Hot Dog, We're in Germany

Carrying kids in Ireland and the frenzy of France has all come to an end.  We picked up our car from Renault at the Charles de Gaul airport, which is a maze of escalators that go up and down for no reason and roads that go round and round for no reason.  It’s a small miracle that we found anything…and that we found our way out.

Once we found a gas station and got on the highway, la conduite est facile!  From the highway, Belgium looks just like France.  So does Germany…that is, until the signs are in a different language.  Oh, and people really do drive incredibly fast on the Autobahn.  Just because a car is about a mile behind you in the mirror is not reason to get in that lane – they can close that distance in a matter of seconds.  The left lane was well over 100 mph.

On the drive, wind turbines and a nuclear power plant made this feel like a Campbell vacation.

Once we got to Diez, we looked for the home we’re staying in.  We found the street and rang the bell.  There was a different name on the door than who we rented from, which was a bit of a bad sign.  A nice man answered, and when Jess explained we were the renters from America, he got very concerned that a serious situation landed on his doorstep that no one warned him about.  "Mein Gott!" He stammered and went to check with the other tenant, who also knew nothing about these Americans coming to stay.  It’s funny how Altendiez and Diez seem like the same place when you have a French girl with broken English setting up your GPS.

Luckily, Altendiez is a 10 minute drive away.  Our home is great, with two bedrooms and a kitchen.  We’re minutes from a market, walking distance to a bakery, and a 400 year old castle is right down the road.  We’ll be staying here for 5 days, and it’s all for less than we spent on one day in Paris.

An authentic German dinner was required to celebrate, and we asked our amazing GPS to take us to a restaurant.  She successfully navigated us to a Burger King in a gas station.  We call her Bonnie, and she’s very nice…she just thinks that we’re kind of dumb and doesn’t always know where all the streets are.

Wandering is not fun when you’re carrying a 35 pound child.  It is fun when you’re in a car, so we drove around until we found a Biergarten.  Our waitress made us feel at home and even provided the kids with toys to go with their massive hot dogs, which she cut up into bites for them.  It’s the most they’ve eaten the whole trip.  When John dropped the lollipop she gave him, she got him another and brought more candy for the Kinder. She said, “Now, all is right with the world” as she gave it to him.  At least that’s what we think she said…it was in German.