Mosel River
Traben-Trarbach, Germany
August 17, 2005
All text and images copyright J.A. Coulter
On August 10, 2005 Gina and I made the trip to Europe we had talked about since we first met nine years ago. We flew from Fort Walton Beach, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia where we caught an overnight flight to London-Gatwick. We took the train north, stopping for the night in York. Unfortunately, my digital camera stopped working somewhere between the United States and England, so there are no photographs of the ancient city founded by the Romans and conquered by the Vikings. I introduced Gina to English pubs that evening - in fact, I introduced her to five of them.
The next day we continued north on the train to Edinburgh, Scotland, my mother's home town. The city's annual three-week festival was in full-swing. It was also my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. We joined my parents and my mom's brother for a celebration and then spent the next three days showing Gina around Auld Reekie as well as Musselburgh, where my uncle lives. I bought a new camera and Gina got the full Festival experience, from the toe-stomping crowds on Princes Street, to an unheard-of (and hopefully never heard from again) Fringe show, and finally, on our last night in Scotland, the grand spectacle of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, performed at night on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. And as an added bonus, my mom dragged me out to the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club, where we had a great time knocking little white balls around the turf.*
We said goodbye to Scotland on Tuesday, August 16, and flew to Frankfurt-Hahn International Airport. We took a taxi to our hotel in the town of Traben-Trarbach on the lovely Mosel River. We spent a full day enjoying the sunshine that had been absent for most of our stay in Scotland by taking a cruise boat down the river to the Weinstadt (wine town) of Bernkastel-Kues. The day was so clear and warm we both got sunburns on top of our Florida tans! When we returned, we joined my friends Bert Cushing and Jeff Strickland, who drove all the way from Ramstein Air Base to join us for dinner and a lot of rowdy reminiscing.
Thursday, August 17th, we boarded a train again, this time bound for the proud city of Munich. We spent Friday wandering through the Alt Stadt (old town), buying souveniers and stopping at a cafe in the Hofgarten for lunch. After a visit to the Haus Der Kunst (Art House) and a trip to the post office to mail our booty home, we ended up in the Schwabing district for a late meal at one of the many outdoor restaurants that line the Leopold Strasse.
It was raining on Saturday, August 19, when we left Munich, but the sun was waiting for us when we arrived in London. We stayed at a hotel on Sussex Gardens around the block from Paddington Station. Gina wisely booked us onto one of the many bus tours that operate throughout the City, and I finally got to see some of the sights I always missed on my previous visits by traveling on the Tube. Sunday was gorgeous. We cruised up the Thames from the Embankment to the Tower, where we moved on to the British Museum. My last visit to the museum was in 1992; I was pleasantly surprised to find the new Great Court and it's magnificent glass roof. Gina enjoyed seeing the Rosetta Stone and the many other artifacts in the museum's extensive Egyptian collection.
We returned home to Fort Walton Beach on Monday, August 20, just as another band of rain storms was making it's way across the British Isles. All though it seemed to go quickly, we both agree that this trip will be remembered by us both as one of the best we've made to date.
