Monday was spent on a cruise up the Rhine river past Mainz to St Goarshausen-Loreley. Despite our best efforts to wake up extra early - I was in the shower before 7am - we had to run through the Romer to catch our boat. We grabbed coffee and breakfast at the hotel, thinking we were on track until Staci looked at her watch and noticed we had less than 15 minutes to make it. So there we were, like a couple of tourists jogging past the old districtäs houses and churches while the locals were making their way to work.

The ticket seller properly scolded us for getting their just in time for launch, and the cruise itself was a pretty good deal. Only 35 euros each, and that included the train ticket for our return. Our US Soccer caps gave us away to some of the other Americans on board, their was a couple from San Antonio, and later another guy wearing the same cap.  The beginning of the trip was slow without much to see. Gray rain clouds threatened to dampen the day as we made our way past loading docks, electric plants, and small fishing towns on our way out to Mainz and the Rhine.

Past Mainz, the scenery turned more picturesque and almost every ten or so minutes there was a German castle on one bank or the other. By now, the skis had cleared and the sun came out strong. Enough that Staci now has a verz distinct watch tan and I a farmer's tan. By 1:15, the boat dropped us off in Rudesheim am Rhine for transfer to another boat to continue. Rudesheim was a quaint town famous for its surrounding vineyards and wine. We found a restaurant to have a glass of Riesling and Bratwurst for lunch, and there were many tourist shops along its narrow streets. We're thinking of going back there on Friday to explore it further.

We had to run again to catch the boat, somehow we're not keeping track of time well when there isn't a soccer match to see. Our last passage brought us up to Lorelei, famous for its murmuring rock and some German song played on the boat as we approached the town. At this point, we knew we were near our final destination to catch the train back. We grabbed our bags and belongings and headed to the front of the boat to disembark at St. Goars, which we thought was the same as St Goarshuassen listed in our itinerary. We stepped off the boat oblivious to the fact that no one else from Frankfurt was getting off and me saying something to the effect of "We know what we're doing," when Staci brought up the matter. As we walked along the river looking for the train station, we had seen trains running on either side of the river, Staci looked back to see our boat docking on the other side of the river next to a huge sign reading "St. Goarshaussen." Oops, we'd gotten off on the wrong bank. Quickly, we deciphered that Fahre was German for "ferry" no doubt aided by the ferry boat loaded with cars and passengers crossing the river at this point. We missed the 4:30 train out of Loreley and found ourselves with two hours to spend in what we found was a town without anything to spend that much time on. We sat by the river watching the boats pass by and then headed up to the train station to get out of town.

The train ride back to Frankfurt was uenventful only because we had a hard time staying awake the whole time after a long day in the sun. Our walk back to the hotel was threatened by storm clouds but the rain held off until we got back to our room. We concluded the night with a long, relaxing dinner to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary.\

Hello from Frankfurt! We arrived early on Saturday morning at 9am local time which was 3am for us. Thankfully, we took a direct flight out of Washington and both of Staci and I managed to sleep through most of it. We had a very nice driver pick us up at the airport, an expat from England. In typical English humour, when I asked him if he lived in Frankfurt, he sarcastically answered "No, I came in from London to pick you up." But all in all, he was a personable guy and gave us some good pointers around the city.

Despite sleeping on the flight, we crashed in our hotel room for another six hours. Around 3pm we managed to stir and start getting ready for the US vs Italy game. First, we grabbed a quick lunch near our hotel while watching the Ghana-Czech Republic game. Ghana was very impressive and much more organized than in their opener.

One of the highlights of being in Germany for the World Cup is that the entire city is celebrating the tournament. On the banks of the Rhine river in Frankfurt, they've setup fan zones where everyone can go and watch the games on huge screens. We arrived half and hour before kickoff of the US game and found a circle of US fans to sit near within a sea of Italian supporters. To say the game was tense would be an understatement, into the second half Staci noticed I was shaking from the tension. The US team we saw last night was unlike the tentative, nervous team from the opener. They attacked well and took the game to Italy. Unfortunatelz, the referee decided he wanted to be one of the highlights of the match, and I think he had an overdue effect on the game. But we got a point thanks to a lucky bounce and we're still in it going into the Ghana game.

Today was a much more touristy day as we walked around old town of Frankfurt in the Romerberg, also near the river front. Lots of sights to see, culminating with a walk through the park to the Opera house and back to our hotel. After resting in our room while watching the first half of the Brazil-Australia game, we went across the street to the "Zwolf Apostels" restaurant for some applewein and delicious steaks. Tomorrow we head out on a river cruise but now, we get some ice cream!

One of the best analysis of the US loss to the Czech republic comes from the Sports Economist, World Cup - the long view. Instead of being firmly rooted in the moment, in despair and looking to hand out blame, he puts it nicely into context. Only us few US fans fancied our side against the Czechs, despite history and the prevailing consensus. But, that's part of the essence of being American.

While the rest of the world is happy maintaining the balance between the Great Powers, we're trying to change the status quo. We want to make our own impression in the history books, not content to accept being written off. In our optimism, we dismiss any chance of failure, no matter how real it may be, and that's what made this opening loss harder to take. 

In the long run, each cup run will become part of our growing soccer history, much like the 98 and '02 runs already have. Some bitter and others sweet, but part of an ongoing chronicle. Other countries, notably Spain, have been at this much longer than we have with just as much to show for it. When the cup is over, we have a growing domestic league to follow, and the inevitable build up to the next World Cup.