Bad Wimpfen..."feel the past, enjoy the present"

Today we went to visit Bad Wimpfen. It is a little town that has been inhabitied for thousands of years with most of the buildings in the old town being constucted during the medival period.

The "Stown House"

Probably originally the women´s apartments in the Staufen palace, it is the largest Romanesque dwelling-house in Germany.

View from The Blue Tower

The Blue Tower

The symbolic landmark of Bad Wimpfen. Built around 1200 as the keep on the west side of the Staufen Imperial Palace it was used until well into the nineteenth century as a watchtower, complenting what was probably the oldest continuous tradition of tower wardens in Germany.

Frankonian Half-timbered House

It was a long walk up.....

The weekend after......

On Thursday we got out of our class early so I headed to corporate to meet some of my co-workers. Long story short, they wanted me to stay until Tuesday. So I changed my reservations. I headed back home for one more weekend planning to fly out Tuesday evening. Only to my suprise was I to fly back home on Thursday evening. That week I worked many long hours. Not fun, but got the work done!

Jessica, Elijah & Mom

Eli riding in the car for another shopping trip :) He is such a trooper. Didn't cry or get upset once!

Jessica, Elijah & Heather

Jessica & Elijah

Eli enjoying the snow with Dustin

Eli with Jessica's sun glasses on

I visited with my Pop-Pop. He is 81 and looks great!

Murphy and I at the beach

I had a great trip home! It was great to see everyone!

A journey all its own!

2 weeks ago I made a surprise trip back home. Yes, I was traveling for work, but I took an extra couple of days to spend with the family. I kept it a surprise..shocking my parents and whole family! Oh how hard it was for me to keep the secret. My mom, aka Janie..."so what are you doing this weekend, have anything fun planned?" My response...trying not to sound so enthusiastic knowing what I had planned....."nothing". When I asked her " well your aunt is having a birthday party for your uncle on Saturday" my thoughts...perfect way to complete my surprise! So off I went...leaving here at 7:30 in the morning and arriving home at 2:30 in the afternoon.

After picking up the car, I drove to my parents house. The drive seemed to last FOREVER. As most of you have experienced time goes VERY slow when you are trying to get somewhere fast. Why can't people just disappear and move out of my way???....or even better..drive like the Germans...getting out of the left hand lane or you will get run over! Traffic was horrible!!

Arriving at the home was awesome! When I got there, my dad was home. Surprising him first...he was speechless. Janie went shopping after work so her arrival was a couple of hours later. She was speechless as well. "How did you get here?" Well a plane, I was in town so figured I would stop by! That evening we went out to dinner. Brian's parents and my sister and her family joined us as well. I got to see baby Eli for the first time since September. He is growing so fast! Besides me having been awake for 24 hours the evening was great!

My luggage didn't make it on my flight from London, but I had great help tracking it down!

So the rest of the weekend went well. I went shopping on Saturday with Janie, Heather and Eli. We had a blast! It was Eli's first shopping trip with the ladies to a mall. When we walked into Nordstrom....he went "wheeeeeeeee". Man he loves the store just like his Mimi, aunt and Mommy!

On Saturday I went to see our dog Murphy! Oh how we miss her! She was so excited to see me...her tail kept wagging and didn't stop. I honestly don't know if she knew what to think. It was a chilly overcast day, but we headed to the park for a little fun!

Murphy and Jessica

Murphy

Bonnie & Jessica

Sunday was oh so eventful. I spent the afternoon with my friend Jessica. The weatherman was calling for 12" of snow. Yeah right! It never snows in Maryland, well at least not a lot. Much to my surprise sleet started around 4PM just like they forecast ed. Let me tell you this was no ordinary sleet. I would say that it came down 2" in the hour. When I got on the road, conditions were HORRIBLE! I decided to turn around and stay at my parents. Then snow really started to come down! I woke up the next morning to this.....

13" of snow! My dad had a snow blower and he was oh so thrilled to use it! We dug out the cars and cleared the driveway...Janie and I even went sleigh riding.

Dressed in any warm clothing that we could dig up at the house.

And Janie's off!

Janie trucking it up the hill.

After all the fun we could have for one day....I went up to my hotel for the next week to attend my training class for work.

Back in touch with the CRAZY world we live in

We have internet! Yeah, finally! I will be working on the blog very soon! I can't believe it has taken 7 weeks! My internet service experience was not so glorious. I had to be home between 8 & 4. The tech showed up at 9 AM! Much to my suprise it wasn't 3 PM! We greeted one another with the simple hello's. Then, he started speaking and I thought this guy does not speak ANY English! Yep, was I right. So, I pointed him in the direction of the phone plugs etc. and he was happy at work for all of a couple minutes. Then he began to ask me questions, and much to my dismay I could not make out ANYTHING!!!! I didn't recognize any words that sounded even remotely similiar to English or my currently limited German vocabulary, to help give me a clue. So I called my dear friend Daniela, and she translated for me. He wanted to know where the phone box was....oh ok. GREAT! Where is it? Real cute! I have no idea!!!! So the fast thinker that I am, hahahaha, my neighbor has got to be home. He is an older gentleman, very nice and speaks English. Perfect! So I mingle on across the hall and ring the door bell. I could hear movement. This was a good sign. When he opened the door he greeted me in his pajamas with a bath robe wrapped around him. My heart sunk. I woke the poor guy up! I told him I needed some help, and he very graciously did so. We have a wonderful neighbor! That evening after work I stopped to get him a "present". You don't give a "gift" here, that is "posion". When I rang the bell he greeted me with a big smile when he saw the wine in my arms! Gosh, I hope the wine was good. Well then again, it was the thought that counts. I hope it didn't taste like posion!

Finishing blog from Rome

You might ask why we haven't finished the blog from our trip to Rome. Well, we are waiting for our Internet service. From what we understand you have to wait awile before they even set up a day to come out to the house. Yep, there is no "we will be there between 11 & 1". It is whenever they arrive on the date they give you. Brian put a request in about 3, going on 4 weeks to have it set up, and nothing yet. We were using our landlord's service until the end of the year. Long story short, I will have to finish updating the blog with pics from Christmas in the near future. All is well! We wish everyone a great 2009!

The day after Christmas

The day after Christmas we went to Pompeii and Sorrento. Our first stop was Pompeii. It is a really neat ruin that sits at the bottom of Mt. Vesuvius. Around 79 AD Mt. Vesuvius erupted and now more than 1900 years later there is still much of the city that remains buried. One of the most amazing things was how some of the people who did not escape before the ash and debris settled were preserved. Some are covering their noses and others are laying on their stomachs to escape the ash. Enough on the background, some pics are below..... The day was really windy and cold! Burr!

The original cobblestone streets.

And on to Sorrento we went. We drove along the coast with awesome views! Sorrento is beautiful. The town is very clean and is a tourist spot during the spring and summer months. We stopped along the way to take a pic.

Downtown on the water

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Day in Rome. We went to the Papal Blessing in the morning and a tour of the city in the afternoon. Rome is a beautiful city!

Look at all the people!

Coliseum

Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon