We go home today! The phone rang in our room this morning to wake us up at
10:00 AM. We finished packing up our things and went to breakfast at 10:30 AM. Afterwards we headed to the airport. Everything went smoothly and we boarded at 1:25 PM. We had to take a bus from the airport to the plane, I thought it was strange. We had a 9 hour flight from Frankfurt to Chicago and we didn't get much sleep at all, maybe 30 minutes. We went through customs and ate dinner on the plane to Indy from Chicago. We are NOT excited about the 1 1/2 hour drive from Indianapolis to Ball State, and even more unexcited about CLASSES starting TOMORROW!! We had an awesome vacation and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
0 Comments
We woke up at 7:45 AM this morning and it sure felt like it! We had to get to
the airport to pick up Kate, the Landen's daughter. After we picked her up we got a hotel to stay in. It was a ★★★★★ hotel named Villa Kennedy in Frankfurt. Talk about a nice place! The bathrooms even had heated floors! We all got massage sat 3:00 PM. It was Brian's first massage ever! We both chose to get the Hawaiian Essence massage. First they scrub you with a nice salt scrub, then they wrap you in hot towels to relax. After 10 minutes they come in and unwrap you and let you take a shower to get off the scrub and lastly a massage! It was 90 minutes of pure bliss! When I saw Brian afterwards he said he loved it! We came back to the room and got ready for dinner. The dinner was very interesting but I found some food I liked. Brian felt a little out of place throughout the dinner but he enjoyed the food. We came back to the room and went to sleep, preparing for our long journey home! Friday the 13th! We are headed to see Christoph, Brian's friend.
We woke up around 9:45 AM and got ready to leave. We already hadour tickets to Kehl so that was nice. We got to Kehl and had tons of complications with the train tickets. We ended up spending 200 euros for tickets! Not fun. We ended up getting there and finally met up with Christoph and enjoyed the day walking around. Brian was having a blast catching up with him. They hadn't seen each other in 2 years! We ate at a Mexican place for dinner (funny, eh?) and I had my first long island ice tea. I also had my second. The train ride home was long and I slept the whole way. Chris paid for everything that day which was nice since we weren't planning on spending all that money for the tickets earlier in the day. We woke up around 10:45 AM and were already running late for the train station.
We hurried and got ready and walked to the station to buy our tickets. Brian then called his friend and apparently he had to work until 6:00 PM so our trip was off. We will try again tomorrow to get to Germany. We did some more shopping for friends and family, called home, took a nap, and went out to this awesome pizza place! We wandered around the city at night and came back to talk to the Landens about our trip tomorrow. After that we played the Sims and Brian started to build a castle on there. What a goof. It was a nice day of lounging around and catching up on sleep. I woke up around 9:30 AM and took a quick shower. I was feeling a little bit better than the previous day and for once it wasn't raining! Bryan and Kathy had to go back to work this morning so we were on our own. We first walked to a nearby pastry shop to find that it was closed. Then we walked to the cathedral and climbed a million stairs to the top, the view was completely worth it though. We could see the entire city from where we were! We even spotted the Landen's house! After the cathedral we went and saw this super old coo-coo clock in a church. The clock was huge and the tour guide talked it up a lot but when it came time for it to ring, it wasn't too impressive. It was really amazing for how old and big it was though. Let's just say it probably had dust from the time of dinosaurs! Later we took a boat down the river. The boat was neat, it had a clear roof so we could see out without being in the elements. During our little trip it started raining, of course, but we were covered! After the tour we went to the Landens to eat lunch. We had sandwiches with chips. We went back out to do a little shopping for our family and friends. We then came back and took a nap, ate dinner, and slept. Today I slept in until 11:00 PM. It was really nice but I still felt tired.
