Our First Guests

My brother and sister, Grant and Ellen, came to visit us last week on Thursday before things got busy for them with work and school.  Grant will begin his freshman year at Georgia Southern this fall and Ellen is the newest intern with the Atlanta Opera.  We have had a jam packed week full of fun adventures with a few bumps along the road.

One kink in the plans was that our furniture still hasn't arrived.  I worked so hard to get our household goods packed up and shipped early so that we wouldn't have to live with only a few pots and pans and temporary furniture for so long. However, our furniture was late leaving Columbus so it won't even arrive at port in Belgium until the 14th of August.  So a few more weeks on the TMO furniture.  Another bump we experienced was when I went to pick up Ellen and Grant when they arrived in Frankfurt.  Their flight arrived early and I arrived late (due to rain, fog, and traffic) and I parked at the wrong terminal.  Two hours later, after searching the terminal and paging Ellen and Grant multiple times, I finally see Ellen at a phone booth trying to call home.  We neglected to set up a meeting spot or exchange the appropriate contact information. It was a huge relief to see Ellen and Grant and I think Ellen and I shed a few tears. 

Grant, Ellen, Me, and Craig at the top of the Cathedral  Notre Dame

On the boat cruise

Our first big trip was to Strasbourg, France.  Strasbourg is about two hours away, and is a beautiful city with both French and German influences.  While we were there we toured several churches and even climbed 314 stairs to the top of the Cathedral Notre Dame of Strasbourg.  We also took an hour long boat ride through the canals of Strasbourg.

Grant enjoying a dessert

The view of Heidelberg from the castle

The next place we visited was Heidelberg, Germany.  We had such a great time touring the Schloss Heidelberg which sits above Heidelberg.  We splurged (4 euros) for a tour in English of the castle.  Definitely worth it.  We also walked along the Hauptstrasse which is lined with bakeries, gelato restaurants, cafes, and shops and toured several churches.

On the gondola

Our final big outing of the their visit was a Rhine River tour and boat cruise.  We had a blast! We went with a tour group from base.  We started our day at the Castle Rhinestein which had been purchased and restored by a famous German Opera singer.  Ellen was pretty excited by that! After the castle tour, the bus took us to St. Goar were we went to Stefan's Wine and Christmas Paradise. There we tasted ice wine (delicious!) and brandy. After the wine tasting, we boarded the boat cruise for a two hour ride down the Rhine.  There is literally a castle around very bend of the Rhine River.  It was amazing.  Our boat docked at Rudesheim for the last part of our tour. There we a late lunch and had another wine tasting (good thing we took the bus) After the wine tasting, we were free to wander around the town.  We walked down the famous street called the Drosselgrasse which is lined with wine shops and wine taverns with live music.  Also, while at Rudesheim,  we took a gondola to the hill above the city where there was a beautiful view of the Rhine.  Once we met back up with the tour group, we loaded onto the bus and headed back to base.

We couldn't travel every day so we went to the Kaiserslautern Zoo (interesting experience), Burg Nanstein, ate lots of gelato, went to an Italian grocery store, went to the commissary, and of course went shopping!



Ellen and Grant's visit was jam packed.  We did so much here in town and traveling.  Craig and I are looking forward to our next guests and the traveling we will do with them.

 tschuss,
Craig and Jenna