Heidelberg, Stuttgart, and the long ride home

Sorry for the large delay in my posting, but I've been tired/busy since returning from Europe. So, for those who have been patiently waiting, here's more on the tail end of my trip.

After spending a great Easter Sunday with the Klemm's, we packed up and got ready for a trip to Heidelberg and Stuttgart. Heidelberg was an important destination on the itinerary because 40 years ago, Tessa and Mike were married here while Mike was serving in the military. Of course, a lot can change in 40 years, including your memory. Upon arrival, we picked up a map and looked over it as we had lunch hoping to spur some memories of where they lived, hung out, got married, etc. The street name they could remember was, of course, not on the map and the military base is no longer there. The map wasn't too successful so we hit the town.

Heidelberg has a beautiful but very touristy old town. In fact, we thought the town was a little dead until we came upon the pedestrian strip and all of the sudden the streets were packed with people. As some of our party were distracted by all the neat souvenir shops, I went walking around trying to get some good pictures of Schloss Castle. As you can see from the pictures, it has seen some better days.

We all climbed the hill to check out Schloss Castle and had some great views of Heidelberg. Tessa also had Mike reenact a picture that they have of him overlooking Heidelberg on top of Schloss (I'll have to get a copy of it later). By now, they remembered that the place they lived in was across the river. Sadly we didn't have time to check it out because we needed to get back to Stuttgart to meet up with a family we were staying the night with (another great perk of traveling with a missionary with connections).

We stayed outside of Stuttgart that night at the family's house. They were very accommodating and had a good time talking with them. They have three boys as you can see in the pics below (if you haven't figured it out yet, you can click on the thumbnail for more pics!).

Darren also arranged transportation for us getting around Stuttgart. A woman named Silka served as our private taxi driver in her huge Renault van, she was great. We checked out the Porsche Museum and tried to get in on a factory tour, but there were none available. The rest of the day we spent walking around Stuttgart, enjoying our last day of Europe as we had to leave early the next day.

After the day in Stuttgart, we took the train home to Landshut for one last evening with the Klemm's. I must say that they really made the trip great but we had to say goodbye. Hopefully someday they will come visit us in the States so we can return their hospitality.

Wednesday was literally the longest day of my life. Thats what happens when you leave in the morning and fly halfway around the world. I think I was awake for 26 hours with a few naps here and there and finally crashed at home around 10pm PST which was 7 in the morning the next day back in Germany. The trip in Europe was great, but I'm not looking forward to the long flight next time I go.

Enjoy the rest of the pics, I finally figured out that I took nearly 2000 pictures on my trip so I need to do some editing. I haven't decided how many more I'll post here but feel free to check back for more.

Now that I'm back I'm getting ready for the real world, I start up the new job with HP on May 1st. I'm excited about it but not so excited about having to leave Seattle. Well I better get back to packing for the move. Thanks for reading and I've enjoyed all of your comments and emails. Maybe I'll set one of these up for everyday life...we'll see.

Heidelberg and Stuttgart

Salzburg and Easter

Saturday we took the train to Salzburg, Austria. Salzburg is a beautiful town but it was crawling with tourists for the holiday weekend. There are some great gardens there and a large castle up on a hill at the edge of town. Darren took us around to some great places and was our tour guide, which gave me a bit of a break. He spent seven months there on his mission. It was another great day with lots of sunshine, I think we all got a little color in our faces.

The way back was a bit of an adventure since there was construction going on on the train tracks. It was a good thing we had Darren with us because the train we were on was supposed to go directly to Landshut, but it stopped well short and everyone got off. It turns out they announced (in German of course) that in order to get to Landshut, we had to take a bus to another train station, then another train to Landshut. It was a bit more connections then we thought but since Darren knows the language we made it back without a problem. Darren also learned some great games to pass the time on long train rides. One of them was called the vegetable and fruit game. At the start, everyone picks a vegetable or a fruit. Then, everyone has to cover their teeth with their lips and someone begins the game by saying their fruit/veggie and then someone else's like: "cucumber to apple" all without bearing their teeth. The person who picked apple then says "apple to ..." whatever other types were chosen. If someone bears their teeth, they are out of the game. It turns out that saying fruits and veggies with your lips covering your teeth is quite hilarious looking and sounding. We ended up laughing hysterically on the ride back, good thing we had the train car to ourselves.

We spent Easter in Landshut and went to church with the Klemm's. Afterwards, we all came back for an Easter egg hunt and a huge lunch. The Easter egg hunt was fun but my egg hunting skills were a bit lacking since I haven't done it for awhile. Oh yeah, and it turns out that Horst had some lederhosen, so of course we had to try it out. I'll let the pictures do the talking since it's late and we have to get up early to go to Heidelberg tomorrow. Happy Easter everyone!!

Salzburg

Easter and Lederhosen fun

Darren!!!

(Psssst, the Venice blog is below)

After two years, I finally got to see my best friend again. We met up with Darren in Muenchen Thursday morning and it was a great reunion. I know Tessa has been counting down the seconds to this moment and she was quite thrilled to see Darren all dressed up in a good looking suit and tie. We spent the day together in Munich and took the train back to Landshut that evening. Darren spent his first six months here in Germany in Landshut so he was excited to return, especially to see the Klemm's. Mirjam made a great dinner of pancake type things that you sprinkled powdered sugar on and topped with apple sauce. A well-known favorite over here and I could tell why, it was good.

Today is Good Friday and over here everything is closed. They also close everything down for Easter Sunday and the Monday after as well. We're planning a leisurely day in Landshut which will be nice. Tomorrow we go to Salzburg, Austria for the day. We will spend Easter here in Landshut and Monday and Tuesday we will be in Stuttgart. Wednesday we fly back home. It's hard to think it has just been three and a half weeks so far, but I hope these last few days don't go by too fast because the real world awaits for me back home. Enjoy the pics!

Darren has Returned