Oktober 17 - Austin

We made it. What a long day. We took our first and only Taxi in Europe to the airport (tired of lugging the luggage and didn't want to waste time navigating the public transport) and it was a quick and short ride. Checked in, went through passport control, went through security and then had some coffee in the British Airways lounge.

Then, we went to our gate and had to go through a second security screening....with machine guns pointed at us. Well, not as aggressively as it sounds but they were pointed at the security area but the two Polizei were just chatting. Hopefully they root for the same Fussball team.

Got on the plane and settled in for a 10 hour flight to Atlanta. Watched 3 movies, ate twice, slept a little bit...how strange is it to ride the sun for so long. We left at 9:45 and arrived at 1:30 p.m. The next flight was not until 6:30 p.m. and because of storms that was delayed to 7:15 p.m. Luckily, we still had access to the Business Elite lounge so we went there and tried their Warsteiner beer...something we had plenty of in Germany...and it tasted soooo much worse! They pasteurize the beer before it comes to America and that makes it incredibly skunky! We need a secret hook-up, we think, to get contraband beer.... hehe! (Just kidding.)

Arrived in Austin at about 9 p.m. after a very long day...we did stay up until midnight, trying to trick our bodies into ignoring the jet lag, and I think it's working.

We are so amazed by Germany. We adore the country and still are blown away with how different each part of the country remains. In a time where each part of the United States simply looks the same (big box stores, strip malls, franchise eateries, boring glass box downtown skyscrapers) it was refreshing to see a country that retained its own cultural importance as well as architectural foundation.

Yeah, yeah, I know that the USA is a melting pot and and still a "new country" but Germany as well is incredibly diverse and its cities were absolutely leveled in WWII...but their conscious decision to "keep it real" made it an exciting country to visit.

Oh, and Austin needs public transport. Smaller cities in Germany have amazing public transportation...even Dusseldorf had an underground, light rail, and buses!

Thank you for all of your individual e-mails and well-wishes -- we were happy to share our experiences with you all! Also, a special thank you to Ryan's parents, Rich and Sandy, for keeping the homestead in perfect condition. Isaac was sooo surprised when we walked in the door, started squeeling and jumping all over his cage with pinpointed eyes! He still can't believe we're back and is still trying to feed Ryan (he thinks we don't eat outside of the home so obliges us with his leftovers). Thank you, Rich and Sandy!!!!!!!!

And since I am doing this update from the comfort of our couch, I can finally give you a couple previews....more to come!

Oktober 16 - Dusseldorf

This morning, we got up and went directly to the Galleria Kaufhaus on Alexanderplatz for breakfast and also to buy our duvets. I think I might have mentioned this before, but in Germany (and likely most of Europe) each person normally gets their own duvet and no flat sheet...they have sheets that wrap the duvet and that essentially is your sheet! We loved them so much that we wanted to buy them there and ship them back.

Well...I think this department store has folks that know the least amount of English. This nice girl did really well and definately knows more English than I know German, but it was a bit of a trial. They helped us pick it all out, pay, and they are going to ship it. Let's hope it shows up!

Then, we went to buy me (Scott) a Freitag bag...I first noticed it in a design magazine I get and they take used vinyl lorrie tarps (a lorrie is the equivalent of a 18-wheeler but they use vinyl sides instead of aluminum sides) clean them up and then use that to make bags. They use used seatbelts (it feels pristine) for the strap and used innertubes for the welting. Awesome! I love it.

We went to the Deutsche Bahn office to reserve our seats for the train...only cost 3 euros each! Then took all of our luggage (it had grown in size) and lugged it to the U-bahn (underground) and then switched to the S-bahn (overground) and then went to the Deutsche Bahn platform.

Well, the one that Scott thought was the right platform. Wrong. I looked closely and noticed that we were standing at platform 2. Our train left from platform 14. In about 5 minutes. Platform 2 is at the bottom of this 5 story massive structure. I wonder where Platform 14 was??? The top!! Luckily we had explored most of the Hauptbahnhof (train station) trying to find Platform 2 in the first place that it was quite easy to find # 14. Found our seats, sat down, and enjoyed a nice 4 hour ride to Dusseldorf.

