Melharris: January 2011

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Road to Trier... Day 2

Today was a leisurely Sunday... well rested, we woke up late, ate brunch downstairs... interesting German twist on standard brunch. Got my fill of sauteed mushrooms. NEVER had mushrooms for breakfast, but YUM! Pate, brie, sausage, pork meatballs, although I skipped the baked beans and broiled tomato halves... hhhhmmmm.

We took off southwest on a quest to see Trier. (Treer) The oldest Christian church in Germany, and great Roman ruins around. Trier was founded by Augustus in 16 B.C. We toured the Porta Nigra and Museum, then found the Cathedral after going thru MarketSquare. Thinking that this church was built after Christianity was LEGALIZED here A.D. 312... wow. So much history, architecture, ornateness and grandeur! It was a great afternoon. Seems it had snowed in the area, on the way home, but we had a dry, COLD day in Trier. WOW, it was cold!

I still cannot get over the common, natural charm of the small German villages, all of the little communities that dot every valley along the Autobahn, and how FAST these people drive... wow. Almost more important to watch your rearview mirror, than what is in front of you! Put the possibility of deer crossing the roads, and you have a recipe for disaster! I did decide, that I have yet to see a police officer on the road yet. Can't wait to talk to some of the younger locals about all of the customs and daily life. Younger locals, as those are the ones that speak more English!

For some reason, pictures won't load for me for the last 10 hours. I will post this update, and add the pics as soon as I figure out what is going on.... sorry. You can see the pics on my me.com sight... if you have the link ;)

Melanie

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Scenes from Germany... Day 1

We landed about 7:30am, Frankfurt time. (Keep in mind, that was 12:30am TX time) SO glad we "slept" on the flight. We got to catch Social Network, the movie, on the plane... good distraction, and not a bad movie. We walked what seemed to be forever in the Frankfurt airport to get our rental car... and thank goodness for NAV, we programmed Bonn into it, after I reprogrammed it to ENGLISH, while Mike drove. We followed her half the way, but decided we wanted a little more adventure, so took a detour, and we're so glad we did! We took a smaller highway, (9) along the Rhine, and got to drive thru several small towns and by several churches and castles along the way!

One thing that I did forget was my leather gloves, so when spying what I identified as an Outlet Mall (yeah!) we stopped for a bit, got a snack, (what was translated to be mixed sausage- sheep, pig, cow... 5 links, and quite yummy) a diet coke, and a pair of gloves... we were back on our way.

Once checked in to our hotel, we walked the marketplace area. WHAT a great sunny day. SOooooo glad we brought that TEXAS sun with us! They seemed to like it, and people were out in droves! I don't care how much sun, it was still 25 degrees... and BBBBrrrrrrr. We found a few shops to duck into and browse, just to warm up!

We found a cute little place in the main square! An area that has a webcam that I've been spying on for about 2 weeks. We took our picture in that same spot, and ate at the cafe right there! We don't know what it was, but it was yummy... OF COURSE I took pics, it's FOOD!

It's now 5:16, but we are exhausted, so we're back to the room, showered, and Mike is OUT!!! Couldn't keep him up any longer. ME... gotta get these pics up, for those of you living vicarously thru our travels... ;) You know who you are!

More later!!! Stay tuned! Now for some pics... Excuse the mess of the order. I promise to do better!

I drank 3 of these full of water on the one flight! Wow, it really dries you out.