This is a post that I’ve wanted to write since early November. I think I did more than a few people a great disservice in not writing and publishing it sooner. For that, I’m sorry. I was going through a lot of things, as the holidays bring out both joy and melancholy in everyone. I didn’t write much during that time and at least I did my best in editing and posting pictures and video of the experience. However, I did promise a proper blog post about our October vacation and, darn it, that’s what I’m going to do here. However, it will still be in several parts, so please bear with me as best as you, dear reader, can afford.

Well, where should I start? Maybe I’ll start with the flight itself. Specifically, the Chicago to London flight, which was the longest time I’d ever spent on any aircraft. I also hope to not go through the experience again anytime soon; being on a three to four hour flight is taxing enough on the psyche, no matter how much music and how many books and puzzles I can bring with me. (Don’t get me wrong; I love flying, and I even wanted to be a pilot when I was younger.) An eight hour flight, I’m pretty sure now, could be classified as an act of torture, especially with no comforts. Maybe it’s just me; I’ve always found it hard to sleep on any flight so, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make time disappear in that fashion. Nevertheless, there were some good things about the flight. First, I was continuously taken aback by the sheer size of the passenger cabin. This was a Boeing 777 craft, and I was just shocked by the sheer size from the outside. I never expected to see 10-seat wide aisles! Also, we were fed reasonably well for lunch and dinner, of which I especially liked the lasagna. They did offer a whole range of movie, game and TV show choices, which would play on an individual screen in front of your seat. Still, I opted for a book and a couple of puzzles along with listening to my main iPod. All in all, AA did a good job in making a long flight as comfy as possible even though, at the end of the flight, I felt as though I’d just gotten through some sort of hazing initiation. Compared to that, the flights from Phoenix to Chicago and London to Frankfurt Am Main were cake to deal with!

Well, we got the flight out of the way; now for the awesome! First, some background on who I’m going to bring up in this part. Christian Wüst is a net-friend of ours, whom I had first met via ChatFinder.com a few years ago. Christine and I had talked with him plenty of times and, when planning this trip, he expressed joining us on vacation and being our guide. We only knew him through online pictures, blogs, text-chats and video-chats; meeting Christian in person finally was an awesome thing in itself. He met us in the Frankfurt airport and… I can’t tell you how it feels to meet someone face-to-face after only knowing them through other means. It’s one of those things that one must go through to fully appreciate. I think I’ve said this before in a previous entry; whether I have or not, it bears repeating anyways. We give the biggest shout-out and Thank You to Christian for being our friend, guide, host and driver for our stay in Germany.

That first day, we got checked in at the Hotel Central in Frankenthal. It was a very nice hotel for the price, I must say. Continental breakfasts there beat anything I’ve seen here by a long shot. Well, after checking in, our friend took us to one of his favorite restaurants, Der Affenstein. This restaurant, located in Dirmstein, is owned by the family of a good friend of his, Wango (pronounced [Vongo]), whom we go to meet later in our stay. Their menu is chock-full of Greek and German items, and I just had to go with a peppered steak filet dish. It was good… very good… damn good! Even now, I can remember it practically melting in my mouth. In saying that, I don’t mind giving them some free advertising with what I just said. Readers, if you’re ever in that area, go check that restaurant out sometime!

Well, please come back in a few days as I give you part 2 of my memories of our vacation in Germany!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Personal Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.