Mainz/Rhine River/CologneOct 9, 2009
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We drove to Mainz the following night. We stayed at another ETAP hotel. This hotel chain is very simple and cheap, but clean.
My plan was to see the printing museum and sight see in Mainz the this morning but we wanted to try and get a Rhine River Boat tour.
We drove a little bit to a stop and asked the tourist info lady. The water in some parts of the river were very low and the boats (because it was now "winter season") only ran on the weekends. So, we didn't get to take the boat tour, but the road next to the river was just as good. It went right along the river and we could stop on the side of the road and take pictures. We wish they made more pull-over places but it was ok. We drove by the town Assmannhausen and other some towns. The towns there are awesome just like the castles that we passed. Within a certain stretch in the middle of the Rhine, there were so many castles.. from Mainz to Cologne I think I read there is about 20-30 castles.
Such a beautiful area. Wine/Grape vines up the sides of the hills were fun. We drove and got lost for a bit, but finally after about 3 hours made our way to Cologne. We parked and found the small streets up to the main Catherdral very small and only for pedistrians. There were many upscale shops there. I was surprised because you turn the corner and bam!! There is the Catherdral right in the middle of the place. It is so awesome. Koln wasn't on my first trip planned, but I am glad we went. After sightseeing and getting tired again, we drove to our hotel in the suburbs of Koln. This hotel you just go in and they left the keys in the door.
I tried very hard to have the computer AOL Instand video messenger work to show mom the catherdral in real-time but it didn't work.. kink kink..
We had to wake up at 3am in order to drive a couple more hours to Frankfurt to better our chances with our Standby tickets...
