Germany - oct 2008
 
 
My wife, Linda, is half German, her mother had not been back to her hometown in over 50 years.  Along with our son, Erick and his wife, Kim, we took Linda’s mom to Germany to ‘rediscover’ her hometown and stayed in the wine country of the Mosel River Valley.  (so thankful for those frequent flyer miles!)
“Roots” trip
Mosel River Valley, Germany
It was harvest time
Thousands of acres of Vineyards
The view from where we were staying
Navigating through narrow villages in this ‘monster’ VW van was fun!?!?
Cochem, another village along the river
Cochem castle (right side)
Piesport Wine festival - a 2000 year old tradition dating to the Romans
Complete with Oompa band!
Roman boat on the Mosel, as part of the Romisches Kelterfest Piesport
Grapes were everywhere!
Burg Eltz, a “storybook” castle
The Porta Nigra in Trier, Germany dating to before Christ.
Leiwen, Germany, the little town nearest where we stayed
Linda, Kim, Erick, Grandma (Elsie), Steven
Erick & Kim with Mosel below
Amazing Fall colors
It was as beautiful as the photo
Grote Markt, Brussels
Brussels, Belgium
Posing by the Mosel River
Linda’s mom’s home church (protestant church in Sandhofen)
Linda and Kim feeding a reindeer
Linda’s first cousin whom we had never met (lady on far right)