Wine Festival in Wiesbaden

This past weekend Brad and I experienced our first go at a wine festival in Wiesbaden. You might compare this experience to the first time you went trick-or-treating on Halloween. You walk from booth to booth to sample wine from vendors all over Germany and being the lush *ahem* I mean wine lover that I am, this was a pretty fantastic concept. Ok, so it’s not free and you don’t dress up like a super hero (granted, you may feel like one after a few hours there) you get the idea. Tommy and Melissa were our partners in crime and we had a fabulous time.

I have to be honest though, the wine wasn’t all that great. Neither of us are big fans of Rieslings which is primarily what is produced in this region….blech. After several glasses of wine that made our faces tense up like we just ate a lemon, the chardonnay that was introduced to us by a friend was happily welcomed. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We stuck with that for the rest of the afternoon…and evening.

But it’s not just about the wine, there’s food, too! Lots of it. We started off with a pizza-like dish that was made with a sour cream sauce of sorts instead of tomato paste. Very light and tasty. But it wasn’t enough to fill our empty bellies so we moved on to a SomeWeirdGermanWord….wurst sandwich with caramelized onions. Wow, now that was delicious. If I could only remember what it was called. Next up was a pretzel that was about the size of my steering wheel; all that was missing was a barrel of nacho cheese to go with it. And that was it…..ok, that’s a lie – you can’t go to a festival without getting a crepe with Nutella on it (ok, ok – and Grand Marnier). And I’m officially heading to the gym as soon as I finish this.


The exciting part is….drum roll please…..there’s another wine fest right here in Mainz this weekend!!! And the really exciting part? My dear friend, Bethany, will be here to enjoy it with us! That’s right, our first visitor will be here this weekend and I’m beyond excited to see her. Can’t wait!

And there are many more adventures to come in the near future in the life of the Bingham’s…stay tuned. The next few weeks, no - the next few months are going to be amazing!!

Amsterdam Adventure....And Then Some

Obviously from the title Brad and I have checked off another fun adventure from The List....but we'll discuss that a little later.

It seems that so much has happened since my last post. I believe my exact words were "there are no exciting trips to speak of" and I'm quite certain that I jinxed myself (in a good way) by saying that. In a matter of two weeks our calendar has started to fill up throughout the rest of the year. And by "calendar" I mean figuratively speaking because I no longer have one. Apparently day planners and calendars are very rare here and now that my 2008-2009 At a Glance Planner ended in July, I'm completely lost. Ugggh.

Now I now the anticipation is killing you...."what are the Binghams' going to do next?!" Ok, probably not. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I just have this weird feeling that the minute I say "we're going to _________!!!!" something will happen to screw it all up and then you'll have to listen to me rant on here about how that really cool trip I told you about got cancelled. So I'm really doing this for you.

Instead I'll just recap the events of the past few weeks:

I spent Saturday before last on an all day shopping spree with Anica, Mariam, and Melissa. We started at a boutique-type outlet place in Wiesbaden that has great jeans marked way, way down (just my kind of place). Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in Frankfurt on a mission to find Melissa some appropriate business shoes for her munchkin-sized feet. A surprisingly hard task but we were successful. Before leaving Anica insisted we swing by her favorite, favorite, favorite ice cream place. I'm thinking some specialty gelato cafe, so you can imagine my surprise when we were standing in line at Haagen-Dazs. I chuckled on the inside but didn't have the heart to tell her Haagen-Dazs is, in fact, an American company and I've had it more times that I can remember. Oh well.

Brad was a trooper and hung out with Stella all day. I believe "welcome to my world" may have been whispered under my breath when he told me what a handful she was all day.

Sunday was A LOT of fun. Our German friends, none of whom are actually German, wanted to enjoy an American brunch. I made Sausage Casserole, a Blueberry Maple Breakfast Bake, fluffy biscuits, tons of fresh fruit and, of course, mimosas. We had a couple bottles of Champagne left from our wedding and we figured what better way to enjoy it than with friends. On top of that, Tommy and Melissa supplied the tasty Bloody Mary's. We will definitely have to do that again soon!

