Farewell and Many Thanks

We have finally made it home.  It was quite a journey with flight cancellations and delays, but I still feel like we were the lucky ones.  We had a warm home and family to stay with during our delay.  There were so many thousands of people that were not as lucky with the outcome of Hurricane Sandy.

I say 'Thank you and see you soon' to my sweet boy Marcus and his sweet and kind wife Naoual.  Thank you so much for everything.  I am so happy for you two and I am so grateful to have spent this special time with you. 

I say 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart' to my sweet boy Trevor and his beautiful wife Joni for helping to make this all happen.

I say 'Thank you and much love' to my husband for your understanding and generosity in making this happen and for taking care of everything while I was gone.

I say 'Thank you and I love you' to my sweet girl Ellie for being such a good girl and for waiting so patiently for me to come home.

I say 'Thank you and much appreciation' to my employer Alliance Title & Escrow for giving me a sabbatical and making this trip a possibility.  You are truly an inspiration to companies everywhere.  You are a lovely example of treating your employees with compassion and appreciation.  I will be with you until it's time for me to go to a nursing home - whether you want me or not!

I had such an amazing experience of traveling through so many countries and experiencing so many different cultures.  I will always remember this trip with amazement.  It has also helped me to realize how very lucky we are (in the United States).  I think it is pretty easy to get complacent and take all of our privileges for granted.  I will do my best to remember this and to be more appreciative.

On my return, my husband had to give me some very heartbreaking news.  My father-in-law, Irvin Hedt, passed away very unexpectedly on Thursday, November 1st.   He lived for 93 years and as far as I am concerned, it wasn't near long enough.  He wasn't just my favorite father-in-law, he was my friend.  I love him very deeply and I will miss him every day.  He was funny, loving, intelligent, kind, giving, a sports fan, a crossword puzzle genius and one of the greatest guys you could ever know.  We had the pleasure of taking him on a couple of road trips over the last few years.  He had worked so hard most of his life (as the greatest cattleman ever) and never had much opportunity for vacations.  We were able to take him to just about every national park in the western United States.  He had a blast and so did we.  I spoke to him the day before I was leaving on this trip.  He was anxious for my return to tell him every detail and share pictures with him.  I'm so grateful that my last words to him were 'I love you' and those were his to me.  I just wish I could have had one of his world famous hugs as well.  He will be forever loved and missed.  I dedicate this journey to him and promise to have many more adventures in his name.

Irvin W. Hedt

1919-2012

Here's to working hard, playing hard and living life to the fullest.  Most of all, here's to loving with all of your heart because life is too short not to.

Italian Truck Drivers and Hurricane Sandy

Well, we have made it to the end of our travels and it has taken me quite a while to make a post.  There are a few reasons for this.  One, we were tired.  Sounds lame, but it is very true.  Jeannine and I headed out on our own for our adventure to Italy on the 15th of October.  We decided to head to Salzburg Austria first and then on to Italy.  On our first night, we made another stop in Rothenburg, Germany to finish some shopping and because we liked it so much the first time.  We stayed in a really nice hotel (Hotel Rappen Rothenburg) within 100 yards of the city wall.  We then took off to Salzburg.

I can honestly say that Austria is probably my favorite stop that we had.  Salzburg is breathtaking.  The historical buildings, castle and the old town itself was amazing.  We went on a tour (Bob's Big Tours) which was supposed to be a Sound of Music tour.  In addition to the famous sites from the movie, our lovely tour guide Beatrice, also took us into the mountains and through the most amazing little villages.  We stopped for lunch in Mondsee, Austria which has a beautiful lake and a charming little town.  By far, this tour was the best money we have spent.  We decided we liked Salzburg so much, we decided to add an extra day there.

Then, we were on our way to Italy.  The drive from Salzburg to Italy is extremely beautiful.  We went through the Alps (crazy elevations) and then you start heading south into northern Italy.  They can grow grapes at any elevation and in any direction and in any space of land.  There must have been a castle every 5 to 10 miles with a little village surrounding it.  It was very picturesque.  At least that's what my passenger told me.  I was pretty busy white knuckle driving the whole way.  I have never in my life experienced such terror as the driving is in Italy.  The truck drivers are the most certifiably insane people I have ever seen.  I know I am generalizing, but I can guarantee they are responsible for 99% of the accidents in Italy.  They do not have turn signals installed and believe in tailgating at a maximum distance of 3 feet.

Our first night in Italy was supposed to be Verona.  But, once we got there, we took a look around and it didn't really seem to be the place we had imagined it would, so we took off.  No reservations really can make for the best trips.  We turned west and ended up at Lake Garda.

