Germany!

First off, thanks to the amazing Alysia for educating her mother on how to make a collage at picasa. We started at the very end of our trip, since that is the best way to assure that all the pictures are in order... and then we got tired of making more collages.... so I will blog the trip backwards, it looks like. Ah, well at least all the blogs will be in order once I get done, so if it bothers you, you can wait to read it until I am done posting everything. So here we are starting off with the last part of the trip. We flew into Munich from Rome, rented a car and toured GermanyWe got almost to the Chiemsee, and it was time to turn in for the nite. We found a really nice little Pension and got a very nice room with an amazing breakfast in the morning. The next day looked like lousy weather, and I was all worried already, but it wasn't long and all the fog had burned off and we had blazing sunshine and warm fall weather. We stopped at Prien, and tood a ferry to Herrenchiemsee, the 3rd of Crazy Ludwig's castles, this one was patterned after Versaille, because Ludwig was totally enamoured by Louis XIV. I think it is a lot prettier than Versaille. Sam loved it.
After that it was on to Berchtesgaden. What a georgeous place. All the busses to the eagles nest had left for the day, but we loved it anyways. Such beautiful scenery. Those mountains are the very best.We drove for a while on the DeutscheAlpenstrasse and just ohhed and ahhed all along the way. We made it to Linday that night and stayed in a nice little hotel just over the border in Austria.
Ulla was just back from her vacation in France, so we didn’t drop in on her until the next morning. Carolus apparently was not aware of our coming and acted very puzzled but friendly when I came to his door. After a little prodding he finally realized who I was and poor Ulla had to cut short her shower. But we had a lovely visit with them. Then we took off north-westerly to the black forest. Very pretty too. By 2pm we arrived in Offenburg and thanks to our trusty little GPS (thanks Joe) we pulled up in front of Klaus and Karin’s house. Manuela and her two sons came too and we had a great visit. Sam loves that part of my family too. I think they liked him as well. We finally had to say our good-buys and ended up in Trier that night.
The next morning, after consulting the map, we realized that we were just across the border from Luxemburg…. Yes, we did have to drive there and dang it, the gas was super cheap there, and we had just gassed up in Trier the night before.
After that it was Porta Nigra and a stroll thru Trier, a visit to Karstadt and the Trier Cathedral. Very nice and totally enjoyable.

We had asked at the hotel about the road along the Mosel river…. Oh, not more than an hour to Koblenz that way…. Yea right! 3 hours later and not even half-way done, we broke it off and headed for the freeway. It was very pretty, though.
We made it to Karen’s new and improved house by 8pm and were delighted how nice it looks. Patrick really dolled it up. We stayed at another cute little bed and breakfast and the silence there was almost deafening. Views of fields and woods and cute little villages. We spent the day with Karen and her cute family. Shopping for German chocolate (yes, you’re welcome) and other great stuff.

That evening we arrived at Oma’s house. She and Carlo were waiting and very excited to see us. We spent 2 days with them, enjoying their company, going downtown and riding the S-Bahn, the Bus and the Boats. Great fun, great weather. We even made it to church and were sad to see so few members there. But Karl Schmitt is now the Stake President and his son is in the Bishopric.

We got up at 4am on Monday, drove to the Airport, turned in our nice little Opel and commenced our 28 hour day, arriving at midnight in Salt Lake. Phew! What a day. But it was all nice and smooth, even customs was not as bad as last time and we made it home just fine. Dacia picked us up, Marti put us up and Alysia and Grace came home with us and entertained us for the week, and cooked for us too. Then Dacia and Ellie came for a week and cooked and entertained some more. Now Alysia, Grace and Topher are back…..What AM I going to do when I am back on my own???? Will I die of boredom??? Well, I am sure it won’t be long before we are off again, or someone else will come to visit. This is great, I love it.