It was off to Germany.  One of those trips I had been putting off for many yrs,  one of those places that was not tops on my list of places to go.  Dave, however, had a lot of places he wanted to show me there- and we were going to avoid all the drama an American Thanksgiving brings about and LEAVE J

So here it was 7am on Weds morning and Alli was at the house to get us, take us to the airport and get all the doggie take care of info.  Too early for me .  Our upgrades from Phoenix to DC have not cleared yet – though the trip from DC to Frankfurt had cleared at booking.  WE get there, check in, and there is one upgrade available at the gate,  being a very nice wife ( and having the exit row anyway) – I tell
Dave to take it since he has to write reports to send via email when we get to DC.

The trip over to DC and on to Frankfurt is , as it should be, uneventful.  – well except for the fact that the power ports are not working in our seats, from DC to FRA.  $200 vouchers and a move to the lower deck and we have power ;).

Before we had left I had purchased train tickets from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, as we were going to have Thanksgiving dinner there and then meet with our friends Ron and Kim the next nite.  I had managed to do this from the site in German and even manage to figure out how to print them ( it was supposed to print on A4 printer – too bad printers made in the USA don’t recognize that size).  But I had worked around that and had the train tickets and the Anne Frank house tickets with our plane tickets and hotel reservations all printed out and in my folder.  Too bad I can’t read German – but this was only to become clear later on.

So we arrive in Frankfurt  and look for the high speed (ICE) train.  For some reason the information lady says we need to go to downtown Frankfurt to get on it.  OK, no biggie, three stops and we have 2 hours.  Do that – get our first introduction to how the dollar is worth NOTHING ( well .67 euro) as we have coffee and cake that turns into 15USD.  Find our train car and assigned seats ( peek in at First Class and am glad didn’t spend 3 times as much for it ) – 2^nd class train travel surely has trained since I did this in my late teens J

Conductor comes down the ailse for our tickets – no problem – dave hands them to him.  UM  he says I need the credit card you bought these with.  Ooooops!!!!!!!!  I had  left it home – as it is not the one with the 1% foreign currency fee .   Well I thought the guy was being stubborn, but Dave said he was just doing his job ( well we were in Germany after all).  The full credit card number must be given to him .  Ok – we will use the wonders of modern technology and pull up the statement online . 
Sometimes the wonders are not that wonderful – could not maintain connectivity long enough L  So then we get the great idea – dave will bring it up on his PDA -  well that works – excepts that its too small to read.  Finally its 5:30am on the east coast -   and I WAKE UP my sister  ( Oh honey – can you get on the internet ) -  First words out of my mouth to her – she must have loved me –but she got into my credit card account  and found my account number for me – so at least the cell phone didn’t fail me ;)  Mind you I was so tired that I was sitting on this train crying as Dave is going you know worst case we buy another ticket.  Finally that is all straightened out and I get to wonder at a train that can go over 300 km per hour ( about 180 miles per hour).  We arrive in Amsterdam around 2pm and manage to find our hotel after a number of missteps ( apparently there is a annual cannabis judging contest  that goes over that week – and the people we asked were not necessarily in shape to give directions J ).  We check in, go out to explore the city and then come back to have a “Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner”.  Well, there was turkey, potatoes and apple pie – but it was all cooked so differently that it was incredible.  The apple pie was a crisp. The potatoes were made with …………………………………..  Thanksgiving didn’t really feel like Thanksgiving , ah well live and learn – guess I will just have to cook next year. ( well Dave will ;) )

An early wake up to get to the Anne Frank house by 9:30 am ( we had been told to get our tickets for an early time as the place gets very crowded).  I am already getting good use out of the UGG boots that I bought on our trip to New Zealand ( well the Sydney airport);  and my thermal underwear – it is damn cold out – but though it is gray and overcast it is not raining at least.  We walk over and there is not even a line – hand in our tickets purchased online ( whew no problems this time ) – and go on in.  I had been there many  years ago – what a difference.  It has been modernized to include an education center, machines that send video greetings ,etc. I found it very commercial and it did not evoke in me at all the feelings that I had felt when I had been there many years ago.  Sigh..

