Finally....last Germany share

Last time I wrote about Germany was the Sunday night before Matt and I were about to take the train to Fussen to go see the Neushwanstein and Hohenschangua castles. I just didn't have time to download the pictures until now.

We left Monday morning and took the 2 plus hour train ride to Fussen. As we got closer to Fussen it was beautiful being able to see the mountains. The castles are in the Alps right on the Germany -Austria border. In Fussen we had to take a short bus ride to Schwangua. Once there we really had no idea what to expect or what to do. We followed the "tickets" signs and bought tickets to see both castles. We didn't realize we had to walk to both of them. To the first one, Hohenschangua, it was only about a 5 minute walk. This was the castle that was actually lived in, and we did the tour. The map said it was about a 40 minute walk to Neushwanstein, but it only took us about 30 minutes. Again, we didn't know what to expect when we got there (due to the lack of planning or I guess I'd rather call it spontaneity!). My shoes, socks, feet, and pants were soaking wet and filthy from the snow melting. I didn't really care because the view and sights around me were so breathtaking, plus the company was so enjoyable! ;) The walk was up this hilly, windy road where the trees were tipped with snow. Seriously, it was beautiful, the pictures don't do it justice. Matt loved the snow falling from the trees. We made it to the castle with a lot of time before our tour, so we walked back down the road a little ways and stopped in a little cafe to have some gluhweine and pretzels. This castle was started, but never finished or lived in because of a death and debt. Interesting.
After the castles we headed back to town and did some shopping and found a cute little pub off a side street and had another great meal and good beer. We took the train ride home in the dark after a very enjoyable and long day. It was a great way to end the trip and we were ready to head home to see the boys.

Sorry about all of the pictures...

We're home!

Wow, what a wonderful trip we had. Well, I had atleast. I know Matt enjoyed the time that we had together, however he had to work ALOT of the trip, so I know not all of it was as enjoyable for him. It was so good to get home and see these lovely faces and fall down from such hard hugs and kisses.

Back to reality today with teaching. It was fun being back in the school, seeing the kids, talking with my coworkers, but man.....wouldn't mind being in Germany still!

We had an incredible last day on Monday when we took the train to Fussen (on the boarder of Germany and Austria) and then took a bus to Schangua to see the castles. It was a picture perfect day, with beautiful setting. In my opinion I thought the snow setting, versus seeing everything green, was even better. More pictures and stories to come, I didn't have time last night because it was all about the boys (and we were exhausted!).

For those of you who are not familiar with the Backyardigans, it is a cartoon where these characters go into their backyard and have an imaginary adventure and their backyards turn into whatever the setting of their adventure is.

"Mom, I know why the Backyardigans are called the Backyardigans!"

"Why?"

"Because they play in their backyards and they do it again and again....get it....the Backyard...agains?!"

"Good thinking! I bet you're right!"

Mom did such a great job of taking pictures and updating us with the little things said or done while we were gone. She had to email me my marriage license to make my journey home go more smoothly with my passport and she put this in the email: Tonight while snuggling....I told Connor and Jacob that I'm glad mommy and daddy are coming home but I'm sure going to miss them. Jacob grabs my hand and says "I miss you"....Connor says, "I will miss you a little...but am glad mommy and daddy will be home." Gotta love that."

It's good to be home.

A few pictures....

Hallo.
The word FEW is not a part of my vocabulary when it comes to pictures. I have taken, I don't even know how many. Those of you that know me....can probably imagine. I've received that look from Matt many times....seriously, another picture? I've added a FEW of them here...

Again, I am up at a strange time -12:45 am here, 5:45 pm there...because I have a strange burst of energy. What better thing to do with that energy (when my husband is sleeping of course ;) ) then get on the internet?! Yesterday I went back to Nuremburg and went to the Nazi rally grounds and then Matt surprised me with calling me to meet him earlier than we had planned at the Central Station. Actually, he quickly went back to Erlangen and changed and met me so that we could stay in Nurenburg for the night. We walked around, enjoyed the festivities of the Toy Fair, had a delicious meal and tasty drinks.

Today I joined Matt at the Toy fair to walk around and see what it was all about. Wow - so cool. I have never seen so many toys, booths, and innovative things. We had fun taking pictures that the boys would enjoy (the stuff Matt did and looked at for work, like balls, weights, and early childhood equipment wasn't nearly as fun to take pictures of). We then headed back to Munich by train this afternoon and were able to get some Munich sight seeing in during in the light. I was hoping to see the Glockenspiel go off, but we missed it. We came back to the hotel, called the boys, and I starting another book, while Matt got some work done.

We both think that we had the best meal that you see here in these pictures. Some of you are probably grossed out, however, this sauce was mouth watering, flavorful and the meat literally melted in your mouth. The potatoes are awesome over here, and of course the beer was great and refreshing! Supposedly, this (shoulder part) is special just to Nuremburg.
This is the church, The Church of our Lady, that was our view outside of our window in the picture above.

