It's the Guttenfest weekend in Mainz and the great and the good are out prommenading. The streets are full of vendors, artists and everyone's having a good time. The festival is to celebrate the life of Johannes Guttenberg (he of the printing process). Lesley and I have had our first bratwurst washed down with a glass of wine. Bob & Birgett took us to Fink's weinstube a local restaurant where Lesley had a cheese selection and I had Zander and sauerkraut...

Spent 5 days sampling the lovely wines of Herr Menk in the evenings and walking during the day. Did 12km Tuesday, 13.7km Wednesday and 15km Thursday, the last was over the Rhine to the Rheingau, an area famous for the Riesling wines. We had two stops to sample what the local grape had to offer and were not disappointed ;-) beautiful weather gorgeous scenery and good friends what more can you ask for? Left for to join Bob and Birgett in Mainz for the weekend. ...

Filled the tank as diesel was only 1.179 Euro a litre and headed for Germany... it's was only a few hundred metres before we hit the border. Having travelled a few kilometres we encountered a sign that would become the bane of our day (umleitung it means diversion) and we met at least a dozen of them on the journey to Menk. Even the exit we needed from the motorway was umleitung, then the satnav decided we should be going to Boehinger pharmaceutical headquarter...