The "day and a half" day - We're coming home....

May 29/30, 2011
Sunday was a quiet lazy day. The big event was going back to the base with Scott so that he could check his military mail to find out where his next duty station would be. They had sent a notice to his AOL mail that he had a new duty station – but didn’t tell him where, just to log on at work and find out. To make a long story short, he will PCS (permanent change of station) to Kunsan, Korea next February. This will be a year’s tour. And it sounds like he will get to take leave en route and come home for a short visit on the way from Germany to Korea. That’d be nice! After he did everything he needed to, I got to go online and check in for our flights tomorrow, and print boarding passes. Scott’s internet still wasn’t up, so no other way to print the passes other than at the airport.
Steve spent the afternoon detailing the rental car; Scott spent the afternoon studying his ALS material (ok, mostly by sleeping on the floor with it in front of him) and I read a book on my Kindle program on the computer. Later, Scott ordered pizza and we had a quiet dinner; then we got suitcases packed. We came to the conclusion we would have to check one. Luckily Steve had brought the backpack the boys had given him for his birthday – so he made that his “carryon” and checked his Rick Steves bag, filled with mostly clothes. We started to get ready for bed about 10 p.m. Then Scott remembered he hadn’t shown Dad his Aviano pictures so it was actually around 10:30 by the time we went to bed. Of course, pre-flight insomnia set in – so it was after midnight before I got any sleep.
Alarms – 3 of them – were set for 4:30 a.m. (my travel clock, Scott’s IPhone, and my Ipod touch) We were pulling out from Scott’s by 5:10 a.m. Scott told us to take 3 different autobahn routes to get to Frankfurt. Well, Nuvi decided that the fastest route was slightly different than that. Rather than taking the autobahn north then south, it cut us over going straight east to Frankfurt. Naturally Steve thought that was a mistake but we still got to Frankfurt in about two hours anyway.
Once in the airport area we had to fill up the car’s gas tank and then return the car. That was easier than we thought! Once we got to the car drop off, they scanned a code, then checked the car over and all was well! We took an elevator upstairs and we were at the departures terminal. Checked Steve’s bag, then had some time to kill. Bought some duty-free chocolate for Eric, used the restrooms, went through security, and still had over an hour before boarding….
The flight was long but ok. 10.5 hours is no picnic, and with it daylight all the way I didn’t sleep (and didn’t expect to.) So as I write this in the Dallas airport, I’ve been up close to 24 hours. Steve is thankfully sleeping in the chair next to me. He has to work first thing tomorrow morning, and I don’t have to work until 12:30. Thankfully.
Disappointed that we didn’t get the 777 we were scheduled to be on – so no backseat entertainment system, or power port at my seat. Did get to watch two movies though – Gulliver’s Travels and Karate Kid. Plus they fed us rather well – drink and snack service shortly after take off, then chicken or pasta lunch, then another snack later, then a deep dish pizza about an hour before we landed. We saw Michigan from the air as we went by. Couldn’t persuade anyone to stop the plane and let us get off, though.
This will probably be the last trip entry, as I don’t anticipate the flight to Grand Rapids to be eventful. Will try for a recap sometime this week if I can.

Saturday, May 28 - Our 28th Anniversary

Saturday, May 28, 2011
Our 28th wedding anniversary, on May 28. Do anniversaries work the same as birthdays, this then being our “golden” anniversary? It was (mostly) a very nice day either way.
We woke up, had breakfast, then finally decided it was time for Scott to get up as he said he could come with us. Once he was up and ready, we headed over to the base first. Another pass, this one is for tomorrow as well so we won’t have to get it again. Went to the military clothing store as Steve wanted to look at Spangdahlem T-shirts. He walked out of there with a tshirt. Yep, and a sweatshirt and jacket as well. I settled for just a tshirt, actually my first of the trip. Then a quick commissary trip and we were on our way toward the Rhine. I had set the nuvi to “shorter” which usually turns out to be the scenic route. Today proved to be no exception to that. We stopped for gas at Wittlich, then continued on some very scenic roads. Some were not much wider than our driveway, as Steve pointed out. We got to Bacharach after a drive of about two hours. Bought our tickets for the next boat cruise up the Rhine to St. Goar, about an hour’s cruise away. Ate our lunch (late) while we were waiting. There was quite a large crowd waiting to get on, and the boat was already pretty full. I got separated briefly from the guys and tried to find a place where we could see. No such luck. Went back and found that they had taken Steve’s ticket from him, while letting Scott and I keep ours. To make a long story short, found out at St. Goar that we had been given three pieces of paper, in German of course. One was the ticket for all three of us from Bacharach to St. Goar. One was the return ticket, again for all three of us. The third was the receipt. Had this been explained to us when we bought the tickets, might have made things much easier! (And the ticket clerk spoke pretty good English.) Anyway, the trip up to St. Goar was not so pleasant as we couldn’t see much and were trying to resolve the ticket situation part of the way. Unbelieveably, we made a stop up river and loaded on MORE people – I wonder what the capacity limit was. Definitely not room for everyone to sit down, even in the “no-view” seats downstairs.
We got off the boat in St. Goar and had about 45 minutes to walk around the town. Just enough time for a little souvenir shopping and an ice cream cone. Scott treated as we were almost out of euro cash and hate to get more with such a short time left. Scott and I both had kiwi ice cream, that was really good! Steve stuck with mocha and chocolate. Back to the boat, and thankfully this boat was better designed and not nearly so full so we were able to go up on the top deck and get three seats at the railing. Made for a much more interesting cruise back to Bacharach! I had the Rick Steves book with me which gave a lot of information on what we were seeing as we cruised along. Soon enough we were back at Bacharach and headed toward Spangdahlem on the autobahn this time. Still amazing how fast some of the cars in the left lane (passing lane) are going!
When we got back to the Spangdahlem area, we headed to a local restaurant that Scott recommended. Scott was with us – yes, it was our anniversary dinner, but how many chances do we get anymore to have a nice meal with our oldest? Not sure he’d been to an anniversary dinner with us since our 2nd anniversary, when he was just a few weeks old.
Scott and I both had chosen meat meals (mine assorted steaks, his assorted game steaks) that we got to cook ourselves at the table. Small heated stones were brought for us to do that. Very interesting! Steve opted for an already cooked steak and said it was good as well. Both of the guys had a tall beer, Erlanger I think it was called, and I had a coke light.
A nice way to spend our anniversary. Tomorrow I don’t think we have many plans – just getting things together as we will have to leave VERY early on Monday morning to get down to Frankfurt, get the car returned, and check in for our flight. Monday will be a very long day!

Friday, May 27

Friday, May 27, 2011
We woke up and made plans to hit three countries today – Belgium, Luxembourg, and of course Germany. Headed northwest on the autobahn. Stopped and turned around so that Steve could take pictures of wind turbines. They seem to be all over this part of Germany! Then on to Belgium. Stopped for a cache just before the Belgian border. Couldn’t find it – found out tonight it was disabled. Then into Belgium where to my surprise I found that the Nuvi did NOT have maps for Belgium. So we were dependent on road signs and our paper maps, which aren’t all that detailed. I managed to get us to one of my three caches that I’d downloaded info for. It was a stone tower in St. Vith, Belgium. The cache listing gave hours that you could get the cache, which gives one the assumption that it was inside. Sure enough, it didn’t seem to be outside. But we arrived within the stated hours and the door was locked. More German or at least more English translation would have helped. Moved on, and with a wing and a prayer decided on what appeared to be the easier of the two remaining caches that I had information on. Somehow we managed to pick the right road and drove the 3 miles to get there. Took a bit of looking but finally found the preform tube duct taped to a tree and I had my Belgian cache. Backtracked to St. Vith then started looking for a liquor store. Scott had asked that we look for some Heineken in brown bottles, which is available in Belgium and the Netherlands but not in Germany. We struck out, unfortunately. Found some liquor places but none that sold what Scott wanted.
Then headed south into Luxembourg. Following the maps and road signs, we headed toward Vianden. Stopped along the way in a nice forested scenic area and had a picnic lunch. Then to Vianden. Saw the castle from a different direction than when Scott and I had gone there in 2009. We parked the car and toured the castle. Now I know how Scott felt taking me through after he’d already been there. Interesting but not quite so much as the first time. Steve enjoyed it – though he said that when they restored the castle they should have made all the doorways tall enough for him to go through without banging his head! Then a swift souvenir shop and headed toward Germany and Scott’s. We missed the turn to Bitburg, though, and went on south in Luxembourg a bit before we realized our mistake. Backtrack and there was the Bitburg turn. Shortly thereafter we were back in Germany. A nice ride to Bitburg then a cache stop for a TB hotel. Time to drop off the scouter coin that I’d taken all over Europe on this trip.
The cache listing (even in English!) said to bring stuff to help get the cache. That didn’t really sink in until I was faced with a cache about 3 feet down a PVC pipe, with a ring in it to bring it up but no other way to bring it up. I tried MacGuyvering it for a while but couldn’t do it. Went back to the car and persuaded Steve to give it a try. He was working a stick down the pipe when two other people showed up. Since they had GPSrs, I looked at them and said “Geocachers, I hope?” They were, and spoke English as well as German. Steve got the cache up and out and I traded the scouter coin for the only traveler in the cache, a chain full of beer caps. A bit bigger than I planned to pick up but it does want to travel the world so I’ll take it back to Michigan.
Arrived back to Scott’s about 4:30. Scott home and we had tacos. Now they’re watching saved episodes of Enterprise while I checked email and facebook from Scott’s phone as he still doesn’t have internet. They guy hooked everything up but Scott needed a new password which he hasn’t yet been able to get. Since it’s now the weekend looks like I won’t get any before we leave. Oh well. Tomorrow’s plans include probably heading over towards the Rhine, hopefully Scott will be able to come with us.

