We Arrived in Germany!

Monday’s Blog. There may be several blogs created at one time due to the hotel having internet issues which is hopefully fixed now.


We Arrived! We got into Frankfurt, Germany around 5:50am on Monday which is 11:50 EST AND 10:50 central. The travel day went will with no exciting events. We flew from KC to Chicago then to Frankfurt. The flight was pretty bumpy at times but we safely landed at our destination. At one time the Flight Attendants stopped passing out drinks and sat down due to the bumpiness. The beverage cart was beside Larry in the isle and it was wobbling pretty darn fast. All in all, it was not too bad and we landed so that’s always a plus. We went to the ‘luggage merry-go-round’ and began to wonder about our luggage. The luggage stopped dropping onto the luggage belt which is never a good sign when you are still standing without your luggage at the beginning of an 18 day trip. Larry went to check on the luggage status and there had been a delay in unloading the plane and our luggage should be on its way. All of a sudden, there it was! We were doing the happy dance! Then we were off to get our rental car. Well, they did not have the car we were supposed to get so they “upgraded” us to a slightly larger car. Larger! Ha! If you have ever been to Europe you know that a “large” car is what we in the states would barely call a midsize. Our luggage barely fit in the car but none the less, it did. We set out for Weiden (Vi-Den). So we had an hour flight from KC to Chicago….had a 1 hr 45 min lay over…then the just under 9 hr flight to Germany….then we get into our rental and drive approx 3hr to our hotel. Keep in mind that Larry was not feeling well at all and I was calling him “Grumpy”. For Larry, even Grumpy is not too bad. I too was not feeling 100% and was miserable. So put the feeling bad, tired, jet lag and add hungry to it and what do you get? “Miserable and Grumpy go to Germany”. All joking aside, we are so glad to be in Germany and to have arrived safely. Most of all, we are together and not apart like we are so often.

We have stayed in this hotel before. It is a typical German hotel. German hotels have small rooms with little space for luggage. This particular room is nice but smaller than the one we had last time. Oh my, it’s so small; we have to go in the hall to change our minds. Don’t even get me started on not having enough room for my shoes! Well, like I said earlier, we are together and that’s what matters. In Germany there are no King or Queen beds…they are all ‘singles’ (twin beds). If you get a room that is a ‘double’ that means there is a wood frame box with 2 singles/twin mattresses in the box to make a queen. One of my favorite things is the covers on the bed. They are always down comforters and there is one per twin bed. So Larry and I have our own covers. I know, a little odd to us Americans but at least Larry don’t hog all the covers like he normally does!

Once we got to the hotel, got luggage unloaded, walked to get a pretzel and took our nap it was time for dinner. I didn’t bring my hair dryer and had Larry go to the front desk to get one that already had a German plug. I plugged it in and immediately smelled something burning. The dryer was smoking within seconds! Our room stunk! So here we are, been checked in a few hours and on the verge of burning the place down! I jerked it out of the plug and sent him for another one. The second dryer worked fine, no issues. The next event was my straightening iron. I just bought a CHI (those of you who know what a CHI is are also very well aware that they are NOT cheap) I asked my dear husband if it would work with our transformer. He said it would be, “No Problem”. Ok ladies, how scared are you when you hear those words come out of your husbands mouth?!? Well, I got concerned. I reminded him that I just bought it and reminded him of what I (he) paid for it….he again assured me it would be fine. It’s time to use the straightener….I ask him to make SURE that I have the corrects plugs I need. He found a problem and began to rig it to work. I once again reminded him of the cost of this device. Finally, it was ready to use. I turned it on and it got HOT very FAST. How hot do you ask? So hot that it burned my air and make my hair smoke! I quickly unplugged it from the wall and today I went to the PX and bought a cheap one to use here. I don’t want to burn my hair up AND my straightener.


We ate at the hotel for dinner our first night. Here eating at a hotel is not like in the states. Most of the time hotel food is not great but in Germany it’s the total opposite. The hotels are run by the owners and their families. All the children and their spouses work in the hotel. The meals are typical German meals and are SO good there is no way to describe. They give you so much food that Larry and I share most of the time and we are still stuffed.

I said in another blog that I would update you on the value of the Euro (€) vs. the American dollar. Well, like I said, it’s not good! For example; I went to have the money changed to Euro and I gave $160 and got back €64,50. I went again and gave $65.30 and got €40. Ok, where I come from, that’s not good! The rate changes slightly depending on where you get it converted at. So if you are not following along well let me paint you a picture…we don’t spend this much on dinner here but for example….if we go to dinner and it is 40€ then it really cost us $65.30. Yep, quiet a difference. Don’t look like I’ll be bringing back a lot of gifts this time. Every time we come it is a little worse.

Enough for now. I will try to update the blog daily. A lot of people have emailed me saying they will be watching the blog to keep up with us so I’ll do my best to stay on top of things.


Hugs from Germany!
Kim