Tasty Champagne

Now for the really exciting stuff. It was decided on Wednesday that we should go to Amsterdam for the weekend. We'd been talking about it for months now and with the summer almost over we figured we'd better time than NOW? Amsterdam is approximately a 4 hour drive from here (I bet we could get there in 3 with Brad driving on the Autobahn) but with 5 people in one car we opted to do the USO Tour instead. Basically you get on a bus at 3:30 in the morning, sleep on the way (yeah right) and when you wake up you're in Amsterdam. We'll pretend that that is exactly how it went (have you ever tried sleeping on a bus?) Anyhoo, we made it. We spent the first part of our morning viewing the Van Gogh Museum. It's pretty amazing to be standing in front of an original painting that you've seen so many times before.

We made friends with a girl, Amanda, from North Carolina who was traveling alone. She and her husband had spent the last two weeks traveling ALL around Germany before he went back to Afghanistan. Amsterdam was her last trip before flying home. We all had a blast together!

Enjoying cupcakes (and NOT special brownies) with our new friend

I just really liked this door.

I was unaware that Amsterdam is a city with what seems like a squillion canals. It's actually only 4 main canals that form a semi-circle around the city but you can get practically everywhere on water. This was a pretty neat way to see the city and go from place to place, however, if/when we go back I would much rather rent a bike and stay the night.

Amsterdam is eclectic, to say the least. You will see just about all walks of life here. And I mean ALL. I suppose with both marijuana (which I don't even know if I spelled that right) and prostitution being legal, what would you expect? Sure, we visited the infamous Red Light District in broad daylight to see what that was all about....ummm, I don't think "interesting" is the proper term. But there is so much more to Amsterdam to see. I really enjoyed the Bloemenmarkt. It's the world's only floating flower market and it is a pretty cool sight to see. Unfortunately, they don't allow you to take pictures. We also visited the church where Rembrandt is buried. We just happened to be there while the massive pipe organ was being played. Amazing. The one thing we didn't get to do was see the inside of the Anne Frank House. The line was absurdly long and we figured that just gives us an excuse to go back.

Gotta love wooden shoes :)

We were back home by 1:00 am and spent Sunday relaxing and hanging out with the pup. We cooked burgers and dogs with Tommy and Melissa that evening and crashed early....well I did, Brad stayed up until 1:30 watching Tiger lose. :( So sad.

All in all, it was a good marble weekend!

Call Me Captain Random

Well, there are no super exciting trips to speak of this time. But that's not to say things have been uneventful so here are a few of the random things going on in the Bingham house....

You'll be impressed to know that within 24 hours of returning from St. Lucia, Brad and I were completely unpacked, ALL laundry finished AND we picked up on our little workout routine our first day back. In all of my life, I've never been able to accomplish this great feat. And now I know why. Following that first day, we fell off the workout wagon for a good 3 weeks. Oops.

Our little 10 pound pup has quickly grown into a 40 pound pup and has quite a ways to go. She seems to know that it is much more difficult to pick her up these days and has no problem REFUSING to come inside after potty breaks and walks. As soon as we start heading for the house she turns into limp puppy and will roll in the grass knowing we can't drag her through the yard. Nothing but ornery. She's also going to school on the weekends. We are now working with a new trainer who is fantastic and seeing how his dog, Friday, turned out only gives us inspiration to keep at it. Keep in mind, Stella turns into "Marley" at least once a day so we can use all the inspiration we can get!

Marley

Unfortunately/fortunately, softball is over for the summer season. I say unfortunately because I had a blast watching Brad play and I know he truly enjoyed it (for the most part). But it's fortunate because playing 3 games a week and tournaments on the weekends got old...really fast.

I have a small confession - I had a brief "meltdown" following our vacation. While it was wonderful seeing family, it really hit home how much I miss them and my girl friends. It occurred to me that the majority of my conversations throughout the day where with a dog. With that said, the power of prayer is quite amazing. Anica and Aadel (our friends that joined us for our Mexican Fiesta a while back) invited us to have dinner a couple of weeks ago at their place with a few friends. We had a blast!! And also met some really great people. It was just what I needed. I still miss my girls back home terribly but it sure is nice to have a few here.

Last weekend, Melissa and I went with Anica and our new friend, Mariam, to what Anica described as a "beach." It was more or less a small lake/large pond with nice white sand around it. Works for me! We spent all afternoon soaking up the rays, reading gossip magazines (in German) and chatting. Finally! Some girl time. We quickly made plans for a shopping trip this Saturday and I'm hosting brunch for everybody on Sunday. I'm tellin ya, ask and you shall receive.

