Park Play and Tub Fun!

We took Abbi to the park today. She loves to play in the sand, swing and go down the slide. Mostly she just loves being outside. She got throughly dirty while playing so she took a bath when she got home and painted with her bubble finger paints. She thinks they are more for war paint though! She's really into body art these days. She'll probably grow up to be a tattoo artist! Well, Paul has pictures from Japan, but I don't know which pictures are what so I'll let him post them on the blog when he has time. But he had a good time (besides working) and was able to see a lot of neat stuff! More to follow soon!

Homeward Bound!

I am headed home tomorrow and Paul is off the Japan for another week! Im sad to not be with him, but I miss my Abbi so much! It’s been fun, but I’ll be happy to be stateside again soon! There are so many things in the US that we take for granted like free public restrooms, cold drinks, real milk from a real cow, free water when you go out to eat. Despite the things I missed, I really had a great time and it was amazing seeing so much history!

Heidelberg Castle

We went to the Heidelberg Castle today and got to explore this wonderful piece of history that has been around since the 13th century. A billion kings and other people lived in it and built tons of buildings. It’s really like 5 castles in one sort of. We went inside and outside of the remaining structures. It was massive and really neat. We also got to see the world’s largest wine barrel! That was cool. It was huge! It held 220,000 liters of wine at one time. We had to take a tram up the mountain to get to the castle. It was like a ride at Disneyland! The castle has been destroyed over the years from wars and fires, but it was so amazing to see such an old piece of history.

Rollin on the River

We took a little boat trip down the Neckar River today. It was such a beautiful day, which was surprising considering it was raining half the time we were here, but today we lucked out! We rode on a solar powered boat, which was neat and romantic and got to drink some warm cokes…they really don’t believe in ice here! The first thing I’m going to do when I get home is get a big drink of something with lots of ice and drink a whole gallon of real milk! They only have boxed warm milk here that doesn’t taste like milk...eeew! Good thing Abbi didn’t come!

The Bong Shop

So we cam across this charming little shop in downtown Heidelberg…It’s a Bong Shop for smoking marijuana! Great huh? I guess maybe it’s legal here. They had a huge marijuana plant growing in the window too. Is that weird or what?

Parlez-vous francais?

So we had one day to ourselves before Paul starts working on Monday and we thought we’d go to France, since this is where he served his mission. We rented a Mercedes and drove about an hour to Strasbourg, France on the Autobahn. We were driving about 103 mph. Yikes! But it was really fun. Strasbourg is this little town that is French and German in the Alsace region of France. Which I kept calling the “Applesauce Region” which I guess isn’t right? We had some French food: Foie gras, baguette, Brie cheese, and chocolate! Yummy! We saw a super old Cathedral from the 12th century that took 300 years to build. This has been my favorite part of the trip so far!

Guttentag...Onto Heidelberg!

This morning we woke up early and flew to Frankfurt Germany and took a shuttle to Heidelberg ,which was about an hour and a half away. We checked into our hotel, which is um….nice? It’s kind of like living in a really cheap dorm, but its home for now and the bed is comfy! It is definitely difficult being in a country where they speak another language. Our Deutch (German) is not so good! But luckily almost everyone we met speaks English. I feel so dumb! Anyways, we walked around Old Heidelberg and got a peek at the Castle. We are taking a tour of it on Friday. There are lots of shops and restaurants. I can’t wait to get some Bratwurst and Sauerkraut!

London Calling!

So today we went to London after sleeping for about 2 hours on the plane! We were so tired, but we were only there for 21 hours and wanted to take advantage of every minute! We did a lot of fun things. We took the double decker bus tour of London and got to see most of the city that way. Then we took a ride on the London Eye. Then we took a cab to Porters and had some Meat Pies and Fish & Chips. Yummy! We also discovered that the English don’t believe in cold anything….Milk, water, soda…all warm! Yuck! Maybe they haven’t discovered ice there yet! Then we went to Covent Garden and walked around the shops…quite the night life over here! Then we took the underground back to our hotel and slept for 4 hours and got up and flew to Germany….phew! What a day!