Kenneth recently had to travel to Germany for work (horrible right?) and we decided to make a trip out of it! I have always dreamed of going to Europe and was excited to get my first chance. My dad and stepmom were kind enough to offer to watch the kids while we were gone. Kenneth flew out on Sunday, May 20th into the Munich airport. I drove the kids up to Woodland on Monday, and then flew out of the Sacramento airport on Wednesday May 23rd. Poor Kenneth spent his 29th birthday all alone in a foreign country...we made up for it later!
Here are just a few of the photos Kenneth took before I got out there.
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| View of Finningen |
I was a little nervous about leaving the kids. I LOVE my kids, but I am not that mom who never leaves their sides...I definitely like my alone time...but I was mostly worried about Emily who can sometimes be clingy. It usually takes her a little while to warm up to people, but not this time! As soon as she saw Grandma and Grandpa she was just fine.
My flights were, I'll admit, long. I flew about 15 1/2 hours total. Sacramento to Philadelphia and then Philadelphia to Munich. The first flight there was no snack, no movies, nothing. Luckily we bought a Kindle Fire specifically for this trip so I watched Harry Potter 7 Part 1 (it was one of my longer movies) and read. Sat next to some nice ladies. The second flight was nice - lots of movie and tv options (Taken and Lie to Me). I was hoping to sleep some since I was arriving at 8:05 local Munich time - but that didn't happen!
Flying into Munich was GORGEOUS! Germany was already very different that I thought it would be. As the plane descended all I saw was GREEN! As some of you may know, I love trees and fields, and Germany was simply covered with them. There were the cutest little towns separated by immaculate fields and groves of trees and then a little ways away there would be another little town. Definitely not as crazy populated as the States! The towns were adorable with their similar little white houses with red roofs and prominent churches. I was already struck by how beautiful it was there.
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| View of the Ulm Munster from Finningen |
Once I arrived in Munich I had to catch a train to the main Munich train station, and then take a train to the town of Ulm. I will admit that I was nervous about flying to Germany by myself. Maybe it's ridiculous but I had never been out of the country alone...I was nervous about that whole, "I don't speak German thing." I followed the directions Kenneth's work gave him and the instructions he gave me over the phone (granted he didn't actually get ON the train, but he checked out the airport station before renting a car). I was getting worried when I selected "English" on the ticket machine and most of the words were still in German! Ahh! Luckily there were 2 girls from my flight next to me who were able to help me out. They were so sweet - coming home from their first trip to the U.S. We chatted on the train and found out they were from one of the towns we were planning to stop out. They were incredibly kind and helped me buy my ticket at the main train station for Ulm. I don't know what I would have done without them! Thank you to my nameless friends from Nurnberg!
I took a long and slow train ride from Munich to Ulm feeling a little nervous still (rightly so, since I actually got on the wrong train initially. I was supposed to go to platform 12, which I did...I just didn't realize at first that there were 3 trains parked at platform 12...thank goodness I asked to confirm! Once in Ulm, Kenneth was going to try to pick me up during his lunch break. I waited around for awhile (after having my first experience of paying 50 cents to use the bathroom) and he never showed, so I decided to catch a cab to his hotel in a town called Finningen (as per the instructions from his work). Waited around at the hotel for awhile, thinking he was already back in his meetings...long story short, he WAS in Ulm looking for me after getting out of his morning meetings late, and drove around forever finding a pay phone to call me...not the best start to our trip together in Germany! Ha! He hurried back, gave me the key to his room, and headed back to his meeting...a little late, but thankfully his boss didn't care (the presenter was beyond boring and went off on lots of tangents apparently). I headed to the hotel room and was grateful to take a shower after about 26 hours of travel (2 plane rides, 2 train ride and 1 taxi ride). I tried so hard to stay up, but ended up falling asleep for about 2 hours until Kenneth was done with his meetings.
After Kenneth was done with meetings we ate at the hotel's Beer Garden. I mentioned earlier that there aren't any typical restaurants in the towns...they only have Beer Gardens which are basically restaurants run out of homes where you eat outside. Kenneth was so sick of Germany food by the time I got there (neither of us were the biggest fans overall) so we ordered salad (which was gross...shredded cabbage, carrots and something else with a lot of vinegar dressing), their version of french fries, hamburgers (with cucumbers), chicken wings and BBQ ribs. We felt kind of awkward when the waitress gave us complimentary beer and shots...I wondered if she would feel offended at all since we left it on the table!
After dinner we walked around the town of Finningen. It was a cute little town - not big at all. I thought it was so interesting that the towns don't have an grocery stores, gas stations or typical restaurants. We walked up to the town's church.
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| I loved all the gardens and the houses were all adorable |
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| The fields were immaculate and we loved the tree in the background |
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| I have never seen bees like these! They were all around these gorgeous purple flowers |
We walked to the little town of Neuhausen and walked around. The walking path we took to the town ended in a field where they kept cows! I loved all the small towns because they all had cows, or sheep. The people have such a slow pace of life, and really seem to live simply. I absolutely love it. I wish I were more like that. We walked around the town and bought a pretzel at a local beer garden. It must have been pretty clear we weren't locals. I'm positive everyone know each other in these small towns. All the old people drinking their nightly beers together were staring at us. Oh, and it may have been that we had to ask if the owner spoke English...
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| They always had signs showing what town you were leaving and what you were headed towards. |
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| Walking home during sunset with views of Ulm in the background |
Some interesting things I noticed about Germany that first day:
- the people are very considerate. On the train from Munich to Ulm, no one spoke on the train. Everyone just sat quietly, even if they were on the train with someone. If someone had headphones in, they kept their music low. I have always heard that Germans can be rude - but maybe they only seem rude because they are used to most Americans talking and listening to their music too loudly.
- EVERYONE smokes! It is disgusting. I thought I was going to die of second hand smoke just from my time at the train station.
- You know how in the states who can't go 100 ft. without seeing a McDonald's, or soda machine? Well in Germany, you can't walk that far without seeing a cigarette dispensing machine. So weird to me. Don't they realize those things kill you? Then again, I didn't see very many people overweight (despite all the drinking), so in all fairness I can say, "Don't Americans know that being excessively overweight will kill them?" Hmm...it was definitely interesting to think about
I arrived on Kenneth's final day of meetings, so we spent the following day in the city of Ulm. Check out the next post. Now that I've covered getting to Germany, there will be LOTS more pictures! They are gorgeous so you won't want to miss them!