best part about meeting up with old friends is that things seem just the same as they did the last time we were together.  And they sure did!

We did a quick walk around Kaiserslautern, pointing out a Bierstube or two that I thought might be of interest.  There was some pretty big news in K'Town that day a, WWII Bomb had been found downtown and they were defusing it the next day!  Honestly, that all sounds more exciting than it really was.  Because Stace and Doug are such good, long time friends, I knew they would be OK if I ditched them for a measly hour and half to go to my German Class.  They were, as they found their way right into the Bierstubes I mentioned but I'm pretty sure I didn't hear the end of my "ditching" them for the next few days :)

After class I walked over to the Hofbrauhaus-Kaiserslautern to meet up with them and Dave for drinks and dinner.  What a fine German meal!  It's great to see how much our guests have enjoyed the cuisine here, it's really fantastic!  Plus after a week in Paris, Doug and Stacy were in need of a "food change."  It's not Munich but the Hofbrauhaus is still a lot of fun here and a good taste of what the German/Bavarian culture and food is all about.  Plus, the hostess gave me a German menu and the other 3 got English...tee hee. 

Thursday was a German Holiday so the four of us took the train with the Rhineland Pfalz Pass up the River Rhine to the charming town of Bacharach.  I'd been before but there is no getting bored with these towns on the river.  The town was alive and bustling on the beautiful day.  We walked around and settled on lunch in the courtyard of the old Posthof.  Afterwards we made the 15 minute climb up to the castle where we relaxed for a little bit with Weizen's and spectacular views.   We walked down along the old medieval wall amongst the vineyards and grazing goats.  It was beautiful!

We took the train from Bacharach to Bingen where we walked along the river walk that was filled with tons of people...because it was a Holiday.  We stopped along the way at a Biergarten for beers and pretzels before heading back to Enkenbach on the train.  That night we brought Doug and Stacy to Stella's for some more culinary delight.  Of course we all had great meals and this time Stella came out of the kitchen to meet our friends!  We love her :)  It was such a lovely day with our Portland friends!

PICTURES FROM THE DAY

Friday was just the three of us as DH was back to work so we decided to train it over to Bad Durkheim - the town known for the world's largest wine festival - because they were having a Stadtfest (City Festival).  Bad Durkheim is a spa town, so beautiful and peaceful that it would be nice to just enjoy the parks and the tranquility there.  We walked over to the TI and picked up a city map, walked through the Kurpark to the mini-golf course that wasn't open and settled for some drinks at one of the little market squares to enjoy some sun and people watching.  

Bad Durkheim is also known to have the longest salt evaporation works in Germany called the Gradierbau.  It's a 333 meter long wall where water trickles down over blackthorn twigs and is then nebulised making for healthy marine air.  Deep inhalation of the air provides relief from respiratory problems.  We made our way over to the wall and Doug payed the EUR 1,50 to walk it because he thought maybe it would help the hearing issue in his right ear while Stace and I walked along below reaping in the same benefits as we got misted.  It's really quite enormous and I don't know how I missed it on my last visit there - oh wait I was there for the WORLD'S LARGEST WINE FEST - I wasn't interested in salt walls.

Doug at the Gradierbau - healed from the miraculous salt water



The Statdfest was held throughout the town in the various Marktplatz.  We found a tent in the Stadtplatz that had Rose Weinschorles that my friends absolutely loved!  After a few drinks, snacks, laughs and people watching the skies started to cloud up and we headed back on the train to Kaiserslautern to meet up with Dave.

Radlers for the ride back to K'Town



We took Doug and Stacy to the Brauhaus am Markt in Kaiserslautern for one final German meal before heading back to Paris the next day for one more night of their vacation.   It was a good dinner, a GREAT couple of days with my old high school friends and lot of laughs and fun.  We played Euchre back at the house for hours, just like the old days!  16 empty 1/2 litres later we had to call it quits.  I hadn't laughed as hard as I did that night, especially at Doug's attempt to pour beers into his Weizen glass...I still chuckle just thinking about it!  We can't thank Stace and Doug enough for coming to see us during their Paris vacation - it was absolutely superfuntastic!   We're already making plans for our 20th reunion...which reminds me of a key topic of discussion regarding how old we are getting!    Age is just a number - LIFE IS GOOD!

PICTURES FROM THE DAY