I've also been introduced to my new favorite blog (thank you, Kasey B). Simplyrecipes.com. Check it out! Brad and I have tried multiple recipes from this blog and have yet to be disappointed. I highly, highly recommend the Eggplant Parmesan. Quite possibly my most favoritest thing we've had. Ever. And we've had some pretty good dinners. It's become almost tradition to make a homemade pizza on Sunday nights but it's been the same thing week in and week out - pepperoni with jalapenos. We decided to change it up this week and were blown away by the flavor of the Black Bean Spinach Pizza. I mean, WOW! And so easy. We've also had Baked Shrimp in Tomato Feta Sauce and my first try at Lasagna. All this week. Needless to say, we're back on the workout wagon.

In other news, the Audi is misbehaving. But you've gotta love the timing. I'll back up a little bit - a couple of weeks ago Brad and I were out driving around and I showed him that my black purse, the one I carry almost ALL of the time was starting to fall apart. He said, "well we never really got you anything big in Strasbourg for your birthday so let's go find you a good one." (I know, I have the greatest husband EVER.) So we looked around a bit but nothing caught my fancy and we called it a day. It wasn't 2 days later that the Audi was in the shop and wouldn't you know - it was the automatic clutch that needed replacing. Not exactly the "clutch" I was hoping for but beggars can't be choosers.














A trip is in the works for Labor Day Weekend. We're thinking Amsterdam but aren't 100% sure yet. There are a few details to work out but a good trip is definitely due. And for friends and family who are ready for a trip - get that passport out and come on! We're settled and ready for you to come visit!

Speaking of trips, Brad and I had put in for a lottery to travel to Edelweiss Lodge and Resort over New Year's and Brad's birthday. Since it's a very popular destination for military families and DoD employees that live here, it's quite difficult to get a reservation so they just set up a lottery system and we had to register by May to even be eligible. Well.....we got it!! That's right! Brad's 26th birthday will be spent on the slopes of the Bavarian Alps. Eeeee! So excited!

That's all for now. I know, this was a random post. Until next time....

A Little Slice of Heaven with a Side of....Not Heaven

Get comfortable, you're in for a ride...

What's better than spending your vacation on a beautiful island in the eastern Caribbean Sea? I'll tell you - having your mother get married to a really great man on that beautiful island surrounded by more than 30 close friends a family members. Absolute bliss.

Brad and I recently returned from our second honeymoon in St. Lucia. Ok, so it wasn't really about us but for the record, we've made it six months folks!

I'll start off by telling you that in my mom's next life, she should come back as a wedding planner. It's all in the details. I mean, you know it's going to be pretty amazing when the wedding "invitation" comes in a glass bottle filled with sand, sea shells and a tiny umbrella with the actual invitation inside. She went as far as to soak the cork in a coconut oil or something so when you opened the box it just smelled beachy. And that was just the beginning.



When we arrived at the resort each couple received a big beach tote that was filled with sunscreen, chapstick, and other essentials for the beach as well as a "booklet" of activities that had been arranged (massage appointments for everyone, birthday party celebrations, dinners, a happy hour cruise, etc.) and each page was completely customized. If you can't tell, I was totally blown away. To my DFF girls, you all would have been so proud. :)

The first night, we all had dinner together in the main pavilion followed by A LOT of dancing. Brad and I were feeling rather jet lagged and crashed before things got really crazy...which they did. From what I heard, A LOT of dancing was followed up by A LOT of cocktails. Birthday girl's cake ended up in her face (her own doing) and most everyone ended up in the pool in their clothes by the very end of the night. Brad and I missed it all. :(
The next day was spent lounging around the pool, drinking fruity cocktails and catching up with my sister while the boys played golf. We had rehearsal that evening down on the beach (obviously) followed by a fabulous dinner at the resort's Piton Restaurant. My mom's wedding was the largest wedding they'd ever had so they let us have the whole restaurant all to ourselves and provided a live band. Soooo much fun!

The following day was The Big Day and my mom was the picture of cool. Completely relaxed and stress free. (Must be in our blood, I was the same way on my wedding day.) Everyone had massages throughout the morning. What a way to start off the day. I had a hot stone massage....if you ever have the opportunity to do that, do it! After an impromptu "Bridal Luncheon" in our swim suits, no doubt, it was time to get ready.
The "Getting Ready" part was followed by the "Waiting" part. Wouldn't you know that the nastiest looking storm rolled in about 10 minutes before we were supposed to be down on the beach. Fortunately, it rolled in and rolled right out. Whew! That could have been bad.