Thursday, May 26

Thursday, May 26, 2011
This was a quiet day. We didn’t make any plans as Scott needed us to stay home and wait for the internet technician so he could get his internet and phone hooked back up. The guy came at 8:30 a.m. so we had the whole day free after that. Steve needed a rest and recouperate day though so he spent it watching movies. Ok by me. I worked on my Wood Badge presentation, mostly creating my power point presentation for it, and then decided to take a walk in Spangdahlem. I walked down to the cache that Scott and I had tried to find last week. Looked around quite a bit more and finally spotted the little nano hidden in the handle of an antique piece of farm equipment near the well. Painted the same rusty brown. Then I had quite the time getting the log out! After finally finishing up, I decided to walk down to a cache that I had found two years ago with Scott. It was disabled as far as I knew, but there was a travel bug listed in it that I wanted to pick up if the cache was reactivated. It was not. At least I couldn’t find it anyway.
Back to Scott’s and cooked Cincinnati Chili. When Scott came home he said he could smell it coming up the stairs…and that was a good thing of course. Had a nice dinner then Scott worked on his class homework, I worked more on my WB presentation, and Steve watched more movies.

Wednesday, May 25

Wednesday, May 25, 2011
So nice to sleep in! I did wake up about 6 when Scott went, but was able to go back to sleep and it was about 9:30 when we were both up and about. Ate a leisurely breakfast, finished up some laundry, and about 12:30 we left for Trier. It was a shorter distance to Trier than I remembered – only about 20 miles or so. We got downtown with the help of the Nuvi, and found the parking garage near the Porta Nigra. I had glimpsed this two years ago with Scott when he picked me up at the train station, but hadn’t gone up close to it. Trier is the oldest German city, founded by the Romans – and this was the only surviving gate. It survived because it had been a church for many years. There was SUPPOSED to be a geocache nearby but it just wasn’t turning up for me. Disappointing because there were supposed to be travelers in it. Oh well. We explored the gate, but chose not to pay the entrance fee to walk around inside. Walked up to the Market Square from there – crowded but some interesting things to look at. We walked over to the Cathedral, which is the oldest Christian church in Germany. Toured the inside, and I also lit a candle for my brother as I had at Notre Dame two years ago. Walked around a bit more and then headed back to the car and back to Spangdahlem.
We’re just chilling right now, Scott will be home soon and then we’re going to go to the commissary and he’s going to take us to his workplace I think. We have to be careful of his time as he has homework to do for this class. He ended up sick from Steve as well – but is also feeling better just as we are. Thanks a lot, guy from Steve’s work that wouldn’t stay home!
(later) Scott came home, we went to the commissary. Picked up supplies to make Cincinnati Chili, tacos, and pizza. Then we went over to the area where Scott works and got to see some live missiles and meet one of his co-workers. Then Scott took us to this underground bunker from the cold war – no lights but still in theory ready should they need it. It was overgrown with weeds and they discovered it when they were clearing out the weeds. Then a quiet night of watching movies (them) and working on the computer (me.)

Tuesday, May 24

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Yep, it was a short night for me. But I am up to date on the trip diary, blog, and my geocaching logs. Didn’t get pictures done but wanted to take advantage of the internet while I could. We packed up, then ate a very nice breakfast which was included in our room price. Lots of different cheeses and meats, cereal, yogurt, fruits. Headed out of town and north on the Romantic Road. Guess its named that because of the romantic idea of that is what Germany is supposed to be like? Anyway, lots of picturesque small towns and beautiful countryside as we headed north. We stopped at Dinkesbuhl as we had heard (via Rick Steves) that it was similar to Rothenberg, only less crowded. We found that to be the case, took a nice walk through part of town and saw the St. Georg’s Church, from the 15th century. Got to go inside and it is beautiful. Lit a candle for my brother while I was there. Even Steve thought it was nice, for a church. Had a snack at McDonald’s just before we parked near the downtown area, then went through the gate and there we were.
Leaving Dinkesbuhl, we continued north to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. We had some trouble locating the free parking area, north of the north wall, due to construction. But we finally found it, and after a few minutes walk, arrived at the town square. The clock had just done its performance a few minutes ago so we missed that. But looked around at the buildings, then Steve decided he wanted to go to the Crime and Punishment museum. Got a bit tedious towards the end but it was interesting. I never realized that there were such things as shame masks, let alone how many different kinds! Did a little walking around afterwards, then headed (so we thought) north toward the parking lot. Somehow got turned around and got to do a bit of extra walking, for some of which we went up on the wall around the city. Finally got to the car after walking through the construction zone and headed out of town.
Set the nuvi on “fastest time” and headed toward Spangdahlem. Stopped along the way for a Subway sandwich and arrived at Scott’s about 8:30 p.m. Nice to be sort of “home” – at least a part of it anyway.

Today is just how I dreamed it would be...

Monday, May 23, 2011
This is like I thought it would be. (Insert contented sigh.) We did get an early night last night, and woke up at 6 a.m. so that we could drive to Neuschwanstein. We arrived just before 7 a.m., and I was first in line at the ticket center. Last night, I insisted that Steve finally LOOK at the Rick Steves Germany book so that he could make some decisions on what he wanted to see and didn’t want to see. So he read about the long lines for tickets and decided we needed to get there early. Good enough.
I had eaten breakfast while Steve was cleaning up, so I waited in line while Steve stayed at the car and ate breakfast (cereal & milk) then joined me in line. We got our tickets, they were for the 9:20 a.m. English tour (first English tour of the day.) Next was a short walk to the shuttle bus. We were especially glad we did this as we were walking down afterwards and seeing all the tired people walking up! Thought we would be the only ones on the bus, then shortly before departure time the bus suddenly filled with two Japanese tour groups. We both felt very tall, especially Steve! The bus took us to the drop off point, then we took a short uphill walk to Mariensbrucke (Mary’s bridge.) Nice to have a bridge, wish I could have taken it home…. This was where you could get an excellent shot of the entire castle. We both did that, then Steve’s camera battery died. Of course he didn’t have the other one with him, it was back at the car. So most of our castle pictures are with my camera. We couldn’t take inside pictures anyway. I haven’t downloaded the camera yet, since I’m taking advantage of wifi on the netbook first tonight.
After the bridge, we walked down to the castle and to the courtyard. We waited until our tour was called, #416, and to our surprise we again found ourselves in a group of mostly Japanese tourists. But the tour guide conducted the tour in English. Not sure if they understood but oh well. We had a wonderful tour of the finished areas of the castle, then were allowed to tour the unfinished areas (mostly 2nd floor) on our own, which included going through two gift shops. After leaving the castle, we had a 20 minute walk back down to town. We stopped along the way to find the Neuschwanstein cache, of course. Picked up one more traveler there.
Back at the parking area, we regrouped. I had realized that I was missing my gorilla pod, and wanted to check several bags in the car. It wasn’t there, so I realized the only place it could be was back at the cache I found in Ehrenberg yesterday. Steve picked up his spare battery, and we walked up to the other castle, where Ludwig had grown up. We chose not to tour the inside, but it was nice to see the outside close up. Ok, there was a cache near there, too. Since I’m being generally pretty choosy about what caches I want to find, Steve has been tolerant, especially the past few days.
We left the castle area and returned to Austria. Steve wanted an Austrian shot glass, there hadn’t been one at Ehrenberg. Since we were going so close, we went back to Ehrenberg, and sure enough my gorilla pod was still at the cache! Then went back to Reutte and couldn’t find a souvenir store to save our souls…finally decided to head toward Oberammergau via Austria and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. We found a small souvenir store and Steve got his shot glass. Drove north and ended up in Oberammergau.
Mom had told us that the clock they bought in Germany (which we now have) was from Oberammergau, so since Steve didn’t find one in the Black Forest, we wanted to look here. We drove around a bit until I saw a place that had cuckoo clocks. We went inside, and Steve finally did find the one he wanted. While he was looking, I noticed the “Zimmer frei” sign, inquired as to price, etc. For 60 euros we have a nice room, including bath, TV, little refrigerator, and even wifi. I was smart enough to ask for two codes this time as the code they give you is only good for one computer. Oh, also includes breakfast in the morning! We were given a generous discount on the clock since we were staying there as well. Still, it would have paid for several nights stay at a nice Vaduz hotel. ‘Nuff said. This is what Steve really wanted to have from this trip.
After we settled into the room, we took a walk around Oberammergau. It was late enough in the afternoon that we didn’t go to the Passion Play museum (sorry Mom) but really enjoyed just walking around and seeing the town. We ended up just down the street for dinner. I had a pork “lion” steak with “woast” potatoes. Not served by Elmer Fudd, though. Steve had something breaded pork with French fries. Also two beers. He liked those.
I’ve looked at some of the pictures that are of me. I’m not looking any smaller in them. I’ve probably put a few pounds on, but the traveling stuff I’m wearing doesn’t help any. I have my neck pouch which I wear cross-ways under my right arm, and the Scottevest has so much in it that it makes me look bigger as well. Still, going home time will be time to get back in gear.
And I hope we get to go home on time. Not that I wouldn’t like to stay longer. But we’ve been watching CNN and have heard about the new volcanic eruption in Ireland. We fly home out of Frankfurt to Dallas then Grand Rapids, so less likely our flight will be affected. Nothing we can do about it right now anyway.
Steve fell asleep shortly after we got back. I have a lot of catching up to do internet wise so it may be a shorter night for me. Tomorrow – heading north but looks likely that we’ll end up back at Scott’s in the evening.

