Behold! Germany, France, and Liechtenstein

Our summer travels continue as we ventured north, hoping to escape the heat and visit with some friends. The great thing about the military is that when you say goodbye to someone because of a move, it's never goodbye forever. Our wonderful friends were stationed with us at our last duty station and we had a great time visiting them up in the Landstuhl/Ramstein/Kaiserslautern area in Germany. We decided to take our dog with us this time too. Now, that in and of itself is an adventure because he is the only dog I know that gets car sick!  A few days before the trip we took him to the vet's to get some meds to help calm his nervousness, and it worked wonders. Of course he really wanted to visit with the kids somewhere in Switzerland and decided to try to climb over the back seat only to get caught between the seat and the window. Luckily for him, when we pulled over we were at a beautiful lake, so it was worth the stop.

We arrived in Ramstein in time for dinner and enjoyed some delicious German cuisine!  The sausage and kraut hit the spot after a long day in the car. The next day we hit one of the oldest towns in Germany, named Trier, and visited some Roman ruins there. The main city gate is the Porta Nigra, an city gate built by the Romans sometime in the 12th century!  (Of course, the gate doesn't look a day over 500 yrs old.) After my husband and oldest daughter ventured to the top of the gate, my younger daughter and I stumbled upon a scavenger hunt for painted elephants. For a seven year old, this was awesome and kept her engaged during the hot trek through the city. We visited the basilica first. For me, after seeing all the amazing frescoes and art work in the Italian cathedrals, I was under whelmed by the German architecture. In fact, when we entered I just sat down and thought, "wow, this is really, well, boring, in comparison to the Italian churches." But then we visited the Dom cathedral, and this you could tell was indeed Italian. The cathedral of St Peter did not disappoint and I was blown away by the marbled architecture and statues. When you think 'Gothic', this church had it nailed. I enjoyed walking below the church as well to a little cathedral room and some of the older tomb rooms and inside one of the tombs were the old remains of priest housed in a little container. After this stop, we continued on towards the Roman Imperial baths. My kids were in heaven. They really enjoyed traipsing through the underground water tunnels and climbing on the rocks of the ancient ruins. I was amazed at the abundant winding passageways and open spaces that you could almost see the Romans utilizing during their monthly baths. If you sit and think about it, it really is amazing what ancient civilizations created with limited tools, resources, and manpower.

Our second adventure took us on a whirlwind tour of Paris. We took the train from Kaiserslautern to Paris and after a long delay and what felt like a day at the train station in Germany, we made it to Paris 6 hours later than expected. The Eiffel Tower was of course a breathtaking as you can imagine. At night, it is all lit up and every 10 minutes or so, there is a light show that occurs. We walked along the Seine and through a small street fair, then back to a small restaurant for a snack. The next morning we were up bright and early for our grand tour of Paris using the double decker buses. The on/off bus is a great way to view the sites and you can hop on and off as often as you like. For us, with two kids who were already tired and worn, this was a great option. We saw many of the sites Paris has to offer, walked through the Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc d'Triompe, and visited some of the local shops, but by far, our most favorite of the trip was the trip  to the catacombs. Now you might not think that young kids could handle this, ours are 10 and 7, but let me say this, they LOVED it. It is the most memorable part of the trip for them. Once they saw all the bones and skulls stacked high, they couldn't wait to find out what other creepy things were to be found around the corner. Once you exit the catacombs, there is a great shop right across the street from the exit. This shop has everything skull-like you can imagine!  I am sure it does great business in October.

And for the record, the other day I was watching a tv show with my oldest, I think it was Marvel Agents of Shield. There was a scene where they were in Paris, it was quiet and not many cars on the street. My oldest all of sudden blurts out and says, "That is NOT was Paris looks like. It's crowded, the buildings are squished together, and there are lots of cars and people. That is definitely NOT Paris." Out of the mouth of babes.

Stay tuned for Liechtenstein and the Black Forest....