Dusseldorf rebuilt their Altstadt (Old City) with alleys and medieval nooks and crannies...filled with 200 bars and restaurants. After checking into our hotel, we walked through the streets and the riverside walk that was full of people watching the sunset. Dusseldorf is actually a mostly modern city with a good deal of money and, from what I could gather from the Altstadt crowd, a lot of business trade shows. We ate at a place with German food, but cooked by Croatians. It rocked!

Sadly, we both had a pretty sad mood because we had so many great memories from this trip and did not want it to end...

Then went for one of our final beers in Germany at this place that only serves one type of beer and it is out of an oak cask. It was sooo good! We said good night to Dusseldorf, walked back to our hotel and started to repack everything. Went to bed about 23:00 and ordered a 6:30 wake call (in german..."Konnen Sie mich auf half sieben wecken?" "Yah, ich kann das machen. Bis morgen."

Oktober 15 - Berlin

Yes, we slept in...but got up very quickly to continue our touring of Berlin. After a brief episode of not being able to find Ryan's drivers license (we looked everywhere in a panic and after Ryan has almost fainted from shock I found MY driver's license in my pocket and I thought I had put it in my security belt (this pouch we are wearing around our waists under our clothes for protection...very smart). Ryan tells me to put mine in the pouch, as he thinks his has been stolen or lost, and I do and guess what I find.....bingo, his I.D. After a brief pummeling of Scott for causing Ryan a near heart attack (and a pretty good poop) we started our day.

One thing that we have definately come away from this trip with is that we love, love, love to 1) walk around anywhere and everywhere, 2) people watch, and 3) well, we still love to shop! So we walked down our street until we found a neat pizza place and had some grub. Then walked to the Galleria Kauphof to buy these duvets that all Germans use...instead of having one big bed duvet, each person has their own personal duvet. They also do not use Flat Sheets and instead cover the duvets and wash those covers. It is such a brilliant concept and we wanted to bring some of them home.

Sunday, everything is closed. It isn't dead, however, because the streets, subways, and buses are filled will local people as well as tourists. So we did a ton of sightseeing, including Checkpoint Charlie which has an incredible history lesson. The still-standing booth isn't really the attraction...but this long wall timeline with pictures and snippets of text that explain everything about the creation and reasons for the Berlin Wall, but also the political climate in Germany after the war and until now.

To give a little bit of respect to the U.S. after my seemingly unpatriotic post yesterday, the assistance and strength of the U.S. against the Soviets is a main reason for keeping the German in Germany and not letting this turn into a communist country. However, the people of Berlin made the wall come down and reminds me of what can happen when a lot of people with the same thought get together instead of closing their eyes.

We both enjoyed that very much. It is now almost 6 in the evening so we are going to have a nice cocktail here at the bar and then eat at a respectable hour...we have only been eating breakfast and a 4 p.m. dinner which is not what the Germans do. They do a big breakfast, a little lunch, and a late dinner. One more night in Berlin and then we are off to Düsseldorf for our last night....sad, sad, sad, sad.

Oktober 14 - Berlin

We are literally in the middle of what was formerly East Berlin...they have done so much construction, however, and this area is happenning and hip. Last night after the update we walked down our street and everyone was between 16 and 35, all had big beers in their hands, walking down the street and checking out the scene. So cool. The boys are pretty rowdy and very 'in our face' especially when they are talking to servers.

As we were trying to find a place to eat, this girl stops us and starts speaking German and I said 'Ich spreche keine Deutsch' and she says in English 'Do you boys want a little fun?' and we both busted out laughing at her and she had this strange look and I said 'Duh! We're gay!' and we walked away in hysterics. Right next to our trendy hotel is an old warehouse that has become an artists commune and they work all night and people just stop in and check things out.

Went to an Indian food restaurant and it was awesome...very good and very cheap. Afterwards we went to bed as it was already pretty late. Got up this morning and started amaying walks through Eastern Berlin...all the way down Unter den Linden straße which means 'Under the Linden trees street' saw Brandenburg Tor, the only remaining gate from the times of Prussian kings, and also walked toward the Alexander Platz...this bleak plaza...I kept having to remind myself I was in Germany still and not Moscow.

Another thing that has really interested me is the lack of U.S. stuff here...you don't hear a thing about what is happening in the U.S. unless you search for it. It is actually quite refreshing to not hear about the crap that is going on back home politically. It is quite a mes and I get the feeling that no one here in Europe can quite understand the type of dictatorship-like policies. I did see one newspaper that had a collage of pictures that sort of insinuated that Bush was repeating facist mistakes of Germany's past. OK, just blabbering here about how I feel. On the other thand, I think that I could easily disappear and love living in this country.