May 22 - a better day

Sunday, May 22, 2011
Both of us awake and needing a bathroom. So we drove around Vaduz until we found the bus station with open bathrooms. (McDonald’s doesn’t open until 9 a.m.) After that, decided I might as well try to get a Liechtenstein cache and we found one with a short walk. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever found a cache at 5:55 a.m.! There was a nano at the McDonald’s somewhere that I’d tried to find last night but finding a nano in the dark is about impossible.
Now catching up while we are waiting for the store to open. Then heading north to Reutte. We can check in at 2 p.m., then hopefully we can get a good nap.

(insert day going by….)

Well we recovered nicely today. I am happy to report that neither the rapture or sleeping in the car did us in. Shortly after I finished writing this morning, I was getting antsy and Steve had fallen back to sleep. I found out there was another cache about .2 from where we were waiting, so decided to take a bit of a walk in the village. 7 a.m. on Sunday morning is an interesting time to explore, very quiet and not much happening so you can really take a look at things. Unfortunately, didn’t find the cache. But did find the Liechtenstein souvenirs that Steve wanted, and some very interesting places downtown. Came back to the car shortly before 8 and we went into the store, bought some more cold drinks for the day, and were off.
We were briefly back in Switzerland then into Austria. Decided to take the scenic route, another mountain pass. A different kind of beautiful – not as steep and stark, more green but still definitely alpine mountains. The big difference that I saw in small Austrian towns today was that many of the buildings have paintings on them, didn’t notice that so much in Switzerland. As we neared Reutte, our destination, I noticed a cache just off a side road. Steve stopped when I asked, so that I could get an Austrian cache. Before I got out of the car, motorcyclists also stopped. One walked to just about where I thought the cache would be and stopped (back turned thankfully) to relieve himself. I was relieved to find the cache not so nearby. It was a glass jar hidden under a rock, I don’t think it’ll last all that long with that combination. Then on to the Reutte area. We were looking for Ehrenwald and had made those reservations last night for here. Turned out to be great! Six rooms over the restaurant – clean, modern, towels, electricity, and even TV – stuff we’ve been missing the last few nights. And thankfully the price was right even in Steve’s eyes. This is the Klause area, originally it was the tollbooth area for the castle which lies in ruins at the top of the hill. Really wish that we could have hiked up there but shortly after we arrived it started to rain and has done so most of the rest of the day. At least we weren’t traveling through it! Right now all the tourists have gone home so I’m assuming it’s the six rooms worth of guests, if they’re full, plus perhaps the proprietors, as the only people around. While Steve took a nap after we checked in (and we were allowed to check in at noonish!) I explored the buildings in this area, also checked out the cache that was .25 away. Nice little walk…and that made two Austrian caches…
We actually ate dinner in a real restaurant tonight! First one on the trip except for the burger place on base with Scott. I had checked out the menu while Steve was sleeping and thought (correctly!) that the prices were reasonable enough, so we went down about 4:30 for an early supper. They closed at 6 p.m. and we hadn’t had lunch anyway. Steve had Burgherrenteller – which was about five different kinds of meat – beef, chicken, pork, ham, and even a wiener cooked to look like a little octopus. I had the Tiroler Grostli – which was beef, potatoes, and onion with an egg on top. Tasty! The only thing I paused at was the egg which came with the yolk still runny. I decided that if I mixed it all in with the hot food, which I think I was supposed to do anyway, that the yolk would finish cooking. Tasted all right so guess it must have worked. We both had Apfelstrudel for dessert. Didn’t need it, I know, but it was make up for last night time. Had hoped to climb to the castle after dinner but it started raining again so no go.
Planning to get an early start tomorrow so we can get tickets to Neuschwanstein as early as possible. So with my precious little sleep last night, I’d imagine I’ll get an early bedtime tonight.
Looking back at last night…ok, I still probably would. But I have serious doubts as to whether or not HE would ever want to leave again. Though things seemed more turned around today – was it because we were leaving Switzerland, which was so beautiful but sooooooo high priced?

Hard to tell. The grip this cold has had on him has finally lessened, too.

May 21 - sleeping in the car....

Saturday, May 21, 2011
I can’t believe I’m sitting in our rental car in a McDonald’s parking lot in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, where we will be spending the night. I just have to trust that the Lord will protect us. Steve is snoring away so somebody has to stay awake just in case, especially since he left windows open. And since I’ve not had electricity in the room in Stechelberg to recharge the netbook batteries, I have maybe 3 hours of battery left on my spare battery, then I’m done with computer…
Will start at the beginning of the day, which started out way much better than it has ended thus far. We had a leisurely “get up and go” from Stechelberg – Marc and Diane were very pleasant and I would recommend their place to anyone. Had a bit of a scare when I realized I didn’t have my glasses – but found them down in the kitchen where I’d left them last night while fixing supper. We paid our bill of 112 CHF, very reasonable for two nights! Headed to Lauterbrunnen and made a stop at Staubbach Falls where we took a short and steep hike so we could see behind the waterfall. Way cool (way wet too.) Oh, and there was a cache there. Why else would I have known about the falls?
Headed north and east toward what we’ve been calling the “three passes” area. This is a roughly triangular area with each side having a high Alpine pass within it. We chose to start with the Grimsel Pass. These were great motorcycling roads, BTW (we first learned about these passes through the Alpine motorcycling book we had bought.) Lots of switchbacks and still snow along the sides, I can see why they don’t usually open until the beginning of June. We reached the top of the pass and did a bit of exploring. Got to walk through snow and saw people doing a little skiing as well. We bought the obligatory souvenirs and then I tried to find a cache that was there. Was having no luck walking along the road so realized that I’d have to go up behind the restaurant. Yep. Only trouble was the two German Shephard dogs that were chained to the top of the drive. So I went around, through some snow and up a rocky area, and found the cache. No way was that a 1.5 terrain!
Going down from Grimsel was a series of steep switchbacks, really glad I wasn’t the driver! At the bottom of the valley was Gletsch, which seemed to serve no other purpose than to be a way point between the Grimsel and Furka passes. So up the Furka we went. Another set of steep switchbacks, up and up we went. At the top, another great view though no services open. Did find a micro cache there, Steve had to reach it for me. Some of these roads were barely (and I mean barely) wide enough for two cars to pass. Once, a bus went past us, barely squeaking by with just inches to spare so it seemed. And the motorcycles – don’t know if they have right of way in Switzerland but they weave in and out to the left like they have all the time in the world. I asked Steve at one point whether or not he would like to come back on the bike and ride these passes properly. He said, maybe but alone – you’d freak out at every turn. Possibly so but still wasn’t so nice of an answer, in my thoughts.
Reached the Andermatt area and headed north toward the Klaussen Pass and eventually to Glarus. Our plan was to start looking for a place about there. Everything I’d been told/read was that it would be easy to find “zimmer frei” in a town. Well, try finding them today. The hotels we found were asking 60 – 70 or more CHF per person. Just not acceptable to Steve. Even considered trying to find Nora’s (my sister Judy’s exchange student) family which lives in Glarus, but thought that would be just too awkward. In retrospect I wish we’d had.
The trip to Glarus over the Klaussen Pass was beautiful, as were the other two passes, but yet more challenging as the roads seemed to be even more narrow plus we caught some rain up near the top of the pass. Really glad to get over this one! The remainder of the road was just a nice scenic mountain ride.
After striking out in Glarus, we decided to head toward Vaduz, Liechtenstein and keep looking while we went on. I had booking.com and tripadvisor apps on the Ipod, but no wifi service. I had the GPSr with searchable lodgings, but that just gave the name. So it was mostly a process of just looking as we went along. Found a campground which looked promising but they didn’t have any cabins or similar to rent. They recommended a less expensive place in town which turned out to be closed.
By the time we reached Vaduz, we drove to the nearest hotel. Nobody home, at least the doors were locked. I could see reception desk but nobody there. It was 4 star anyway so Steve wouldn’t have wanted to pay the probable price. I did see a sign which gave the wifi code so tried that. Got in for just a few minutes then it wouldn’t let me continue, not sure why. So we went to the McDonald’s down the road, to try to use their wifi. You had to have some kind of code, so I asked a friendly looking man (he had a kid with him) first the obligatory “Sprechen sie Englisch?” He did so I asked him how to get the code. After working with my Ipod for a bit, he asked if it was a touch or a phone. Seems that made a difference, not sure how. So anyway I think he ended up entering HIS code for me which was very nice. Another take pity on the poor foreigner in a bind, but hey I’ll take it. That got me about 90 minutes of internet time during which I searched for anything reasonable in Vaduz and came up empty except for expensive places. I did manage to get a reasonable place for tomorrow night in Reutte, so that we are near Neuschwanstein Castle that Steve really wanted to see. Also got to check email and sent off some SOSes as it looked pretty certain by now that we were spending the night in the car. Just wanted people to know the plans “just in case.”
At about 10:30 we parked the car off in a quiet corner and tried to settle in. About an hour later, though, a car parked right in front of us, nearly blocking our exit out. Assuming the worst, I felt pretty uncomfortable with that. So we moved down the street to the first hotel we’d tried, and stayed there until about 5:30 a.m. Steve slept more than I did, I maybe got a couple of hours myself. At least we got to use our airplane blankets…. I. am. Never. Going. To. Leave. The. Country. With. This. Man. Ever. Again….

