Thursday, December 24, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Catching Up on December Activities
Our week ended by Mom getting to one more Christmas market. We went down to Baden Baden. They say that because the town is so nice you have to say it twice. It was a cute little town that we wished we had more time at - the story of Mom‘s trip. While Mom was here she was a handy lady too. For all of you who know her you wouldn’t expect anything less. She hung hooks in my closet. This sounds really easy but we have cement walls and a small handheld drill. She also fixed my vacuum cleaner with the duck tape that she brought over. I love when she comes to my house whether in the states or abroad. She headed out on Friday with no problems. I was only a little upset to see her go, but she kept reminding me that we had a big trip ahead and only a couple of weeks until I would see her again. Thanks for coming over Mema.
Now onto what we did for the rest of the weekend. Dan arrived home on that Saturday and slept for the better half of the day. The Grau’s invited us over for supper and some cards the same night. It was so nice to visit, (beat Dan and Angie G. in cards) and get Dan up and round. On Sunday, I decided to take the kids ice skating in Heidelberg. I thought I would see how they faired since we will be doing some ice skating in Austria. They had a great time as you see in the pictures. The weather was wonderful. It was lightly snowing. Just enough to make the setting beautiful and get you ready for the upcoming season. I think they would have stayed all day but my toes were like ten tiny little ice cubes. We finished the ice skating with hot chocolate. If Mom were along she would have asked for amoretto in it. (Just kidding Mom). It’s the German way!
We also had a going away party that night for 2 of the John Deere families that were on their way back to Moline. Even though we have only been here for a short time, the John Deere community is very strong over here and it’s sad to see them go.
This brings me up to date on our activities. I’m now in the car riding to Austria. We have been sitting in a stau for the past couple of hours. This is a traffic jam for those who don’t know what a stau is. While we were sitting there, Dan and I noticed there were a lot of cars pulled over on the side of the road. Our friend Seth called as the discussion was going on between Dan and myself. He let us know that part of the year the Germans use more of a water fluid for their windshield. He found this out from his personal experience. His sprayers froze up on the outside of his car. Now it makes sense why people were pouring water over their windshields and their hoods were up because they were pouring antifreeze in their tanks. Lucky for us that Dan had his oil changed and they had already replaced the windshield fluid for us. The gas stations are absolutely ridiculous. People pouring out of everywhere. Good thing we aren’t in a hurry and the kids are doing great. I love vacation. Merry Christmas. Enjoy each and everyone one of your family members and all the craziness that ensues. We will be thinking of you while we’re skiing.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
London
Our adventure started very early December 3rd. I was sitting in the car as Mom realized that our tickets were laying on the table, along with all our maps and tickets to the plays. What a disaster that could have been. We arrived at the airport at 5:30 in the morning. The flight from Germany to London was only an hour.
When we arrived we hit the ground running. We were so excited, we ran all the way up approximately 100 steps with our suit case (it was really heavy). The more the story gets told the higher the steps will be. To be completely honest, we slowed way down about 3/4 of the way up we were laughing so hard. A wise women told me, if you have a good laugh you add 7 years to your life. We added a lot of years during this trip. The first day was about 21 hours for us. We went on a red bus tour, hopped off, and saw the Tower of London with the crown jewels. The red bus was to slow for us so, the"tube" was the way we went. This was much faster and we are really good at it. Mom was nice enough to let me eat at the Hard Rock. The nice thing about Hard Rock is no matter were you are in the world they still have the same American style food. I did a little shopping there and we were off to Mom's first professional musical - Les Miserables. She absolutely loved it. It was my second time seeing it and it was still so amazing it brought a tear to my eye. We finally hit the bed around 11:00. Mom said, "a $2 bed would have looked just as good as a $200 bed."
Friday was just as busy as Thursday. We had a nice breakfast and then made our way to St.Paul's Cathedral. This cathedral was originally a protestant church. They modeled some of the work after St. Peter's in Rome. After touring around the bottom and envisioning myself walking up the main aisle marrying a Prince, we climbed all the way up to the top of the bell tower. It was a clear day so we/I could see for miles. Mom on the other hand, could only see the wall because she was to afraid to look out, but she did make it up and I'm proud of her. We also saw the Westminster Abbey Friday. This is where some of the early Kings and Queens are buried, where coronation's and famous funerals are held. I would say this a center piece of London. Our evening again was topped off with American food and a musical. We ate at the Texas Embassy - Mexican food. Our play that night was Wicked. I now can appreciate how much my good friend Aven loves it. The costumes, lighting, singing, acting - just everything. I can't wait to take my kids to it.
Our trip ended Saturday with the changing of the guard and a tour of Churchill's museum. I would recommend seeing this museum also. It was very interesting how things worked in war time. The thing that stays with me the most is that the secretaries couldn't tell their families where they were working. Some of Churchill's own secretaries would work up to 18 plus hours a day with him. I could go on but I hope you get the idea. We arrived home around 1am Sunday morning. We wanted to squeeze every last drop out of the trip. I really enjoyed my trip with my Mom. Thanks for going with me Mom. I love you and hope you had a happy birthday.
Leia Mais…Monday, December 7, 2009
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