aaron.anica.emily.isabel.claire

July 1-3 Eltz Castle The weekend before our stuff arrived we were getting antsy waiting and decided to do some exploring. We loaded up and headed to see our first castle - Eltz. We might have gone about this all wrong because Rick Steve's had a lot of hype about the tour of Eltz saying it's the best in Germany, so we'll see if the other castle tours pale in comparison.  We had a bit of a walk from the parking lot, but the scenery was beautiful and after driving through the winding roads in the countryside for a couple of hours, we enjoyed the chance to stretch our legs out. I lost count of how many other castle ruins we saw a long the way, may have to go back and do some exploring. All in all it was pretty cool. The tour showed a few of the rooms which were decorated with original furniture and I appreciated Rick Steve's input from the Germany guidebook so I knew of some things to look for that they don't mention in the tour. Walkway to Eltz "Mir...

June 6-July 11 Dad and girls on the plane to Germany We left the east coast in the late evening on Sunday and arrived in Germany on Monday afternoon. Although long, the flight went fairly well, other than the 2 hours we sat on the plane before take off. The girls did great and were able to sleep through most of it. After arriving we had some briefings to sit through which must not have been very memorable because they've already been tagged for the discard pile in the folds of my memory along with other stuff from that first week that got lost with the lingering jet lag I experienced. Playing in the fountain in Weilerbach Fountain near the ice cream shop We were picked up from the airport by an awesome family who had signed up to sponsor us and help us adjust for our first couple of weeks. I've heard of a spectrum of experiences when it comes to sponsors, but I have to say we lucked out and got some top notch ones. Our sponsor, Andy, is also a nurse at the hosp...

June 3 We had a pretty emotional goodbye as we parted with Emily and my parents, who had driven us to the airport and dropped us off with all of our luggage. Sometimes sharing a child is hard and even though she had a fun summer planned ahead with her dad, it didn't make our departure from her any easier. Being a child from divorce, there is always something that Emily will miss out on. One good thing about this girl is that she is loved and adored by whoever she's with. Aaron and I quickly realized that we had quite the task ahead of us as we had to herd 4 full size suitcases, 5 carry-ons, 2 car seats and 4 backpacks (two of which were being toted by a couple of helpless little girls) to the check-in counter where we dropped off about half of our stuff. We had wrongfully assumed that having wheels on their suitcases would make it easier for Izzy and Claire to help us, but even their backpacks became too burdensome at times not to mention their legs, which were ...