Trip Recap

I have been meaning to write this post for days now but, you know how life kinda gets in the way.  We returned home from our trip in the evening on New Years Day.  And a long trip it was.  But, before I get into the trip home, I should recap the last little bit of our trip. 

We had been invited to attend a New Year’s Eve party at the little ward that we attended in Mannheim.  I was excited to receive the invitation, but realistically it wasn’t going to fit into our schedule.  We had to leave for the airport early the next morning, and we had a house to clean and close up, laundry to do and bags to pack.  Our friends at the ward kept saying that New Year’s was quite the bash and it would be a wonderful night.  Now I didn’t doubt that they would have a good time, but I was completely unaware how big of a holiday New Year’s is in Germany.  First of all, everything was closed.  All stores and a majority of restaurants.  This left us in quite a pickle, because we were planning on eating out that day in order to keep the kitchen clean.  Apparently, only the Turkish restaurants are open during this blessed holiday.  So, that’s what we had for both lunch and dinner.  Luckily it was cheap and good.

Now, Mike and I aren’t really big New Year’s Eve type people.  We would rather have a good nights sleep and be refreshed and ready for a wonderful “day off” the following day.  That being said, we went to bed at our normal time so that we would be ready for our long day of travel the following day.  When midnight hit we were awoken by, all we could think of was, the end of the world!  German New Year puts our Forth of July to shame!!  I laid in bed for about ten minutes thinking that the fireworks would die down soon and I could go back to sleep.  After ten minutes, when it hadn’t died down, I decided I needed to see the show for myself.  The house that we were staying in, is a four story house on the side of a small mountain.  This gave me a great vantage point for the festivities.  I went upstairs and was completely blown away by what I saw.  I wish that words could describe the scene, but sadly, I know that they will do it a great injustice. All I could see was fireworks constantly going off as far as the eye could see.  Starting from the homes next door  and then blanketing the horizon,  an amazing fireworks display.  Now, I should have prefaced this section by telling you that, the Forth of July is one of my favorite holidays.  I love it, mainly because I love fireworks.  If you see me at a fireworks show, you would think that I was seven years old again.  I love the noise, the smell, the oo’s and ah’s, everything about them.  So for me, I was in total awe.  The rest of my family is blessed with the ability to sleep though a freight train going through their room, were sleeping though this whole thing!  I had to wake Mike up so that he could share in this amazing event  with me.  We watched for quite a while, until the sky was so filled with smoke that you could hardly see them anymore.  We went back to bed, but they went on for over an hour.  In my own little way, it felt like a magical send off for us.  Thanks Germany!  You really know how to show a girl a good time.

The next morning we headed off to the Frankfurt Airport, and the city was deserted.  We drove for several miles before we saw another car.  Those Germans know how to party hard!  The trip ran really smooth and the long flight wasn’t too bad at all.  Emily even managed to make friends with most of the people in our area, along with the flight crew.  Boy that girl has a talent with people.  We flew into Charlotte, North Carolina, made it through Customs, and were on our way home.  This trip for me anyway was rather rocky.  All three girls slept the entire time, which was lovely, but I had a major sinus explosion.  The day before, I was showing the signs of getting a cold, and apparently, riding on a plane for more than sixteen hours doesn’t help that situation, at all.  I felt like my face was going to explode.  By the time we got home I was done!  I was in bed for the next three days with a really bad sinus infection.  Yea me!  It made for a rather bumpy reentry back into life.