Next stop - Rüdesheim / Assmannshausen

Hello dear friends! I hope things with you have been going well. We have been doing very well here in Deutschland. Brenda opened the show "La Finta Giardiniera" on the 21st and already has 4 performances behind her. There are pictures of her and other cast members on Frankfurt's website if you care to look at them.

I am also in an opera at Oper Frankfurt at the moment. I am performing the role of Brühlmann in the opera "Werther". I am in one of the production photos on the website. I'm on the right side of the first picture and I'm dancing...or at least trying to.

We are heading back to the States for vacation in 9 days. It is really sneaking up on us. We will be back in the States for 10 weeks! We're really looking forward to it.

But enough chit-chat, let's get down to business. The pictures below are just a few glimpses into our trip to Rüdesheim and Assmannshausen. Rüdesheim is a town about 45 minutes west of Frankfurt. To give you an idea of our day there we took a lift up to the top of a small mountain where there is a big monument, then we rode down the other side of the mountain, toured a castle and took a boat ride on the Rhein back to where we started.

Here is a picture of the lift on the way up the mountain. Brenda and I are in the cart ahead. I realize its very small but the monument is in the upper left hand corner of this picture. The monument commemorates the re-establishment of the German empire. I believe it was having its 125th anniversary this year. You may have already noticed but the lift took us over a beautiful vineyard.Brenda and I posing for a picture at the benches set up around the base of the monument. In the background is the Rhein river and Rüdesheim.

As we traveled around Germany we kept seeing beautiful yellow fields. We finally asked someone what they were and it turns out they are fields of rapeseed. Rapeseed is used to make animal feed and vegetable oil among other things.

This is a picture of the Castle Rheinstein from the lift going down the mountain. We toured the beautiful castle and enjoyed a glass of wine in their cafe (see below).

We really enjoyed our trip to Rüdesheim. Actually we enjoyed it so much that we took Laura and Lacey there when they were in town. Since its so close I'm looking forward to going there again soon.

So that's it for now. Next stop is the beautiful Rothenburg. Stay tuned and have a great week!