May 20 - A day in the Alps!

Friday, May 20, 2011
This was Schilthorn day! We started our day by having breakfast in the dining room, cereal and milk and pain au chocolat that we’d bought at the grocery. Got to visit with Diane, one of the owners of the B&B. She is from Australia, her husband Marc is from England, and Switzerland is the compromise. They absolutely love it here. She pointed out the spring special on the Schilthorn tickets which did save us quite a bit. After breakfast we walked to the cable car station, about a 15 minute walk. We stopped briefly at my wifi place : ) to see if Eric had emailed us yet. He finally had, guess Max is still alive and so is Grandpa…
Bought our tickets and the next car left in 3 minutes so we hustled on up and soon left. The first leg of the trip, to Gimmelwald, was right up the side of the sheer face of the mountain. It was about a 45 degree angle, I thought I would be terrified but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We switched to the next car at Gimmelwald, headed for Murren. Then we switched again for Brig, then the final switching which brought us to the Schilthorn. Piz Gloria is the name of the revolving restaurant at the top, and a James Bond movie, Her Majesty’s Secret Service, was filmed in part here. We spent a lot of time on the terrace getting lots of neat pictures of the snow-covered Alps. There was even still snow on the terrace, though a clear walkway near the edges where people had been walking the most. Next stop the gift shop, of course. Two shotglasses and a Tshirt for Steve, and a hiking shield, pen, and a genuine cow bell for me. This one is nice because it has a nice hanging thingy and doesn’t have some particular town name written on it. Next we headed for the Panorama exhibit downstairs which was all about filming of the 007 movie, including film clips. Made us both want to see the movie again when we get home! It was also interesting (at least to me anyway) that they were filming scenes from a “Bollywood” movie while we were there. An Indian film crew and actors/actresses. Music, cameras, and lots of foreign words. They all were at the station with us at the same time to ride back down which didn’t make Steve very happy!
We rode the first section, back to Brig, with a very full carload. We, along with another couple, decided to stay at Brig for a bit – there was another observation deck and not much else. But it gave us some breathing room. The next car came in about 10 minutes so it wasn’t long of a wait. Back to Murren, and we got off the car and walked around Murren for a while. Nice views, a nice little town with almost no car traffic to speak of. Not sure how they would get the car up there! Got some more close up views of cows, still not one close with a bell though. Also got a cute picture of a St. Bernard which was up on its front paws drinking out of the town water fountain!
Back to the car, where we were again greeted by a crowd. This time, though, it was a school group. But still just about as crowded. We thankfully got off at Gimmelwald to have a look around. Not much there to look around at so we got back on the next car back down to Stechelberg. A very nice trip and not nearly as terrifying (I don’t like heights) as I thought it would be.
The walk back to the B&B took about 15 minutes. Took a break in the middle to stop at my favorite wi-fi hotspot and check email again. Then back to the B&B, another short visit with the owners, and a rest for a bit. We are both coughing pretty well – said we needed to call this the “coughing our way through Europe” tour. Yeah, I could feel miserable if I tried, but I’m in EUROPE – I’m not gonna let it get me down.
After a rest, got going again to drive to Lauterbrunnen and the Coop store for dinner provisions. Ended up with chicken nuggets (I kid you not, we ate chicken nuggets for dinner in Switzerland….) a salad, and fresh strawberries. Cooked them up when we returned and had a nice dinner. I do really want to experience genuine Swiss fondue at least one night. We’ll see how that goes. We may be as far as Liechtenstein or even Austria tomorrow night so hope I still get the chance.
Quietly spending the evening in our room. There are actually neighbors tonight, who were using the sink when we were ready to wash dishes. So Steve, to his credit, said he’d go back downstairs and wash the dishes. Gave me time to download pictures, which was nice. We had made a quick stop on the way back from Lauterbrunnen at my wifi hotspot as I’d forgotten to check the pass status for the passes we wanted to drive on tomorrow. They had, at first, been closed until June 1st, then a few weeks ago were posted as open, then a few days ago when I checked they were closed again. Today they show as open so we’ll hope for the best.
Tomorrow’s plans will be to wash up, pack up, eat up (breakfast anyway) and head for the passes and then for Liechtenstein and Austria.

