Each bag of luggage has four bottles of wine/champagne = heavy. Months ago, I purchased a cheap Air France (AF1918) flight that with taxes came to E87.98 for both of us. Really cheap fare and at a favourable time in the day. As well, another E30 for our check-in luggage. The immediate price of the cheapo fares is misleading. They quote outrageously small fares, but that doesn't cover taxes nor your check-in luggage. The great news is we fly from a large airport into another major hub. Quite frequently, the cheaper airlines do not fly from or into major airports so then you pay for transportation to get you to your destination.
We leave the apartment around 10:20 after dropping off all garbage and empty bottles. We purchase our RER tickets to the airport: Euro19.90 for the both of us so a pretty good deal. Much cheaper than getting a taxi. Everything goes well in getting on the M5 and then connecting with the RER to the airport. Pulling the luggage on wheels although heavy was tolerable. The Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2F was a madhouse with so many travellers. We need to find Zone 5 for Air France and then discover without our boarding passes we can't enter that area. We are told to get to the other Zone 5 area to obtain our boarding passes. We did not have a printer at the Paris apartment, therefore, could not print our boarding passes. We find a kiosk and with some help from a mobile agent get our boarding passes. Then into a queue so we can check our luggage. We discover at the counter that my bag weighs 21.3 kg and Lana's bag 23.4 kg. Your weight limit is 23 kg and for anything over you need to pay a surcharge. Oh well, we get talking to the agent who is English and she doesn't bother with the one bag being slightly overweight.
And now for the not so great news--Lana only has status on Star Alliance which doesn't include Air France. What does this mean? Usually when Lana travels she can check at the Business Class counter (even though she is not flying business class), our luggage gets tagged priority so it arrives first on the belt, she gets premium seat selection so can get us a the front of the plane and last but not least, access to the airline lounges which have newspapers, magazines and some light refreshments. Oh, forgot to mention, she also gets to board the plane first with priority boarding. Lana is humbled by her experience today of not having this and says she has a deeper appreciation for all the perks & benefits she gets with her status.
Security is pretty slow and we pretty much speed through there. No belts, take off your watches and ensure your pockets are clean. We arrive at our Gate 51 about 30 minutes prior to boarding time so grab some lunch downstairs. We wait at the gate and then are one of the first customers that board the plane that is departing a little late. We are in row 9 and nobody is sitting in the third seat so Lana can move to the aisle seat. It is barely more than an hour flight.
Uneventful flight and we arrive in Frankfurt am Main airport around 14:25. Wait at the baggage carousel. Germans not too efficient today. My bag is the second one off and then we wait for Lana's bag. Need to get on the shuttle bus that will take us to Terminal 1 and the regional train station. Lots more lifting of luggage up stairs into the shuttle bus and it is packed with fellow flyers. Quickly navigate into Terminal 1 and the train station. Get some help at the ticket kiosk for our two cheap train tickets to Wiesbaden at Euro 4.35 each. Our train leaves around 15:30. We discover it is a 'local' train so stops at all the stations. The more expensive ticket was an express train, but we are not in any rush. We arrive at Wiesbaden Hauptbahnhof (main train station) about 16:20 and are at our friend Philipp's apartment at 16:30.
It is raining in Wiesbaden and the weather forecast is not good for the next three days being very low 20s/high teens and rain. It is good to be in Deutschland! We really appreciate being able to stay in Philipp's apartment again. His wifi is high speed!
OK, you might be wondering where is Wiesbaden, Deutschland? As you can see from the map below it is slightly west of Frankfurt. As well, this map provides a good idea of where we are relative to Paris. About 300,000 inhabitants live in the city and of that about 20,000 are US soldiers. Every August they hold their Wine Festival. This will be our second straight year attending and third time in the last five years. Obviously, we love it here. The wine festival is 90% Riesling wines.
First stop is to have dinner at Restaurant Rheingold located near the wine festival on Saalgasse Street. About a 15 minute walk in the rain. Despite the rain, we both love being back in Deutschland. Lana is already trying to recover her Deutsch skills. We were first at this typical Deutsch restaurant in 2010 (the first year we attended the wine festival). We loved the food and the sincerity of the owner.
The same fellow owns and manages the small restaurant. We had another fantastic meal. When we finished we were totally full. No room for dessert or anything more to drink.
We think that German cuisine is under-appreciated. It qualifies as fantastic comfort food. While it doesn't have the technique or complexity of French cuisine, it really provides taste and maximum comfort with no pretensions.
Lana's spritzer
Randy's dunkel (dark) beer
Pretty casual but representative of many German restaurants.
Spring vegetable salad comprised edible flowers, mango dressing, lettuce, sliced carrots, sliced cucumbers and some pickled somethings.
Pork chops in a chanterelle mushroom cream sauce.
Schnitzel!
Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes)
At the conclusion of our delicious meal the owner brought a free plate of bread with their homemade plum jam.
While walking towards the wine festival and only a few steps from the restaurant I stopped when I saw the most colourful and interesting socks in the window of Jessica Böhmer. Jessica was very talkative and had been to Vancouver and Vancouver Island for a couple of weeks and loved the rainforest and ocean. Her collection of socks was intriguing and I purchased the three socks below. Not for everyone, but I love wildly original and colourfully designed socks.
Still raining, but we made it to the wine festival. First stop was Schloss Vollrads for my first glass of Riesling wine. You purchase a glass for Euro2 and when finished return the glass for your deposit. Wow, what a start as the wine was fabulous and neither too dry or sweet.
This menu from one of the many Weinguts (German wineries) shows the incredible variety of Riesling wines. Trocken wines are dry. Halbtrocken is semi-dry. Spätlese is special grapes but sweeter than dry. Auslese are more special grapes and on the sweeter side. Kabinett designation recognizes wine made from fully ripened grapes picked in September and made in the light style.
The menu shows the number of Riesling wine and their styles. Plus, you can purchase a smaller pour (pretty good pour at 1/10 litre) and a larger pour (2/10 of a litre) or simply buy the bottle. The prices are cheap and you can explore all the different styles of Riesling. You will never be disappointed with Rieslings. Towards the bottom you will see some of their red wines and sparkling wine selections.
Picture from Internet on a sunny day.
Regrettably, Lana was getting tired so we had to leave earlier than expected. Oh well, we will have lots of time over the next four full days to drink, eat and be merry. Still raining on our walk home. Air is fresh here and the sidewalks are not busy. Another great day on vacation and we are now on the last leg of our European trip. More fun, wine and food!
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