I was a soldier away from home and stationed in Germany. My wife, Carrie, and I had had our share of problems recently. I had discovered that while I was away she had become close to someone she had met on the internet. She had since ended the communication as she felt she was getting too emotionally tied to this individual. To show her that I was better than this clod could ever be and as her birthday was approaching, I endeavored to fly her overseas for a nice vacation.
Nestled in the Rhine River valley in Germany sits the quaint town of Oberwesel. The valley itself is warm and inviting with many centuries of history and tradition to be experienced by both natives and tourists alike. Castles line both sides of the river that only adds to the splendor of the scenery. I was no stranger to the area. I had been fortunate to be an exchanges student in high school and my duties in the Army had taken me to this country several years before this particular adventure.
In preparation for her first visit to Europe, it was important to me that her stay would be a memorable one. I've always tried to treat visits to this part of the world as if it would be my last. It was a time consuming task to find the right place for us to stay. I settled on a family run hotel. The building was five hundred years old, spacious, had open beamed ceilings and my favorite part of the room – a canopy bed. Not far from the hotel was the 1000 year old Schonburg Castle.