Road Trip

I am writing this as I am on the first road trip with my siblings in almost 10 years. My mother’s best friend is lucky enough to be included in this adventure to Charleston. We are 2 hours into the drive and only six more to go.
I think we are going to survive this. Granted I am ditching the crew when we get to Charleston. They have a wedding to attend and I am visiting my friend.
Granted we have the return trip on Sunday so I am thinking I will have enough fam time in the car to last for a while.

Fun in Germany

Blaufelden, or as the locals remind us Blue Field City in English, has been a dream. Ellen’s family has been wonderful hosts and graciously welcomed us at every turn. The village has welcomed us in open arms. When I go about town, it seems that they know that we are americans and are excited to meet us. We truly have made friends with some of the interesting people.
The owner of a local pub has made us feel welcome. He always greeted us with a friendly smile and his broken English. He regularly shared snacks with us. In fact, last night he made me an appetizer of tzakiki dip and sage two gyros. He then provided the recipe for his tzakiki dip, which I will always treasure. Granted, I will have to lower the yield, because 10 kilos might be too much for me at home.
We also have made friends with other locals, who hopefully will come visit Tuscaloosa one day.

Ellen took us to see a pretty house in a neighboring village and walk around the area on Christmas Eve. We also saw a pretty covered bridge in the village at the bottom of the hill. On the way home, we drove through another village and had to stop since JP needed his momma. It was funny to find three gloves just hanging out on the iron decoration surrounding a tree. When we drove through the same village the next day it was still there.

Christmas Day in Germany is not as big of a deal. We ate leftovers and headed to Schwaebisch Hall. Tim drove us through the country side on the way and it was just mesmerizing. We were able to see a bridge that was over 500ft tall. We then arrived in Swaebisch Hall where we wandered around and saw the beautiful buildings and pretty Christmas lights.

On the way back, Tim pulled over to allow Sage to drive on the autobahn. We were driving a small car, so he only got up to 100 mph.

We also went out for our last night in Blaufelden before Aka and sage left. We saw most of our new friends out that night.

Yesterday, Aka and sage left for Paris while the Lemkes and I had a very lazy day due to the blustery weather. I read books, took a short walk, and a nap during the day.

Merry Christmas

In Germany, Christmas Eve is a big deal. That is when the Christmas child brings presents for all of the children. He also brings the tree.
So in the afternoon we entertained the children while the men put up the tree. We then went to church for the children’s service. It was very similar to the service at my church. After church we had a meal of schnitzel covered with mushrooms and cheese, simple mâché salad, Camembert and fries. Then we went into the living room to see what was brought by the christmas child. It was fun having children who were excited about everything.
Ellen’s family was so sweet and gave us presents such as homemade cookies, cake lifter, a local cookbook in English, and a new keychain. Now I am making grits for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Christening

Saturday night AKA, sage and I went out again. We saw our friend the bartender and made new friends. We stayed out later than we intended and laughed a lot. We also discovered a fun game involving nails, a log and the small ed of a hammer. This has been lots of fun!
The next morning we had to be up early for church. The christening was interesting since we did not know the German responses and did not understand anything said.
After the service, we walked to the restaurant in town for a luncheon. It turns out that we were the talk of the town since everyone knew we were there and had made friends the night before. It was a long lunch by American standards, lasting over 3.5 hours.
Last night we went to the local Irish pub to hear Irish folk music. Again we had so much fun we stayed late.

Speilbach

After returning to Rothenberg, Tim tool us to the grocery store where we spent time buying chocolate to take home.
Then we headed to a village called speilbach for a schnitzel dinner and their special and hard to get beer. Hill and Heidi joined us. The food was good and sage thought it was like a flatten chicken fried pork chop. The beer lived up to the hype and was quite strong.
When we got back to blaufelden, sage and I wandered down to a local pub. We had so much fun that we returned again last night.

Nuremberg

We sadly Had to Return our Van from the last two days. Our second Christmas Market was Nuremberg. We drove to rothenburg then tool 3 trains to Nuremberg. This one had the best prices, not that my wallet knows it since that meant I bought more. I found myself a Christmas pyramid. I also bought a few presents for people. We went into two churches and wandered the shopping area.
Below are pictures…

Stuttgart

Apolpgize since photos are below:
First thing yesterday morning, we had to get a later car in order to fit 5 adults, 1 baby and luggage. Tim drove us to Rotenburg to pick up this fun 9 passenger van!
Off we headed towards Stuttgart on the Autobahn. Since we arrived a little early, we stopped at a mall to get me foundation and moisturizer. We also found a bakery.
We quickly left and headed to pick up aka and sage. We the headed downtown to a Chistmas market.
Have to run but will post more later today.
Enjoy the photos in the meantime.

