Lori Goering, her sister-in-law Suzy and I took a trip to the Rhine, and even though our plans didn’t work out and we didn’t get to go on a Cruise, I have some pictures of what we DID do:

Here we have one of many STAUS!!! I don’t know if this is how you spell it, and I don’t feel like getting a dictionary, but it’s a traffic jam. This is why we didn’t make it….and Lori & Suzy got quite lost, but that’s irrelevant!

We went to the Loreley rock, where this jilted lover Lorely sits and combs her beautiful hair and distracts all the sailors who then crash into the perilous rocks below. Here Lori is reading Mark Twain’s translation of Loreley’s poem.

Lori & I, taking turns posing as the beautiful Loreley with the gorgeous locks of hair.

 Me & Suzy in front of our hotel.

Self portrait in the hotel, waiting for the gals so we could head off for some schnitzel!

Pix of Rudesheim:

Lots o’pictures from a day in Aachen: I hope enough people are looking at this to warrant the dial-up effort.

So…Jesse and I missed every possible train and bus in the morning, but finally made it to the S-bahn and met up with Timothy and Michael at the Dortmund Hbf (main train station). And then Imke met up with us in Essen.

Jesse, on the S-bahn that we barely caught, pondering why he forgot that the Saturday train schedule is different than on weekdays. Dangit, Jesse!

Timothy and I excited about the 2 & 1/2 hour trip to Aachen! We labeled ourselves the “party people,” the people that make the trips happen.

Michael & Imke, also quite excited, and unnerved by the drunk Neo-Nazi nearby, who also had a knife.

About Aachen Cathedral:
Since 1349, the relics in the Aachen Cathedral have been visited every 7 years by pilgrims from all over, including St. Mary’s cloak, Christ’s swaddling clothes (literally translated into German as “Jesus’ diaper”), St. John the Baptist’s beheading cloth (nice) and Christ’s loincloth.

Michael and I being skeptical of this so-called “Jesus’ diaper”…He also burst out laughing in the middle of the tour guide’s lecture about this “diaper” and couldn’t stop laughing, even though everyone else was completely silent in the middle of this huge ancient dome and cathedral.

The dome was build around 800, and the rest of the cathedral was built in the 14th & 15th century. Also, the windows here were mostly shattered in WWII, but at one point apparently a bomb actually bounced off of the window structures and this saved the entire church from being demolished! Obviously it was because they house Jesus’ loincloth.

Timothy and Charlamagne’s throne, on which 30 kings and 12 queens have been annointed between 936 and 1531! Many people over the past 1000+ years have actually crawled under the seat (you can see that little passage) b/c they belive that Jesus will one day return to sit on this throne as King, and that by crawling underneath it, your sins will be forgiven…this is quite Biblical, I think…

Me, Timothy and Michael, “listening” to the guide’s lecture, which actually would have been interesting if I could have understood it. There were some pillars and marble from Jerusalem, that’s one thing I do know.

Okay, so now we just have dumb pictures of the day:

Tough guys, hiding from the rain

Us lovely girls, and Michael, hiding from the rain

Buying supplies for the train home…..okay! Not really.

People actually stopped to watch us take these pictures

We have no idea where we are at this point…

Michael and I, enjoying the nearby fountain, waiting for everyone else to return from a side-trip into yet another cathedral.

It rained so hard I could barely walk forward. Imke and I shared an umbrella, and we got drenched! Michael and Timothy also shared, and Jesse was left to fend for himself.

Michael and I, modeling on the way home, listening to music and watching Germany go by…