I can not tell you much about my first adventure as I was 4 months old and spent most of the trip in my snuggly. Today enjoy my Dad's recap of our trip to Germany. While I am traveling around California this week, I hope you will come back and visit my blog as I recount my three other international trips including Venezuela, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Sarah’s first trip was a remarkable trip to Frankfurt, Germany, the Bavarian Alps and Salzburg, Austria. During this trip she took a Rhine River cruise, toured several castles including the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle, took the “Sound of Music” tour in Salzburg and rode on a gondola ski lift to the top of a mountain in Bavaria.
Sadly, Sarah claims she doesn’t remember the trip, and can’t write a post about it. Perhaps the fact that she was 5 months old at the time has something to do with her poor memory.
We were visiting Sarah’s grandparents (my wife’s parents) who had rented an apartment outside Frankfurt to stay for approximately 2 months. Sarah’s grandfather, who is retired military, had been stationed in Frankfurt for several years, and enjoyed going back to visit. We went over to visit them and to see the area.
Anna and I not only had Sarah at 5 months, we also had her brother, who had just turned 3 years old. Frankly, Sarah was easier to deal with than her brother. She mostly rode around with her mother in a snuggly. We were worried that she would be fussy on the trans-Atlantic flight, but Sarah mostly slept. There was a different baby who cried all night as we crossed the Atlantic. Her brother, on the other hand, was all over the airplane, and was a very active, and vocal, little boy. As we approached one castle, which was partially in ruins, he exclaimed: “Daddy, the castle is broken!” As we toured Neuschwanstein (upon which Snow White’s castle in Disney World is based) he kept asking where Mickey and Donald were.
I recall one incident that was necessary because of Sarah. My knowledge of German was, and is, virtually nonexistent (we had fun on the autobahn pointing out that “exit” was “ausfahrt”) [Who can resist a fart joke?]. At one point we needed diapers for Sarah. I found a store, but it was closing. As I walked in, the employees were trying to prevent me from entering, obviously trying to tell me they were closed. I could understand their intent perfectly well, even though I couldn’t understand the language. I said I didn’t speak German, walked immediately to the diapers, picked a package out and walked to the cashier. I was able to buy the diapers because I believe they figured it was easier to take my money and get rid of me than tell me they were closed. Anyone with a baby knows that diapers are a necessity!
Perhaps Sarah will go back some day and repeat the visit so she can remember it.
