Buddies from home and the long walk

On Thursday (July 21, yes, I too am trying to keep track with this world wind of travel) the kids and I were packed up in hopes of being totally prepared to enjoy every second of our visitors Nicole and Chris. They spent the previous week touring Italy and the amalfi coast. It was thrilling to pick them up at the airport and welcome them into our German home for 2 nights. We sat out on our porch and had wine chatting about their adventures and catching up.


They didn't have big plans for their single day in Germany so we tried to pack it with some of our favorite highlights. Nick's final day at Kindergarden, (he brought brownies in the day before that showed where he would be traveling too etc... yummy treat)


a little hot chocolate in downtown stuttgart (yes diane, I was thinking of you!)





and than onto the big adventure - a hike up to Hohen neuffen Castle. Chris and I have visited it several times and I love how simply old it is. It looks like it was actually built for battle and not by some snotty rich guy who wanted to show off his money.


The only problem with our adventure is my husband was at work. Any one who knows me (and Nicole knew this) knows my sense of direction is horrible. So when our adventure started by the GPS landing us at a parking lot unfamiliar to me it really went downhill from there (first uphill of course).

Yes, that way, we think












The trek up took well over an hour (10 minute hike, ya right) by the end we were all carrying a child!
























The castle was great - upon our decent, the skies opened and started raining - awesome - Well, there is only one way down right?? We weren't interested in taking the narrow trail, so we took a different route (always a great idea).








At one point we all separated convinced that a particular intersection in the trail was the path to the car. Nicole is convinced she was correct - however we did quite a bit of wandering, and Chris and I are convinced, if given enough time, our paths would have been correct too. Between that and the man Nicole was hallucinating behind us... another story... we met up with a german lady along the way who we think gave us the correct directions even though her english was absent and she first wanted to confirm which town we parked in -which of course we had no idea.... we walked along the path and turned a corner into a clearing. hopping it was the parking lot, but stumbled on.... yes, sheep.





The story ends happily, we found the car. When Chris said it, I thought he was using his sarcasm - something about carps flying again. But it was the mini! So happy to see it!! We drove home over two hours late in muddy jeans


Here we are 'refreshed' and having dinner at the tiki bar.





Tomorrow is the big day! 6AM departure..... tired legs