Coming Home

We woke up at 4:00 to get ready and out the door by 5:00. Our hotel called for a taxi and it seemed to appear out of nowhere. Smooth sailing to the train station and on to the airport.

It some ways even though things go smoothly it still seems to be a bit difficult, just making sure we are on the correct train, etc. We couldn't find many English speakers, or maybe people just didn't want to help. We realized we needed to validate our train tickets as the people were boarding. These trains stop and leave very quickly, so you have to be ready. We remembered the validation process from Italy, but we were not sure about Germany and we didn't see any validation machines. Luckily someone who spoke English did hear me asking and looking and pointed out the machine. I stuck them in as fast as I could hoping to get on the train that Monte and Paige had just boarded. I was happy I made it too! It is always hard when you're carrying luggage, and trying to figure everything out too.

We arrived with a comfortable amount of time so everything went fine. I was a bit concerned as we boarded our flight when I heard a father tell his little kids they were in row 16, and we are 17! But I shouldn't have let that bother me. Instead I should be concerned that we have about six kids within three rows of us between the ages of 1 1/2 and 6. This may be an interesting flight. The single dad is with 2 kids, one maybe 3 and one maybe 5 siting directly in front of us with only himself across the isle. Hope it all goes ok. The sneezing and coughing I hear concerns me less. The joys of flying!



We are 4 hours in and the kids have been great so far. The beauty of computers and movies! They have ear phones and movies on the ipad.

We are getting hungry..surprise, surprise! Glad we grabbed a bit of food before we left, but our flight left at 9:30 and it is 1:30, shouldn't there be lunch by now, and what about the Baileys I was expecting? This time no chocolate, no wine, and no Baileys. I hope they step it up soon or my last impressions of Air Berlin may change!

We are now at 3:15, finally got some hot food, wine and Baileys. Whoo! I feel better!

Had some beautiful views out of the airplane: icebergs, mountains, snow plains, most in Canada. We missed Iceland, which I bet was gorgeous.








Maybe I'm fooling myself, but it seems to me this flight wouldn't be too bad if we didn't have to get up so early. But, I think the jet leg is worse this direction. I guess well see. Ah oh...baby crawling up the isle!


Lucky for us the new iPad has a 10+ hour battery. The kids nearest to us used it all.

We arrived on time and took a shuttle to the hotel in SF. We did a park and fly hotel package, but decided to stay at the hotel the last night since our departure wasn't until the afternoon. We got to the hotel at 1:30, but considered driving home since we all felt pretty good. I encouraged Monte to stay, at least for a couple of hours to get some sleep before we drove home. We tried, but felt so wired we just decided to leave at about 2:30. We figured we'd run into traffic since we were in the Bay Area on a Friday. But, we forgot it was a holiday weekend until we were underway. Wow...a lot of traffic! It took us 4 hours to get home. We picked up dinner and were asleep by about 8:00. I think by that time we had been awake 25 hours! I don't even remember giving myself an injection (those great meds) and when I woke up at 11:30 I thought I had forgotten. I couldn't find my syringe and then found the package in the garbage, so I knew I had taken it. Weird to be that tired!

When we got home we found out from Megan our house-sitter that our cat had been eating a lot of food. She had also heard some different sounds in the house but the cat was in the room with her and the dog was at dog vacation camp, so it wasn't them. She couldn't find any problems until one night she opened the side door to find a raccoon staring at her. He had been coming in through the cat door! Good thing Megan was staying here or the raccoon could have been getting into more than just cat food!

It is good to be home...I think...?? We loved our trip and already started planning the next one. But, nothing beats home sweet home!

Until next time.......




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Location:45,000 Feet

Our Last Day

We left our B&B, here are the owners:



When we left he pulled out a hankie and pretended to cry and wipe tears and then said "shit, shit". I'm not sure if he really understood the translation of shit!

We drove to Koln (Cologne) today to return our car and see the famous cathedral. Our drive was wonderful along the Mosel River and then the Rhine. It was a beautiful sunny day, temperature in the low 70's. We decided to find our hotel and drop our bags before returning the car which was located near the cathedral. I don't know what it is but big cities with tons of cars, bikes, two lanes where one lane turns into parking unexpectedly, all of it kind of freaks us out. It really takes two people to drive, one to yell, "Watch out! And the other one to drive the car! It really is amazing we didn't kill someone on this month long trip...whoops, did I day that out loud? We are thankful Monte is a skilled driver.

So anyway, we found the hotel ok, but parking on the street was difficult. We finally found a place, paid for parking and went in to get our room. They told us they had a garage we could use so we figured it would make it easier to get our bags into the room. Someone had to use a key to let us into to the parking garage. Have you ever seen those lots on TV where your car goes into an elevator and then it is parked within a couple inches of the others...yep! That is what we did. Very interesting. We got our bags to the room and then had to get the attendant to help us get the car back out. A bit scary, but we did it.

