How we traveled

Along our two week journey we traveled many different ways.
Jeff making use of every inch by packing the car perfectly, is this not such a dad job?

{ by car}

We rented a Ford Gia mini van. We were so hoping for a Fahrfanugen, but they didn't have GPS in their Volkswagens at the car rental place and that was a must! It was a really cool car with a full moon roof all the way to the very back, built in sun shades for the girls, very small and very few cup holders (i guess they don't have Big Gulps in Europe), great rear view mirror to monitor the going ons in the back.

It took us a few days to manipulate the car seats and the luggage so that the girls were in the front row and Annie Kate was in the back. Once we did that the drives were much easier. We brought the video players to strap on the front head rests and Annie Kate had her own video player. This is so excessive but such a life saver.

On day one Jeff was loving driving on the Autobahn. Since we have been home we feel like we are driving so slow.

We never saw one truck or SUV driving on the road and were amazed at how small all the cars were. I even made a smugmug gallery of the cool cars we saw. Those Smart Cars were awesome.(surprisingly expensive at $28,000 We never saw one accident on the road until our last day and it was on base. All the cars in Germany seemed like they were so new you didn't see any old beat up cars on the roads we were driving on. Kind of interesting.

Train from the top of the Zugspitze

{by train}

When we got to Switzerland we had to take the train to get in and out of the city we stayed in, Wengen. The train station was in Lauterbrunnen.
This was the girls riding on the luggage cart waiting for the train to come. They loved riding the train and the rides were absolutely beautiful with a view of the mountains. They were never longer than 20 minutes and you could pull the window all the way down and just hang your head out. We went through tunnels and past many waterfalls. One trip the girls counted 8.

train down off the Zugspitze

Our train rides:

• off the top of the Zugspitze (tallest peak in Germany)
  
• From Lauterbrunnen to Wengen
• From Munlichen to Wengen
• From Staubach Falls to Murren
  

This was a photo of us leaving our mountain top town of Wengen, it was a sad day. We had just had the best three days and leaving the mountain, the view and the chocolate was very sad. The girls hung their head out the windows the whole time down just watching the mountains.

Caroline sleeping on the train.
We always seemed to be smiling when our energetic Caroline was sleeping

{by sled}

One day in Germany we went Alpine Sledding. It was one of the girls favorite days. It was inexpensive, we had more rides then we had the energy for and the weather was incredible. In regards to the weather we said after the trip that we never had a day be affected by the weather - so lucky!

You can watch the minute and a half ride here.Getting ready to go to the top of the Zugspitze

{by Tram}

we took a few large high speed trams. I was so proud of myself for not freaking out! I think it helped on our first one when we were going to the top of the Zugspitze we went through a snow storm so I could not see down.

Sally Jane on the tram
Annie Kate eating the best gummy bears they gave us before we got on. We were never able to find that brand anywhere the rest of our trip.
Jeff and I became pretty good at hanging on to the ceiling straps while trying to keep the kids from falling out of the different trams. I started taking photos of all the different hangers above.
this was the ceiling of the tram we took from Ebsee down to the train, cool pink emergency ladder.



Here is us taking the tram down from Murren in Switzerland. It is fun to hear all the languages being spoken in the background. Even watching this gets me a little woozie.

{ by Bike }

One day in Garmish we rented bikes and rode through town and along the river. We told the girls this was our day off to just relax. Annie Kate never figured out how riding all over town was relaxing - I think she was think more day at the pool. We had a great time and even found a little part of the river that a place for the girls to throw rocks and play on the beach, that we would not have found if traveling by car.

my feet in France

{ by foot }

I tried to take a photo of my feet in every country. We did a lot of walking - I kind of wish we would have had one of us wear the Garmin to document how far we walked. Annie Kate did all of the walking too and she really did great. Barb made a comment on my blog as to this past year in D.C. prepared our kids for this adventure and I could not agree with her more, and I really
appreciate her pointing that out to me.

my feet relaxing in Switzerland

my feet in Salzburg

I think all this running these past few months really paid off as I never felt like I was too tired and my feet never hurt. I was able to go running the first week and get in 11 miles but week two was just too busy and I needed as much sleep as I could get to gear up for the next day.

{by bus}

We only took one bus on our whole trip. It was from the base of the Neuschwanstein Castle to the entrance.

I loved this photo of Sally Jane hanging on so we would not fall over on the crowded bus that was going up some windy roads.

We chose to walk down which was about a 30 minute walk. Sally Jane screamed the ENTIRE way down. Not just a crying scream but a "my leg is falling off scream". Since I still felt we were the only people in the entire country with kids - I had no one to give me the sympathy " been there done that" look. We were actually walking behind the horse and buggy that you could pay to take you down the hill and these poor people had to hear the hills come alive with Sally's Screams. One of the buggies stopped I think to let us go by so they didn't have to hear it anymore.

{by backpack}

Jeff never complained or let on that he was tired of carrying dead weight on his back. He is lucky he has dainty little daughtersI will second Emily G.'s comment that I had seen a lot of people in the airport with the Ergo carrier's and they were awesome!

this is a sample photo of a C5 plane that we flew on to get there.
It is a cargo plane they drive the cargo in at the bottom and have about 60 seats on top for passengers.

{ by Plane }

I had to save the best for last. The big unknown for us on this trip was if we were going to get there or not and if we did what day. We were so lucky to get on the first flights going and coming home. Our wait was not too long.

The plane ride home will forever be a unique part of our trip because we flew home with over 200 troops returning from Iraq. I wanted to take a million photos but it just didn't seem right. So I took one photo while we were standing in line in customs in the U.S. It was a military passenger plane they use to transport troops and they were nice enough to let us take 5 of the extra 39 seats.

It seemed very emotional to land and have the stewardess say "Welcome back to U.S. soil" She was awesome and each of them walked by to get off the plane she said, "Thank you for all you do" over and over again. I wanted to start a hugging line and hug them all!

When we walked into the regular part of the BWI airport there were about 50 people just standing there clapping as each group would walk through. When we walked through they stopped as we were in civilian clothes but after we walked out the clapping began as another group walked through.

As far as the plane ride with the kids - oh it was crazy. In the first hour Sally Jane spilled a cup or orange juice on me and then 20 minutes later peed through her diaper and it was all over me. and pouring diet coke in my kids sippy cup was a pretty low point too. The only thing that saved me is that I was wearing the only pants I brought on the trip that were water repellent. Thank goodness. Caroline used the bathroom 4 times - which always seemed to be a major event.The Guardian

We watched three movies as the ride was 9 hours. A Night at the Museum, The Guardian and Are we home yet? We felt lucky that they showed movies on the plane. They served two hot meals and passed around full size European candy bars that were incredible.

The kids had many crying fits and it was really hard and I felt bad for all the soldiers on the plane having to fly home to the ringing in their ears.

But take away the normal kid factor when flying I just gained a whole new respect for our country. I looked at each person on the plane and thought with each one is a family making banners and blowing up balloons excited for the arrival. I have anxiety of flying and I was totally calm thinking no way will this plane not make it home - there are so many praying for it to safely make it home.

I also added video in the post below at the Cathederal in Strassburg with the bells ringing while the girls were playing soccer at 10:00 pm at night.