My journey along the Mosel River

Hello everyone! I arrived back in Bremen last night after spending a great week doing a bike tour through the German wine country along the Mosel River with the Baumann Family.

I know the Baumann's because, of course, of my wonderful German mommy, Elisabeth. She and Eva Baumann met one another while in college in Seattle. Since then, both families have made it a point to visit one another whenever one is in the other's respective country. So, for example, when my family visited Germany in 1997, we made a trip to Elmshorn (where the Baumann's live. It is 20 min north of Hamburg) to visit them.

The Baumann's are a great gang. They are made up of Eva and Volker (the parents), Anne (pronounced "Anna," and she makes sure you pronounce it right :) she's 15), Phillip (age 14), and Marcus (one crazy little 5 year old).

The Baumann's! Minus Marcus - he is hidden somewhere in there.

They went out of their way to make sure that I felt at ease with them, as if I were a member of the family. When I first arrived in Elmshorn I found a jar of Jiffy Peanutbutter and a package of "American Style" cookies, which you can find at grocery stores here. So very nice of Eva and Co. Also, the night before we made the 6 hour trainride to Trier (our starting point of the trip), the Baumann's planned an "American-style BBQ" in honor of the American, me! Before we even left for the trip, I was having a great time with this family. Here is a shot of me and the Baumann kids at the "American BBQ."

As far as the bike tour goes - I don't even know where to begin. The Mosel River Valley, located in Southwest Germany, is quite the beautiful place to say the very least. The river is surrounded by fairly decent-sized hills on either side, most of which are plastered with plots of grape fields - sometimes as far as the eye can see. At times my senses were on overload, with the combination of the Mosel, the grape fields, the wonderful fall-colored trees at the tops of the hills, and the seemingly constant smell of sweet wine. It was a lot to take in all at once. One of the best parts about it, for me, was the fact that we were cruising on bikes, many times on paths that cut directly through the endless grape fields. A couple of times we even got a little brave and snatched up some of the grapes to try, and they were very tasty. Here are some pictures of what I'm doing my best to describe:

Another part of our journey was devoted to checking out some of the history behind the small villages that we stayed in. Our first night was spent in Trier, which claims to be Germany's oldest city. We were able to see sights such as the Porta Nigra, which was essentially the "gateway into the city" way back when. Here we also spent a good amount of time in the great big Dom (once again, church/cathedral). It was quite beautiful. Another favorite stop of ours were the many castles that dotted the tops of the hills along the river (Marcus really enjoyed checking these out, which kept him happy much of the time). Here are some pictures from those sight-seeing stops. (1st one is inside the Dom, 2nd is the castle in Cochem, 3rd is the view of Cochem from the castle).

Going on this trip with the Baumann's was a great way to spend the second half of my 2 week Fall Break. I had a very fun time with the family, learned some great things about Germany's history, and saw some incredibly beautiful sights. School starts back up tomorrow and I am excited to hear from my students about what they did over break as well as share my experiences. One of the 5th grade teachers asked me to do a lesson on Halloween in America for her students, because it isn't very popular over here in Germany and they don't know very much about it. That should be fun!

Oh, I almost forgot - Missy, in response to your comment - I actually don't have your email, so if you wanted to email me at russ.wacker@gmail.com we would then be able to set up something where we could both practice the respective languages we are learning (English for you, German for me). Thanks!

Something I was thinking about on my trainride back to Bremen last night - I think I have done more traveling in 9 weeks in Germany than I have ever before in my life. It seems like every weekend I find myself in a new city. But you won't hear any complaints from me :)

One last major announcement - This weekend I learned that I will be blessed with a visit from two of my best friends in the whole world - Leah Wymer and Sara Bear!! Woohoo! They will be in and around Germany from Nov. 18 to Dec. 10th. Pretty exciting stuff.

Thanks again for checking out my little blog here! Bye!

Your teaching and traveling machine,

rw