July 23 – August 1, 2014
Just 2 days after we returned from the Celebrity Golf tournament in Tahoe, we were off to visit Peter & Kaija in Germany. After Germany we went to the Dominican Republic for 10 nights. We took 675 pictures, tossed 235 bad shots, and kept 440. Needless to say it was very hard to select a few to show you because I didn’t want to bore you with everything!
We got off to a really bad start in Sacramento so I started documenting everything during our 3 week trip and here are the crazy stats from Sacramento/SFO/Germany/Montreal/D.R./Miami/Dallas/SAC
* 2 1/2 hour flight delay out of SAC to SFO
* Missed SFO connecting flight to Germany, another 5 hour delay
* 8 hour flight from Germany to Montreal (our layover to the D.R.)
* 4 1/2 hour flight from Montreal to the D.R.
* Shuttle pick up @ 3:45am from D.R. resort
* 2 1/2 hour flight to Miami + 2 1/2 hour layover
* 3 hour flight to Dallas + 2 hour layover
* 3 1/2 hour flight to SAC
*TOTAL airport & shuttle wait time = 21 hours
*TOTAL flying time = 33 hours
No wonder we needed another vacation when we got home… LOL!! But it was all worth it because we had a blast.
Although we thought we were going to miss the SFO connecting flight to Germany, we heard that the connecting flight was also delayed by 2+ hours so we might still make it! Once we arrived in SFO and running through the airport like idiots (with all the other people that were supposed to be on that flight) and literally working up a sweat to catch the connecting flight… we sadly stood in the airport as we watched it leave the gate… we literally missed it by a couple of minutes. All of us were then scrambling to get the next flight to Germany. After a very long wait at the counter to accomplish this, we were able to get booked on another flight 5 hours later.
We didn’t have international phone coverage so our kids had to make the call for us to Peter & Kaija and tell them that we missed our flight and we would be arriving at 3pm instead of 10am. Since Germany is 9 hours ahead of us, they had to call them very late at night to tell them and they woke them up! Since it’s a 2 hour drive from their house to Frankfurt and considering the time difference, it was a necessary call for sure.
* We had a very long 11 hour flight to Frankfurt in coach, which neither of us slept. Needless to say we were exhausted.
We had a wonderful reunion with the Schnell’s our first night. We had a nice dinner, good wine, went for a walk, and actually stayed up until 10:30PM!! The next day we planned to go into the city of Cologne for some sight seeing. Kaija had to wake us up from a sound sleep at 10AM!! We could not believe we slept that long, but understandably so considering we didn’t have any sleep for more than a day.
The Cologne Cathedral is HUGE and they are doing a major renovation to restore the outside. It has become very discolored over the many years it’s been there; you can see the before and after in the next photo.
Peter & I climbed up the 533 steps (328 feet) to the top. We were rewarded with a grand view of the city and the Rhine River. It was well worth the time and effort to do this.
Once at the top we were able to view the bells that ring every hour and they are really loud! Thank goodness they did not ring when we were up there.
The inside of the Cathedral is huge and has many stained glass windows, alters & crypts.
These are huge organ pipes. 
We stopped and had a beer at the well known and popular Fruh Brewery in downtown Cologne. When you are finished with your beer and don’t want any more, you must put your coaster over your beer or you will automatically get another beer poured and you have to drink/pay for it whether you want it or not. It was very interesting to see people putting coasters over their glasses.
Relaxing in the Schnell’s yard
This is “LOVE LOCKS” on the Hohenzollern Bridge on the Rhine River in Cologne. It’s considered one of Cologne’s most charming traditions. A proof of their love, couples fix padlocks to the railings to ensure everlasting love, they then throw the key into the Rhine River below.
Tens of thousands of couples have sworn their loyalty to one another in this way. Along with padlocks in all colors and shapes, there are also combination padlocks and bicycle chains on the bridge. Many have been elaborately designed, often engraved, painted, or decorated with home-made stuff. 
The experts estimate that the padlocks weight over 2 tons. It is really something to see!! 
Our 2nd full day we made an overnight trip, took a river cruise down the Rhine, had lunch along the river, went wine tasting, and finished up with a really fun dinner at a restaurant.
Here we are on the boat with Peter’s Nephew, Thomas and his girlfriend Chris. Thomas had been to our house a few years ago (when Peter & Kaija were living in CA) and it was great to see him again.
There were many castles to see along the river and the scenery was beautiful. You can see grapes growing on many of the hillsides for the vast amount of wineries in the area. 
