Our visitors

We have wanted family and friends to come and visit us while we are here. This summer we had two separate visits, my dad came in the spring and the wife’s brother and sister in law came in the fall. Both visits were marked by super weather. The fall is a very nice time to visit as the Germans have their wine and October fests.

Here we are at Burg Eltz a 500 year old castle near the Mosel River. On the way down to the castle the clouds were low so we got this interesting visual with the sky. There is still an Eltz family that lives in the castle but they give tours through some of the rooms, it is very interesting to see what they looked like as you visit the other castle ruins.

We also visited Hardenburg castle one of our favorites. Additionally we went to Trier, Heidelberg, Bad Durkheim wurst fest, and Paris. Paris was visited in one day by taking the high speed train to and from. The train travels at 300km per hour.

Berchtesgaden-Summer 09

I think my faverite trip of the summer was the week we spent in southern Germany at Berchtesgaden. It is a beautiful location in the mountains, we went with 10 other families from church and so the kids had lots of friends. There is a lodge that the US Army got from the Germans at the end of WWII and they allow groups to stay and enjoy the location. We had a wonderful time.

Once again I can only find a few pictures, my mistake for not collecting them when we returned and making sure I could find them when I make this travel log.

This is picture of us at the Eagles Nest a place where the Nazis could entertain guests.

London-Summer 09

We really did go to London but I cant find any good pictures of the trip. We were able to fly up there for very little on a low cost European airline, say in an apartment for 3 nights and spend 2 and a half good days in London. We saw the Tower of London, West Minster Abby, Big Ben and rode the London Eye. We also saw the show Wicked. We ate lots of fish and chips and really fell in love with Steak and Ale pie, a kind of potpie with meet and gravy.

London is nice in that you can visit Europe and still read the signs and speak the language.

Here are the only pictures I could find, we are at dinner the first night.

Paris-Summer of 09

This summer was full of quick trips to easy Europen cities. After a week in Rome I determined that one can over stay in one city. Our first big city trip was to Paris, we were able to rent a townhouse near DisneyWorld Paris. It held the family and was a good price, we took the train into the city from the near by station.

On our first day we went to Versilles in the morning, we were the first family in line to get tickets. It is our tradition, get there early before the crowds. We would repeat that in London at the Tower of London and West Minster Abby.

We toured the palace and the garden with some very nice fountians we got lunch in the garden, to keep with the location we had french fries, one must live like the locals, as they say when in Rome...except we were in Paris of course.

After Versilles we rode the train back into Paris and saw the Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triumphe, and the Sacre Coeure. Not bad for one day. The next day we were 3rd in line for the Louver, then to Notre Dame, we finished the trip with some shopping. Paris in two days not bad.