Kasten Klettern

THE GAME is called Kasten Klettern. The object is to build a ladder out of empty plastic coke crates, stacked on by one...while standing on the ladder.  This Sunday was Erlebnistag Deutsch Weinstrasse, the day  our street closes for 330,000 bike riders who ride up and down the Weinstrasse  stopping for food, music and wine, and occasionally stop for entertainment. Its also the day when the local boy scouts set up a Kasten Klettern rig across the street.    For a while the spectators stopped to watch little Kiersten, among the youngest of the days competitors,  scamper up a very respectable 12 crates.  She will hold the title of the best Kletterer of the Senneff Sieben for at least the next year.

The Good Bad Kreuznach

A WHILE BACK a co-worker sent the the results of a survey a local radio station did to identify the top 50 places for an outing in Rhineland-Pfalz.   With a long weekend and the grandparents in town, we dusted that list off and picked something within day trip range - Bad Kreuznach. Noted for it's thermal baths, "little Venice", and Brückenhäuser - old houses built atop the bridges across the Nahe. Add in some some nice weather it made for a good day trip.

[gallery link="file"]

Deidesheimer Weinkerwe

Another day, another wine fest, this time in Deidesheim, about 10 minutes up the train tracks. It meant another trip around the ferris wheel, another stroll through an idyllic town, another visit to an old church,  another Riesling Schorle (this time with grandma!), and of course another stop at the duck game.

We'll be back, Strassbourg

The capital of the Alsace region of France is just an hour or so down the road, so Sunday we went to pay it a visit.   I don't know how many cathedrals we have seen at this point - a dozen maybe - and although they share similar structures the giant Gothic Cathedral Notre Dame in Strassbourg is truly impressive.  Unfortunately our walking tour of the city was cut short by a rain shower (umbrella souvenirs for everyone!) but we vowed to return again a drier day.