Tage Drei und Vier :D

After the clean up mission we lazed about in the sun in the backyard so now instead of dead white i look slightly less dead white ;) and no sun burn!
In the evening we went to a local wine festival in Kesten with Mona, Petra and Theo and Timo (a school friend of Ingo's) which was pretty cool :) lots of food - but I avoided eating for as long as I could because I'm SO FULL! Every meal is huge and delicious! it's a wonder anyone stays skinny in Germany!
There was also loads of little wine places (naturally) and street music (as in ladies singing and a brass type band, not as in hip hop :/) and it was all decorated with lights zig-zagging above :) very cozy at night.

the wine fest with brass and fairy lights and vines :)

Mona, Timo, Ingo and I

After we left the wine fest we drove to Bernkastel-Kues which while was very touristy was also really beautiful and old! sooooo old! A few of the buildings had markings up them to measure the heights of different times the Mosel has flooded as we were walking past a pub called "Bitchen" (the beer they sell mainly is called Bitburger and it's slogan is "Bitte ein Bit!" (please a Bit[burger])) Some friends of Petra and Theo's called out and so we went in for a couple of Beer's with them :

German Pub - this guy was the fastest beer pourer i've ever seen!

 The next day Ingo and I drove to another village (they're all over the place!) called Traben-Trarbach and walked around for a bit, crossed over the Mosel and had a look around then went back to the car and unloaded the bikes. We then rode to Kröv, crossed the bridge and then rode back (about 20km). I had to keep reminding Ingo though, that we were on a lEIsurely bicycle ride, not a cycling race :/ haha and when we got back Ingo went to ride over the bridge so I yelled "Nein Ingo! Where are you going?!" and then he had to get me to count how many bridges we'd crossed so far that day, before I worked out that we had to go back over in order to get back to the car :s
We then drove to Bernkastel-Kues again where we met up with Timo again and another friend of theirs Jörg. Both are really lovely and cool people (shouldn't be surprised really ;) ) and after we got ice creams, we had very funny times trying to find the Mosel :s speaking in German and English (their English is twenty times better then my German even if they've hardly spoken it for 9 years!) I told them all I would've been better to hire a tour guide then rely on people who've lived in the area to find the way ;) but we eventually did find it again and walked along the river edge for an hour, so all up spent a good 3 hours with them :)
We were both absolutely knackered when we got back :)

Jörg, Me and Timo

Today (Monday) Ingo, Mona and I drove out to the closest city Trier, to be tourists for the day. When we first got there we wandered around a bit then went to Porta Nigra which is one of the original gates to the city when it was Roman from like 150AD anyway OLD. massively massively old! amazing! we then wandered around a little more, Mona had to buy some clothes for her trip soon to Vietnam and Cambodia and Ingo wanted to go and see the guys from the Firm he used to work at so we walked their and they were super cool too! (seriously I should be used to it by now!) haha. They're a design company that does graphic, new media, website and interior design and their stuff looks awesome! they gave me a new promo pack that they were putting together :) but they were super busy so we didn't stay long.

Porta Nigra

We then walked to the Hauptmarkt the Main market square and from there to die Dom und Liebfrauen (the cathedral and church of our lady) I complained to Ingo that the photos I'd been taking all day just don't do the size and scale and just awesomeness of everything justice, but here's some anyway to try…

Hauptmarkt

Dom and Liebfrauen

inside Der Dom

looking into the courtyard where Bishops are buried

Then had lunch at a Pizza place - yum yum! again massive. but their were bees flying all around which made it a bit difficult to eat comfortably. After lunch we walked to the Imperial Bath ruins which were again old and amazing. (It really doesn't sound as good when I'm trying to spit out all the stuff we did but truly amazing!) From there we walked directly to the Kurfürstliches Palais (Electoral Palace) but couldn't get inside, but it's original design was supposed to be connected to the Basilika which was open to public so we wandered in there. The inside looked very new so we read up about it and turns out it was originally built twice the height, then was damaged, built up again and made more frilly, damaged again so only rebuilt to half its height, then the inside was completely trashed again (the poor ole building!) And now sits fairly plain and very Roman looking in its current condition. Phew.
Then a cool drink in the square - very nice :) and saw my puppy!!!! the first one of the day!

Bath Ruins

in the square

Puppy!!!

From there we went back to the main centre and did a little bit of window shopping and I bought my first 2 German books! (I think the age recommendation is for 6-7 year olds but even that may be being a bit generous :s) and I saw anOTher one of my dream puppy!!!! so I took a photo ;)

Back to the car and then we decided to go to Luxembourg. Yep that's right. Just bowl on over to another country. Another Country!!!!! It's crazy!!!! no passport on me I got a little scared, but you just drive through! no people! no border checks! just some lights and a few signs. Wow. so cool!!! haha we didn't go far tho, just to the shop inside the Luxembourg border where everything's cheaper ;) Then home again and later sausages in bread with Ingo's Aunty and Uncle and cousins (aged 10 and 13 I think) who are down from the North of Germany :) Good times!