Thursday, May 19, 2011
Today was supposed to be an easy day. Not. I woke up first, the bunk beds were just not all that comfortable. Decided that I would take the opportunity to do a load of laundry since the facility was there (at Kandersteg) and we were running low on some clothes since it’d been a week. While the washer was running I sat in the lobby and used the wifi on my Ipod. Steve was still asleep. When I came back to check on him, he was eating cookies for breakfast instead of the cereal he bought yesterday because “he couldn’t find the milk.” Wouldn’t have taken much looking. Anyway, he wasn’t too happy about that and about sleeping in the Africa room. I reminded him that they were scouters. That didn’t matter. He put a towel on the wooden chair so he wouldn’t pick up any germs. I’m serious. Anyway, left him to clean up and to change the load to the dryer. The dryer timer said 1 hr. for 2 CHF so decided to go take a walk to find the site where the geocache here was hidden. I logged a note last night that I was here and disappointed that the cache was not active, so that I could log my scouting trackables as visiting the cache. Anyway, a pinkie (staffer) told me that I could post a picture of me by a certain object near the cache site and then could log it as a find. So I took the pix, now just have to upload it. Also tried to get another nearby cache. GPSr kept bouncing around, plus I was in sandals so not the best equipped to go “off road” though it was only supposed to be a 1.5 terrain.
Came back, and started to pack up the car, and make sure the room was left in good condition. Discovered that, though the clothes had been tumbling for an hour, they were no dryer than they’d been before. I knew I had a full load and some of the load was heavy like jeans, but I would have expected that the lighter things would have been a bit dryer at least. My only disappointment at Kandersteg. Our last stop was the gift shop. We walked out of there spending more money than we had for the room….Steve bought a t-shirt, we both bought cups, and I bought some patches both for myself and for scouting friends back home. Wish I could have bought enough for my entire WB staff, but that would have been pricey.
Started north again toward Stechelberg. It was only 9 miles away as the crow flies, but took us an hour or so to get there as we had to make our way up one pass and down the next one. Steve decided that he had had enough of eating our own meals, so asked where the nearest McDonald’s was. There was (at least) one in Interlaken so we stopped there. We spent 28 CHF for Mickey D’s! He had some sandwich called the 1955, that was almost 15 CHF itself…..A Big Mac was almost 12CHF. So McDonald’s isn’t necessarily much cheaper. Wish he could just not worry about the money, he says that everyplace charges about 600% more than it is at home. And I quote him directly.
Anyway, headed down the valley toward Lauterbrunnen and Stechelberg. Absolutely beautiful! We arrived at Stechelberg where we had trouble locating the B&B we had reservations at. After a few false turns and turn arounds, we finally spotted the sign but were both getting pretty frustrated by then. It was too early, the doors were locked, so we just sat down for a while. Talked about our frustrations for a bit. It’s hard to put a positive spin on things constantly – I don’t want him to be miserable but he is finding so much not to like about Europe. It’s too bad. I don’t see him ever wanting to come back. I’m doing my best to have a great time regardless of what Steve’s frame of mind is. And I do seem to have his cold, too. Not the congestion, thankfully – jus the cough. Asked someone in the store this afternoon if they spoke English, then tried to explain in simple English that I was looking for a cough drop. Uh, turns out they were American. Ooops.
Anyway, we finally decided to go check out the station where we will take the Schilthorn tram car. It’s very steep, I’m not sure I’ll be looking down on the trip up! We got a schedule and found out it will be 94CHF each. Steve was taken aback at that, of course. I told him I knew it would be expensive but that this trip was less costly than the Jungfraujoch. And to look at it as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Which he finally seemed to do. We decided that by this time of the day (it was 1:30 ish) that we wouldn’t have enough time to see everything properly so we’d be better to wait until tomorrow. We went down to Trummelbach Falls instead, that is the waterfall inside the mountain. Turns out it’s the only accessible one in Europe. And an earthcache there, too. Elevator took us halfway up, then we finished the damp walk to the top and got to see many views of this neat sight. Even got some pictures with rainbows in them. After Trummelbach, we went back to the lift station in Stechelberg to see one of the cars. We did that, then hiked a little bit to see a waterfall closer up. Turned out to be the highest waterfall in Switzerland. Murrenfalle.
‘Next we decided to go back to Lauterbrunnen and find a grocery store. We found a Coop store (very aptly named, we must say) and found cold Coke for a lot less than out of machines. That made Steve much happier. Also bought two packaged Caesar salads and a small pizza to bake as we have kitchen privileges.
Back to Stechelberg and this time we were able to check into the B&B. It’s a bit rustic – no electric outlets in the room other than the light on the ceiling. Bathrooms down the hall. But it’s about half the price of other accommodations in the area. We were even able to use their clothesline to hang up our still wet clothes from the morning’s laundry at Kandersteg. They were mostly dry by the time we took them down later.
The view from our little balcony is awesome – right up against the mountains, with several waterfalls right there as well. Ok, far enough away to be safe. But nothing between us and them except some land.
We just sat and enjoyed the view for a while, plumb tuckered out. Ate dinner about 6:00 after figuring out the centigrade oven. Dishes are also provided so we don’t have to use our little plastic blue ones or our sporks, either. Nice dinner, the pizza and salad were much better than the sandwiches and such we’d been having. I noticed there was fondue equipment in the kitchen – maybe I’ll try to make some for dinner tomorrow night. We’ll see.
After dinner, we walked down the road a bit into Stechelberg. Passed by several avalanche shelters, basically concrete bunkers with an opening away from the mountain. Painted by school kids about 20 years ago but still nice designs. We stopped to look in the window of a little shop (which was closed.) Steve asked about the meaning of a sign, I pulled out the Ipod to check it on my translator, and discovered that there was wifi there! Checked my email then Steve was able to check his. So nice to know there is some wifi not too far away. While we were sitting there some cows came walking down the road, got some great pictures. I now have a cow face picture but I want one wearing a bell…..
Came back to the room, downloaded pictures, and am now working on the daily diary. We plan to go up to the Schilthorn tomorrow, weather permitting. Looks good so far

Wednesday, May 18 - to France and back

Wedneday, May 18, 2011
Well here we are at Kandersteg International Scout Centre in Kandersteg, Switzerland. More on that later.
We started our day off with rolls and juice that we’d bought at the store, since breakfast wasn’t included in our hotel rate. Cleaned up, packed up, checked out. I conducted the check out completely in my limited French – c’est bon! Then a quick trip to the souvenir store across the street so Steve could buy a shotglass. Saw lots and lots of stuffed St. Bernard dogs – was tempting but we knew we didn’t have room. Sorry, Max, we didn’t buy you a new girlfriend!
We made the tough call to not go ahead into Italy. I should say Steve made the call, I was ok either way even though the car rental agreement said we couldn’t go. The overland pass was still closed for winter, and the tunnel would have brought us out in Italy. Five miles away and a no go. Oh well. We backtracked up the same road we’d come down on and, once back in Martigny, headed west for the Col de Forclaz and France. Ultimate goal Chamonix. More beautiful scenery – breathtaking to see God’s creation here. Stopped several times for scenic views and picture ops – and I could tell my mind was NOT on caching as I’d forget to check if there was a cache at each stop until it was time to move on.
We stopped at the French border and were waved through once more, just like at the Swiss border yesterday. Continued on, the road was noticeably rougher but still fine. Stopped for a view and discovered a nature center there. Saw lots of some kind of mountain goat or bighorn sheep, many of them were eating something (lichen?)off the side of the building. Found the toilettes while we were there – and our first encounter with the dreaded hole in the floor with two foot pads. Had heard about these two years ago but never came across one. Surprise! Steve couldn’t get over how different they were. Of course, he’s having lots of trouble with ANYTHING that is different so it is what it is. He is feeling a bit better but still not adjusting well to European ways and prices. He kvetches about the price of food, then complains that we’ve just been eating sandwiches and cheese and stuff like that. Hmmm, can’t have it both ways now, can we?
Back to our day. We arrived in the Chamonix area, drove around a bit, then parked and did a little souvenir shopping. We checked out the train that would go up to a nearby glacier but Steve decided that 25 Euros apiece was too much so we just walked around a bit more. Did have some terrific views of Mont Blanc. Then headed back toward Switzerland – but not before I did collect on my country promise and found one cache in France. Ok, so I found some on my last trip so it wasn’t a new country. But I’ll take whatever opportunity I can get.
Returned to Martigny where we decided to stop for some groceries and gas before proceeding on. Had trouble finding parking, but finally figured out the underground parking for both stores we stopped at. The second store only gave you a half hour free (so we figured out later) so we tried to get out and couldn’t. Returned to the store and not knowing the language well did help as they just (I think) felt sorry for the dumb foreigner and gave me a “get out of the parking free” card.
Then headed toward Thun, going north. Again, the nuvi didn’t want to route us on the autobahn. Thanks to my Aunt Martha’s email that I read earlier tonight, I figured out why. On an trip last month, we wanted to avoid tolls so enabled that. Well, the Swiss autobahn is a toll road, so the nuvi didn’t want us on it thanks to what WE had told it!
Decided to check out Kandersteg International Scout Centre to see if they had any space available for one night. We were fortunate that they did – and are spending the night in the Africa Room in the main chalet. Thought Steve was going to get upset when he saw where we were headed – he is not a fan of Africa and Africans as anyone who knows him realizes. It’s full of all kinds of interesting African items, including a kudu horn (significant in Wood Badge courses.) I took the time to walk around the grounds after we settled in, took some pictures, and can’t wait for the morning when we can visit the store and get a scouting souvenir of this wonderful place. There are scouters here from all over the world. Would have loved to go downstairs and hang out with some of them but Steve was just too tired to do anything so opted not to. I do have some council patches that I could trade with others if I have the opportunity.
Tomorrow we head for Stechelberg, in the Lauterbrunnen valley. We will probably be there early, as it’s about a two hour max trip from where we are. We will be staying there two nights, leaving Saturday. This is our trip to the Schilthorn, where we will see the Alps close up. There are other neat things to see in the area, like a waterfall inside a mountain. Hoping the weather cooperates – we did have some off and on sprinkles this afternoon. The best thing will be less driving, more looking – and staying in one place more than a night. Know it was probably not the best idea but we had to make the most of our time so we could spend time with Scott, too.

