Spelunking!

When I say that we went spelunking, I don't mean that we caved.  Well, maybe we caved when we decided to let Jacob eat at the Augsburg McDonald's.  (something I was planning on being very proud about avoiding) But that is not what I wanted to talk about today.   We, the Garrett clan, actually walked into a cave...underground...on purpose!  It was the second time this trip that we were all under the ground, but the first time was in the Salzburgwerk (salt mine) in Berchtesgaden.  We are now the proud owners of Bad (pronounced bod...unless you are on the tour listening to the English version via headset where the narrator states that it is bad, like it was naughty ) Reichenhaller salt mills.  At the mines we were carted off to our destination in rail cars...this time we were at the mercy of over 500 steps.  (They told us it was 430...my legs are 70 steps more tired than I was prepared for.)

We are actually going back to that region, just outside of Salzburg, today.  It will be a happy time because that is where Ruth's family is from, and where Sylvia spent much of her childhood.  

It will also be a sad time, we will be leaving Herzogenaurach where Birgit and Christian live (pronounced Chris-tee-on...coincidence that Kristiana pronounces her name nearly the same way?  I think not.)  

I met them when they flew to the United States to come to our wedding.  They brought Nicolai with them...I believe he was about one...and I liked them all immediately.  We visited them once before, a few months after we were married, and they showed us around their region.  Birgit is Sylvia's cousin who is not really a cousin.  They are related, by blood, but the explanation about their dads' being cousins and so that makes us second cousins...I think...or are we first cousins once removed...too complicated.  "Hey everyone!  Meet my cousin!"  

They met for the first time at a boring-for-little-kids family get together.  Sylvia describes it as, old people, old people, old people, and Birgit.  Te family never really got together before that.  They hit it off and became long distance pen pals after that and whenever they flew to Germany, they would make it a point to visit Birgit.    When they came to see us we were able to show them around our neck of the woods (as much as we could with our upcoming wedding) and now they have once again returned the favor.  If we were keeping score, they would totally be winning!

Our vacations, in addition to being totally awesome, are exceptionally lucky!  When we got here this last Thursday we heard music off in the distance.  "Oh that is the annual festival that concludes this weekend...we are planning on going every night after we do great stuff during the day...Prost!!"  We'll, they didn't say exactly that...but it was close.  Speaking of Prost!  It is the German equivalent of "cheers!" and I must have said it about three hundred times these past few days.  After we spent the day shopping at the outlet stores we were treated to a barbecue...then to the festival.  Following the day long exploration of the city of Nürnberg...we went to the festival.  After we traveled to see the caves near Tuchersfeld and had a blast at the summertime toboggan runs a few kilometers away (that Birgit's dad helped build) and then a superb dinner at an out of the way beer garden...we went to the festival.  

The kids were off having fun together at the carnival...it turns out that Sylvia and Birgit are not the only ones who have things in common.  Thilo and Jacob seem to be separated at birth and we stopped naming things that they might have in common since it started to get a little spooky.   Sylvia and I followed Birgit and Christian to the more adult section of the annual festival.  You know those rather large traditional German beer mugs that you see the waitresses carrying six of in each hand?  I now know, after numerous trials, exactly how much they weigh.  They seem to get lighter as the night goes on...for some reason.  

Last night was the last night of the festival and it was concluded with a fireworks show.  This was extremely lucky on our part since the one thing we really missed in our trip to Europe was the fireworks on the Fourth of July!  Jake was bummed when we told him that we wouldn't be seeing any this year.   Problem solved.

It was back to reality as the sad faces as we had to say our goodbyes to Christian and the kids' new 'cousins' as we figured out that they would be getting up and going to school and work very early in the morning and wouldn't get a chance to see us again this trip. 

We are coming down to the last week or so of the trip and I'm sure that we will have a few more things that are worthy of the blog.  I would like to take this opportunity to extend a thanks to all those who have hosted this traveling band of wanderers in your homes, driveways, and tables.  We all appreciate it very much and would like to tell you that our door is always open to you.