Wow, what a wicked weekend

So I guess I better tell you about our weekend with the family. I'll leave out the boring parts. Alright, who am I kidding, there'd be nothing left to tell. Plus, I'd make it boring, even if I could make it interesting. That's how much I care about you all. So it all started one Saturday morning, the sun was rising over the lush green hills of Trier, and we had to get up at like 7:30. Considering that when I have to go to school and Christina to work we sleep until 8:00 at least, that 30 minutes really hurt. I'm still feeling it. So sensitive. I think we left around 8:20 or so, so we could meet at 10:30 at the hotel in Wiesbaden. The rest of my family left at 6 from Löhne, so we thought, we might be a little late. So we get on the Autobahn here in Trier, and pretty much right when we get off to drive the Hunsrückhöhenstrase, a car is flashing its lights at us. We were like, What's that guy's problem?, until we saw the cars stopped and lined up. Great, on the road for maybe 15 minutes and we're stopped for who knows what. Well, it wasn't all that bad. There had been an accident and a helicopter had landed on the road and people had to wait for the oncoming traffic to go around it. Plus there was police and a firetruck further down where the car had crashed. Didn't look too bad though. So, we're not even there, and I've already written all this crap. I bet you're getting really excited. And let me tell you, it's going downhill from here. The rest of the way was fine though and after a little bit of a search we found the hotel.
And I gotta say, the directions I got off of viamichelin.com were okay, but when it tells you to turn on K467 or something, right in the middle of Wiesbaden, you know you're not gonna find it. Streets have names in the cities, not numbers. So we get there thinking we're definitely late now, but nobody's there yet. Good. But they got there like 5 minutes later so that worked out perfect. We meet all the relatives: My aunt and uncle, two cousins, my cousin's boyfriend, my brother and girlfriend, mom and dad (so far everybody's from Löhne), my dad's cousin and husband and his other cousin and wife (these folks are from or around Wiesbaden). My grandma and sister couldn't come. We check in at the hotel and pretty much leave right away to look at this hot spring right in front of the hotel and take a bus to the train station. We take a train from there (bet you didn't see that one coming) to go to Rüdesheim on the Rhein. And now, the first highlight: On the train we were treated to Weck, Wurst and Wein. They pronounced it different but I'm not even gonna try to spell that. Which basically that's a bread roll with sausage and wine. It was 12 and we were starting to get into that stuff already. I'm reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas right now, and I'm beginning to see parallels. No I'm kidding, everybody pretty much had a glass. So we rode the ole train and took a boat ride with the Rössler Linie to (drum roll): Assmannshausen. Yes, you read that right, it's called ASSMANNSHAUSEN. Oh, immature you call me? I know you laughed too. I heard it. Don't even try to pull one of your tricks on me pretending like you're so much better and all grown-up. We switched boats there and went back to Rüdsheim. Since my dad's cousin's husband pretty much knows everybody in and around Wiesbaden, we got to sit on the VIP deck at the front of the boat and had some more white wine. Also, I talked to some of the relatives I don't usually see and that was cool. In Rüdesheim we checked out the world-famous Drosselgasse, which had all the signs in German and Japanese. On the way back we stopped in another town called Eltville and my dad's other cousin gave us a tour of the town. Like a professional, only that not everybody was all that interested. I still appreciated it though. Went down to the Rhine again and had some more wine, my dad's treat because it was his birthday that Friday. Then we took a couple of busses to go eat in a suburb of Wiesbaden. The food was good, but the place was too loud. Couldn't even talk to the people across from you. By that time two more people had joined us, a son of my dad's male cousin and his wife. And my mom annoyed us by insisting that all the 'young' people sit at one table, even though there wasn't enough room, we couldn't talk to each other and we all kinda sat together anyway. I think she just wanted us all to 'bond'. Needless to say it didn't happen. Oh, we also ate some grapes from a vineyard on the way there.
Okay so this thing is turning into a book or something, but just stick around a little longer and we can do this. There's a reward at the end. Don't believe it? Dang, you're slick. You're on to me 24/7 ain't ya? Well, I like attentive readers. So we head back to Wiesbaden and decide to have another drink downtown. We were dead tired but I figured, I don't see these people that much so let's just intoxicate ourselves a little more. So we went to a place called 'Eimer' which means bucket (here's your German lesson Ginger) and it was the coolest place. Who would have thought. So we get in there, there is some old geezer playing the piano, all kinds of weird crap is hangin' from the ceiling and there is like maybe 8 people in there. And the place was a freaking tin can. So the 15 of us pile in there, everybody else is asked to move so we can sit together, and the good times went a-rollin'. The piano man was playing away, we were all talking and having some wine and it was just the coolest little place. Now who can guess what's next? Yes, you there in the read shirt with the funny hat? No, didn't go jogging. Over there in the brown coat? Yes, that's correct, we went to the hotel to go to sleep.
The blanket wasn't really big enough for two but we made it. Only to discover the extra blanket on top of the closet the next morning. Oh well. We had breakfast at some fancy place (what else do you expect from Wiesbaden) which I thought was okay, but not that great. We also had to rush a little to catch this train-lookalike car to take a tour of the city. That was okay too, some of the stuff we had already seen (thanks Henric) and other stuff was new. Then we went to get our cars and drove to this wine maker's place, which also the cousin's husband knew, and got some wine to take home. Not that there isn't plenty in Trier, but he showed us his tanks and machines too and we went home after that.
So that's it. Aren't you glad you made it? Now you can tell your kids about it. And here's the reward (see I wasn't lying after all): Another great story: On the way back we stopped at a flea market and bought this cool mirror. Well Christina got it but the guy that sold it to us was so cool. It was this old grandpa with a peg leg and he just kept talking and talking about everything. And he seemed real happy to talk to everybody there. And then Christina mentioned she was from the US and that just made his day: He got these postcards from his car that people had sent him from the US that he sold stuff to. What he does is he gets all this old stuff and cleans it and then paints on it, so he can sell it. And the people from the US were just loving it. Cause you can't get that stuff over there. He also told us a dirty joke, but this blog is PG-13 and I won't tell it. Unless you are willing to throw some money in. I'll open a PayPal account right away. Does this count as charity? How could it not? But you know what, the joke's not that great, so I'll just spare you.
We get home exhausted and tired after what turned out to be a pretty fun weekend, as far as family time is concerned. And the sun sets on the Mosel, the birds sing their last song for the day and I see a leaf falling from a tree, gently drifting to the earth, and softly landing on a patch of grass.