Hello from yet another hotel room, this one in the Toronto, Canada suburb of Vaughn. Big D, Fletcher, and I made the trip from Germany to the US, spent 10 days in Virginia, and signed a lease on a townhouse in Old Town, Alexandria. Since our move in date isn’t until the first week of May, Fletcher and I are here in The Great White North with Big D while he takes a class to master yet another aircraft. Stay tuned for details on what will be our new hometown…

But while I’m here, I am really going to try to finish up posting about European adventures.

Etville is one of the first little towns we explored in the Rheingau and it quickly became a favorite. We included stops there whenever we hosted out of towners, we attended plenty of fests hosted by the town, and when I needed a pick-me-up because one of Big D’s deployments was extended, Tricia knew a stroll there was just what I needed.

Eltville celebrates 22,000 examples of 350 different species during its Rose Festival each June.

In 2010, we celebrated Tricia’s birthday at Piccolo Mondo – a restaurant frequented by Sean Connery when he stayed in the town while filming in In the Name of the Rose.

Later in 2010, I was lucky enough to pick grapes during the harvest at Weingut Eberbacher Hof:

Even when the roses are gone, Eltville is beautiful:

In spring 2011, we enjoyed a guided walking tour of the town:

We were back again that fall with Big D’s mom:

And in the spring of last year? You guessed it: more roses!

I’m not going to say things at the Eltville Sekt Fest got a little wacky, but….

I think its fitting that I took this photo in the Hattenheim neighborhood on my last visit to the area: