In July, Billy called me and said "hey do you want to go to Germany?" I'm like "the answer to that is always yes!" So, after roping my amazing mother into taking on all of the daily responsibilities associated with my children, we started making plans to go to Germany. Billy had to work, so it wasn't all fun for him, but only having to pay for my plane ticket was pretty nice!
We started off the trip by going to White Castle, since neither of us had ever been! I had the bar set really, really low, because the movie that introduced them into my world was awful, and they still managed to disappoint.
The Detroit airport was so busy! Despite getting there close to three hours early, I was still concerned about being late to our flight! I guess I'm not a fan of late flights, 620 was our departure time, and we flew overnight, which was not ideal.
We did make it onto the plane, and didn't really have to rush! (But we did not have time to ride the train down the corridor like we had planned.)
The dinner they provided us surpassed expectation. I got a curry with rice and Billy got a pasta that he also enjoyed. I didn't have much of an appetite (I was concerned about getting on an airplane, since I have been less than happy about flying in the past, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd imagined it would be! In fact, next time I would really rather leave from Lansing and take two flights.)
Happy Valley Goose Bay struck me as a really funny name. lol.
The breakfast they served Billy enjoyed, though neither of us can recall was it was. I was not feeling great, so I did not eat more than a bite of mind.
We made it! It was his coworker, Mike's, first time in Germany! We arrived first thing in the morning, 8am, though we were all exhausted since that's 2am for our bodies!
The Frankfurt airport is under construction and is very inconvenient and confusing to get from the airport terminal to the bus terminal. I'm so used to it being very straightforward and simple, it was not a pleasant experience.
Billy on the bus that you have to take to get from the airport to the train station. It isn't a far distance, but the ride on the bus takes a long time because of having to twist around the airport drop off lanes.
Waiting on the train to Karlsruhe at the Frankfurt Flughafen Station!
A picture for our Emily.
Karlsruhe was busy. Very busy, so we ended up taking a taxi from the station to the car rental office.
Mike ended up driving. Even though it was only an hour and half trip, it was hard to stay awake! The drive through the Schwartzwald was beautiful though!!!
We made it to our hotel around noon.
After dropping off our luggage, Billy went to bed, and I went to take care of a few errands before I could sack out.
There were so many Volkswagen Beetles around!
Freudenstadt is a really cute town. When I got to Berlin, Christin's partner Alojscha was telling me about how it was supposed to be a 'utopian' city. It was planned with all the businesses and churches and municipal offices around a huge town square, and then houses surrounding that block.
My first stop was supposed to be getting cash, but the ATM at the bank that I found on the map before I left was not working. sigh.
So I kept walking toward the 'square' to see if I could track down another bank! En route, I tried two phone stores, but neither of them sold pre-paid phone cards.
It was warm enough for people to be comfortable while playing in the water feature!
My next stop was the train station to get tickets for my trip to Berlin, since I was paying by card, but the station that was close to all the shops didn't have a ticket office any longer.
I ended up walking back to an information center that I'd passed, and they gave me directions to the business that sold the train tickets.
I really liked the windows/shutters on this house!
The new location was not easy to find, but I did eventually manage it. By this time, I was pretty warm, and Germany does not have any sort of air conditioning in their buildings, so it was sticky inside of the building. It turns out the business to which they sent me was a thrift store! They did sell tickets there, but only local trips. I had to go to the hbf to get tickets for the Berlin train. Okay then.
I was sticky and tired and feeling the pressure of closing times, since I hadn't successfully completed anything on my list, so I didn't shop on that trip. I still hadn't found an ATM at this point, so I was getting nervous. I had no cash, no phone, and wasn't really sure where the other train station was.
I had a 5 euro bill from our previous trip, so I stopped in a the post office to send a card to the kids, in hopes that it would beat us home (but it didn't.) And thankfully, there was an ATM at the post office!!! So now I at least had some cash to spend.
I bought some bread for my breakfast the next day, and a pretty petit four!
They had a cool tractor tour, so I took a picture to grab the web address.
I made my way back to a third phone store, which was actually more of a repair shop, but they actually sold pre-paid cards!!! Billy and I got no reception with Mint Mobile outside of wi-fi networks, despite signing up for international roaming before we left.
I didn't get him a phone card this round, in case mine didn't work. The guy who set it up for me was really nice, but I did have to wait a few hours before my service was initiated.
There was a store that was kind of like a Dollar General, called Teddy, where I bought some water, a brush, since I am so used to using Billy's when we travel, some gum, and the first of the souvenirs!
Having completed two of my important errands, and being armed with water and bread, I set off more optimistically for the hbf on the other side of town (closer to our hotel, at least.)
Once you left the main street that ran between shopping and our hotel, the road to the train station was straight down.
I was not as impressed with their foliage as with our maple trees!
The trip down was so long that I was concerned that I had missed the train station somehow, but I just kept going down, down, down, until I found it!
I got my tickets for Berlin, and finally felt pretty good about making my way back to the hotel. The trip was straight up hill, so I was moving slow, and was still worn out!
