The Varelas

Trip log
We are having a great time! We got in on Saturday morning 7:00, after having gotten barely 2-3 hours sleep on the flights (there were kids sitting behind us with no parents on the flight, and it was hard to sleep anyway), but we made it through the whole day just fine with a 1-hour nap. I did sleep 12 hours that night, though (9 to 9). :) I think it was this day that we went to downtown Wiesbaden and walked around. Jon found a T-Mobile store ("T-Punkt") and was impressed with how big it was and all the phones they had that still hadn't made it to the states.

On Sunday, we went to chapel, and then we went out to a GOOD Italian restaurant for lunch. I'm blanking on what else we did this day... I think we just hung out, napped, etc., and had a good dinner at Nate & Louise's house.

On Monday, we all drove the 2.5 hours or so to Strasbourg, France. We saw the cool church (neat stained glass) and walked around the city, and we ate at a little French café (I even spoke a little French!). Then we took the 1+ hour boat guided tour of the city, which was really nice and pretty, though it got very hot towards the end. (Speaking of weather, it has been PERFECT so far every day!—mid 70s-ish and sunny and breezy.) We got some ice cream at another place, and I mistakenly ordered raspberry for everyone, not strawberry (oops… framboise=raspberry… I think fraise=strawberry). It was still really good. In the afternoon, we drove to Heidelberg and dropped off our things and Ellie with Louise’s mom at their house. Then we went out to dinner at Die Kartoffel (spelling? It means "The Potato" in German). It’s a fun tavern-like restaurant where they bring you your meat raw on a very hot stone, and you cook it yourself. It comes with 3 good sauces, a big potato, and salad. It was really good! We also walked around that city after dinner (Laderbrunen?); it’s the oldest city in Germany and has a Roman column from the year 2. That night we slept at Louise’s parents’ house in Heidelberg.

On Tuesday, we spent the day in Heidelberg. Jon and I climbed the steps to the top of the bell tower of the church (very cool views of the city) and took a guided tour of the castle ruins. The city is really neat. Pepperdine has a campus there, though we weren’t exactly sure where to find it. We had lunch at Nate and Louise’s favorite Thai place in Heidelberg—it was actually very good! That evening we drove back to Wiesbaden and had fondu for dinner and watched a movie here.

Today has been a relaxing/home day, because Louise had a doctor’s appointment (she’s pregnant, due in March) and Nate has youth group today. Tomorrow, Louise and I are going to get 2-hour massages, and on Friday, Jon’s renting a car to drive the autobahn. :o)