The flight to Europe was much harder than the flight home. It seems like it took us a good 3 days to really adjust to the time difference. We would find ourselves wide awake at 3:00 am and napping at 5:00 pm! We left Sunday night and arrived Monday morning. Michael's training started Tuesday night, so he had time to get over the jet lag! We walked around the small village (Nierstein) where his training was Monday and Tuesday. Nierstein is right on the Rhine River, but is not exactly a tourist attraction. It is 35 kilometers from Frankfurt and not many people spoke English, ha!
I was fortunate enough to be able to tag along to dinner with Michael's class. One night we ate at a restaurant in the middle of a vineyard (which we walked through to get to the restaurant!):
While Michael was working, I managed to figure out the public transportation and tour some cities. Mainz is also close to Frankfurt, but has an older feel. Many of it's historic buildings survived WWII and are well preserved (Frankfurt was pretty much leveled during the war).
Dom cathedral in Mainz:
Another cathedral I visited in Mainz was St. Stephan's, which had gorgeous blue stained glass windows:
Some pictures around Mainz:
Another day, I visited Worms (pronounced "Vorms"). Much of Worms was left unharmed during the war, which makes it a tourist attraction. The biggest draw is this cathedral, which was built in 1515:
It was really neat! I have to admit, I was very proud of myself for figuring out the German train station and maps of the cities! "No Deutche" was my best phrase (No German). Many people in Germany know at least a few phrases in English, which is good and bad. Bad, because they think if they mix in those few phrases with a stream of German, you will understand! Ice cream is a regular treat in Germany and there were many ice cream shops in every city. I finally figured out "erdbeere" is strawberry and was able to order (many) strawberry cones using hand gestures and "erdbeere."
The last night of Michael's training included an International Dinner in which each person was to bring something that represents their country (everyone in the class was from a different country). Since there wasn't access to a refrigerator or a heat source, I told Michael I would go to the grocery store and find something. We were thinking an apple pie. However, German grocery stores (especially in small villages) are not like grocery stores in America! There isn't anything pre-made and it was very hard to recognize food, since everything was in German. The grocery store in Nierstein was about the size of a gas station here. I debated on a few things, but finally settled on ham pinwheels, since there are only 3 ingredients (ham, cream cheese, and pickles). Those ingredients I could at least recognize! We did end up having small refrigerators in our rooms, so I was able to throw them together and chill them before the dinner. I hope none of his classmates come to America and order ham pinwheels, thinking it's a normal dish, ha!
Here is a classmate from France, describing the pate's he brought (goose, beef, deer, and duck liver):
He also brought some incredibly stinky cheese:
I told him if cheese smelled like that in America, we throw it away. He was not very amused!
When Michael's training was over, we headed to Frankfurt for 2 nights. Frankfurt is a pretty modern city. We took a tour on an open air bus, which was interesting. Many buildings that were leveled during the war were rebuilt as close to the original as possible.
The hotel we reserved in Frankfurt claimed to be 3 stars, but was comparable to Motel 6 in America. It was also directly across the street from the main train station, which means trains, buses, and taxis were loudly making their presence known at all hours. Since there isn't air conditioning in any building, we had to leave the window open and deal with the noise. Not our finest moment in Germany! We tried to stay out of the room as much as possible!
There was a dragon boat race in Frankfurt one day while we walked along the river:
The day before we left was my favorite activity of the trip! We took a Rhine River cruise. We cruised for 4ish miles and saw 10 castles and the Lorelei Rock. The Lorelei Rock is at the narrowest part of the Rhine and caused many ship accidents. In the 1800's, a poet wrote about the Lorelei as a golden haired "siren" that distracted ship men from their duties, causing many of the crashes. It is next to a charming village named St. Goar that we stopped in and did some shopping. Some pictures from the cruise:
St. Goar:
Check out the cuckoo clocks:
Michael posing at the train station, while we waited on our train:
We actually ended up coming home 2 days early. The most we have ever been away from Olivia was 3 nights in Vegas last year, yet we somehow thought we would be OK with 11 days. It was a great trip and wonderful experience, but we will be sure to take her with us on any future long trips!
Thanks so much to all the family that helped keep Olivia entertained!! She was very well taken care of (and spoiled)!