After the cruise we had lunch in a little town along the river. 
This was a huge coo-coo clock outside of a store and I took this picture for my Auntie Jean. My Uncle Jim had a coo-coo clock in their house and when my nephew was little he just loved that coo-coo clock… so this one’s for you Auntie Jean & Uncle Jim! XOXOX
After our morning river adventure we were ready for our next super adventure… wine tasting at the Schnell Winery (no relation to Peter & Kaija Schnell). Peter & Kaija are good friends with this winemaker and he showed us a fantastic time! Reiner (the vintner) and his wife Sigrun greeted us with lots of champagne and a nice tray of munchies. He then gave us a tour of how the grapes are processed and the other stages of wine making. Of course he was speaking in German and Hank & I were the only people who didn’t speak German, so Peter graciously translated for us. 
What followed after that was something out of this world… certainly the best wine tour we’ve ever had and will never be matched. Reiner pulled up in this tractor which was attached to a wagon. It had long benches on each side with a table in the middle.
The 8 of us guests climbed in as the 9 bottles of wine were loaded for the TASTING… a bottle + each, really? 
Reiner and Sigrun proceeded to provide us with just a few hors d'oeuvres. Are you kidding… this is more like a feast!! 
You can get an idea from this video of the awesome experience we had. The tour lasted 1 1/2 – 2 hours… it was so cool.
We kept climbing up the hills until we reached the top, where the view was spectacular. At that time Reiner supplied additional history of the winery. We also drank pure fresh spring water from the ground. 
This video shows how much wine was being poured for wine “tasting”. No wonder we were all feeling no pain.
OOPS, guess someone had a little too much “tasting”… 
…and this proves it!!! Grapes leaves as earrings?? LOL 
As if we didn’t have enough at the winery, we went out to dinner and kept on drinking. Thank goodness Peter was our designated driver. 
This is Horst, which is Thomas’ Father and Peter’s brother. 
In this video we were so “happy” at dinner and it didn’t end there. After dinner we proceeded to Thomas’ parents house for some schnapps. These people are party animals for sure!
We spent the night at the Kauzenburg Hotel; Kauzen means owls and Burg means castle. Next to the hotel is the Kauzenburg Castle which was built in the early 13th century and it has several owls on the property carved out of wood. We toured the castle and saw lots of armor.
We went into the vaulted cellar where they hold “Rittermahl” which are dinners in the style of the late Middle Ages . They serve a 7-course meal and the custom is to eat with your fingers and a dagger. For the 3 1/2 hour entertainment they have a lord, damsels, and a medieval singer or musician. 
After touring the castle we went to a town called Bad Kreuznach and visited “Salinental Spa Park”. It’s a collection of graduation towers or Salt Walls. In 1817 a doctor discovered the medicinal properties of the salt springs. Salt water for both inhalation and bathing has remained an important remedy, above all for rheumatic diseases, asthma and skin conditions. In the photo below you can see the swimming pool and the long Salt Walls.
The walls spray a fine salt mist into the surrounding areas, and the small droplets are breathed deep into the bronchial tubes to relax and strengthen your immune system. Salt water trickles down these structures which form Europe’s largest open-air inhalatorium. Patients come from all over to heal themselves at this spa.
The town of Bad Kreuznach and other surrounding towns have spa healing hotels and apartments. There you will find mini salt walls as well as other structures that provide the salt mist. The surrounding towns want to earn the “Bad” name in front of their town. “Bad” is understood as bath & healing… so “Bad” is a good thing! We finished up the day by taking a long walk along the river in the spa healing town.
The next day we toured the Schloss Burg Castle in the town of Solingen. This town is known around the world for it’s high quality cutlery. The castle was built in the beginning of the 12th century. Peter & Kaija hired an English speaking tour guide and she was awesome. The history behind this castle is amazing! Over the centuries it was owned by many family members and it was abandoned, destroyed in battle, destroyed by fire, became a ruin, and it was reconstructed many times in between these events.
This is Count Engelbert II and he was a very powerful man, Archbishop and Count, Advisor and Chief Administrator, and
Guardian and Tutor to the later king. 
There were many murals on the walls and each of them told a story. 
The armor was amazing to see and know that they actually wore this super heavy gear for protection. It was very interesting to see how the armor designs changed over the years. 
This box of “stuff” is actually for little kids to play with but we had to get in on the action. 
