more european travels..

Friday morning I woke up feeling incredibly sick.. I think it was a combination of having Simeon just a few rooms over and nervousness about him meeting my parents. Which put a damper on the excitement of them being there. They arrived around 9am and we sat around a little while letting them get settled and then we headed to the city to see the gardens and have lunch. It was a beautiful walk and nice to relax at lunch- but very hot, especially because we had spicy Indian food so we quickly adjusted to the rare german heat. On our walk back to the hotel we passed a fast flowing river that tons of teens and college-aged kids were jumping in.. which looked SO refreshing but none of us had our swimsuits. Naturally, Simeon had me hold his things while he snuck off to jump in, before we knew it he was floating by us, having a great time in his whitey tighties… showing off his confidence to the fam after only a few hours of knowing them (haha). We had a very interesting incident with our dinner plans and ended up eating at a different, but nice, restaurant. Afterwards we chilled on mom and dad’s lovely balcony and discussed plans for the next day. We hadn’t had quite enough activity so Brooks dressed in his typical cowboy attire and Simeon in his stylish European attire and we went to the hotel bar.. whose attendance was dwindling as it was nearly 2. We enjoying listening to a nice older man play the piano and Brooks and I participated in a little dancing

Saturday we had a lovely breakfast on mom and dad’s balcony then we headed to a local lake and I think we would have had more fun if we had gone to the spot Simeon suggested but instead it turned into a miniature disaster. We drove for 30 minutes to get there then wandered around looking for a place to rent a boat. Finally we found the perfect boat and were ready to pay for it and they were trying to tell us that it had been rented in the 5 minutes we had been standing there. So we gave that up and went for a nice bite to eat at a restaurant a few steps away. Out of the 30 or 40 tables only 3 were occupied and they informed us at that there was no room- we were quickly learning that germans do not much care for Americans and we decided we would have to send simeon to talk from then on haha. We ended up being seated and it was a delicious meal, but that put a slight damper on things. After lunch we proceeded to another stop to look for boats but again were unsuccessful. We decided we would head home and make the most of the afternoon so we went for an adventure on the river from the day before that simeon had already experienced. It was a flippin blast.. we must get one of things in Alabama. It was like a lazy river, but extremely fast flowing and beyond freezing. We did it a couple times with the family then simi and I ventured down further to where a slight water fall was, which was such a thrill. We then had a relaxing dinner in a little piazza a block from our hotel. Dad was also chosen to participate in a very interesting street show of American trapeze artists hahah.. afterwards simi and I borrowed bikes from the hotel (which were, unnecessarily, Mercedes of course). This was one of my best memories from the trip or maybe the summer because I had no clue where we were, I just let loose and rode along.. we went to the munich parliament building which has a magnificent view of the city so we talked there for a while until the police said we had to leave because kids are always misbehaving up there and they can’t take their chances, ha! We then drove along the river and through the woods…seemingly getting further and further from the city but having the best time doing tricks on our bikes and stopping to look at the stars. At the end I was certain we needed to go left and simeon was certain we needed to go right, we stood there for at least 15 minutes, in the cold, in front of an outdoor café filled with people, bickering about which way to go. But I think this was such an encouragement for me about our relationship, because even though I had to suck up my pride and be wrong, simeon didn’t rub it in my face, we just got on our bikes and went back, the whole way him being sweet to me.. I think a situation like this, even though it is small, is a good test of how a couple treats each other.

Sunday we awoke to a day of full activities and because of my lack of sleep I was once again feeling very sick. I ended up sleeping the whole way there and missing the beautiful, long drive to Hitler’s Eagles Nest, which was a weekend home he was given as a birthday present in 1939. It was absolutely gorgeous because it was perched on the top of a mountain, surrounded by cliffs and more mountain faces, with a crystal clear blue lake at the bottom. We spent an hour or so exploring there, then took a 15 minute drive to Austria for lunch and the “Sound of Music” tour, which was nice because it was just us and our driver/tour guide and we made some good stops, but after a couple hours of his silly commentary and him inviting himself along for our café trip, Hanz was getting a little too quirky for us. One of our favorite quotes from the trip was when he kept differentiating between what was in the movie and what was from the Vonn Trapp’s real life, he would very sternly say “this is from the movie, not real life, they are not related!” so the rest of the trip we have been trying to decide what is real life and what is a movie haha. When we arrived back at the hotel Brooks, Simi, and I enjoyed relaxing on the roof for a couple hours and eating a light dinner then watching the end of the world cup at the rooftop tapas bar. Since it was our last night with simeon we all stayed up talking for a few hours but I was a little too tired for it so I went to bed at a reasonable hour while the boys stayed up past 4 talking.. crazy.

Monday morning I woke up and packed with my parents. The boys, of course, woke up 30 minutes before leaving. Simi and I had a quick breakfast, trying to remain positive about leaving each other- knowing that it could be December before we see each other again. So we said our goodbyes with a few tears and I headed off to Oberammagau as he headed home to Hamburg. It was kind of a sad day for me but we visited a beautiful monastery and had a nice lunch and also got to see the spectacular castle that the Disney World one is modeled after. We arrived in Oberammagau that evening and the next couple days we just enjoyed the sweet town and shops and the outstanding passion play.

We left Germany on Wednesday and headed for Interlaken, Switzerland, where we spent a few days being adventurous- white water rafting, paragliding (which was incredible) and biking. The scenes in Switzerland were, by far, some of the prettiest I had ever seen, it was truly breathtaking. We arrived in Lake Como, Italy late Saturday afternoon. We had the really cool experience of Emily Schafer visiting with us for a couple days. For those of you who don’t know, she was one of my dearest childhood friends, but moved in the middle of elementary school to Richmond, Virginia. We took turns visiting each other for a few years, then got too busy with junior high and high school. We have kept in touch over the years on facebook but it was really nice to hang out and really catch up more. Our time in Italy has mainly consisted of lots of relaxing, sun bathing, shopping, eating delicious meals, and just enjoying family time. I will miss it dearly.