Tomorrow we're taking a 2 hour train ride to go see these: (it won't be as green, so I hope I still get some beautiful pictures)

I am in love......

...with my husband of course, but also with Nuremburg. Last night we took a train to Erlangen, north of Munich for Matt's next trade show in Nuremburg. The show is so big that all of the hotels in Nurnberg (as it's written in German) are full and we have to stay in Erlangen, about a 25 minute train ride away. I got up bright and early this morning with Matt (5:40 am) and headed to Nurnberg. I am in LOVE with this city. Oh my goodness. I spent from 7:00 am until 6:20 pm (truly- my legs are exhausted, but don't even notice because I enjoyed myself so much drinking coffee and people watching in a little corner cafe, looking in shops, walking around the market, gazing in awe at the beautiful churches, touring a castle and a brewery along with the underground beer cellars, talking and enjoying some beer with some folks from Belgium, and just making choices on the spot. I went through most of the "Old City". Which ever way I wanted to go, I went. No agenda (well besides the map that I had marked up with spots I wanted to see eventually). The buildings are beautiful, tall, red-roofed,aged and the churches are enormously gigantic and breathtaking, the shops are oh so fun, the roads are cobblestone, the history is magnificent, .....blah blah blah. I could go on and on. It takes too long to put pictures on over here, so I will have to do that when I get back. Of course I am heading back there tomorrow to get some more depth in some of the things I started, to do some shopping, and to tour the Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Reichsparteitagsgelande) where many of the parades, rallies, events, and the Nuremburg Trials took place during that time. This is all too incredible, have to pinch myself before I go to bed.

We've been going to bed for a little while and then setting the alarm to wake up to call the boys (and grandma and grandpa of course) on the web cam. We call them at midnight German time, so that it is about 5:00-5:30 pm U.S. time. Being able to see and talk to them, makes it easier to be away for so long. It sounds like they are having a blast, and it's fun hearing all of the stories and anecdotes of the day. Tonight we also got to see and talk to Natey and Matt, Kristin, and Kelsey. What a treat. Technology is wonderful most of the time isn't it?

Again.....GRATITUDE.

Hallo from Germany!

No, it is not a mispelling, it's how you say hello in german.

Before I left Tuesday, the boys and I were able to spend a little time together and we had "I love you" scrambled eggs (in the shape of hearts if you can't tell).

Well, after a long detour I finally made it here to Munich..............and met up with Matt. I arrived 5 hours later than I was supposed to. What an interesting journey. To start with, I feel really stupid but didn't really think anything of the fact that my passport still has my maiden name on it. When I went to check in at Mpls. the lady gave me a really hard time about it and didn't know if I was going to be able to take the trip. It ended up being fine as long as I had all of this verification, but she flagged me as high risk security (she was not my favorite person) so every time I had to go through security they had to look through everything by hand and pat me down. Ugh! Note to self, make sure passport is completely updated next time. The flight to Amsterdam was fine, long (8+hours), but fine. I enjoyed a couple of movies and some wine. From Amtsterdam, where my flight was late to start with, I had to get on this little plane where I had be outside on the runway and walk up one of those stairways on wheels to get on the plane. The flight went fine, however we couldn't land in Munich because of zero visability, so we had to land in Stuttgart. This was pretty cool because it's the city where my dad was stationed when he was in the service. From there they provided a bus to take us to Munich, a 2 -1/2 hour ride. Like I said, what a long journey, however I was able to meet and visit with some interesting people from Amsterdam, Germany, London, and India and I got to see more of Germany than I had planned on! Always try to see the positive right?! Gratitude! ;)

Needless to say I am exhausted. We went to the Hofbrauhaus (big brewery) and had some delicious german food and beer and then walked around a little. We walked to Marienplatz (the the town center and the City Town Hall). I love all of the little streets with tall buildings and shops. I am so excited to be here, and so fortunate I could take this trip.

We got back to the hotel, slept for a little while and then woke up to call the boys at grandma and grandpa's. It was good to see them and hear their voice. We are so fortunate that it worked out for my parents to watch them, Mattey to take Connor to preschool, and Natey to help out this weekend with swimming lessons and giving mom and dad a break.

I can't wait to go back and see this City Town Hall in daylight. The green area is the Glokenspiel and the figurines dance and move to music at certain times of the day.
I decided to do these last two pictures in Sepia and Black and White because they are a little blurry. We had to ask like three different people to try to take our pictures (they didn't understand english and I couldn't get them to understand the focus part of my camera. Oh well).

I obviously won't be updating this every day (if at all while we're here I just couldn't sleep at the moment - the whole time change thing), but will have a ton of stories and pictures to share when I get back. Mom is doing a great job keeping up with taking pictures and jotting down stories and comments for me.

Crazy, when I try to log onto this site everything is in German. Good thing I know the site well enough because I only know a few words.

Auf Wiedersehen (good bye) for now!