We didn't mention in the blog that we had a rental car issue. When we picked up the car in Munich, it was late afternoon, we drove it from the dark garage, and then we were on our way. Sure we hadn't slept much in the last 24 hrs or so, but we drove fine and made it to our B&B ok. We parked in a lot for the B&B where there was only a couple other cars, and we were on the end. Anyway, the next morning Monte was up early, before breakfast, and went out to get coffee. When he returned he noticed a large scrape along the side of the car. I mean a large scrape, like12 inches from top to bottom in a white paint color, and probably 5 inches wide. We couldn't believe it! We never remembered hitting anything, no one had parked next to us, there was no chance it could have been something we did....or could it? We were so tired, could we have hit something and not known it? So, many thoughts were going through our head...do we call our insurance, call the rental car company, call the agent who set up the rental? We did not have a phone and didn't want to spend time worrying about it, so we decided to let it go and deal with it when we turned the car in. All day today we were thinking of what to say, will they believe us if we say we didn't do it, how much will it cost, etc. It has been on our mind the last month. Not to mention our parking brake got stuck (it works by a button) and we couldn't get the gas tank cover off- push button that wouldn't open, even though we had done it many times. So it is clear we were not having a love affair with this car!





So we went to return the car, drove around and around trying not to kill someone and finally found a small sign. We drove in and still couldn't find it. Monte got directions and just walked since we had found a parking place. He says he would never have found it without help. To make a very long story short, there was small writing on our contract noting the damage to the car, so we didn't do it! Even though we were sure we didn't, we didn't know how we would prove that. So, we felt much better! It would have been nice had they mentioned it to us when we first got the car. Oh, well.




We walked to the train station to find out what train we need to get us to the airport. We had no option of return flights, it is only at 9:30, so unfortunately we have to get up by 4:00am, be out to call for a taxi for the ten min ride to the train station, take the 40 min ride, catch the shuttle to the terminal and check in 3 hours early. Well, I was hoping to avoid all this, but what can you do? Maybe we'll sleep well on the airplane.





After dropping our car we walked to the cathedral. It was amazing! We didn't get any information about it, but just looking at it was fantastic. We spent about an hour inside, then decided to walk back to our hotel. And of course, nothing is easy when you travel. So it took awhile to find the right street and it began to rain. Luckily, yesterday we picked up a cheap umbrella since it looked like possible rain. Our raincoats did arrive by mail yesterday but we didn't get them until the end of our day, and today we dropped our luggage at the hotel without thinking about raincoats. It had looked sunny and nice. So our 7€ umbrella was worth it.

We had a nice dinner at the hotel; we are packed and ready for our 4am call.


Makes you appreciate our "all you can drink" soda! This is the size of a coke. Funny how the beer portions are not a problem!


Small elevator! We could hardly put ourselves in much less our luggage.


This was more of a business day just getting ready to fly, but still a fun and exciting day. Many interesting people here in Koln, reminds me San Francisco, if you know what I mean.

A GREAT trip! We have loved every minute! So thankful we have had this opportunity in our lives!


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Location:B9,Cologne,Germany

Mosel River Day Three

Today we decided to go to the tourist areas of the Rhine River, St. Goar and Bacharach. We took a river boat cruise between the two. The weather was much nicer today, overcast with misty rain occasionally. It was fun walking around the villages. No crowds at all, anywhere we have been. In fact, yesterday we ran into an older German couple we had talked to the day before and as they noticed us they said, "Oh, the Americans".

It was really fun to see all the castles along the river. They are amazing and there are so many. Again we loved watching the cargo barges and river boat cruises. The villages are again those storybook kind, we never seem to get tired of them.






This is me leading my tour group












We did have a different experience today. While we were driving Monte had a guy following that kept trying to pass, but didn't. So, when he found a space he pulled over to let the guy pass. When we pulled over he did too. He got out of the car and motioned for us to stop, he was wearing a police uniform. He came up to the window, hands down on our car door and said something in German and Monte told him he only speaks a bit if German. Then the police said "Can I help you?", not in a friendly manner. Monte explained he was just letting him pass and that we didn't need his help. He said ok, have a good day, then left. It was weird. His car was unmarked and Monte said his uniform said captain on it. He thinks the guy was having a bad day and would have chewed us out if we were German, but I'm not sure what for, maybe going too slow...we were going speed limit!

We also got lost and Monte asked a guy for directions, instead he said follow me, I'll take you there. Nice guy.


Of course we had our usual breakfast, ate lunch at 2:00 (and found a place open, maybe because it is more touristy -sandwich, soup, and a personal size German pizza which is really good). Then we had cake at 4:00, because it is tradition, you know, and then our light dinner turned into a full course dinner...because it was our last chance! Then we walked around town as we have for the last couple nights. Nice to have it cooler.



Tomorrow we return our car, train to our hotel, see the cathedral in Koln, then fly home on Friday.





Paige was feeling sad tonight knowing that we are leaving. It is sad to think we may never see the same places again, but you never, we may, or we may find even better ones!

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Location:Briedern, Germany