Our New Life in Germany

Hello all! Brad and I have arrived in Germany and it is absolutely incredible! After a 9 1/2 hour (sleepless) plane ride from Dallas, we stepped foot in Frankfurt. The positive here - a direct flight IS available to/from DFW Airport, get excited folks! :)

We spent our first week staying at the Hotel zum Schnackel in Mainz Castel...pictures wouldn't do the Schnackel justice. When we were given the key for room 102, I was relieved as we had SIX pieces of luggage with us. Now, for those of you that have traveled to Europe, you know the first floor is typically whatever floor is above the ground level, something I had clearly forgotten. So after schlepping our bags up 3 flights of stairs, we stepped foot into our, uh, "room." To give you a glimpse of The Schnackel, here are a few of the pros and cons: Pro - We had a place to lay our tired heads. Con - We had two separate twin beds that were pushed together (and Brad ended up having an allergic reaction to the pillow). Pro - Breakfast was provided in the dining room every morning. Con - I'm not one for ham and cheese every morning. Pro - There was plenty of hot water, which is great news for me! Con - The shower was in a bathtub...with no door or curtain which meant lots of water on the floor. Oops. Pro - We had a TV that worked. Con - it was about a 10 inch TV on the opposite side of the room that had all German channels with the exception of an International CNN channel and MTV Germany that had some shows in English (ie Double Shot at Love With Bisexual Twins, Paris Hilton's New BFF, Rock of Love, etc). Pro: We thought ahead and bought an adapter that would fit in the 220 volt plugs which is exactly what the hotel had! Con: There is a difference between adapters and converters and without a converter, your 110 volt appliances will blow up. Fortunately, we figured this out prior to anything blowing up; however, I was not able to use a blow dryer or flat iron. My hair was rockin' for over a week. I'll pause while you get a visual.......................

We obviously survived and now we can look back at our stay at Hotel zum Schnackel and laugh. We are now in our apartment and getting used to the area. Our furniture and the rest of belongings should arrive sometime mid to late May but in the meantime, they've given us some furniture and kitchen supplies. Our friends, Tommy and Melissa, loaned us some bedding and I brought a few towels with us; it's the bare bones but it's certainly enough to get by.

From what we hear, this area had one of the worst winters they've had in decades this past year. In fact, they had a snow storm the week before we arrived. We must have brought good weather with us because it's been beautiful every single day. We've cooked out with Tommy and Melissa and their nephew, Luis, three times in the past week. If the winters are going to last a long six months, we're going to enjoy every day of sunlight we can get. We have a great walking/biking trail near the apartment that goes through an orchard...and with the amount of beer and schnitzel that we have consumed in the past two weeks, we're trying to utilize that as much as we can.

After some extensive research, we've narrowed down which camera we want and now it's just a matter of finding it or ordering it. Thus, pictures will be posted shortly. We're not certain where our first traveling adventure will be but I will keep everyone posted!