Time for food – we stopped and had a “snack”.  Then back to the hotel to warm up and catch the tram out to the Reijksmuseum.  Though this is currently under renovation all the really cool stuff was still on exhibit – “The Night Watch” was in its usual imposing position .  Shopping was a shock .  I think we agreed that Europe was probably off our agenda until the dollar-euro imbalance came back to a more normal range.  That nite we were to meet our friends Ron and Kim ( who live about 30 miles out of Amesterdam ) for a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_rice_table      Indodonesian rice table dinner.   Um myum!!!!!!!1

WE had a 6:30am train back up to Frankfurt where we were to pick up the rental car and head for Heidelberg.  This time I was prepared,  I knew where the credit card number was as the conductor coming down had said that I needed to have this and don’t lose this very important number.  The dutch conductor on the way up was, of course, not the least bit interested in it – scanned our ticket and said have a nice day.  On the other hand, no German police came around checking passports at the border which the dutch had done on the way down.  We were now in Germany to visit,  somehow this time we were able to get off the train at the airport rather than having to go downtown and back out ( you can tell right away that I hate not being able to speak the language).  Off to the car rental place, where we have been upgraded to a Mercedes 330 diesel.  ( Later Dave will drive this car 120 MPH on the autobahn- but that’s for later).  We hop in the car and 45 minutes later we are in Heidelberg.  Checking in our room is not ready, but we go wait in the lounge for the short bit until it is – enjoy the view over the river.   After getting settled into the room we go into downtown Heidelberg,   and go up to see the castle and the ride the funicular .  This thing is incredible.  It is in two parts – the lower part is only about  20 years old and it goes from the base of the mountain up to the castle.  We ride that and then walk all around the castle and explore the ruins ( mind you its freezing up there L ).  The next part was built 100 years ago – it takes you in two stages all the way to the top of this mountain that overlooks the entire city.

http://europeforvisitors.com/germany/heidelberg/heidelberg-funicular.htm

 Gorgeous views at sunset.   Come on down planning to have dinner but it turns out that we are both still full from our lunch.  So we figure we will make it an early nite ( after hitting the main shopping street before it closed) .  The purpose of the early nite is to get an early start the next day.  In a total shock Dave actually slept till 8:30am, so no early start.  We decide that we will see a castle that was  built in the 1100’s ( in other words a  pile of rocks ) that the Germans call a ruine that requires me to climb up a steep hill ( of course on the way down it turns out

            There was a path with an easy grade

            You could even drive a car up it

But no – we walked – I whined – and we walked some more.  ( and I whined some more ( that’s Daves contribution to this report).   After I finished that whining we went over to the Schewenzinham ( a palace ) this palace had gardens that I am sure look beautiful in the spring but, um, this is November,  I was not sure what was so thrilling about a bunch of trees with no leaves on them.  IOW,  this was my day to remember that I had no desire to be in Germany and so far had not really seen anything to change my mind.  Back to the hotel we go – me in a pissy mood and dave pissed that im not having fun .  The only solution to this seems to be dinner at VETTER.   Rob and Ashley had eaten here on their honeymoon and  now I just had to eat here.  OK – it was good JJJ.  Dave had the meatloaf ( which is definitely not what we Americans call meatloaf – it was made out of sausage.  And very very yummy.  Two tall steins of beer to go with this and we felt much better .  Since it was Sunday the town was closed , a brief walk in the cold was enough to persuade to head on back to the hotel where we went into the bar for desert and then up to the room to plan the next day.  Some more cheerful places were clearly in order.  So – Strasbourgh and Baden Baden went on the agenda.  Strasbourg to see the castles , eat French food and hear a language I could at least understand.  A boat ride on the rver was also taken and it was very enjoyable.  A fringe benefit – the Xmas market was open there and we walked around and looked at all the distinctive items.  We then headed for Baden Baden for the opening of the Xmas market there – I ate noodles and sauerkraut -  and pommes .  Quite delicious.  Back to hotel t( at 120 miles per hour – oh look – its raining and the car turns on the windshield wipers by itself – um that’s nice – but you are still going 120 MPH – I don’t care if there is no speed limit etc )to pack, eat at
Dave’s favorite Indian restaurant in the whole world he says ( I have to admit it was the best Indian food I have ever eaten)  and this morning we headed for the airport.  Now sitting 35K feet about the earth in bumpy weather writing this so I can add links and hopefully email it when we land in IAD – even th0ugh I am showing a wireless connection here – it just doesn’t seem to want to let me on the internet ( wonder why)