Europe day 8- headed home

Vacation is so nice, but we're both ready to be home. I miss my babies and my husband....and my pillow.

I've been fortunate to have been waited on hand and foot the past week and a half. 3 and 5 course meals, someone making my bed. I'm coming home about 10lbs heavier I guarantee it! Back to reality of cooking for myself...darn!

We're at the airport 3 hours early and than a 10.5 hour flight to portland and 2 hour drive home. Long day ahead, however I'll get 9 hours of my life back traveling back in time:-)

See ya'll soon!

Europe day 7- Netherlands

We were able to make a stop in the Netherlands, which is flat country with no hills or mountains. The Dutch are funny and wear funny shoes. Could

You imagine wearing wooden shoes?? No thank you. 

There are families that actually live inside the windmills. I was able to tour one and it's quite tiny and very noisy inside. It costs $500 per month to live there, I'm not sure why anyone would do that. 

A lot of the land here is farm land and I just love they style of the homes!

That's it for today. 

Europe day 6- Cologne

At this point we're both pretty ready to come home. I miss my family and I need my own pillow...however this is totally the life, just soaking up the sun. We've had the most amazing weather. 

I went on a tour of old town Cologne and the main point of interest was this cathedral. It's a very gothic style building however originally it was white. The black color is due to pollution. You can tell the parts that are recently repaired because they are white again. It's made from sandstone so they can't clean it. 

My grandmas heritage is swiss/German, which is the reason she wanted to visit Switzerland while we were here. She brought with her a postcard written by a family member from 1961 which was in German. This sweet lady knew German and was able to read and translate it for her. She brought her son with her on the trip. He was the 2nd youngest aside from the crew at 32.

Europe day 5- Germany

I am now the well known IPad/IPhone/any technology device guru when the old folks can't figure out why it's not working. I told them I'm going to start charging, I could pay for another trip that way! 

I left my glasses in the table in our room and the cleaner made this super cute elephant!

While ya'll are sleeping, we're cruising down then Rhine. The area we're in today is what I've been looking forward to all along. All of the castles, vineyards, villages, etc are along the river. 

The vineyards are mostly on a hillside so the water will drain. As a result, machines can't fit in the hill so they are picked 100% by hand. 

Most of the castles have been re-built over time since they were damaged during the war.

The train tunnels were built to resemble a castle so soldiers could hide their weapons around them.

I was able to tour the Marksburg castle while grandma went on a bus tour of the local vineyards. This castle was the only one in the area that wasn't damaged during war.

The cannons

 The kitchen 

The bedroom. The story behind this is kinda funny. The bed is about 3 1/2 feet long. now people during This time were only as tall as 5 ft but the reason the beds were so small is because they believed that death would get them while they were sleeping laying down so they slept sitting up. Crazy people...

The commode 

I'm not sure if you can expand this pano picture by clicking on it but this is the view of the Rhine River overlooking the city of Koblenz, Germany from Marksburg castle. Breath taking. 

Beautiful tulips in Koblenz near our ship

Gondolas that take you from one side of the river to the other.

Me:-) I know you missed seeing my face.

This river is so busy with cruise ships, barges, etc. They have a freight train on one side and passenger train on the other but they move most product by river (oil, coal, metal, grain, trash).

I'm honestly not sure how the old

Folks do it, I'm exhausted from all the excursions and tours I could sleep a whole day and still be tired. 

Europe day 4- France

Strasbourg France is b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. Just like what you picure in the movies. This town is called "Petite France" and rightfully so. There were several groups that went into town to get our tourist on, and they offered a "leisure" group which went at a much slower pace which was nice for Gma.

I'm just going to load you up with pictures and not much else today because we're off to listen to some live music in the lounge. There's a man that plays the piano and grandma really enjoys it.

The Strasburg cathedral was stunning. I've been most impressed by the ancient church history here. It's just crazy how beautiful they are and all of the intricate details.

The cathedral has an astronomical

Clock inside. Pretty amazing how it works.

Europe day 3- Germany

Yestersay evening we boarded our ship! Here's a pano pic of it. There's approx 180 people on, which is nice and intimate, we get to know each others names. I feel like a celebrity, everyone knows me as the young girl. 

This is a terrible picture, but I'm going to try to paint the image in your mind of what went down.  

Apparently throughout rivers there are locks that you have to go through, sort of like a dam. Since the water levels are different, the ship either has to be lifted up or down depending on the level so you can continue on. Well I had never heard of such a thing. We are in the 2nd floor of 4 floors, so not far from the top. This picture is of our balcony railing next to a cement wall, that mind you had about 5 inches to spare. The whole ship had gone down about 20 feet into this cement hole so they could close off the water behind us and open the gate in front of us. FREAKY! We went through 4 total last night and we're going through another as I type.

Ok, so the tour today was awesome. First we got to drive in the autobahn which wasnt anything special.

We went up into the Black Forest (which isn't really black), it reminded me a lot of home. On the way we passed lots of winery's and farmland.

 The cuckoo clock originated in the Black Forest (not in Switzerland), and this is where they're made and sold. Man alive, they cost an arm and a leg..needless to say In coming home cuckoo clock-less. The front of this building is the largest one and does its thing every hour. 

We also went on a hike up in the forest. My attire: maxi dress and flats. Would you expect anything less from me?

So beautiful, just like an Oregon hike.

When in the Black Forest, eat Black Forest cake! This piece was bigger than it looks. My Gma stayed on the ship to rest today so I was forced to eat it alone. Darn! It might or might not have had brandy in it...

When I got back I went on an adventure in town (Breisach, Germany) to explore some of the history. This huge church was right up the hill from the port we were docked at.

So I climbed...

And I climbed some more...

 Once I reached it, I had puddles and could barely breathe. It was 80 degrees today which is funny because they said it was snowing last week! 

Unfortunatly I wasn't able to go inside, the the views from that high up were amazing. It's so peaceful and quiet here. 

This is the "River Rhine" as they say here, which is what we're cruising down. 

It's super late here and I have to get up early. I've spent forever trying to get this to load because the wifi here is so spotty. 

In closing, I'll leave you with this sign...

Bahaha, I was dieing when I saw it.