The ceremony was absolutely beautiful! "Happy" just isn't the right word to describe the way Riley and my mom looked....it was so much more than that. I wish we could do it all over again. (Only this time, I wouldn't trip on my dress down the aisle. Yep, believe it. Every bridesmaids worst nightmare. I don't think many people saw it though. At least that's what I keep telling myself.) We had hors devours and champagne for about an hour followed by a beautiful dinner right on the beach. The perfect end to a perfect day.




But the party wasn't over yet! One more day of fun in the sun only to be topped off with a sunset catamaran cruise. With the exception of the ceremony, this may have been my favorite part. The mountains on one side and the sun setting into the ocean on the other. It was amazing! And then surprise birthday cakes for me, Hailey, and Lori weren't too shabby either. Again, cake ended up in people's faces. What's up with this group and cake in the face?


The evening ended with a tasty hibachi dinner at Kimono's Restaurant. Then Brad and I said our goodbye's as we were heading out early, early the next morning. :(

Here is where the "Side of Not Heaven" comes in. Brace yourself. Brad and I were up at 4:15 am to catch our shuttle to the rinkety dink airport. Here's how the day was supposed to go - St. Lucia to San Juan to Miami to Frankfurt. Simple enough, right? Wrong. A one hour delay out of St. Lucia ruined everything!!! Because of the delay, we would miss our connection in San Juan and the next flight out of San Juan would cause us to miss our connection in Miami. Wonderful. Plan B was to fly to New York from San Juan. Uggghhh. At this point Brad and I pinky swore to each other that no matter how bad the rest of the day got, we would not get frustrated with each other....only everybody else. We made it to New York just fine and spent the next 6 hours hanging out at JFK. Silver lining - our plane started boarding right when they were expected to and we were taxiing down the runway right on time. Eeeeerrrrrkkkk! Here's where it got bad.

We're heading down the runway and we stop. Turn around. Head back to the terminal. And sit. Apparantly, the landing flaps weren't operating correctly. I guess it's good we figured that out before we had to land. I was so tired, I just put my headphones on and tried to go to sleep. Lucky me, I have a window seat right next to the wing. I'm watching the guys with the neon orange vests work on the plane and I realize heat is being emited from just below my window and it's getting hotter. Knowing that this couldn't be normal I get up and find the nearest flight attendant to explain my little delimma. She kindly asked that I "please take my seat." To which I kindly replied it was too hot to sit there. And here's how the rest played out:


Flight Attendant: I apologize for the inconvience but could you please take your seat?
Me: I'd rather not. It really is quite hot.
Flight Attendant: Ok, well, why don't you ask the people around you if they are hot, too.
Me: Are you serious?
Flight Attendant: I'll need to know if it's just your seat.
Me: I promise I'm not lying to you. Would you like to sit in my seat and feel it?
Flight Attendant: Please ask those around you if they are hot too.
Me: Ummm, ok. Excuse me, are you all hot?
Other Passengers: "Oh my gosh! I'm dying!" "I thought it was just me!" "What? Do they have the heat on or something?"


Ha, lady! I told you I wasn't lying. Once the other people around me agreed that it was, indeed, sweltering in our area, Little Miss Flight Attendant Chick decides she'll come check it out. She puts her hand on the wall below my window and says "oh, it's not actually the wall that's hot, it's just that hot air is blowing in from this vent and it's making the wall feel hot." I don't know what my face had to have looked like at that moment because that was quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Oh. Well thank you Sherlock Holmes for determining that the wall itself wasn't going to spontaneously combust all over me but I could care less WHAT is hot, the fact of the matter is - IT'S HOT! So I (politely) refused to sit down. I honestly did not make a scene but after the day we'd had, I really wanted to.


They claim to have turned on the AC but I think they were lying. Tick. Tick. Tick. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. This went on for FOUR hours! Some guy in the back passed out from what had to have been heat exhuastion. Oh, and we had to refuel the plane just from sitting there. As I was standing in the aisle of the plane leaning against my very tired husband, we look at our watch and notice that if our flight out of St. Lucia had just left like it was supposed to, we would already be home. I wanted to die.


