Rhine in Flames
Last weekend I went with some friends down to St. Goar for the Rhine in Flames night. We spent some time earlier in the day knocking around the ruins of Burg Rheinfels. The weather was fantastic and it was great fun. Here I am on the parapet or whatever it’s called…
After a couple hours at the Burg, we headed down into St. Goar and had a great dinner at a little restaurant where we could drink a local reisling riesling and overlook the river. I would have taken a picture of the 6 of us at dinner, but I was too busy sampling the reisling riesling, apparently. To see the fireworks, we took a car ferry across the river and drove over to Braubach (where Marksburg Castle is) to watch the fireworks from the bank there. A small armada of boats all lit up sail down the river as fireworks go off from Spay to Koblenz. It capped off a nice evening!
August 17th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
What a shame that, after three years in Deutschland, you’ve declined to learn the language or even the most basic spellings.
Well, typical military family.
It’s Riesling. Germans pronounce the second vowel.
August 18th, 2007 at 12:12 am
It’s certainly not intentional. I’m just a lousy speller.
thanks for the correction!
And while I certainly regret not having learned the language, it was simply not necessary. Every time I attempted to speak German to a German, they immediately switched to English. Every. single. time. Sure, I was probably butchering the language, but, hey, I tried.
But you, of course, must speak multiple languages. And you, of course, whoever you are, must be so superior to us mere military families. What is it you do for the Rhode Island Journal? It’s so easy to be insulting when you can hide behind anonymity.
My husband and I are both well educated and intelligent people. We do our best to not be the “ugly American” wherever we are. In fact, my German landlady frequently goes on about how “normal” (German) she and the neighbors think we are. We are not perfect, but I am extremely proud of my husband and the fact that he has chosen to serve our country.
Thank you, Riesling, for your correction on my misspelling. I chose not to delete your unkind comment as I wanted you to see my response (and you left me no way to contact you). Future comments from you, needless to say, will not be approved.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:19 am
*Rolling my eyes at Mr. Riesling* I’ve tasted many fine Riesling wines over the years, but I will admit, I would have probably spelled it Reisling too, because of how it is pronounced. I love it when people just generalize everyone – when I was living in Germany as a military wife, I did actually try very hard to learn German, and I did manage to learn some – enough to have full (short) conversations. It was essential where I lived, since many people there did not speak English. One emotional breakdown after not being able to communicate in Ansbach was all I needed to prompt me to learn.
My experience this summer was the same as yours – as soon as people realized how minimal my German was after a 15 year break, they immediately used English. I did use German though in some towns, and we got by – and that was with no “refresher” course when we went.
Whew.
Ok, back to the comment I was going to make before I read the comments here and got all flustered by Mr. Riesling.
August. You’re wearing a sweater. And in St. Goar. I’m so jealous, I could almost cry. *sigh* What a lovely area. I think that there is a return trip in future, with at least a week spent in that region alone. Two thumbs up for the hostel in Bacharach too (forgive my spelling if it is wrong) – we really enjoyed it there and I would definitely return!
September 18th, 2007 at 6:08 am
Ah, it looks wonderful. And however you spell it, make sure you drink lots of that Reisling for me. It’s my very favorite grape, and the selection around here (Nova Scotia) is abysmal.