The Varelas

We're back and the trip was great
We got in to LAX last night around 8:00 and back to the house at 10:00 CA time (after having traveled for 21 hours...yikes). I'll finish my little trip log...

On Thursday, Louise and I went for those massages... they were heavenly. I have only gotten one professional massage before, and I loved it. This was just as good. In fact, this was the first time I'd ever gotten a facial, and I especially loved that because they rubbed my feet. I almost fell asleep! We bought a quick lunch after the massages, and drove to the next town over to go to a discount pottery place. I bought 3 square Christmas plates with their famous design on them. Louise and I had a good time talking while we drove around that day. We watched "Sweet Home Alabama" that night to complete our girls' day!

On Friday, it was the guys' day. They rented a BMW and enjoyed driving fast to their main destination: golf. Jon said he hit 210 km/hr on the way home (around 130 mph). I think they had a good time playing golf, though I guess they were paired with a VERY slow other 2 guys for their foursome (they said there were conversations of over a half hour in between holes...).

On Saturday, Jon and I went by ourselves to Cologne (Köln), a city about 1.5 hours away from Wiesbaden that has the largest cathedral in Germany (it was huge!). We ate at McDonald's (hey, we were by ourselves and we know no German!) and took a guided tour of the cathedral. We also walked around the train station and paid 2 euros to use the restroom. By that time, it was time to head back to Wiesbaden (and hit 220 km/hr on the way!), since Nate, Louise, Jon, and I planned on going back to that good Italian restaurant (Casa Europa I think it's called) one last time. They have bruschetta to die for and really good soup (I got the cream of tomato both times we went, and Nate loves the cream of broccoli, cream being the key word!). We watched "The Saint" that evening, and Jon and I stayed up late packing.

Sunday was time to go home. Our flight out of Frankfurt was at 10:30 a.m. (though with delays and a "Folks, we'll be returning to the gate momentarily to have a faulty temperature gauge checked out" from the captain, we didn't take off 'til noon). I finished Angle of Repose on this first flight, though. We had a long layover in Charlotte and were very glad to get back to L.A. last night. I got a rush of "been up way too long" energy last night and ended up unpacking and putting everything away before we went to bed. :)

I have the day off work today to recover from jet lag (actually don't have any...yet!), get film developed, catch up on e-mail and editing, do some laundry, go grocery shopping, etc.