But I didn't and we finally took off. Eight and a half "short" hours later, we landed in Frankfurt. Customs was, of course, a nightmare but we made it through that, too. Hopped on the train, luggage in tow. It was rush hour so we took a cab the rest of the way once we arrived in Mainz.

Home sweet home.....

NOT!

Somebody had a little "party" while Mom and Dad where away and that somebody would be Miss Stella. A neighbor, who had offered (I might add), to watch Stella didn't agree with keeping her in her crate. Sure, it breaks my heart to put her in there when I have errands to run, chores to do and what not, but lest we forget - Stella is a 5 month old labrador puppy who is teething, no less. And what does a 5 month old labrador puppy do when you are not watching them 24/7? They chew, poop, and pee. And that is precisely what she did. Everywhere. Everything. Dining table, dining chairs, dresser, her own bed, decorative orbs (they are called orbs, not balls), peed all over every inch of our hardwood floors and even on the couch, poop residue all over the place.

Who? Me? I didn't do it.

I don't think I have to explain how we felt at this point. We have since then invested in a Steam Mop as the vacuum cleaner and Swiffer just weren't cutting it with this mess. The house has been put back together and we've returned to the crate training routine with Stella. If you think I'm a bad mother to our dog (like our neighbor does):

a.) I've done my research on crate training and it is definitely a good idea
b.) I don't care

Whew! That was exhausting. So there you have it. Our little slice of heaven with a side of....not heaven. I think I'm ready for another vacation. :)

There are tons of pictures from our trip at traciandrileystlucia2009.shutterfly.com. The password is stlucia.

Celebrating in Strasbourg

First things first - I apologize for the delay in posting. Our apartment was struck by lightening and fried our modem, thus I've been without access to the Internet.

As many of you know, I have the most amazing husband. Period. Instead of a new outfit, something for the house, or flowers he gave me something sooooooo much better for my birthday - a fabulous weekend in Strasbourg, France. Ohhhhh Strasbourg, drink it in. It always goes down smooth. (A direct quote from the husband.)

If we'd gone right, we would have ended up in Paris....how great is that?

We hit the road Friday afternoon. And by hit the road I mean HIT THE ROAD. We finally had the opportunity to let The Audi run free on the Autobahn reaching speeds upwards of 120. Don't worry, I had my seat belt on (although I'm not sure what good a seat belt would do if you get in an accident going that fast). With that said, we arrived at the fabulous Sofitel Strasbourg in just about 2 hours.

After getting settled in our room, we hit the town in search of a place for dinner. Random side note - in the square about a block from our hotel a group of people were protesting the Iran election results. Nothing too crazy but it was definitely interesting to see. Moving on - we picked a cute restaurant that had seating available outside. I had one of the best lamb shanks I've ever tasted. Yum!

While dinner was great, the next part was A-A-A-AMAZING!!! The main tourist attraction in Strasbourg is the Cathedral de Notre Dame. We'll see more of the Cathedral later, just know this - when you see it, you have one of those "ahhh-haaa" moments. Pretty incredible. We stopped at a cafe that was right out in front of the Cathedral and each of us ordered a creme brulee and an Irish coffee. While admiring the church, we overheard a man behind us struggling to order some whiskey from the very French waiter. He finally gave up and settled for some scotch. We joked with him wondering what they put in our Irish coffee if they didn't have whiskey (and we still don't know but it tasted good). We ended up chatting with him and his wife for several hours. They gave us a bunch of tips on places to visit while we're here in Europe as well as the places to skip. Great people, great conversation and a great view....doesn't get much better than that.

Irish Coffee and Creme Brulee....yummy! Not a bad view either.

Cathedral at night

We had a light breakfast of croissants and coffee (no wonder French people are so skinny, where are the bacon and eggs people?) then made our way over to the Cathedral. There is just so much to it. Sure, it's big but that's not really what makes it so amazing. It's in the details. Words won't do it justice so enjoy:

Pretty incredible, huh? What was crazy was that right after we walked around inside they ushered everyone out because someone was getting married there! Can you imagine?

After the Cathedral, we made our way over to the La Petite France area. Most of the buildings and houses here are built with the half timber design and it is quite a sight to see. We enjoyed lunch near the river (not right next to it because the waiters at that restaurant were too snooty) then more sight seeing. We picked up some delicious chocolates for our neighbor that was keeping Stella....ok, and maybe a few for ourselves. By late afternoon we were worn out and decided a powernap before dinner would be a good idea.

