One word comes to mind in describing the treatment we got in Germany - hospitality. I have a couple of good friends in Germany that live in Stuttgart - Martin and Roswitha, and their good friend Roland. They have bent over backwards to make us feel like kings here! From providing wonderful breakfasts to driving us to an amazing castle and a Chagall exhibit, to lining up accommodations at a marvelous little cabin up in the mountains above Stuttgart among wineries owned by Roland, a truly friendly guy. It has been an unreal experience.

After an initial short stop in Stuttgart, we went north to Koblenz to see a castle, took a boat up the Rhine to Bad Breisig, and a train on to Cologne and Dusseldorf. Deep has a friend, Angela, up in Dusseldorf who we visited for an evening and stayed with for the night. Angela and her fiance (now husband) Bernd made us dinner, took us out to the local castle by moon-light, and greeted us with much warmth. They were kind enough to stop by on San Francisco at the tail end of their honeymoon in October, 1998.

The next day, we saw the grand cathedral in Cologne and went back to Stuttgart to meet up with Martin, Roswitha, and Roland. They took us to shop at Hugo Boss, visit a castle in Hechingen, see a Chagall exhibit in Ballingen, race at over 200 kph on the autobahn, and then watch the World Cup match where Croatia beat Germany. It was very interesting driving around the city center after the game (Germany lost) in a German town that has about the highest per-capita Croatian population. Lots of mourning simultaneous with celebrations all around.

The following day we walked around Rotenberg for its 750th anniversary. Roland joined us, and Martin and Roswitha came later on as well to the festivities. Not quite Octoberfest, but it was a fun festival in a little German town. From there, we took an overnight train back to Nice in France to get our bikes and move on (or in my case, back) to Italy.

It is such a pleasure traveling when one gets such amazing treatment. I do hope I can live up to these standards in hospitality when folks come to visit the Bay Area.