Today - May 17 (up to date now!)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Woke up this morning to cows mooing and other farm sounds. Walked over to the other building and had a good German breakfast – assorted cheeses, meats (yummy Black Forest ham) and breads, with yogurt and muesli as well as juice and coffee. Sehr gut! Afterwards, we settled our bill – just 52 euros for both of us – and headed back down to Neustadt to stop for some groceries. We first went to Aldi. Had I remembered how Aldi works, probably would have started out at the other store. Aldi has a limited selection and no brand names. We still bought some cheese, rolls, and juice boxes. Went over to the store next door, and bought some coke/coke light, more meds for Steve, peanut butter, mullermilche (flavored milk) and a box of frozen veggies since they didn’t have any ice (for the little cooler that we borrowed from Scott.) This served us well throughout the day and into the evening!
We continued south from Titisee/Neustadt, hoping to see some cuckoo clock shops along the way. No such luck. We stopped in the nearest town to the Swiss border where we were told that the clocks were north – Titisee and above. Thanks, we knew that. Will have to look on the way back to Scott’s. Had a long line at the border, not sure why as nobody was stopping anyone.
We headed on a route through lots of small towns and finally ended up in Teufenthal, Steve’s ancestral home town from the Lindenmann branch of the Cooper family, through his Grandma. I suspected there wouldn’t be much to see, and unfortunately I was right. We did get to see a castle up on top of a hill, though we drove up that way we couldn’t get too close, wasn’t open to the public. Drove around looking for a place where Steve could buy a remembrance of the town – he finally ended up buying a very small clock, nothing special but he decided it would help him remember the visit. We also got directions to what turned out to be the modern cemetery. Never could find a cemetery with older graves, would have been interesting to see some Lindenmann relatives there. Moved on and made our first navigational mistake. The Nuvi said to go south from the main Teufenthal road. So we did. Not sure why it didn’t want us to go a short distance north so that we could pick up the Swiss autobahn and get south much faster than the dinky little roads we ended up on. We saw some beautiful scenery, and I wouldn’t take away that first glimpse of the Alps in the distance for anything. Nonetheless, it would have been much less time the other way.
We ended up in Bern finally – some unique experiences there included driving on the same road that the trains were using. In one case we were actually following the train! Thought we would finally hook up with the autobahn there but no, nuvi kept us going on the secondary roads. Didn’t matter whether we specified “shorter distance” or “fastest time.” Finally a few towns later, we saw where the autobahn had an on ramp. Knowing that we needed a vignette to legally drive on there, we stopped at a gas station. Nobody spoke English there. After several false starts, finally got someone to understand what we wanted and we paid our 40 Swiss francs and got the vignette. We probably cut an hour off our time by doing that!
We knew we were getting closer to France when the exit signs started changing from “Ausfahrt” to “Sortie.” So I had to start making the mental mind switch from thinking about what to say in German to thinking about what to say in French. Even after we were on the autobahn, the nuvi kept wanting us to take the next exit, so we finally put it on mute and just followed the signs for Grand St. Bernard Pass, which is where we were headed. We stopped just north of Montreux at a rest area where we enjoyed a wonderful view of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) and the surrounding mountains. After enjoying the view, I thought that there must be a cache in here somewhere. Sure enough, there was and I was able to log my first Swiss cache.
After Martigny we were back on a two lane road, headed down the road toward the Grand St. Bernard Pass and our hotel reservation for the night. We are staying at the Bivouac de Napoleon. Sort of rustic but good enough for one night. We were reserved for one of the chalet buildings but they put us in the main building at the chalet price. Very nice because we have our own bathroom, refrigerator, TV, and Wi-Fi! Obviously this is the first wi-fi I’ve had for the netbook since Grand Rapids as this will be my sixth blog post today, one for each day.
After we settled in, we went down the road to the recommended restaurant. Ordered cokes and then started looking at the menu. Extremely pricey even for a vacation area – 35 to 40 CHF for an entrée. Needless to say we decided not to eat there. We paid for the cokes which were 4.40 CHF each – Steve just about had a heart attack….ate sandwiches and bananas in the room and we were just fine.
We still need to decide about Italy. Would like to be able to “step foot” into Italy – which we wouldn’t be able to do if the pass is closed. We could still get through using the tunnel, but no way to avoid taking the rental car into Italy that way which we’ve been told is not ok. After I’m done blogging I’m going to check the pass information before I go to bed. BTW, jet lag pretty much is adjusted. I’m sleepy and it’s 11:30 p.m. now here, though I look on my computer and it says its only 5:30 p.m. (not gonna change it.) Looking forward to a fun day tomorrow, Steve is beginning to feel better. We don’t have reservations for tomorrow night, though, so it should be interesting. At least it doesn’t tie us down to a particular place.

Monday, May 16

May 16 Monday
Scott took off very early – but I was just awake enough to call out “bye” as he went out the door in his blues. We slept a bit longer then, but got up and going, loaded the car, and drove away at about 9:30 a.m. I first set the nuvi for the shortest distance, which should have been more scenic. It was very nice, a curvy, forested road toward Trier. I realized, though, that the route was going to take us through France. Not that I don’t like France but we wanted to see more of Germany. So went back to faster route which took us back on the autobahn for a while. There was construction several times, so the way was slower than we’d expected. Found out that there is something called the “traffic program” that must get automatically set off when we pass something, it overrides what we are already playing and starts babbling in German. Since we can’t understand most of it, we switch it right back.
Got down toward the Black Forest area in early afternoon. By now I really needed to make a rest stop and after several false stops (broken restrooms) we finally stopped at a travel plaza near Baden-Baden. Found out that when you have to go pretty bad, it’s really hard to remember what pocket of your travel vest has your euro coins when it costs 70 euro cents to get into the bathroom! Everything turned out ok. Then Steve came in and found out that it cost money to use the bathroom. Not happy with that, I saw a family bathroom left open before the turnstile. I kept watch while he used it – potty was probably only six inches off the floor. But it was free. We ate our lunch in the rest area then got off the autobahn at the next exit which was the B500 through Baden-Baden and into the Schwarzwald. We missed a turn in town and ended up almost having to enter the casino’s parking garage. Got turned around again and ended up back where we needed to be, and headed out of town. I do think it would have been a great experience to go to the spa there but oh well.
We passed through some beautiful country – hilly, wooded. Great motorcycle road if we’d been on Goldie. Made several camera stops. Then went through a period of passing through lots of small towns as we headed toward Triburg and Furtwangen. We finally had to stop for gas, too. The rental agent had NOT told us how to open the gas cap. We finally figured out where to push and got the car filled. I think it was $1.58 per liter.
Continued on and it was getting later than we had planned, so just drove through Triberg without making a stop. We wanted to get to Furtwangen before the Deutsches Uhrenwangen (clock museum) there closed. Made it with time to spare so enjoyed the tour of all the old clocks, especially the cuckoo clocks. We did a bit of shopping for a cuckoo clock in some nearby shops but Steve didn’t like the selection. Not sure why we need another cuckoo clock in the house, but guess this one would be one HE picked out. This is his big want for the vacation, and especially since he doesn’t feel that great still, not gonna argue this one.
On to Titisee-Neustadt where we are staying the night in a gastezimmer on a farm. A very nice room, with nice people as hosts. She speaks very little English, I speak very little German. But we managed to communicate. I did print out all our emails back and forth that confirmed our reservation, so that helped. We have two twin beds together, comforters & pillows (with a chocolate hear t on each pillow) a bathroom, balcony, and even a satellite TV. Of course the TV is all in German but have to admit it’s interesting watching Family Guy in German.
After checking in, we decided dinner was next in line. We spent some time in both Titisee and Neustedt trying to find someplace that didn’t look too expensive and was still open. Ended up at a place that had a very long menu. Steve played it safe and ordered pizza, so I did the same. He also saw “milchshakes” on the menu. Ordered one for 4 euros and it came in a really small glass. Steve whined about how everything is overpriced. I know he doesn’t feel good, but he has to be open to new things if he wants to have a good time here. He wanted to stop at the local Mcdonald’s on the way back to the motel so we did just that.
Tomorrow the plans are to shop for a cuckoo clock again, head for Teufenthal, Switzerland, where Steve’s dad’s family comes from, and then through Switzerland to the Martigny area. We discovered we can’t take the rental car into Italy so have to rethink that plan a bit.