Went to KaDeWe, the largest department store in the world. Honestly. And it was packed. P.A.C.K.E.D. came back to the hotel for a change and then went out to a couple of bars. The problem was that Berliners don't go out until like 1:00 in the morning...we were in the Schöneburg area, part of old West Berlin and one of the gay capitals of the world. Or so they say. We just saw a lot of normal couples doing what we do....go to movies, take walks, have a beer, go home. We stayed there until about 2:00 and then took the subway back to our room...the area we are staying was totally happening...vibrant, fun....we had Döner Kebap which is Berlin specialty...it is a flatbread pocket (like a panini) filled with chipped beef and salad...lettuce, tomato, and ranch dressing. Ryan didn't know it had dressing and took a big bite and said 'eeeegh' and spit it back out...'it tastes like a pickle' Nonetheless I made my way back to order one without the dressing.

Sat watching people go by from our room window until about 3:30 and then fell asleep.

Oktober 13 - Berlin

We knew that today would be tough. So we slept in. Had another fantastic Frühstuck at the castle and then repacked everything...because we had to drop the car (nicknamed Lars for now) off to be shipped and then had a 4.5 hour ride on the train to Berlin.

Boy, we had no idea.

We checked out and said Tchuß to the castle and drove back over the tiniest wooden bridge you have ever seen (yes we have pictures) and drove around the Rhine river a bit and then made a drive to Frankfurt to drop the car off. We found the place and said goodbye then (stuipid us) walked the 10 minutes to the train station. Little did we know that the repacking had increased the weight on the duffelbag so much that the wheels started to go sideways and the heat from all the walking started to make the bag just drag on the ground. I'm sure the cobblestones donÄt help in reducing the amount of impact...

Took a quick 20 minute ride to the heart of Frankfurt and boarded a train to Berlin.

Oh...I don't know if I promised Ryan that I wouldn't mention this but we had Burger King. We only had a few moments and since the Germans love their 3 hour meals we had to eat fast. It was good. Wow it was good. So we boarded the train with probably 500 other people and squooze onto that thing. No seats were left. We had to take all of our bags (with souveniers) down about 8 cars....these are long cars...and they have luggage everywhere. We ended up sweaty and standing outside of a bathroom that was seeping sewage. Gross. We finally made our way about 5 feet from the seepage and were able to sit on the floor for the 4.5 hour train ride. It is a Friday so we should have known...but I didn't know that you can actually reserve a sweat for a couple Euros more. Duh! Duh! Duh!

The train got up to 249 kilometers per hour...which is like 125 miles per hour. Sehr schnell! (very fast) Made it to Berlin and took the S-Bahn to our hotel. Also found out that the subway map in my Fodors book is old and they have changed the name of some stations...so a couple of times jumping on and going back on the same line put us at our station. The elevator (we were not carrying that damn duffelbag up stairs) put us in the middle of a street. Strange! We finally found our cute cute cute hotel and are sitting in the bar, using their free internet, drinking a fabulous cocktail, and ready to go clean up and eat. Berlin seems very cool, cosmopolitain mixed with this old world dirtiness...if that makes sesnse.

We are actually staying in former East Berlin in the old Jewish Quarter...well until the Nazi reginme removed everyone from it. Our hotel is fantastic and we are glad to be in it for 3 nights...although we really do miss showing up in a town and having to figure out where we want to stay that night....Dad VH mentioned that they loved doing that in Italy and I agree....the way to go! Museums are in our future tomorrow, trying to soak up this great-looking city. Love you all!

We hear that our babies are doing fantastic (yay for the isaacbird molt and watch out for Saracat trying to dump over your waters....hehehehehe thank you thank you thank you!)

Oktober 12 - Oberwesel

We slept in a bit this morning but had Frühstuck and then took a nice, long walk around Baden-Baden. Vegas could only wish it was this authentic. Lots of Germans take their 'wellness' here. Doctors will regularly prescribe a few days of wellness to help improve mental or physical stress...so they come to places like this to enjoy the thermal baths. 'Bad' in german means bath or spa so you see a lot of towns called Bad Stürbingen or Baden Baden.

