12 years ago...

Thirteen years ago I took my first plane flight across the Atlantic alone. I spent the night in a small hotel room in Frankfurt, and frankly, I was terrified. But the next morning I boarded a train and when I arrived in Limburg station two sweet faces greeted me: Larissa and her mother, Monica. I stayed with them in the small town of Bad Camberg for 6 weeks that summer. I learned a little German and they got to practice a lot of English. That was the summer I developed a love for travel, and my world view was forever changed.

A year later Larissa visited the USA and stayed with my family for 3 weeks.

Finally, after graduating and getting married, we met again and enjoyed each other's company better than ever!

Larissa und Mario

Details:

It took us about 3 hours to reach Gückingen from Metz (going through Luxembourg, Trier and Koblenz), so we left around noon on Saturday and arrived about 3pm. We enjoyed a tour of the Welter's newly renovated house and then sat down to enjoy some strawberry cake - with whipped cream!

The plan was to barbeque for dinner, but rain came, so the backup "Lasagna Plan" was enacted. Larissa's parents, Manfred and Monica, joined us for dinner (they live about 30 minutes away in Bad Camberg). I must've been in a ridiculous funk because I didn't take any pictures with them - they look exactly the same!

We went bowling after dinner (of course the World Cup Football game was on a big screen in the bowling alley).  Manfred and Rocky did very well, but I can't saw much for the rest of us... We walked around Limburg to look for a location that was advertised to have a public viewing of the game. Upon finding it in an old converted warehouse, we decided we were too old and uncool to attend. Plus, it was 10 euros per person to enter, the game was over, and the party was in full swing blowing out everyone's eardrums. The guy passed out in front of the entrance didn't help to convince us it would be worth it either.

We went to the Irish pub to chat for an hour before heading home.

Sunday morning we ate a traditional German breakfast with a variety of meats, cheeses and bread. Our fruits were tomatoes and cucumber. Orange juice and coffee rounded it off. Oh, and they had liverwurst! Mmm...

We took the 10 minute ride into Limburg and walked to the Cathedral there, walking through the old town on the way. We took pictures over the Lahn river and saw a dachshund wearing a "Deutschland" t-shirt. Everyone is going World Cup crazy. Mario's dad owns a farm (with milk cows, corn, and a few horses). HORSES!?!?  Yeah, that's all I had to hear. We stopped to check it out. The weather was beautiful! We were able to have the barbeque for lunch and relax and enjoy the sun - while watching Algeria and Slovenia play, of course. Larissa and Mario are going to have a housewarming party in 2 weeks now that most of their renovations are complete, so they've invited us back.

We drove home promising them we'd watch Deutschland kick some Aussie tail in soccer tonight, and if the USA is in the top two of their group we could have a Germany/USA match up in the next few weeks! :)