Germany Trip, Part 1

I absolutely LOVED Germany! We had a great time, and once again, we were wishing that we had a few more days to spend there. Of course, S's job intervened, and we had to come home so that he could leave again on a business trip. Next year, I'm definitely planning our vacations well in advance so that S can block the time off on his calendar in order for us to stay longer at these places.

We arrived in Frankfurt early on Wednesday morning after a very long overnight flight from Chennai. Leaving at 2 am from Chennai for a 9 plus hour flight is not my idea of a good time. In fact, we had so much fun doing this, that we have decided that we'll do the exact same thing next week when we fly from Chennai to Frankfurt to catch our flight to Chicago. Fun, fun.

Anyway, after arriving, we took a taxi ride to our hotel and arrived there at about 8:30am. It was a little weird that at this time it was just barely getting light outside. It was even more strange for us that it was completely dark by 4:30 in the afternoon. Here in Chennai the sun comes up around 6 am, and it doesn't get completely dark until 6pm. So, we checked into our hotel, showered, and rested before heading out to try to find our friends' house.

We ended up walking around the small town our friends live in quite a bit during the time we were there. Even though it was a little chilly and misty most of the time, it was great to be able to walk in a nice, clean environment without any trash, stray dogs, cows, men urinating, etc. In fact, one of my favorite quotes of the week came from S when he said something along the lines of "look, what a novice concept, dogs on leashes." Not having been in Europe before, I didn't realize that dogs are allowed pretty much anywhere. I was a little shocked when we walked into a bakery on the first day, and there was a dog in there.

Speaking of bakeries, it's probably a good thing I don't live in Germany because of all of the bakeries. About every 3rd store is a bakery, and boy did we eat a lot of bread while we were there. We had a pretty traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, green beans, and dressing. Unfortunately canned pumpkin wasn't to be found, so we actually ended up with no dessert on Thanksgiving. Hard times, I'm telling you! It was great being able to spend time with our friends from Beijing and their relatives. Everyone just made S and I feel like part of the family.

Living overseas and away from our blood relatives, we miss out on a lot of holidays. However, some of the people we have met in Beijing and now here in Chennai have become not only very dear friends but also like family members to S and I. This was the second year now that we have spent Thanksgiving with this couple. We are already joking about where we are going to meet for Thanksgiving next year!

Anyway, more on our Germany trip in the next post...