Sunday, May 15

Sunday, May 15, 2011
Everybody got to sleep in, even me – so we got a late start to the morning. That was ok, we all needed it. Steve is still not feeling well but a day of rest has helped, I think. We all ate breakfast, then Steve dozed back off and Scott showed me a bunch of pictures and video from his deployments and other stuff. Pretty cool. Also tried to watch a movie but it shut the sound off as it wasn’t a good copy, I guess. After a while, I thought that since Steve wanted to sleep and Scott would usually just watch movies on a Sunday afternoon (so he said), I asked to go out caching. Scott was willing so after lunch, off we went. Steve stayed back and got some more good rest.
First stop was a cache in Spang called Am Kalkoffen. It was a nano hidden at the town well. Didn’t find it. Scott was even looking, but no luck. Doesn’t help that the cache description, like most of them, was in German. I had tried to get some of them translated then changed in GSAK, but when I did the next update they changed back to German, so gave up on that project. I would have probably tried longer without Scott there, but didn’t want him to get too bored looking. So on to another cache. Metzenkapelle took us up on a little road above the town and to a cute little chapel alongside the road. After a short search I found the film canister cache. There seems to be a lot of these little chapels around, all paying homage to the Virgin Mary from what I could tell.
Then we tried another called Der Troll. We were still over a hundred feet away and the GPSr was leading us into a forested area that was pretty steep. I decided to pass on the find as Scott was in shorts and flip flops. Then, let’s see – we went to a TB hotel called The European Gateway to the World. I was able to pick up two travelers there and left two others from Michigan. Finally a full sized easy cache today! Moving on, we tried another cache that took us about 100 feet from the road into a (tall) grassy area next to a creek. The cache was supposedly behind a stump but we couldn’t find a stump. So another DNF. Then we tried for one that took us down a long road to someone’s house. Turned around at that point. Finally got lucky as we went to Speicher and found a cache (Speicherer Kapellchen) that was close to another chapel and on a walking trail. Wish we could have spent more time on the trail but not today. Left a traveler there as it was a regular sized cache. It had German geocaching labels which was cool. Took a back road to one last cache, Wasne Aussicht was its name and it had a very nice view of the valley below. A quick find which also gave me another traveler to take back to Michigan. Tried for a few more on the way back to Spang but no place to safely park that was close enough. On my own I might have gone for them, but not when a muggle is driving you around. Went to the base before we went back to Scott’s as Steve had requested a shake. Went to Burger King for the shake and got to at least check my email on the Ipod.
Came back to Scott’s and he let me use his 3G cell phone to go to geocaching.com and log my caches and traveler moves. That was nice but took a while with the small keyboard, etc. He grilled brats and burgers for us for dinner and we are now watching another movie. He has to get up very early tomorrow for ALS (Airman Leadership School) and we will be on our way to the Black Forest in the morning, so I don’t imagine it’ll be a very late night for us.

Saturday, May 14

Saturday, May 14, 2011
We got cleaned up and went downstairs for breakfast. It was a pretty nice spread – Steve had cereal, a hard boiled egg, banana, lunch meat, cheese, and some sweet breads. I had a piece of sweet bread, a sandwich made from lunch meat and cheese, and yogurt.
Then check out from the hotel and a two-block walk to the car rental agency. It was about a hundred dollars less to pick up in town rather than the airport so decided to do that instead of having to drive on jet-lag the night before. We arrived to nobody at the office, and a note on the door in German. Jibbigo (my translator program for Ipod) finally told us that it said he would be back shortly. Waited a while longer and finally tried the number on Scott’s cellphone. Recorded message in rapid German didn’t help us one bit. Thankfully the guy showed up shortly thereafter, and we rented the car (2010 VW Golf, dark blue) and headed out. Steve took a bit to get used to the stick shift, and stalled out on the street in front of EuropCar. Then with the help of the nuvi’s Europe map, we headed toward Spangdahlem. Not a single wrong turn, thankfully!
Even got to stop for a cache at a scenic turnout and made my first cache find of the trip! Made it to Spangdahlem and Scott’s about 12:30 p.m. local time. So nice to see Scott for the first time since last August! We got the grand tour of his very nice apartment, then visited for a while before leaving for Bitburg and the commissary. Went through Dudeldorf on the way, drove through two arches. Scott told us General Patton got a tank stuck through one of them during the war, though he couldn’t remember which one. Made it to Bitburg, got passes for us and for the car, then went to the commissary for some weekend food plus snack supplies for our trip down to Switzerland. Also cold medicine for Steve. Then we took Scott to his car which was in Bitburg as he had been at a party the night before and didn’t think he could safely drive. Glad that, if he drinks, it is seemingly responsibly. Back to the apartment to put away perishables, then on to the base for the grand tour. I’d seen it before, of course, but glad that Steve got the chance to as well. Ended up at Johnny Rocket’s at the Eifel Club for dinner – burgers for the guys and a salad for me. Then a bit more base touring, a stop at the shoppette to see the Tshirt selection, and then a stop just outside the base for another cache attempt. Way too many thorns to find this one, might give it another chance or might not. Scott then agreed to drive (we were in the Blazer) to the cache that his troop put out. He actually ended up finding it first so decided to take off running with it. He did bring it back, and I was able to swap out some of our council patches for one of the troop’s neckerchiefs. Left a scouting traveler as well as one that needed to get back to Germany. Had passed another travel bug hotel not too far along the way so got to stop there, too, and left three more travelers and picked one up. Returned to the apartment and visited some more, and watched the movie Zombieland. This was the same movie that I watched part of with Eric on Wednesday night, I had missed the first part as well as the last part so nice to get the whole picture, so to speak. Then Steve and Scott went to bed and I’m still finishing up this diary. Hope to have some wifi (Scott’s is still not back on) soon so that I can post some of this on my blog.

Friday, May 13 - arrival in Frankfurt

Friday, May 13
It was interesting to see the sunrise above the clouds as we headed across the Atlantic Ocean. Don’t know when it became Friday technically but I’m sure it was somewhere along the way. Breakfast was served about an hour before we landed – croissant, yogurt, orange juice. We could see the Irish and British countryside by this time, and landed at London Heathrow about 9 a.m. local time. Must confess to a faux pas – thought the blankets and pillows were complimentary and disposable, so told Steve we might as well take ours, at least the blankets, because they were just going to throw them away anyway. Not sure where that idea popped into my head as we noticed that night at the hotel that there were tags attached that said “Property of American Airlines. Please do not remove from aircraft.” Oops.
At Heathrow, we had to change terminals, from terminal 3 to terminal 5. That involved a shuttle bus and our only chance to technically be on British soil other than an airport terminal. Once at terminal 5, we had to go through security again. Had to send my bag of electronics through again but it went ok.
Next stop was the shops – I really wanted to get a William and Kate souvenir as the wedding was just two weeks ago. Ended up with three souvenirs – two commemorative tins and a commemorative wedding magazine. One tin had Walker shortbread in it, the other has tea. Fun to see the British foods and expressions again after two years away. Told Steve we should plan on some London time next trip…if I’d planned this a bit better maybe our layover could have been long enough for a short tour of London. Oh well.
Another case of hurry up and wait – we ate shortbread, drank coke/diet coke, people watched (me) and slept (Steve.) Our gate was finally announced and we made the (thankfully) short distance to the gate. We were again allowed to pre-board because of Steve’s cane, and settled in for an hour’s flight to Frankfurt. A good portion of the passengers were German, so interesting to hear all the conversations, not understanding much but still interesting. The kid behind me kept kicking the seat, I wanted to turn around and say, “Halten sie, bitte” but wasn’t quite sure it was the right German phrase to get him to stop so didn’t. Knew he was German from listening to his conversation with the parents.
By the time we hit the ground in Frankfurt I needed a bathroom. Of course we had a really long taxi to the terminal, and bumpy too. What fun. Not. Needless to say the first thing we did when we finally got off the plane was to find a bathroom. After that we went through immigration, then walked through the customs area marked “nothing to declare” and there was nobody to declare nothing to, so we walked on through. Went to the main area and discovered we needed to take a shuttle bus to terminal 1 to get to the train that would take us to downtown Frankfurt. Did all that, then had to figure out the ticket machine (with the help of a woman who knew English) and buy train tickets. They never did collect them, Steve said we could have ridden for free, but I reminded him that they can and do check and it would be a big fine if we were caught. An uneventful trip downtown, then walking through the train station and down a block or two to our hotel, the Hotel Europa.
For 56 euros we got a small room with two double beds, a bathroom, TV, wireless internet, and breakfast. Not too bad for downtown Frankfurt. By this time Steve admitted that he was getting a cold despite his best efforts to stave it off. Apparently it’s been going around work….bummer. And it was classic Steve attitude, “I shouldn’t have come, it’s going to suck because I have a cold, etc.” to quote him. I know some of it was not feeling well, being disappointed because of that, and being tired from the long trip. After dropping off our stuff (did I mention we were on the 7th floor?) we went back to the train station for something to eat. Steve decided he wanted Burger King and that’s what we got. Would have liked something a bit more authentically German but choose your battles, right?
After dinner, I tried to find a geocache that was located at the train station. No luck. GPSr never got a great signal because of all the buildings, and there were a lot of people around. And when I turned back around the corner, the Poliezi were talking with someone. About what, I don’t know. But didn’t feel it would be wise to continue to poke around. So we went back to the hotel. Steve went pretty much right to sleep in our non air conditioned, no screen on the window room. Thankfully it cooled down. I decided to try to stay awake until the normal time for German bedtime and managed to last until 9:30 p.m., watching British CNN and working on the Ipod. The code that I was given for wifi only worked on one computer so I was out of luck on the netbook. Suppose I could have gone down and gotten another but I was just too tired to deal with it.
Slept about 4 hours until Steve woke up, miserable because of his cold. That woke me up and I was afraid I wouldn’t get back to sleep but managed and got in another 3 hours or so.

