Mom

OK, this is our LAST post about Germany... It's just so hard to part from it (moment of silence), but actually it wasn't. Though we loved it, it was SOOOO nice to get to warm Texas, and get back to our house and toys and ditch the luggage, and head to Chili's Restaurant where the water was ever-filled up, and free no less!

So for our last post, I want to thank my mom again, for making the trip out to see us! I'm so glad she was able to spend time with members of the family (Ulerich and Gerlinde) that she lived with when she was a foreign exchange student during her high school days. My kids and I spent some time with Gerlinde and her family as well, and I was glad to get a glimpse of what a real German family is like. So mom, thanks for the time, the endless herbal tea, the traveling, and the babysitting for Ben and I's trip to Paris! The kids loved having you, and so did I! Love ya~

Spending time with Gerlinde

Abby and Nino still played great with the language barrier!

Heidelberg Castle

Anniversary in Paris

Mary's mom Cathy came to visit us in Germany and somehow got roped into watching the kids for a weekend so Mary and I could go to Paris and celebrate our anniversary. I'm still not sure if she volunteered to watch them or if we pressured her into it, but either way we're extremely grateful. It was the first time we've been anywhere alone since before Abby was born.

We got to Paris by high speed ICE (intercity express) train. It was a pleasant ride through the French countryside at a mere 315 km/h.

Our first stop was Sephora, a gigantic perfume store on the Champs Elysses. We sampled just about everything in the store before deciding on some French fragrances to bring home with us.

The Arc de Triomphe, a war monument built in Napoleon's time, was a cool stop. The views from the top were amazing.

We ran into Quasi Moto at the Notre Dame cathedral, another very cool place and the point from which all distances are measured in Paris.

We happened to be in Paris on the first Sunday of the month, which meant free admission to the the Louvre. The crowds were crazy inside, and we had to elbow our way to the front of a huge group to see the famous, but not all that exciting, Mona Lisa. The Louvre is so massive that we only saw a small part of it in the two hours we were there, but what we did see was pretty impressive. More on that in a future post.

We froze our butts off going to the top of the Eiffel tower at night, but now we can add ourselves to the long list of people to have kissed at said location. Totally worth it.

Strasbourg, France

Today was a great day trip to France. We drove to the city of Strasbourg (about an 1 1/2 hours from Landstuhl), which is in Alsace and is known as the Christmas Capital of Europe. Our first stop was the area town called Petite France. As you can see, it's a pretty well preserved section of town with cobblestone streets and buildings from the 1600's. It was fun walking around and hearing the people speak French after a month of listening to German.

Our next stop was the Cathedral of our Lady of Strasbourg, built in the 1200s and considered a Gothic masterpiece. The square outside the church was completely packed with people because the annual Christmas Market was in full swing. The cathedral was beautiful from the outside, especially with the Christmas lights and decorations surrounding it.

We jostled our way through the crowd and eventually made it inside. The interior was really nice. There was a large, complicated looking contraption called an Astronomical clock. We were there too late to get a demo, but it looked interesting. There was also a nice tribute on the wall to the American military for their sacrifices in freeing Alsace during WWII.


We wandered the cobblestone streets for a while, then found a place for dinner that served flammekueche, also known as tarte flambee, which is as an Alsation specialty that looks sort of like a pizza. I've added a nice stock photo from Wikipedia to illustrate.
We rounded out the night with some more shopping. Take note of Mary's fabulous new hat in the picture below.