fairy tale

Driving along the Rhein last night, in the darkness, with great guy at the wheel, was a first for me…and I loved it. The lights of the small towns on the far bank reflected in the wide, dark river, and the dark hills on either side walled us in. And, every kilometre or so, the lights of a burg beckoned, “hey, isn’t this romantic?” Yup.

(side bar: great guy sits down beside me, looks over my shoulder and dictates…”za great river lies like a beeg, black mirror smoozly between za big, black hills”. I’m laughing. He’s on a break from cleaning the vacuum cleaner. Great guy is a very thorough cleaner.)

We were on our way to yet another birthday party for yet another nice friend of great guy’s-my life is very difficult here. All of a sudden we turned sharply left onto a narrow, cobble-stoned street and drove through a low archway; part of an ancient town wall built in 1344. Cool. It felt very ‘knight’s tale-ish’ and I expected my knight-in-shining-armor to ride by at any minute…oh, right, mine was in the seat beside me!

The town of Bacharach. A fairy-tale place.

(great guy interrupts me, saying “gleich kannst du saugen, augenblick mal (just wait, you can vacuum soon).” Oh my.)

Complete with a ruined chapel sitting high on the hill, called “Werner Kapelle” (in honour of my dad I’m sure, although I don’t think he was born until well after 1290), and wall towers, passages and, no doubt, a moat or two, this must be the place where sleeping beauty napped and rapunzel brushed her hair.

(great guy just started his super shiny vacuum cleaner, looked at me, and gave me the thumbs-up sign. he is in love with his vacuum cleaner…i bet she’s expecting a proposal any day now, but i have to admit, she is a pretty vacuum cleaner. her name is Kirby.)

Through the tiny streets, and up into the wine hills we drove. When we arrived at gerd und dora’s house, we were bombarded with their family merriment. It was a nice evening, complete with lot’s of laughter with great guy, a possible English-teaching job offer, and an awesome phone call from Kanada.