OT - My Excellent European Adventure Day Three

All right, time for a little bit of information about why we went to Europe now (you know, rather than some other time…):

The company I work for (a winery) ran an incentive for our largest customer, with the grand prize winner getting six days in Germany and Italy.

I used this as a kind of anchor for our trip, and today is the day that we meet up with the rest of the group from the company and the customer meeting up with us at the Frankfurt Airport. We will be with this group for the next six days, and then back on our own again after that.

Kathy and I got up early for the long walk to the arrival gate (yep, out the hotel, down the escalator and about twenty paces out we were at the gate, a very wise and convenient spend of my miles ). The flight was scheduled to arrive at 9:30, and we were at the gate just in time.

Well, in time to wait. It took a couple of hours, during which time Kathy made friends with an American expat waiting on his son, and I soothed my leg as best as possible on a bench, or at the coffee bar.

Finally, they began to arrive, first our broker and his wife, then my Eastern US counterpart and his wife, then our boss and his wife. Wait, someone is missing? Where are the customer and her husband?

Weather delays in Atlanta caused them to miss the connection in Chicago. We had managed to lose the customer. Oh well, they would be along eventually, and it was not my job to help them. So, out to the (very big) bus, and the ride to Eltville am Rhein.

We debarked at a beautiful hotel, just off the Rhine River. 30 minutes to freshen up, and we are off again (this time in taxis) to lunch. We stopped at a nice, small family run restaurant, and each ordered from the menu typed all in German. The hit of the afternoon was the Riesling Soup, made with the wine that makes the Rheingau famous. After lunch, we headed over to a family run winery (for whom we are an importer in the US) for a tasting of fine, dry Rieslings, each with a retail of 25 Euro and above. The proprietor and his father were very gracious hosts, and we had ample opportunity to enjoy the grounds, some snacks and some other fine wines that were available, including a sparkling Riesling that was very refreshing.

Taxi’s came and transported us back to the hotel to rest up, check on the customer (they had arrived, but their luggage was still missing) and prepare for dinner. That night it was going to be Schnitzel and beer, as we went to a place that seemed to be a forebear of the Southern BBQ joint.
Schnitzel (with your choice from a panoply of toppings), beer, frits, fresh white asparagus (huge fresh white asparagus!) and more. Have to say it was a little bit of heaven in the old town (how old? Not sure, but the area has been continuously inhabited since the 4th century). Finally, a little drunk, very full, and extremely tired, the whole crew hopped back into the taxis for the trip back to the hotel.

One little thing of note: The road to the hotel (just off, and parallel to, the main highway) had an odd left hand turn lane. It was on the right. If you wanted to turn left, you pulled right, and waited for the light to change so you could cross traffic again. If you wanted to turn right there, you crossed in front of those waiting to turn left…

More to come…