a little 2 day trip to...

yes, that's where we went. to ______. i don't dare say it. see those two dots over the 'o'? and the two 'll's? don't even think about how to pronounce it as it won't work. even now i try not to tell people about our weekend to ______.




before we went on our fun little trip to ______ of course it came up in conversation with our german friends. you know, like "what are you doing this weekend?" kind of talk. but as soon as buddy or i would tell people that we were taking the train to ______, something happened. all conversation would stop, and zum Beispiel (for example...) the person would all of the sudden have this look come over them, do something with their eyes, as if they were trying with all their might to understand what and where we must mean by _______. even though it's well known in this area, as it's only an hour away, it's like we must have said with all seriousness, "Oh, we're taking the train to MARS for the weekend." after we would try repeating ______ in various inflections and tones, all of the sudden the poor person would finally have a revelation--their hard thinking and reaching into the deepest recesses of their mind would work, and they would say, in excitement, "Oh, you're going to ______!" they would feel like they just won Jeopardy. so now we just try not to say it, as it's torturous to watch and you feel like you've just put an innocent person through the ringer. but that's where we went.

yep, all 5 of us (rachel included). 2 rooms in a cute pension-our rooms were at the top. that's Buddy up there waving a friendly german "Hallo" to you all. the view from our room was fantastic.



pension also means that you get a
full spread for breakfast,
and since you asked,
i'll share the goods with ya...

typical german breakfast:
-basket of fresh rolls (then you cut yours in half)

-items to place on the rolls:
butter, jam,
variety of sliced meats & cheeses,
& nutella if you're exceptionally blessed

-soft boiled eggs
(yep, the kind in it's own little eggstand,
where you cut the top off)

-coffee, tea, hot chocolate and/or Orangen Saft (o.j.)


hope you enjoyed your breakfast--
sorry i forgot to get a pic of it.
but here's a pic of a cute cafe
we found in the center of town:

our beloved ______ was just what we were looking for...out of the city...old school german village. cobblestone streets, everything centered around the church that must have been built 100's of years ago, rivers, lake, green...and at night by 7pm the entire main street is closed, quiet, and not a person in sight--as if we really weren't living in modern day (now that was refreshing).

highlights:
-finding scripture on the side of a building that was dated something like 1667--was the u.s. even founded then? this little building and village was steeped in God's word--how awesome! remember that this is the country of martin luther and the reformation--a rich, rich spiritual heritage!

"Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths" Psalm 25:4

-buddy and i getting to have a great conversation one night while the kids jumped on the hotel bed for about 2 hours (a 2 hour conversation in the presence of our sweet children doesn't happen)

-rachel giving buddy and i a 'date night'. she took the kids and we went to a very cozy place for dinner

-on our way to our date night, we passed an antique store and this was hanging outside, calling out our name to place in our living room:

i love this--it is old german, and it says something like:

"come peace of God

fill these hearts and fill this house

quietly send your peace

upon every person that comes in and out"

not so spectacular:

-the _______ 'wild' tierpark (zoo). it consisted of 15 species, supposedly. we saw some fish in a tank, owls, Guinea pigs, rabbits, goats (that were locked in the barn), pigeons, chickens, and we heard some wild boar but didn't see them. hey, it was free, but still...the kids were looking forward to seeing the animals and were kinda wondering where they were...and i also wondered if the various fish in the fish tank counted for the number of 'various' species...below are jose and grace looking at the two Guinea pigs, trying to figure out if they should be excited:

-rachel getting kicked. rachel is a trooper. the first nite we had girls in one room, boys in the other. so it was rach and i with gracie in the middle. rach did not sleep well, because, well, gracie kicked her in her sleep. she must have kicked me too but i'm used to it. the next night we felt so bad we switched it up and had grace with us, and jose with rach. and yes, she got kicked again. our kids are wigglers i tell ya.

we had a great time in _____. even if we can't pronounce the name, we will always remember our fun little trip to this cute little town.