Desanzano (Lake Garda) Italy was such a wonderful surprise.  We found a beautiful little hotel (Hotel Giardinetto) within walking distance to the downtown/waterfront area.  We had our first true Italian pasta that night in a really tiny restaurant - very cute and very Italian.  And, I could park the car and not have to move it for a few hours anyway.

On Friday, feeling a new surge of bravery, we decided to head south to Florence.  We found a hotel outside of the historic and were able to figure out the city bus system and rode that into the historic area.  Florence is quite beautiful and has beautiful squares to sit in and enjoy a glass of wine and people watch.

Saturday we headed west to Pisa and then on to La Spezia.  Pisa was so much fun.  What an amazing experience to see the historic architecure.  There was also some fun vendors set up and another great little restaurant for lunch.  We then made our way north along the coast to La Spezia.  Beautiful country and the Mediterranean Sea!!  La Spezia was a really nice town and our hotel (My One Hotel) was really nice.  The front desk clerk could not have been more helpful.  We walked around town that night and enjoyed a fund raising function at their local park.  They had singers, dancers and I'm guessing comedians.  It was all in Italian (except for some of the songs) so it was a little hard to tell.  It was fun just blending in and watching all of the people.  The next day we took a train that we could get on and off at all of the towns of the Cinque Terre.  What an amazing experience that was.  These little cliff towns are literally built right into the rocks (including most of the walls in the buildings).  When you have a moment, it is definitely worth a Google search to look at all of the pictures of these towns.  They are spectacular.

We left La Spezia on Monday with the intent of heading north to Lake Como.  We got about half-way there and decided we couldn't take the 'danger and stress' of the driving any more.  We witnessed at least 3 very bad accidents and it didn't look like it was going to get any better.  We took off the way we came in and decided to head back through Austria and back into Germany.  Through our trip back that direction, there were some sections of the highway that literally run through the mountains.  We started counting the tunnels and we figure we went through a minimum of 20 of them.  Very small (narrow), very curvy and very long.  In between these tunnels they have built these span of bridges/roads that go over the canyons between the mountains.  It was probably best that I was only seeing the elevation of these bridges in meters rather than feet.  However, when we got back, I was able to use the computer to do a quick conversion (sorry Jimmy Carter - never did catch on to the metric system).  There were some bridges that stated the depth we were driving over was over 1900 meters.  For those that are wondering, that is around 6400 feet.  That would be a 4 lane highway (2 each direction) with nothing but a guard rail and with the average speed of 130 kph (80 mph).

By the time we crossed the Alps again and ended up in Germany, it was a good long 6 hours of driving.  We decided to stay in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.   We pulled right into town and found one parking spot available on the street.  There was a hotel that looked promising and so we checked if they had a room available.  They did, and it ended up being our favorite hotel on the trip.  The hotel is the Garmisch Hotel Hoff.  What a fantastic staff (especially Vanessa and Nicole).  Their breakfast was a huge feast of German goodies and fresh baked bread.  Again, we liked it so much we stayed 2 nights.  It was two days of simple relaxation. 

We've been back at Marcus and Naoual's since last Wednesday.  We are supposed to go home tomorrow, but have been notified by US Airways that our flight is cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy.  They now have us scheduled to come back on Sunday.  Hopefully, they will start adding more flights and we can try to get home sooner.  It's been fun, amazing, exciting, terrifying, frustrating and probably the most memorable trip I've ever been on.  I hope to post a final trip blog in a couple of days.  It's time to come home now.

Paris

We left for Paris on Tuesday and returned today (Friday, October 12th).  It took about 5 hours to drive to Paris and then about 1 1/2 hours once we exited into the city to find our apartment.  I have never in my life had a driving experience that was even close to driving in Paris.  About half of the population owns motorcycles or Vespas.  The other half drive cars or delivery vans yet they think they are driving a Vespa.  It was truly insane.  There doesn't seem to be any lanes and traffic is usually three cars wide with motorcycles flying through the middle.  Our apartment was truly Parisian and in a very colorful neighborhood (mostly the color red). 

We were able to see the Eiffel Tower the first night and it was absolutely magnificent.  We took a stroll through that part of the city and had our first crepe from a vendor - fantastic!

The next day we spent walking 28 miles through the Louvre.  I'm not sure if it was really 28 miles, but it sure felt like it.  That night we had a wonderfuly dinner with my sweet, sweet cousins Shanna and Brent Lamar.  It was so much fun to see them and to have those special memories of a late dinner (with Champagne) in Paris of all places.

