writing on the sand next to the river in Garmisch Germany

Here is my attempt to start a series of posts summarizing our amazing trip of a lifetime to Europe this summer.


Ramstein Germany Air Force Base

the plane in the back is a C5 which is what we flew on.

I guess I should start at the beginning, how and why this was even possible for our family. Never did I ever even dream I would take a trip like this in my lifetime, which was maybe a blessing because I had so little expectations that every discovery seemed like such a gift for our family.
Because my husband is active duty in the Army we were able to fly "Space Available" on military flights going over to Europe. The cost is free, but you have to be really flexible to as what time and date you will travel. In May we came up with the idea of trying to do this, but still never really thought it would happen - in case we couldn't get a flight. Thus why I never blogged about it, because it still kind of seemed like a dream. The fact we live on the East coast also was a blessing as we probably would not have done this if we had to fly commercial to even get to the free flight.

me holding up the passports as we drove across the border from Austria to Italy

We turned in our passport applications for me and the girls exactly 2 months before we were hoping to leave. Luckily we got them in only 5 weeks. This was another huge blessing.

Because Jeff's practice is associated with the military being able to take two weeks off in a row was possible and he had ample help to cover his patients. This would have been a little tricky for him after his first year of private practice, so again another blessing and even more reason why I need to write my bishop a thank you note for his incredible wisdom given to be a year before, "Don't be fooled into thinking your life is not turning out just the way you want it to".

me at the welcome sign at Edelweiss the military resort in Garmisch, Germany,
and please don't ask me if I am pregnant because i am not even though this shirt and photo totally makes me look like I am.

Another huge blessing is how much the military offers while we were over there. We stayed in 4 different hotels across our journey and two were associated with the military. One was an incredible resort for only about $100 dollars a night and the other was a mini apartment with a full kitchen for $48 a night (this was our kids favorite hotel) This also is what made this so much more doable for us. Our rental car was a great deal too, because we were able to rent if off the military base. We missed the boat on getting gas tickets to use throughout the different countries and this would have really helped considering gas was about $5.00 a gallon... yikes!.

If you are active duty military I can't say enough about how worth it is looking into traveling abroad.The girls in Germany dragging their "soupies" along the river bank

We went to 6 countries.

• Germany
• Austria
• Lichtenstein
• Italy
• France
• Switzerland

We had planned to go to three, so again it was a bonus to discover more then we expected.me in Strasbourg, France. Pulling in at 8:00 pm after driving all day not knowing that the next 24 hours would be some of the most memorable.

The major cities we went to in order were:

1. Garmisch, Germany
2. Oberammergau, Germany
   
3. Innsbruck, Austria
4. Brixen, Italy
5. Salzburg, Austria
6. Munich, Germany
7. Vaduz, Lichtenstein
8. Wengen, Switzerland
9. Interlocken, Switzerland
10. Strasbourg, France
11. Ramstein, Germany

I have really struggled with how to document our trip for our memories as well as to share our experiences with others. I feel like I am trying to eat an elephant and have to just keep taking one bite off at a time. I was talking to Jill yesterday asking her if I could borrow her questions asked to her about her Paris trip as an outline to document ours, she gracefully agreed. I printed them out but they seemed to be so personal to her trip. So I have come up with my own outline for myself to take it day by day to try not to miss anything.

1. Where we rested our heads
   
2. What the travel was like (the airline experience added so much to our trip. We flew home with over 200 military troops coming home from Iraq - can you even imagine the emotion as we landed on US soil? and yes - I was teary)
3. What filled our tummies
   
4. What I bought or wish I had
5. Some of my favorite finds with websites so you can see them too!
6. The castles
7. The churches
8. Our vacation from our vacation - Switzerland
9. What I loved about Europe and what I learned to appreciate about the United States.
10. The one bad thing that happened on our trip
11. What we would have done different
    
12. How I have changed because of this trip
13. How our family has changed from this trip
14. our tips and tricks for traveling with kids and would we take them next time- for Marla
    
15. Where we want to go next. We only have three years left of Uncle Sam's Airline discount and want to make the most of it.

Caroline and I eating Pizza in Switzerland, with the Jungfrau in the distance

So, I shall begin my list. If there is anything else you are interested in or think I might be missing feel free to add it in my comments.