Day 1

The time for my train finally arrived. I was definitely ready to get moving again, after hanging out in the lounge for first class passengers. The highspeed train was quite nice. The perk of buying Internet on a whim was that I had it on the train. Billy and I were able to video chat while I rode the train. Granted he tried to call between Mannheim and Stuttgart, where there were quite few tunnels.

I also enjoyed looking at all the quaint towns and villages we passed.
We arrived at Stuttgart 5 mins late. Which seems like not a big deal, but I had to get on another train that originally was leaving 8 mins after I arrived and now 3 mins. This involved me sprinting while carrying my luggage down the stairs through the tunnel from platform 5 to platform 15 and back up the stairs onto the train just in the nick of time. I rode that train for 1.5 hours then arrived in Crailshiem were I switched to a small regional train to Blaufelden. I met two German teenagers who were fascinated by America. They were kind and helped me get my luggage off in blaufelden where Tim met me.
He took me to Rosa and Kurt, Ellen’s parents, house to see Ellen and jp.
At this point I had been up for over 23 hrs in the last 24. I decided to keep going to try and get adjusted to the time change.
We went to Reichold, a quick drive, for dinner at a Greek style restaurant. I had a beer mixed with Sprite. It was nice and surprisingly refreshing.

Ellen ordered tzatziki sauce with chips and mushrooms which were delicious. I ordered a pork souvlaki with this yummy sauce, while Tim ordered gyro style meat in the same sauce. Ellen ordered a fried feta cheese dish that was too die for and two thee appetiZers for her dinner.

After dinner, we were stuffed on the ride back to Blaufelden. I immediately went to the house where I am staying an went to bed.
I discovered this morning that my foundation and SPF moisturizer were left at home. I guess I will be buying German ones while I am here. Just had breakfast and off to Stuttgart to meet AnneKimball (aka) and sage.

Hurry Up and Wait

Sitting in the train station in Frankfurt, and seriously shaking my head at my worry about being rushed if I chose the earlier train. I not only had plenty of time, I managed to get a coffee and pain au chocolat and still have plenty of time to make that earlier train.
So here I am wasting another two hours in the train station.

Few things learned so far in the trip:
1. I really can’t sleep well on planes. I am too excited. We are talking like a kid in the candy store. I tried and probably got less than an hour combined. Now to avoid jet lag, I am trying to stay up until tonight. It is going to be a long day.
2. Really glad I bought the suitcase I did. Love the fact that I can push it while I pull my carry on luggage.
3. TSA will swab any packages of grits in your carry to check for luggage. Good news, mine were safe.
4. When you arrive before the sun is up, there might not be anyone in the customs area. We are talking …literally you walk right through.
5. I really don’t like airplane food. My breakfast consisted of delta’s version of an egg mcmuffin…I hate egg mcmuffin. I ended up eating part of a banana. I hate banana’s too, but it was the lesser of two evils.
6. Frankfurt airport is large. I had to ride a bus for 8 mins to get from terminal 2 to terminal 1. (There are only 2 terminals, but they are large terminals.) The bus was packed like sardines.
7. The toilet in the baggage claim area is really short. We are talking elementary school level.
8. You leave me alone in the train station for almost three hours and I might decide that I need hotspot Internet access for my visit and I end up purchasing the larger package….oops!
9. Already had first casualty of the trip. I lost my scarf on the plane and could not find it. Oh well, I guess I must replace it right?
10. I really miss my puppies. But it is nice to see all the cute dogs coming through the train station.

This one was the cutest and I want to take the little daschund home!

So much to be thankful for….

I am writing this as I am frantically running around trying to get everything together for me to hop on a plane and “jump across the pond.” This December has been jam packed with fellowship with friends and family. I am lucky to have such wonderful friends and family that love and support me. LML is being one of those key supporters since he is sending me off soon for Christmas and New Years apart from him. While I won’t kid you and say that this is an ideal situation, but we both decided that me attending my godson’s christening was important.

I have become more aware of the season this year, perhaps since so many of my friends are starting families around now. It has become less about the presents or decoration, and it is more about the experiences. (I am not just saying this since I skipped a tree this year…I promise) And believe me when I say that this Christmas will be an experience. I hope that one day I am able to look back on this Christmas as a beginning of something special.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and hopefully I will keep you updated on my trip.