To really celebrate my birthday, we splurged and had dinner at GoH, a schnazzy little place that was in the Sofitel. The menu we selected was a journey in itself, to say the least. Foie gras over strawberries, sardines over lima beans with fried potato slices, who thinks of this stuff? Fortunately, we're pretty adventurous when it comes to food so we really enjoyed it. Since it was our last evening, we wanted to take one more walk around town....and Brad was craving a crepe. We went to a creperie near the Cathedral and gorged ourselves, once again.

Random funny story - on our walk back to the hotel we saw a group of people all dressed up having cocktails out on the balcony overlooking the main square. We thought "can you imagine going to extravagant parties in Strasbourg, France. Hanging out on the balcony sipping cocktails and mingling. What a life." But I don't think everyone there understood the invitation where I'm sure it said something along the lines of "dress up." The women wore cocktail dresses and the men were in suits.....well, most of them. As we sat there secretly envying these people, out walks Superman. I kid you not, full out Superman costume!! Absolutely hilarious!

And that pretty much sums up the trip. We slept in the next morning before heading home to our excited puppy. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!!

Hallo From Heidelberg

Another fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants weekend.....and I love it that way! The boys (Brad and Tommy) play on a couple of softball teams. One is with a group of guys from work and the other is with a hodge podge group of guys from all over the Garrison Base that only play in tournaments. Since I am quite certain none of the guys from the Garrison team will ever see this, I'm just going to come out and say it - they are absolutely terrible! With the exeption of Brad and Tommy, of course. (What's funny is that the coach has held practices twice a week for a little over a month now.) This weekend was the first tournament and was held in Mannheim, about an hour from here. Knowing how "talented" the team was, it was decided Friday evening that we would just count on them not making it too far and we would spend the rest of the time in Heidelberg.

We hit the road Saturday morning; the five of us in The Camery, what a sight. We arrived about an hour earlier than needed so we piddled around on base before making it to what we thought was the field for the tourney. Wrong. They boys walk up with their cleats on and bat bags in hand only to see we were at an ALL GIRLS tourney....oops. We finally found our way to the right place; however, after the first game I was beginning to think maybe they should have stayed at the girls field (did I really say that out loud?). One game down, one to go. We enjoyed some Texas Barbecue in between games then made our way over to a Mann Mobilia to kill some time. I'd never even heard of this store, it's basically an IKEA type place but on steroids. Pretty amazing. The team played better the second game and I was worried that "The Plan" was going to fall through and they'd have to come back on Sunday. But a few bad plays and we were home free. And thanks to the GPS, we were in Heidelberg in 20 minutes.


We enjoyed a fabulous German dinner in a beautiful biergarten followed by a night cap at the Dubliner Irish Pub. The nightlife in Heidelberg is nothing like what I expected....actually, I didn't expect there to even be a nightlife. Such a gorgeous, historical city - who would have thought the streets would be packed at midnight? Not me. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera because the view of the castle at night was phenomenal! Oh well, next time.

We were up bright and early on Sunday so we could enjoy our German breakfast at the hotel. Quick recap - German breakfast means mostly meats and cheeses. Don't know that I'll bring that custom back to Texas with me. Fortunately, they also had Frosted Flakes and toast.

We hopped on a trolley (or tram, depending on who you talk to) and made our way to the center of town. Good thing we wore comfortable shoes - from there hiked, not walked, hiked up the hill to the castle. The homes on the way up the hill are like nothing I've ever seen before. Stunning!By the time we made it to the top it looked as if we'd just ran 5 miles....but it was beyond worth it! The castle overlooks the city (like most castles do) and the view was just breathtaking.

One thing you might notice in some of the pictures is all of the graffiti. I find it so odd that someone would have the audactity to use a Sharpie or even a knife to carve their initials or some stupid comment into the walls of a castle (or anything, for that matter). Grrrrr, I could just smack them upside the head.

We spent the rest of the afternoon milling around town and window shopping. I truly enjoyed Heidelberg and I can't wait to go back. It's my favorite place we've been so far! For those of you coming to visit, this will definitely be a place we'll want to check out.

Stay tuned for next weeks post...Brad and I will be off on another adventure!