It's a big texas one!-August 1st, 2012

Today we got up at around 10 am and left the hotel at about 10:45 am. We went to this Green line tour place where we left to go on a Rhine River tour. The tour lasted about 8 hours total, but we did not spend all our time on the river.  Our tour guide was a little nutty, but he made the tour fun and unpredictable about what he was going to say next. We started by driving a bus to a nearby town where we were going to have lunch. We first made a pit stop and rode a chair lift down this hill where we could oversee some castles, a village of homes, and the countryside. They have a ton of grape vines planted pretty much wherever they can find room, even on steep parts of hills. We all were wondering how they were able to plant them and even pick them when the grapes were ready. After the ride we went to the restaurant and at roasted chicken and fries. We then boarded the boat and began our river tour. The river was amazing, it had a fast current so the boat didn’t have to even work that hard. There were many castles along the way and small towns. The boat was pretty full and the sun got pretty hot so some of us went down below to get some shade. After the ride, we got off and road the bus to Rudesteim where we got to do a little shopping. We then went back to the restaurant for some wine tasting. They had 4 different kinds of wines. There were 2 sweet wines that I really liked, especially this wine called Ice Wine. They call it that because it is made from frozen grapes, which have to be picked at a certain time of the year when it is 8 below Celsius outside. Only a hand full of countries produce this wine. One bottle costed 42 Euros, which is cheap compared to getting it in Frankfurt or somewhere else because the locals get it directly from the vineyard (makes it cheaper since they don't have to ship it).  The tour guide said the bottle is a BIG TEXAS bottle, when the bottle was comparable to a smaller bottle of wine. It was pretty comical. After returning from the tour we went out again, but a few of us came back early. Jenna and I went out to find water and food for the morning and while out a weird man approached us and tried to touch my leg. I don’t think he was all there, but we got away from him as fast as we could. We finally found water and some bread and went back to the hotel and watched a movie.