Yesterday we spent the morning viewing the Notre Dame.  Before we made our way, we had stopped at a little sidewalk cafe to have cafe and croissants.  It was the first time we had a chance to sit at a cafe and just take in the scenery.  Unfortunately a gentleman had come up to me and was holding out papers and asking me questions in French.  I didn't understand what he was trying to say and then he went into an epileptic seizure.  He fell back into the street and cracked his head.  Marcus was able to pick him up and get him on the sidewalk and then people started calling for the police and medical help.  The scariest part of it, was knowing how insane the drivers are and all I could picture was that poor man getting run over.  But, it all ended up okay and we moved on.  We spent the rest of the day shopping (this time about 35 miles).  We decided to take the Metro back to the apartment to rest up a bit before our last night out.  The Metro at 5:00pm is a very interesting experience.  People are literally packed in side to side, back to back and front to front.  Marcus actually felt someone's hand in his pocket and thought it was Jeannine's.  At the same time, Jeannine felt someone tugging on her purse - and it was not Marcus.  We finally decided to end our metro ride a little early and walked the rest of the way.  Nobody ended up losing anything though, so all was well.

That night, we walked up to the Sacre Coeur and wandered through the Montmartre District.  It was perfectly charming and beautiful.

Paris is absolutely amazing and I will never forget it.  It was thrilling to be able to share it with Jeannine, Marcus and Naoual.

Castles, Cathedrals and Crazy Drivers

It's been a few days, but it doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything, but rather that we've been very busy.  On Thursday, we had the pleasure of getting to visit the Heidelberg Castle.  It is absolutely spectacular and the views are amazing.  Heidelberg is such a beautiful city.  Our first restaurant that we went to in Heidelberg happened to serve fantastic hamburgers.  On Friday we attended a wonderful holiday bazaar on Patrick Henry Village (the base that Marcus lives on in Heidelberg).  Friday night, we attended a homecoming pep rally for the Heidelberg High School football team.  They had a bon-fire that looked to be about 20 feet high.  That night we had barbecued hot dogs.  We really need to get out and get some schnitzel!  This is a picture of the Heidelberg Castle. 

Today, we drove to Cologne (Koln).  We visited Cologne Dom.  The construction of this Cathedral was started in 1248.  It wasn't finished until 1880.  It may have taken a long time to build, but it was well worth it.  There was a lot of destruction in World War II, but it has been (and still is) restored beautifully.  We ate at XII Apostel in Koln and had phenomenal food.  We also had our first German beer and toast at a pub called Papa Joe's.  Packed and crowded and great beer.  The drive to Cologne from Heidelberg is through Rhein Valley is just lovely this time of year.  And that reminds me, we picked up our rental car on Friday and so I was the one driving on the autobahn.  I would highly suggest just staying to the right.  It is crazy how fast they go in the left!  Having a great time and doing a lot of laughing (and eating).

Mannheim - Castle turned University

Today was a drive to the city of Mannheim, Germany.  What a beautiful city!  We walked our achy feet all over the city.  Lots of window shopping and a fun trip through a German grocery store.  We also took a stroll to Mannheim University which was a castle that was built in 1720.  This is an amazing campus.  We ended our day getting to watch Marcus and his flag football team for the 43rd Battalion play at Patton Barracks.  They won of course and Marcus was fantastic.  It was so much fun getting to cheer one of the boys on again at a game. 

Meeting new family and a visit to Seligenstadt

I believe we have finally caught up on our sleep (kind of).  At least we don't really have the excuse of jet lag at the moment, only old age.  We had the pleasure of meeting one of my daughter-in-laws sister today.  She had us to her home and prepared us an amazing traditional Moraccan meal of cous cous with chicken and veggies (potatoes, cabbage, pumpkin, carrots, zuchinni, raisins and onions).  It was absolutely delicious and beautiful.  Ely, Widad and Dalal were amazing hostesses and they have a beautiful home.  We had such a great time getting to know them.  Just when we thought we were full, Ely set up a beautiful dessert of Pastilla (another amazing Moroccan desert of sweet chicken, raisins and almonds in a light pastry).  Ely then took us on a tour of Seligenstadt.  It is a castle and gardens with a charming little town surrounding.  Seligenstadt is one of Germany’s oldest towns and some of it dates back to AD 100.  Needless to say, it was beautiful and a lovely time.  Thank you Ely for such a wonderful day!

The world's tiredest Moms . . .

Well, it is currently 7:00pm in beautiful Heidelberg Germany.  I have been awake exactly 29 hours (and counting).  We arrived in Frankfurt at 5:30am (UTC+1) and Marcus and Naoual were waiting for us.  It was fantastic to see them.  The whole process of passports and base passes, etc. will take a little getting used to, but that will be the easy part.  We hung out and relaxed a little in their apartment in Heidelberg before we headed into town for a festival today.  It was wall to wall characters and beautiful scenery.  What an amazing little town.  I did get some pictures and as soon as my mind and body are working as one again, I will download them and share.  We are so happy to be here and we couldn't be more excited to start exploring.