A constant state of recovery

There's a lot of alcohol in Germany.

Friday I went to a great wine-tasting/wine-pairing dinner in a small town called Hallgarten near Rudesheim and had a great time learning about wine, the city, and an 800-year-old wine cellar. The host was none other than the mayor of this quaint town of 2,200 people and the wine ranged from nose-wrinkling bad to pleasant. Nothing worth buying in my opinion, but the ambiance and the company (in all, about 14 Americans) was great.

Saturday I explored Frankfurt for my first time, bought a magnificiently ugly bike (shown on left), held my nose and gulped the "fruity" local Frankfurt drink, Apfelwein - basically the fermented brine of rotten apples - and slept like a rock.

Sunday was Jay and Linda time at an Indian restaurant in Bierstadt (which means beer city). Needless to say, the alcohol-free drink options were few and far between, so I was encouraged to pair Indian cuisine with, of course, beer.

Monday was Monday and involved lots of Mondayness.

Tuesday was Stammtisch night at a local restaurant/weinstube in Eltville hosted by former barber Eric the Red (named so by President Kennedy in the early '60s) and it too involved drinking. In all honesty, the biweekly group, called the Schnudle dunker club because the first sip of all glasses of alcohol that's drunk must be done so without hands via a bent-over slurp, was great fun, replete with dirty jokes, pranks, and dirty old men. I'll have to go back and learn a thing or two.

Again, ladies and gents: the bull the bear and the blue bike.