Hello, again, Blogonauts! This region of the Rhine valley (or in German, "Rhein"...no matter, because they are pronounced the same) is bespeckled with Gothic castles, hillside vineyards, and medieval villages that sprouted up around them. While they share a lot in common, each is also unique. The imposing castles were constructed on the river's banks by local kings (often depicted as robber-barons) in order to extract customs and tolls from ships traversing their...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! I have arrived! My turbulence-jostled flight set its wheels on Terra Firma in Frankfurt-am-Main on Friday morning. (If J.F. Kennedy had spoken instead in Frankfurt, he might have declared, "Ich bin ein Frankfurter!" and the guffawing would have had some justification.) I'll return to Frankfurt in a few days, but for now I've taken a filled-to-the-brim regional train to reach Bacharach, my temporary home base for exploring the Rhein valle...

Saturday was my last day in Deutschland, and I was faced with a dilemma. On one hand, many folks had encouraged me to take the bus tour to visit Neuschwanstein Castle, the eye-popping Gothic-revival structure built by Mad King Ludwig in the late 19th century. On the other hand, Munich is known to have among the best art galleries in the world. And time being the thief that it is, it was clear that the clock and calendar would rob me of at least one of these. Ev...

Guten Tag, Blogonauts! Or should I say instead, "Bon Appetit!" My title for today's entry is a Dickensian pun, not a whine. Some folks have wondered about my dietary adventures traveling around Germania. I've taken a few photos of my meals, and rather than spread the pics about willy-nilly, I've consolidated the entire lot into this blog post. Let's say that the German diet is a lot like the traditional American diet: heavy on the meat and potatoes. Nonetheles...