Needless to say we walked a lot around and in this castle. There were many steep and narrow stairways like this one. 
This is a baby bottle and they warmed the milk (I guess) by putting hot water in the metal container. 
This is very interesting on how people went to the bathroom back then. This is a small bench at the top of the castle. People sat on this bench to go and just let the waste flow over the edge to the bottom… can you imagine?!?!?! I guess this was a big deterrent during battle when the enemy was trying to get in the castle. 
More adventures the next day touring Old Town Cologne and the Documentation Center for the National Socialism at the EL-DE Building and we ended the day having dinner at a friends house, Martin.
EL-DE Building: This self guided tour was so interesting and we spent almost 3 hours there. It’s the largest regional memorial site in all of Germany and is dedicated to the victims of the Nazi regime. It is filled with photos, newspaper clipping, engraved messages on the prison walls, and much more.
These messages are so powerful… if you want to read them close up, just click on any picture to enlarge it. Of course they are in German, but the English translation is next to it.
There were many people like these arrested for no reason, but the Nazi’s found a reason and arrested them. They all had a story to tell which is documented in the museum. 
This is “Old Town” Cologne with quaint little streets and beautiful old buildings along the Rhine River. This is City Hall where Peter & Kaija got married. 
Martin is friends with the Schnell’s and he graciously invited us over his house for dinner. We had a lovely evening getting to know him and enjoyed his wonderful hospitality. 
For dessert he treated us with ice cream from the local shop. 
This is how they wrapped up our ice cream for the trip home. 
Of course what would ice cream be without schnapps?
Here are some miscellaneous pictures during our trip.
These HUGE water bottles are normal in households because no one drinks tap water. I personally drank a ton of these because I drink a lot of water anyway. Even when you go to a restaurant you will get bottled water.
We enjoyed a great American & German breakfast with Martin and his son Helge. Martin is a doctor and Helge works for the police department. 
A traditional German breakfast consists of assorted cold cuts, cheese, various breads, and something sweet such as jam or a sweet roll. 
This is a hysterical story… but not one that Kaija is happy about at all. Peter was outside BBQ’ing and Hank, Kaija, and I were in the kitchen preparing dinner. Hank looked out the window to see Peter stomping on an oven mitt that he had caught on fire. We had a good laugh at the time. It wasn’t 5 minutes later and we again saw Peter stomping on the mitt!! We are now in stitches because we are laughing so hard.
Well come to find out the oven mitts were a gift to Kaija from her sister who lives in Finland, so they were very special to Kaija. 
Needless to say from the look on Kaija’s face that Peter was in big time trouble and she was NOT happy. Of course Hank & I were still laughing under our breath because it was so darn funny. We’re just sorry we didn’t have the video camera going when Peter was stomping on the mitt and us laughing in the background. 
This is a beautiful cemetery close to their house. It was so pretty& peaceful, I wanted to take a picture of it. 
We went out to a really nice dinner towards the end of our trip. 
This was Peter’s bathtub when he was a baby. Kaija put it to good use by painting it and putting plants in it. 
There are some unusual things (or should I say different) that we saw in Germany, so here are just a few of them. I’ll start with the street signs. Again, just click on the photo if you want to see it close up.
Caution, something on street is not usual
Don’t forget, don’t drive faster than you can walk 
Main street has right of way, cross street must yield 
No parking on street except where designated 
No passing any other vehicle 
Vehicles over 3.5 tons cannot pass another vehicle 
Snow, vehicles up to 30 tons, dead end 
Uncomfortable & unusual chair at butcher shop. No foot rest, your feet just hang, back rest & seat are a roll. 
Condom machine on the street 
The various condoms you can buy 
This is how Peter & Kaija make their ice, in a portable machine they put on their counter when they need ice. You pour a designated amount of water in the unit and press a button. You do this a few times until the bucket fills up, then you put it in a bag in the freezer. This process takes a long time! We had lots of drinks while we were there so that ice machine was a work horse! 
Flush for the toilet, no handle 
I saved the best for last! This is a sink in the Men's room in the brewery we visited. The purpose is that a drunk person who feels really sick doesn’t have to kneel down in front of a toilet. Here you can maintain a standing position, grab the hand rails and puke into the sink. If you aim correctly your clothes hopefully stay dry and you don't have to sit or kneel on the floor. A great German invention for totally shit faced people. The silver thing in the middle is a metal plate with an automatic flush and a blurred mirror to avoid being scared too much!! LOL 
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