We checked out and got in the car to drive to our castle...however we stopped at Altes Schloß or Old Palace which is high above Baden-Baden and is just a bunch of ruins. Most of the castles in Germany were destroyed systematically by the French (I think during Napolean times) and that's just a sad fact. However, from this castle you can see into the valley of Baden-Baden and into the valley that borders France....so essentially we saw France! The ruins were a treat.

The drive from there was pretty bleak...lots of industrial towns and it is a main throughfare between Basel (Switzerland) and Frankfurt where cargo goes onto boats to go up the Rhine river to the North Sea and then to the Atlantic Ocean. The autobahn in Baden-Würtemburg (the state we were in) is not as pretty or maintained as in Bayern (Bavaria). Ryan did well navigating the big Lorries (what they call trucks) and after about 3 hours arrived in the Rhine river valley. Suddenly we were surrounded by hills and driving up the river to our castle....

Right at the end I started taping with the camcorder and when we show it to you then you will experience a 10 minute segment of almost getting smashed between Lorries, taking the wrong exit, Ryan having a meltdown and complaining that I should have known where I was going and me saying 'Well, the last time I was here....' Haha too much fun.

Oberwesel is a tiny town but high above it is the Castle Schöneburg...it was built around 900 and destroyed by the aforementioned French )schlecht( and rebuilt through the 19th century to become a hotel and restaurant of the 4 star variety. We had the Falcoln suite which is at the top and has a view of the Rhine...we sat and drank local Reisling wine (which comes from the grape vineyards the stick to every hill clinging for life) watching the barges and trains go up and down the river.

The dinner was amazing as well...fantastic! Had one last glass of wine sitting atop a centuries+-old castle wall and watching the fog envelop everything. We felt like lords.

Oktober 11 - Baden Baden

Woke up early to go for a walk through quiet Triburg up to the waterfall before frühstuck. After the walk had frühstuck and met two sisters from America! They were hilarious and we had fun sharing stories. One was from just outside Carmel Indiana and the other from New Jersey. We actually went to Residenz museum the same day in München and probably walked right past eachother!

We all went to the House of 1000 clocks and looked at Cookoo clocks....and bought one! It is soooo beautiful!! They ship and everything. Sooo cool! We said auf weidersehen to them and started our drive up to Baden-Baden.

Baden-Baden has been a famous thermal bath relaxation town since, oooohhhh, around 0 A.D. when the romans found the thermal water to be rejuvenating...Marlena Dietrich used to hang out at the casino here. We found our room (tried a few places to no luck...we ain't sharing a bath with anyone!!!) at a cute place that also has a cafe and confectionary shop downstairs.

Went for some Wurst & Kraut (for Scott) and Käsespatzle (for Ryan) and then took a 3.5 hour relaxing time at the Friedrichsbaden...they have a regimine where you do a certain something for a few minutes...shower here for 2 minutes, sit in this sauna for 10 minutes, have someone scrub you with salt and then soap for 20 minutes....all nude. No towels, no suits. And in the middle is a gorgeous late baroque room where the sexes mix for some mineral baths. By that time we both even forgot the world still existed (to steal from a famous Mark Twain quote about Baden-Baden). It was fantastic.

We actually just finished that and found this internet cafe while driving around earlier letting people gawk at our car. Old men love it. We had this guy in >Triburg talk to us for about 5 minutes about how schone it is...he only spoke German and thought we were Dutch. Haha!

Off to the castle tomorrow night where they likely will not have internet so the next update will come on late Friday or Saturday when we are in Berlin after dropping our baby off....we are still having an amazing time!!!!!!! We have about 550 pictures and 2.5 tapes of footage to show off!

Auf weidersehen!

Oktober 10 - Triberg

Spent the morning walking through Lindau (slept in a bit) and climbing a lighthouse that overlooks their manmade bay. It has a lighthouse on one end and a tall statue of a lion...the bavarian lion! But we were not in Bayern long before we went back into the state of Baden-Würtemburg. Up along the Bodensee we drove and then entered the enchanting Schwarzwald...the Black Forest!

Ryan really got the car into gear as we drove mostly alone on rural roads through switchbacks and into valleys with views that made us gush! Stopped in at the Deutsches Uhren museum...a clock museum. It had...well...lots of clocks. Tons. We have pictures to show you of our confusion over the amount of clocks.

