Moseying the Mosel

We have a Pattern here that goes something like this: Sick Child - Medical Intervention (3 Doctor Visits + 2 Pharmacy Visits) - Vacation Travel - Newly Sick Child (usually the other one). Lots of fun. You should try it sometime. Thus far God has graciously allowed us sickness-free travel vacations, but icky illness is our punishment upon returning home. Eli got his 'all clear' from Mono yesterday. Mary woke up with a nasty-cling-to-mommy-and-whine-cold at 5:45am today. Kevin is gone. It was raining on a Saturday when we had our first social get-together in many weeks planned for the outdoors. I nearly cried. But our friends from church called, said I could come over anyway with my sick kid, and the day was saved. She fed us Mac-n-Cheese with hot dogs and good company. Never say that God is without mercy.

(Note: Links included in this blog entry.)

Last weekend we spent 3 nights on the Mosel River (see pics) watching the river traffic, gaping at the 1000's of motorcyclists and bicyclists, cruising the river and the road, seeing a castle, and generally traipsing around vineyard towns. The Burg Eltz castle, going through a river lock, and riding a chair lift were highlights. We fed swans, went to the pool, and had a wine-cellar tour as well. Cheap and yummy, wine is not remotely snooty in Germany, it's what everyone drinks with their dinner. A few observations we made:

• You're never too old to ride a bike. I mean this literally... 90 years old? So what? Get on your bike-with-a-basket and go to the bakery. Many, many older couples do this in smaller-town Europe.
• Motorcycle Payments = Mortgage Payments. The bikes cruising the Mosel valley were more expensive than all of your cars put together and the riders were outfitted in complete head-to-toe coordinated leather suits with helmets, gloves, and boots to match. Not one singe rider was wearing jeans.
• Summer homes can be portable. In the States motor homes are for travelling. Here they are cheap summer homes that are planted in one beautiful spot on the riverfront from May until October and used as someones weekend home for six months of the year. They do not move from that campground. They have huge tented porches with fancy furniture and neighborhood flea-markets. They have to leave in late fall when the river floods and retakes the campground for the winter.
• Town monuments should have basic rights. Our weekend stay in Zell meant we had to find the 'Schwarze Katze' (Black Cat) statue that lends its name and image to all the local wines, tourist shops, and restaurant dinner specials. After fruitless searching despite many kind strangers directing us to the center of town we finally looked under a tent that had been set up for some fest and had an Oompa Band (lederhosen, green wool knickers, corny music) playing. Behold, the black cat statue had been turned into... a bar. Built completely around the statue and serving wine and beer, it was the worst abuse we've seen of a town monument, ever.

Surprise!! Kevin went to Iowa the day after we got home and will hopefully return in time for our Paris trip the day after he returns. But he also flew to Montana for a quick weekend visit to surprise Mom & Dad. I hope that it's a good one, despite the fact that he didn't bring his kids. Mom is on 'round 2' with the chemo and for some reason isn't finding it to be loads of fun. While we feel very, very far away most of the time and would like to be there especially now, a quick visit by Kevin will have to do until we arrive 'en masse' on the first of July. And Dad made a CaringBridge page for Mom that looks great, keeps us informed, and helps shrink the miles between us.