Last bit of European traveling and then back to Texas!

Hey everyone! Well, we have six days left to be in The Netherlands and we're starting to freak out! Now we're down to the last of things: the last time we visit the beach, the last time we eat at our favorite restaurant, the last time we see our friends that we've made.........sniff, sniff....no, I'm not going to cry......wahhhhhhhhhhh!


Okay, now I feel a little better. Our summer here has been wonderful, and I am so glad we got to experience it! My sister visited under the wire and got to see how the other half lives, plus her anal retentive organizational skills got me started on packing for the move! Seriously, I'm so grateful to her for coming and helping us! Thanks sis!

After Aaron's job ended in July we realized that we still had a little time to travel and see some more of Europe. We decided on a combo trip: visit family friends in Solingen, Germany and drive down to Lech, Austria! Europeans go on holiday for weeks at a time; if we had stayed a little longer we might have got the hang of it. As it was, we crammed it all in in 10 days and even that felt long to us!

We have lived in The Netherlands for 2 years and survived without a car....GASP! How is this possible, you ask? Two words: public transportation. It's really wonderful, but a little limiting as you can only go where it goes. This vaca we had to rent a car. Okay, fine, but then we remembered that Germany has NO speed limit on the highways.......Suddenly people are passing us like we're standing still. Just to keep up we had to go WAY beyond our comfort level. Okay, MY comfort level. Good thing Aaron drove the whole time.
With the help of the GPS, we made it to Solingen and our friends, Sue and Scott, without a hitch. Well, we did turn a 2.5 hour drive into a 4 hour one with Miles in the backseat "Are we there yet?" every 5 minutes. I found myself turning into a cliche: "Don't make me come back there." "I'll turn this car around." Don't worry, everyone survived, mostly intact, except for my sanity. Miles isn't the only one who has to get used to car travel again!

We were graced with great weather and hiked around their town and visited a castle. At this point the weather may have reached 80 degrees. I melted into a little puddle. I am so screwed in Texas........After four lovely days with them and their dogs, Nico and Gio (Miles favorite part of the trip!), we ventured forth to drive to Austria. Obviously, the car is German's transportation of choice because they had rest stops every 20 feet and HUGE gas stations/hotels/restaurants every 20 miles or so. WOW, they know how to do it - there was even a pasta bar!

So we reach Austria (after 9 freakin' hours, thank you traffic an road work), and the weather has gone from bad to worse. And we're going up the Alps in the dark with rain and major FOG so much so that we can hardly see the road. At this point the baby wakes up and starts screaming. fun. So I'm leaning over her car seat breastfeeding in the back while telling Miles a story about Spiderman. Aaron is trying to wind our way up the mountain through tunnels built by hand in the middle ages. It's a good thing we can't see off the side of the road because then we'd be REALLY scared!
Miracle of Miracles, we make it to our destination! Lech is a little Alpine village that I guess is a major ski area in the winter, but is really beautiful and green in the summer too. Our apartment/hotel is really nice and The Sound of Music starts going through my head immediately! There are many hikes and even a heated pool in the middle of a forest, for crying out loud!



The only downside is that vegetarians, not so high on the list. I never ate so much pizza as when we were in Austria. oh well. If that's the only downside, I can live with it. :) That and driving on little roads with lots of blind corners in the mountains with little or no guardrails, a LITTLE nerve racking. We planned on day trips to Switzerland or even to the next town - didn't really get the courage to drive until the day we had to check out. Yes, we're wimps.

One more thing about the trip - don't trust the GPS. We chose Frankfurt as a good half-way point to stop on the way back. Apparently there are not one, but THREE Frankfurts in Germany. We picked the one in the middle of nowhere, population 27. Fun. You have reached your destination, my ass. Driving around in the German countryside was nice, but come on people! Plus, never chose a hotel facing a busy street if you want to sleep AT ALL. Chalk it up to experience.....:)

So now we're back in The Hague, selling/giving away all our stuff. I thought it would be harder to part with things but not so much. It helps that most of my clothes were about 10 years old on average. The bakfiets will be hard. But we sold it and the person is letting us use it until the very last day. Looking forward to seeing our family and friends.........and Mexican food! Yea!!!

See you soon!

Love
Nicole