Trip to Germany...

This September marked a lot of changes for our family.  The girls and I have been at our new school for several weeks now, Steve switched offices and now works up in Akron...

...and we spent a week in Germany visiting my brother!

My (baby) brother has been living over in Germany for the past year and we decided this year was the perfect time to head over for a visit.  The kids stayed back in the very capable hands of my mom and Steve's parents, and we headed over to Europe with my dad and Wendy.

The trip was LONG to get there, but we had fun.  All four of us flew together and enjoyed fun perks from Delta that made the trip pleasant.  Turns out that all the traveling my dad does each week comes in handy.  The man is practically Delta's most preferred customer and we all certainly enjoyed the perks that come along with that.  Free drinks and food in the Delta Sky Lounge while waiting for flights?  Noise canceling headphones given to everyone in 1st class?  He's handy to have around!   

Upon our arrival we got to check out my brother's place before heading over to the country of Luxembourg. Luxembourg was absolutely beautiful and it was such a neat town to walk through!

Dad and Wendy

The family

Luxembourg

We spent the night in Luxembourg and on the second day, we visited Miami University's Luxembourg campus.  It was a little hard to find at first (we only drove past it twice), but it was neat to see once we got there.  Being there definitely made me wish that I had the opportunity to spend a semester there while I was in college, but at that time education majors couldn't go and still graduate on time.

Miami's Luxembourg campus

After some time in Kaiserslautern, we ended up taking a few day trips to other cities we could reach by train. The first stop was Heidelberg.  This was, by far, my favorite stop of the trip.  Heidelberg is rich with history and had so many interesting things to see.  We even got to visit the castle there.  The castle in Heidelberg is particularly beautiful because it overlooks the city.

Heidelberg

Our next train ride took us to Bad Durkheim.  It was a quaint little town surrounded by vineyards and wineries.  We ate a delicious lunch and visited a local winery while we were in town.  Oh...and I can't forget the ice cream in Bad Durkheim.  It was so good we stopped for some after lunch and then again before catching our train!

Bad Durkheim

We also spent some time wandering around the town of Kaiserslautern.  Since we never made it to visit my brother when he was in Japan, we took a tour of the Japanese Gardens that were located in the heart of Kaiserslautern.

Japanese Gardens in Germany

During our week long visit, we had lots of opportunities to EAT!  The food was really fantastic and I ate enough of it that I probably should have run the whole marathon last weekend.  We sampled some delicious Indian food...so delicious in fact that we ended up eating there a second time before leaving!  We also enjoyed some great Greek food and I ate the best pizza I've ever had in my life (thank you, Cafe Extrablatt).  We ate, drank, and all enjoyed spending time together while seeing the many beautiful sites Germany has to offer.  We can't wait to go back!

Steve and me

My dad, brother, and me...can you tell we're all from the same family? : )