When I arrived back to the hotel, the firemen were there. = 0 Apparently, there was a fire in the kitchen, so everyone had to exit the hotel. Billy was nowhere to be seen, but Mike was there and told me that inside the alarm was not very loud. Great.
When one of the first-responders came out I let them know that my husband was missing, and they said not to worry, the fire was contained.
So, I went upstairs, Billy was peacefully sleeping, so I showered and switched around what I would need to bring to Berlin and what I could leave in Freudenstadt, and finally laid down, only to hear the fire alarm going off again.
I woke up Billy, threw on some clothes, and went back out to the parking lot while the emergency vehicles came back.
Everything seemed to be okay, but instead of waiting in the parking lot, we went back into town and Billy had some dinner.
Mayonnaise and ketchup served in the same bowl!
I cute little squirrel! I think it was meant to scrape dirt off of shoes, but I'm not entirely sure.
The rest of the night passed without incident, so I woke to my early morning alarm and got up to catch the train to Berlin!!!
(The post about Berlin will be printed in my blog book, but I'm respecting Alojsha's request not to post pictures of Lotti on the internet. Rest assured it was an amazing trip and I had a great time with Christin and Lotti!)
I made it back to Freudenstadt around 4:30 and booked it to the phone store to get Billy a phone card. Of course, Thursday was the day of the week they were closed (in addition to Sundays.) After that failed errand, I made it back around the same time that Billy and his coworkers arrived at the hotel from work.
Gabe, the project manager, had made reservations at an Italian restaurant, so after stashing my luggage, and a shower, I joined Billy and his coworkers for dinner!
My tomato and buffalo cheese salad had even more tomatoes than I could eat!! It was really good though!
On Friday, Billy still had to work, so I got up early to eat breakfast with him.
After he left, I had a few hours to wait until anything in town would open, so I went back to sleep!
I made my way back to town around 10:30, to ensure that everything would be open!
My first stop was getting Billy a phone card!!! That done, I set out at a more leisurely pace.
I made my way back to the thirft store, where I spent several hours.
I found some goodies for my children, a few German books, a skirt to replace the one that I found had been torn in Berlin (which was the only one I'd brought, expecting cold weather,) a tea cup for my mom, and a few other odds and ends.
I saw this cute little guy, and it made me think of the one Murdoch and Julia have in Murdoch Mysteries, but I didn't end up getting him. He was awfully cute though, and I'm glad that I have a picture!
My next stop was to get some dark chocolate for my mom. They had these cute little kid carts at Edeka!
Billy was a big fan of the juice they served at the breakfast at the hotel, so I took some pictures to show him what they had for sale at the store.
I'm not sure what you'd use sauerkraut juice for, but it doesn't sound particularly appealing to me.
I had a discussion with one of the paras at the twins' school about how bratwurst in Germany is significantly skinnier than the ones available in the states. So, I took some pictures of that too!
I didn't get a döner in Berlin, so when I found a kebab shop, I took a picture of the opening times (since my luck had been really rotten with stores in Freudenstadt) so that Billy and I could return the next day!
My backpack was really heavy after the trip to the grocery store, so I started making my way to the hotel. They had ice cream cones that had tempted me, but I was on the way into town, but after seeing a family with some college aged children and parents walking away with some, on my walk back, I gave in and got one too!
A very old sign at the traffic circle preserved behind glass (or plastic, I didn't actually touch it.)
Our room had been serviced, so I took a picture of our bedroom, but the sitting room was covered with our belongings, so I didn't get a picture of it.
It was around 430, so I made my way down to the patio to wait for Billy to get back so that we could go to dinner!
We decided on a traditional German restaurant for dinner. I got some pork rounds with cheese spätzle and it was amazing!!! Billy got a steak and potatoes which he also enjoyed!
We made our way to Aldi, but the sun was setting.
We were too slow, and by the time we got there, they had closed. = ( We took a few pictures in the parking lot for Emily. A is for Aldi!
Billy joined in too!!!
There was a balcony bar connected to the train station (the one that didn't sell tickets) so we spent a little while people watching. They had blankets available, because the evenings were cold!
We found a pretty flower that had made its home in the cracks of the sidewalk stones!
On our way back to the hotel, we stumbled upon a DJ event at the brewery in the square.
It was outside, so it was a little chilly, but once we started dancing, it was not too bad.
The next day, Billy and I got to explore Freudenstadt together! We made it back to the döner shop, only to order and find out that they didn't accept credit cards. I only had enough cash to cover mine (we paid separately since Billy's were covered by his company.) So, I waited while he went back to the square to get some cash!
It was worth the wait, it was so good!!!
We hit up a couple of grocery stores to get more chocolate for my mom, and some more goodies for the kids.
There was a stop in the woods, where you could get out and hike, and then catch the next tram back to the square. Obviously, since this was the final trip of the day, that wasn't an option for us, but the wooded area was beautiful!
We headed back to the hotel to pack and prep for an early morning train to München!
One last view of the sunrise from the balcony of our hotel!
I was really glad to be going downhill with all of our luggage, instead of up!
You can read all about our trip to München, Neuschwanstein, and Oktoberfest here!
later days
edit 11-4-23: backdated for continuity.
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