May 12 - Thursday

May 12 Thursday

Leaving day! I woke up at 4:30 a.m. – after watching most of a movie with Eric and not going to bed until after midnight. Made for a very short night! Last minute packing, and waiting for a check from Dad C’s fund so we could take care of Heather Hills payment. UPS brought the check, then shortly afterwards we left, first for the bank then for Heather Hills. Then a short stop at the insurance place to do some paperwork, and then a stop at Steak & Shake as Steve was hungry. We went inside and it was senior day – at both ends of the spectrum! There was a tour group from a nursing home taking up one very long table, and shortly joined by a group of seniors – class of 2011 – at the adjoining long tables together. Pretty weird! Then on to the airport. Eric hung around until we were through security, then he went home to Max.

We had a couple of hours to wait until we boarded our plane. There was another flight at the same gate, which was delayed in leaving because of weather in Dallas, so our plane didn’t get a jetway and we had to walk out to the plane. Did get priority boarding because Steve decided to bring the only weapon he could – a cane. Which meant he had to use the thing. Really dumb in my mind but it was his choice. And I know he was motivated by trying to protect us.

Flight to Chicago was short and uneventful. Then a four hour layover in Chicago. First realization that those suitcases are HEAVY! Our arrival gate was close to the USO club – so thought we’d make the attempt to go in since we were headed to see Scott. The guy actually let us into the adjoining American Airlines lounge. We spent a peaceful hour and a half there, much quieter than in the actual airport areas. Finally left as we were getting bored. Walked to the next terminal to see the Butch O’Hare exhibit, then stopped for food – Steve got a sub and I got a pina colada smoothie. Then down to Gate K16 and another wait. Finally got on the plane and got settled in.

Nice entertainment system on the plane – could choose from about 8 movies, TV shows, games, and music. Also a button to show where the plane was at the time. Drink and snack served shortly after takeoff, then dinner not too long after that. We had beef and mashed potatoes, a salad, roll, cheese and crackers, then a brownie for dessert.

Later, most of the passengers settled down for a nap, including Steve. I tried but no go, even using my first class sleeper and eye shades, as well as soft music playing on my Ipod. You’d think after only four hours the night before….

Arrived safely at Scott's - no wifi : (

Here we go!

It's May 12, 2011. We are sitting at gate B3 at Gerald R. Ford International Airport, Grand Rapids, MI. Waiting to depart for Chicago on the first leg of our trip to Germany! We're packed, repacked, and packed again. I don't think we've forgotten anything...

Steve is sleeping right now, and I am (obviously) using my computer. We should start boarding in about 20 minutes. An uneventful morning, tying together loose ends, then Eric took us to the airport. Now his bonding time with Max begins - ha-ha! That is the greatest gift he could give us, seriously, the freedom to be able to travel.

He seems hopeful about his appeal, BTW. And we're going to look at him going over on his own trip to see Scott this summer, if that works out with both of them.

But for now, here we go!!!!!!!!

It's Plan A! (A.2 anyway)

It's plan A as we leave in just three days for Germany. Scott made a quick call yesterday to wish me a happy Mothers Day and gave me the best present - his presence in Spangdahlem! Didn't have time to find out many details, but he's back and that means we're headed for Spang on Saturday, after arriving in Frankfurt Friday night and picking up the car Saturday morning. (Really too late to start messing with the rental details at this point, plus with jet lag we're better off getting a night's sleep first.)

I wrote "A.2" since we have pretty much decided to make one minor change - we had talked about visiting the spa at Baden-Baden after watching the Rick Steves video where he went. We'd been talking about changing those plans for several reasons, and knowing we're going to see Scott has made that decision easier. We'll now start off for the Black Forest on Monday morning instead of Sunday morning, and get to spend the whole weekend with Scott. He'll be in a training class starting Friday anyway, so his weekday time will be quite limited. We're heading down to the Alps from the Black Forest, and will be gone about a week or so then headed back up Scott's way to spend the remainder of the time with him, as much as his class will allow anyway.

We both have our toiletry bags packed and the plan tonight is to work on the suitcases. Steve hasn't flown since before 9-11 and so the 3-1-1 bag was a new thing for him...thankfully now we'll have access to the commissary at Spang so he can buy bigger sizes of shampoo, shaving cream, etc.

My Tuesday night scout dinner was cancelled so that frees up some badly needed free time to get stuff done. We are done, too, with getting Dad's house ready for the remodeling to begin. So these last few days can be concentrated on getting ready for the trip. Our house is still looking like a storage warehouse, but that will be remedied slowly but surely when we return.

Did I write that it's only three days until we leave? : )

Six days and counting

It's now six days and counting until we leave for Germany. Will it be plan A - heading for Spangdahlem on Saturday (the 14th) or plan B -heading south towards the Black Forest? Time will tell.

Today was supposed to be get it organized day. Hasn't quite turned out that way as we finally connected with people to pick up the two couches and three air conditioners that we were giving away. So I'm now on my third trip into town, using wifi at the deli near Dad's house.

I have accomplished one major thing, though - been to the bank where my savings account from the first trip is, made sure my ATM card still works, then transferred money into it from our joint account so that it can be our primary ATM source for the trip. This was with Steve's blessing, this way if for some reason the account is compromised it doesn't touch our main funds. I also bought some Euros and have some Swiss Francs on order to pick up on Wednesday. It'll get us started anyway. Steve has called his credit card company - I still need to call mine - to advise that we will be using the cards out of the country.

So the major tasks still to do are to pack, and to make sure our travel information is organized. So what's on the agenda? Tomorrow I have a Wood Badge Staff meeting, thankfully only until 1 p.m. Then comes Mothers Day on Sunday. Monday I work all day, then need to go to the troop meeting and meet with a couple of scouts about a merit badge. Tuesday I also work all day, then we have our district awards dinner that night. Wednesday - I don't work, but I have a dentist appointment, so Max will be at the groomers while I'm getting my teeth "groomed" and then I'm going to Craig's Cruisers with the Awana kids for the book finishers party. Yeah, I know, insane the night before I leave, but it's long been on the schedule. Then Thursday we leave.

This weekend, I need to accomplish as much as possible. That means I'd better get off the internet and get home, eh? It's probable that my next post will be from an airport somewhere (we have about a five hour layover at O'Hare) so look forward to it!

May day, May day

The title could be taken many ways. One, that it IS May 1st....another, that it is just 11 days until we leave for Germany. I think the most appropriate right now though is the state of affairs around here. Specifically the STUFF.

Since Steve's dad went into the nursing home, we've been working on getting his house ready for major updating - carpets, paint, fix basement walls, etc. That has taken up a lot of our time, and now the stuff is taking up a lot of our house. Some is very nice stuff, for sure. But other stuff is just meaningless. But Steve wants to save it all (or so it seems sometime.) I'm trying to help him understand that if he doesn't remember the story behind it or it doesn't have meaning to him, why do we need to hang on to it? It's working - a little - but we still hauled home a lot of stuff to go through yesterday. To top it off, we went over Friday night and found that the basement walls were leaking....and we had water on the floor. Yep, lots of boxes on the floor.... now the contents have been salvaged and the empty, wet boxes are out on the back deck waiting for next Saturday's Ada clean up day. Too many to go in our regular trash.

With all this, we decided it would be good to put our own funeral plans in place. So last Monday night, we met our "new neighbors" - picked out our plots in a nice little rural cemetery in the township. That's more than a little creepy in some respects, but to flip it up, guess it means we're doing ok together to be dealing with stuff like that.

Haven't done much with the trip with everything else going on. Driving me crazy to be this close and not feel so ready. I'm more ready than I think, I know, but still. And we don't know if Scott will be there or not. We have plan A and plan B in place, so we're ok either way, but would really like him back in Germany. Working on packing (mentally anyway) and all that stuff. Will have to take time to just sit down and get it all organized, plus the stuff like calling credit card companies, etc.

Have a new toy to help in the travel....finally bought an ipod touch. It has been wonderful so far. Much easier to check email and facebook. Just can't figure out how to do this blog on it. Think I'll still be taking this netbook because of the blog issues and downloading pictures.

Take a deep breath -- 11 days to go!