My parents' visit... is over already!!

Hard to believe that time has flown by so quickly that my parents were here for 10 days and are already back home again!

Needless to say, we had the most amazing time while they were here! I sort of had intended to try and update the blog during their trip, but obviously that didn't happen! We were on the go pretty much the whole time. I will make this as concise as possible and add more later.

Starting with day one, I picked them up at the airport and literally had tears in my eyes when I saw them. I was so excited! We spent the day trying to keep them awake (and failed for a little while in the afternoon, even I fell asleep! I had been up all night tracking their flight on the online flight tracker okay?!) I took them to my work and introduced them to everyone I work with. We then had dinner at a German restaurant in Leimen (yes, the first place we ate when we arrived here). It was delicious, of course. Then, we took them by the bowling alley so they could see what quickly has become our 'second home.' I know you're thinking 'they flew all the way to Europe and you take them to the American places?' Ah, only for today, and only because we just needed to keep them awake a little while and had a full schedule the rest of the time they were here.

Saturday (March 28) we headed to Rothenberg again for a nice little day trip. We enjoyed schneeballen of course, visited the mideival crime and punishment museum, the Kathe Wolfhart Christmas museum, and walked the city for hours. It was a nice introduction to Germany for them.

Sunday morning we flew to Stockholm, Sweden. It was so exciting! We got to spend three wonderful days with Gabriella and her family touring Stockholm. Seriously, that city is awesome!! We also took a train ride to Uppsala one day which was also neat. We enjoyed meeting her husband, Simon, who greeted us with a lovely homemade Swedish breakfast when we arrived, and also celebrated Gabriella's birthday with her family at their home Tuesday evening. While in Stockholm, we walked a lot! Simon the tourguide and Gabriella took us around and showed us lots of sights, and then Monday Gabriella went with us on a boat tour of the city, which was great! We also went to the Nordiska Museum and the Vasa Museum.

Wednesday, we flew back to Frankfurt and drove back to Heidelberg for a few hours to see the downtown. We enjoyed some shopping and some ice cream.

Thursday, we went to Speyer, our favorite little local town where we always do our shopping. We walked around there and ate a delicious Chinese lunch. It was a nice way to do some relaxing after going so hard in Sweden.

Friday, we packed up the car and headed to Garmisch. We hiked to a gorge, visited the Olympic Ski Jump Stadium used in the 1936 Olympics and walked around the town. Saturday, we drove to the fairy-tale land of the Neuschwanstein Castle and toured the castle, which is amazingly beautiful. That evening we had a yummy Irish dinner across the street from our hotel and went to sleep exhausted!

Sunday, we drove back to Heidelberg by way of Austria. We stopped along the way to take pics of the beautiful Austrian Alps and tried to go to a castle museum but realized we didn't have much time since we had to make it back to HD in time for our night activity. We picked up the red babies from the German language camp they had been attending and then headed to meet up with Kelli and her family at the Heidelberg Castle for the Night Watchman's Tour... very fun!

It was a sad day Monday when we had to drive to the airport for them to fly home. I could not believe our time was up and did not want them to leave! Scouty went with us to the airport so he could keep me company on the drive back. I learned that crying and trying to drive on the autobahn are not really a good mix... but I made it, and they made it home safely later that night.

All in all, a trip of a lifetime!!!

I have posted many pics on the Flickr page so please check them out. I really tried to make this a short entry with just the basics. Later, I will make another post of some of our most memorable moments... you won't want to miss that one! :)