Another hairraising...er I mean...fantastic drive through switchbacks down to the beautiful town of Triburg, home of Black Forest Cookoo clocks! The hotel we chose (again just randomly) was beautiful and had a balcony in our room that faced the famous waterfall. It cascades about 100 meters down these granite steps and the sound was so relaxing to sleep to. When we arrived they let us know we were the only guests for the night so was it ok if we had breakfast at 9? Haha! 2 other rooms were rented by the end of the night we noticed, however. That would have been strange to be alone.

Ate there for dinner (it was very very good...I had a steak and Ryan had a pork steak with cheese on top) and of course had Black Forest cake. Yum! Went to bed around 11.

Oktober 9 - Lindau

(Doing this update on the 11th as we didn't have time to do it in Lindau)

After a charming time in Oberammergau, one of the cutest, quaintest towns you have ever seen (Dad VH you would have looooved to go hiking around there as it was sooo neat) we took off to the west through the Alps. Came across a church called the Weißkirche, a glorious roccoco monster in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful! Then down toward Füssen to see the Neuenschwanstein Castle (the one you see in all the travel brochures and the model for which the Disney castles were built) and its sister castle Hohenschwangau. How beautiful were they! Lots of hiking, however, including a hike high above the castle and onto a metal bridge erected in the 1800s just so the so-called mad king Ludwig II could watch his dream castle being built. I found it really interesting how obsessed he was with opera writer Wagner...the new castle was going to have the whole 3rd floor dedicated to him with his own living quarters but it wasn't finished. Ludwig II was deemed mad (he spent 3 million marks at that time to build the castle) so Ludwig left with his own physician to defend his sanity in München. Never made it though and he and his physician were found drowned in the Starnsee just outside München.

Amazing history! After that we went south into Füssen and over to Lindau, an island in the middle of the Bodensee that was a 9th century nunnery and then became a tightly packed maze of houses and streets by the 1800s. We stayed actually in an apartment house that rents its rooms out. It was probably built in the 1500s and we had a overlook of a tiny square with a fountain and all. Another great dinner of Weinerschnitzel, beer, and long beautiful walks.

In the background you can see the Swiss Alps which are huge and imposing...Switzerland is just on the other side of the lake...and the people in Lindau spoke mostly Sweizdeutsch...a mix of french, german, and something else...so suddenly pantomiming became really important especially when securing our room! She didn't speak a lick of english. Hehe.

Oktober 9 - Oberammergau

Finally I got this to post correctly! Thank you for all the great emails and wellwishes. We tried last night and this morning to get this website to post so you could get our update! We love sharing this fun with you.

Last night we had a great time in Die Alten Poste having a drink on the patio and watching the sun set in this little valley town. This is the town that promised to have a play every 10 years way back in 1600s because they were spared the black plague. It is a 5.5 hour play that next goes on in 2010. Grandma says she loved this town and we agree! Most of the tourists have left for the season, so we are finding ourselves pleasently alone and mostly with locals.

Had a beautiful dinner last night...the server let us sample some local Snapps...One was called Herbst (autumn in german) and the other Hoy or Hough or Hauch. Anyway, they helped us sleep very well last night! We are both doing well interpreting the menu as much as possible...it is tricky because I almost had deer last night and thought I was ordering pork! Oops! We laughed though because german meals take forever...like 2 to 3 hours!

Also had a local beer brewed by monks down the road...very dark but very smooth. They have a huge kloister building that looked like it was out of Disneyland. Which is ironic because Disneyland came from ideas like this. Strange world.

Off we go! We will try for another update in the next town but if we are internet-less we should have an update by the middle of the week or Friday at the latest.

Auf wiedersehen!!!

Oktober 8 - Alps

We are alive! I know we didnt get an update in yesterday but we werent able to get to an internet cafe. After a beautiful day in München (we toured the Residenz...a huge palace of the Würtemburgs, the ruling party up until 1918, did a bunch of shopping at great places like Dallmyer, purveyors of fine coffee and this fantastic lemon liquor that we sampled one morning) we decided to push the limits and try to find a place to stay outside of München.

Grandpa Van Horn had told me about Freising, a town that is next to the Weihenstephaner Univeristät and brewery, and said he took some classes there. We found a hotel, checked in, and boom we had done another first! Shown up in a town without a reservation and found a hotel! It was really neat. Had a nice night hanging out at a local cafe and then hit the sack.

