Europe

Europe was great! I am home safe and sound and exhaused. Now I have to think about work :( I went to the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Monaco. I will update all my travels with pictures and writing throughout the week. I could not update as we went because we left the powercord in Switzerland and I was too lazy to walk to the Internet cafe. (It was also expensive!) Never fear I did take notes so I could remember the funnies!

Frankfurt

Our first day in Europe was in Frankfurt. After unloading at the beautiful hotel where I got my own room (thanks Carlos) we headed out to explore Frankfurt. Our first mission was to see Carlos' apartment. It was just a few blocks walk from the hotel. When we arrived it had a cute courtyard but was up 5 flights of stairs! Ha Lien wanted to go up more. It was definitely small but we could fit. It has a living room, tiny kitchen (no oven but a washing machine) a hallway with a closet and bathroom, and a bedroom. I guess no bigger than 500 square feet.
Then it was off to lunch. We went to a Vietnamese infusion place. John and I had Thai curry mine with noodles his with rice. Carlos had the special of the day, Hao had some rice noodles on top of a salad looking thing and Ha Lien had Pho. It was delicious and we had a good people watching seat. In fact as mothers with strollers aka baby cars walked by Hao asked where we could get another. Then it was off to find the stroller. The street Carlos lives on is really cute. If only I could put a picture in right now. I will later but this machine costs 35 cents a minute. We walked all around the shopping area and could not find the Baby Walz. Finally after asking three people we found it. The stroller was purchased and we were off to have a drink by the river. Carlos' friend Miguel met us with beer and blankets. To get to the river was an adventure because there was a festival going on. Ha Lien rode a ride and totally tour up her Keen shoe and now is down to just Crocs. Then we sat by the river and had a beer. Well I didn't Ha Lien and I went to the children's park on the bank of the river. It had a really cool water/sand part. After lounging we picked up some wieners for dinner, payed to pee, and headed back to the hotel for some much neeeded rest.

To Germany

The first stop on our trip was to Frankfurt. Getting to Frankfurt was a piece of cake. The two hours alloted at the airport gave us just enough time to get a snack and go to the bathroom and then we were on the plane. We were a bit delayed 20 minutes or so which meant we walked right on to the plane in Cinncinatti. The kids were great and we all got some rest. The bad part was we were not on an airbus so we did not have individual TVs which was a bummer.
Upon arrival we were the very last off the plane. It is tough to get a carseat off. So we had no one to follow. I ended up directing us to a line that was not customs. We were back in line to get into the airport. oops! Hao noticed and off to the right place we went which was downstairs. Of course no one was there so we walked right through only to wait on our luggage. The other car seat was the very last piece of luggage so we had to wait what seemed like an hour but was not.
The car rental was booked ahead of time but was wrong. The place closed at 12 and it was 11 and 40 minutes of city driving away. Hao said the lady on the phone said it was in the city center, but I guess not. So then it was the process of getting a new car. They originally switched us to a Ford Focus Station wagon which was fine but it did not have the car seat latches. After an hour we finally found a car in the same price range with the latches. We now have a Puegot!
Then it was off to Hotel NH for a shower. Carols would not allow us to stay with him. He said his place was too small but it was not.
Next we toured Frankfurt which will be my next post.
There is no working spell check sorry about that. I'll fix it at the next stop.
Tschus!