Brian and I cooked eggs, bacon, and toast together for breakfast. When we left the house it was raining, once again. The Landens had planned on taking us to an abbey on top of a mountain, which over-looked miles and miles of vineyards. Unfortunately, when we got to the top of the mountain there was a blizzard! It would have been so beautiful, if we could have seen 5 feet in front of our hand. The abbey was gorgeous though, especially with the snow. We stayed about 30 minutes and then came back home. Of course, when we got back I started to come down with a cold/flu. I was really tired and it was barely 2:00 PM! We went to the mall for the second day in a row and my card didn't work again. After the mall we ate dinner, watched some movies, and went to sleep. We woke up around 9:15 AM and got ready for day two in the City of Love. We had breakfast at the hotel and packed up our things before we went out. This day Brian and I spent alone walking around the city and visiting shops. I was money-less today, I kept trying to get money out of the ATM but it kept rejecting my card. Stupid company. We ate lunch at McDonalds! I know it sounds lame but I wanted to see if it tasted different and it did! It was much better, it tasted a lot healthier (which it probably wasn't). After lunch we witnessed a car wreck (no one was hurt) and then went to the top of the Arc, it was beautiful. Everything in Paris is so gorgeous! We took plenty of pictures, of course. We started to get sleepy so we hopped on the bus to relax for a little while. We went to the hotel at 6:00 PM and got on the train for Strasbourg. When we got back, unpacked and went to bed. We woke up at 7:45 AM (yikes?!) and I still felt as tired as I did last night. We drove to the train station and took a train that gets up to 350 MPH! It's the world's fastest train! We got to Paris in 2 hours instead of the 4 or 5 it would have taken if we drove. When we arrived in Paris it was raining but we were still excited to be there! We got a taxi and went to our hotel room, which was super nice! After we dropped our luggage off we headed to the Eiffel tower. We took a lift up and had a wonderful view of the city. It was so romantic even though it was raining. When we got to the bottom, Brian and I were getting our picture taken when all of a sudden he pulled out a light blue box from TIFFANY'S! He got me the most gorgeous necklace of a heart that says in cursive "I love you." all over it. The whole experience was so perfect and amazing! After that we went for a short walk and then hopped on a double-decker bus. The Landens went their own way. I think they visited a few palaces. We rode all around Paris and saw all the sights like Notre Dame, The Arc, and the Lourve! We took lots of pictures! We went back to the hotel at 6:30 PM and got ready for a night on the town. At 7:15 PM a taxi came and took us for a tour of Paris at night. It was beautiful, everything was lit up and glowing. We drove to the Eiffel tower and the guide said that every hour, on the hour the tower starts to sparkle! It was amazing when we saw it! It was like the whole thing was covered in glitter and diamonds! The bus arrived at the Moulin Rouge at 8:50 PM and the show started at 9:00 PM. There were lots of topless ladies doing cheesy dances. It was pretty funny actually. We had some champagne but I didn't like it at all. Kathy was opening the second bottle we got during the show and the cork popped off and flew across the room and champagne sprayed across the 3 tables around us! It was hilarious! After the show we went back to the hotel completely exhausted. We took showers, lounged around, and fell asleep around 2:00 AM. The Landens so far have refused to let us pay for anything, they are far too kind. I got a little nap on the flight. Brian woke me up about an hour before we landed. We landed 30 minutes early and the Landens where waiting there to pick us up. They were very welcoming and kind to us after our extremely long flight. We drove straight from the airport to a castle called Burg Hohenzollern. It is a beautiful castle on a hill covered in snow. On our tour the guide said that the same family had lived there for over 1,000 years! We saw the king's bedroom as well as his crown. There was a lot of snow on the ground and it was absolutely freezing but seeing the castle was breath-taking! After a long day of traveling and sigh seeing we made our way to the Landen's apartment and went to bed around 11:00 PM. Brian and I are in the Indianapolis Airport waiting
for our flight to Chicago, which then takes us to Germany. We will be flying through the night and into the next morning! I've never done anything like that before! We are both very excited for our trip and can't wait to get there! Itinerary ✈ Depart from Indianapolis on 03/06/09 at 4:10 PM to Chicago O'Hare ✈ Arrives in Chicago at 4:25 PM (time change) ✈ Departs from Chicago O'Hare at 7:30 PM to Frankfurt, Germany ✈ Arrives in Frankfurt, Germany on 03/07/09 at 11:50 AM |
France/Germany 2009
Here are the entries from my travel journal that I kept on our trip to Germany and France. |