The drive up was wonderful...the first time on the Autobahn and Ryan was at the helm. All those stories about traffic, mean drivers, etc. are false. Absolutely false. He got the car up to about 100 that day and still people were passing us!

This morning we woke to bells ringing, as it was Sunday (Somstag) and there is a church right next to the hotel. Had breakfast and took a great walk through the quaint city. Beautiful. There is a Dom (cathedral) overlooking the whole town and we walked up to it and took a tour. The main part is under renovation, probably after the pope visited a month ago, but we saw the old cloisters where the bishops and priests live...there were 1000 years of history preserved in carved marble plaques that show the history of bishops at that church.

After that we drove to Dachau, which was about 30 km away, and toured the concentration camp. Awfully sad, inhumane, and tragic. Makes one think of what we are doing with our 'terrorist camps' and the types of reasoning we use to justify it today. Anyways....

At about 13:00 we took to the road again and drove down the Autobahn to Garmisch-Partenkirchen which is in the Alps...WOW!!!! These mountains are huge!!! And WOW...Ryan got it up to 110 MPH!!!!!!!! Sehr Schöne! (Very good!)

Came to the tram that takes you 2000 feet to the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany, but it was almost closed so we decided to just take a picture and maybe come back tomorrow....so we backtracked to a beautiful town called Oberammergau...its very small and in a gorgeous valley. The buildings have religious frescos on the outside that date back to the 18th century...the rule was the more decorative and beautiful the fresco, the more wealthy the owner. Ironic, eh?

We are staying at Der Alten Post hotel which has been an inn for 350 years! We love it and are about to go eat and enjoy the freeeezing alp weather.

The weather in general has been wonderful...mostly sunny and in the 60s...here in the alps its in the 50s. Brr! But clear skies nonetheless.

Oktober 6 - München

Guten Tag! We are in Münich now after a beautiful morning in Stuttgart and a lovely 2.5 hour train ride to München on a high speed train. Got to our hotel and then promptly went for a bier in the Englischer Garten (10 times more beautiful than central park), a 2 hour factory tour of the BMW factory, and then a bunch of bier at the famous Höfbrauhaus! The beers are 1 liter which are HUGE!

We sat next to an 2 Italians who work for AirItalia (what is it with us an flight attendants?) and had an amazing time!

This morning we woke and went to pick up our baby...holy cow it's beautiful! They provided a nice breakfast with the best coffee you have ever had. Scott drove it out of the delivery center and promptly got confused with all the different traffic signals...if you want to turn left you go deep into the intersection. But then you can't see the signals because all of those are far before the white line. So you just kind of guess when you have to go because of the crosstraffic. YIKESAROONI!

Well I need to wrap up ... this is 5 euro per 15 minutes which Iäd franklz rather spend on a bier. hehe. Will write later and hopefully find a place that will let me upload some of the pictures...we have about 150 so far!

P.s. we are in the rennaisance hotel for one more night and then we have no idea after that where we will be...but the internet is everywhere so we will try to email and update this as much as possible. Thanks all for the emails and well wishes.

p.p.s. Ryan now orders his own Bretzen, and more! He reminded me a few minutes ago that 'wir kaufen briefmarken' which is stamps! I am very proud!

Tchuß!

Oktober 5 - Stuttgart

RICH and SANDY...send us an email and let us know how you are doing!!??!!

Guten morgen! We walked for miles yesterday to see all of the beautiful sites...the Altes Schloß and Neues Schloß (old and new palaces). We found the cutest Biergarten and both had our first brews in the Fatherland and it was amazing. Had to buy Ryön some new schuhs because the other ones were not cutting it. So we are both wearing Keens. Awesome.

Stuttgart people are so fashionable -- we love it! We took a nap (Rick Steeves would be disappointed) for an hour or so and then had a fantastic German dinner at a place called 'Zepplin Stärbe' where we both savored Schwabian dishes...that sort of a type of regional name. I had the meatloaf which honestly was like chopped ham formed into cakes ala Spam. It was pretty tasty´- the German potato salad was incredible. Sehr gut! Ryön had the Spätzle which is a very traditional dish and is reminiscent of Mac and Cheese but the noodles are potato noodles and the cheese\Käse was more sharp. Fantastich!

