Germany in a Nutshell

Well, I was planning on writing about every detail of my trip, but since its really Jan 9, 2010 when I'm writing this and have lots more updating to do...I'll just give you the highlights.

When our group of 4 landed in Germany, we split up to get our rental cars. Me and the other girl that was with us stuck together. We got our car successfully and were confident (armed with our brand new Garmin) that we could find our way to the hotel - an hour and a half drive away.

Our first several hours in country could have been on an episode of "Amazing Race". It was CRAZY!! After we loaded up our car and got in... my co-worker realized the vehicle she rented was a stick-shift! And she can't drive a stick-shift. No problem. I can. But I have never driven in a foreign country.... have no idea about the German road signs.... and was already warned about the Autobahn! OK. We can do this.

Our Garmin won't pick up any satellites because we are deep inside a parking garage. No problem. We will just drive out a ways and find a place to pull over and set up our Garmin from there. Should be easy enough.

Yeah, I forgot I can't read any road signs... and the exits are NOT set up like they are in the states. Long story short... we found a place to pull over (not sure if we were legal or not, but that was the least of our problems). Our new Garmin we were given... NO FOREIGN MAPS LOADED ON IT!! Oh, and did I mention that our work blackberries had no FOREIGN SERVICE??? Yeah, that's right. The week before we left we put in to get world-wide service on our Blackberries but it hadn't gone through yet.

I DID have with me at least a print-out from Map Quest a map from the airport to our hotel - and the hotel address. And at the very last minute as we were separating from the other guys, one of them (Jeff) said, "Why don't you take my blackberry with you in just in case y'all have trouble." Jeff had been to Germany numerous times and knew exactly where he was going. But Jeff, if we have trouble... how are we going to call YOU!!!! At one point we even considered calling back home and getting someone to talk us there as they had the maps pulled up on their computer... that was a no-go... it was like 2 in the morning at home!

So, his blackberry was no help with calling anyone...but it did have loaded on it Google Maps!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! That little Blackberry was our saving grace. And by God's mercy, we made it to the hotel safe and sound.

I felt so accomplished. Driving in a new country... in a weird vehicle I was unfamiliar with....having to drive 100 miles an hour so I didn't get run over... unable to read a road sign... and driving a stick-shift (and did I mention it had been more than 10 years since I last drove one... thankfully it was like riding a bike and it all came naturally!) Yeah! I did it!!!

The rest of the week was lots of work and very little play. We didn't get a chance to go see much around Germany. We tried twice to make it to the Heidelberg castle before dark. The second day we made it there with about 45 minutes to spare...but the tours were already closed. I was so disappointed! So I have pictures from the castle but I cant tell you much about it.

Here is the entrance into what used to be the draw-bridge (I think.)


The outside of the castle.... simply amazing to think that this structure is over 600 years old!!


What used to be the moat around the castle....

One of the castle towers that was destroyed during war by Louis XIV's troops! (I only know this because I was able to at least buy a book about the castle so I could learn something about it.)

Entering into the inside of the castle... the courtyard.

I don't really know what I was expecting... but I wasn't expecting to find such a huge courtyard INSIDE the castle. It was like a little downtown area in the center of the castle!

I wish I knew more about this ... I can just picture this in a movie scene ... I couldn't help but think about the people, who hundreds of years ago, knew this castle as HOME! That's just crazy!

The view of the city from the second-floor terrace of the castle... WOW!

This bridge was built in 1788!

Another view from the terrace... you can just imagine all the history in this very spot....

Now for other interesting things I saw in Germany..... the toilet..... you flush it by pressing that big button on top of the counter... and every toilet (no matter where you were) had its on toilet brush to clean the toilet when you are done. Ha!! Crazy!!

And on the back of one stall that I was in there was a sign with a picture of a zebra and it said, "OK you zebras! Quit leaving your stripes behind!" Hilarious!!

And finally, on our way back to the airport we stopped off at a local grocery store to pick up a few things before heading home (that was the extent of our shopping! Pitiful!). They had an escalator IN THE GROCERY STORE!! It was the coolest thing! It didn't have steps so you could roll your buggy on there to go upstairs!! Downstairs had all the food, and upstairs had all the household products!

It was a nice trip, but THERE AIN'T NO PLACE LIKE HOME!! I'm definitely glad to be back!!!