For our trip we bought Eurailpass tickets (from Rick Steve's web site which included free travel book & video) for the three countries that we travelled: Germany, Switzerland, and France. I like the Eurail pass because you buy a certain number of days of train travel and on those days you can essentially travel all you want. On one trip we spent a whole day hoping various trains and travelling all over Germany.

On this trip we spent five days on the train, most of them for at least five hours which starts wearing on you after a while. Still, the train is a good way to see lots of varying countryside. On our last day we travelled from Beaune (near Dijon) France to Mainz (near Frankfurt) Germany. The last part of the trip was predominately through German wine country along the Rhine. Hillside after hillside, some quite precarious, are covered in vineyards.
In fact it was harvest time and many of the fields were dotted with a dozen or so folks picking along with the one or two human "mules" hauling the large baskets of grapes from the fields to the waiting truck or cart at the end of the rows. It's a bit tough to catch the harvesters on camera from a moving train so I had to make do with a few of the fields I thought looked interesting. Some fields are even steeper, with rock walled terraces stepped across the hillside face. It is hard to imagine how some of them get harvested. My only guess is they pick each grape individually, set it down, and let it roll down the hill into an awaiting bucket... ":^)

We spent our last night on the trip in Mainz. Mainz has some interesting things to see and the weather was quite nice (we only had one bad weather day in the whole 9 days of the trip), but by this time we were pretty beat and ready for some rest and relaxation. I headed out to scrounge through town for a take-out pizza while Mom rested and took some photos from the hotel. Outside the window was a small carnival squeezed into the waterfront along the Rhine. It featured a large ferris wheel but rather than the typical ferris wheel bench seating it had more of a circular setup, with a table in the middle. Something looked odd about it and I told Mom that I bet it was some kind of ferris wheel bar, since I couldn't think of any other reason why four guys in suits would be riding it over and over. Sure enough, when we went for a walk and passed by the ride we saw a lady at the base of the ferris wheel with cases of beer and the "suits" were quaffing down large quantities of it as they slowly rose back over the masses.

The next day was travel, from Frankfurt to Philadelphia and then back to New Hampshire. Security has always been tough when I've flown out of Frankfurt, but this time it was almost surrealistic. After checking our bags at the gate we went through a passport check, xray machine and random bag check, then instead of the normal short walk to US Airways' gate, we had a twenty minute walk to our gate. Halfway through that long walk we had to submit to yet another xray machine and individual search and wand checks. The gate we had been assigned was locked, so everyone gathered in this desolate hallway wondering if we were still in the airport. More passport and ticket checks when they finally opened up the gate, another wait, another check and finally we are on-board.

I cashed in almost all of my frequent flyer miles to buy Mom and I first class award seats. On the flight over we had all of first class to ourselves, sort of like our own private jet. But I was feeling ill, Mom was tired, and both of us ended up sleeping through almost all of the flight and didn't get to partake in the great meals, wines, and other treats. We did take advantage of the fully reclining seats, sleeper pajamas, and ammenity kits provided, making for a very comfortable seven hour flight/nap. Here's a link to US Airways that shows more of the first class setup.

This flight back we made up for what we had missed before and had a wonderful, decadent first class meal and service. If you've never flown international envoy or first class then I would highly recommend joining and pilling up the miles in a frequent flyer program and then using them to upgrade yourself on at least one international flight. Well worth it.

Here's the menu on the flight back:

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