Went to bed at 22:30 and I had to order the wakeup call auf Deutsch...Können Sie mich wecken auf sechs Uhr? Can you wake me at 7? Showered, opened the windows and breathed the cleaneset, quietest air known to man. We love this city -- there are hardly any tourists here and most people seem to think we are German. Beautiful design houses...Bosch is based here...clean streets, alles fantastich!

The frühstuck (breakfast) is quite the event. Not your traditional Hampton Inn continental breakfast of packaged cereal and powdered eggs...we are talking THE SPREAD...cold cuts, mueslix with dozens of different fruits, fantastic coffee, juice, eggs, Käse struedel (cheese struedel), curried wurst, on and on and on and on. Loved it!

We left our bag at the hotel to do some more walking and shopping.

OH! Funny story...we are finishing and paying for dinner (you cant leave the bill on the table you have to wait for them to take it again and it takes forever) and suddenly someone knocks on the window...OUR FLIGHT ATTENDENTS from the flight over! They were so nice to us...even liked us so much they gave us a bottle of wine to wish us luck!

We ran outside and hugged them all. The restaurant was a part of the hotel in which they were staying! They had talked about '4F and 4G' all during dinner and how nice we were. Hehehe! We also met the Captain and First Officer. They were going to bed as they take the flight back tomorrow but we thought that the chances of us running into eachother are so slim that it means we are doing something right!

OK...going to sign off now. We are taking a train to München this afternoon because we have a BMW factory tour tonight at 6 p.m. Tchuß!! (you say it like Chews)

Oktober 4 - Stuttgart

Wir sind in Deutschland!!!! We can hardly believe that we made it...the flight was very, very long and we didn't sleep too well, but at least we made it with 1 hour of sleep in us and our luggage made it as well.

From the airport we took a 30 minute ride to the main station in Stuttgart called the Hauptbahnhof and walked a few blocks to our hotel. They let us check in early which was so nice and so needed -- a quick shower and we were off! It's about 13:00 and we toured the Schloßgarten and saw the Neuesschloß (New palace) and basically are relaxing.

2 funny stories...

This keyboard. It's a german keyboard so keys are in different places and there are some really cool keys! öäüß hahah the z is where the y should be so i keep sazing things with a z instead of a y...somebodz help me!

These two college students. We were walking around and they stopped us and started to speak in Deutsch. I laughed and said Ich spreche Englisch. She started speaking English and asked us if we would help her on her Universität project which is asking people what they want to do when they get old...(actually her english wasn't perfect but Ryan actually helped me understand what she was asking! So our answer was...'More Travel - Less Work' and she liked those answers, took a picture of us and asked our names and ages. We edited our names a bit. Hehe. She called Ryans name strange and pronounced mine 'horny' which i corrected with a laugh. She had a dutch last name too.

Wow. So that's the story so far! We love and miss you all...well we love you and we'll miss you later in the trip... :)

xoxoxo, Scött and Ryön

Pre-Trip #3 (Germany 2006)

Only a couple hours to go...we slept great last night and are feeling quite rested. Modern medicine is amazing. We are not taking our laptop but nearly all of our hotels have internet access and terminals so we will be updating our travelogue (what you are reading now...) as we go along!

Time to shower, dress, and finalize our packing...woohoooooo!!!!

Pre-Trip #2 (Germany 2006)

We are almost in the 48 hour bubble before we leave! Big announcement of the century -- we are fully packed. Uh, YEAH! That doesn't usually happen to us and the other great thing is that we are ending up taking far less than we thought. One duffelbag, one manpurse, and one backpack. Total -- not each, but total! So...we'll smell, who cares? (No really they do have laundry machines over there.)

The parents are coming today and will be here during our trip, taking care of our babies. We both can't tell you how grateful we are for them doing this! I know they are going to have a fantastic time in Austin and the animals will be soooo happy it's them and not anyone else. The two extra duffels that are flattened and stuffed inside our suitcase also will help us thank them...

So, here is the plan. We're not going to take a computer. Too heavy, too much work, and frankly Germany is more progressive with their internet cafes and public terminals that there's no point to it.

This page will be our main travelogue and we'll try to update it once a day or every-other day. We are bringing a camcorder and if luck allows us to download and post a picture here or there, then great! Otherwise, I'll just submit you to a 2-hour powerpoint presentation on the trip when we get back. Hah!

Also, most of the pages on this site have our contact information in case someone really needs to get a hold of us. Start by calling our house and talking to Rich or Sandy, please.