That title makes it sound like I’m about to blog about V, blech. Sorry. I watched that show for about 6 episodes and gave up. This post is not about those visitors but rather the visitors of the family and friend type. As we wrap up our visit with what is probably our last set of visitors for 2010, it hit me just how many people have come to visit us during the past 12 months: my parents and Andrew; Morgan & Audrey (friends); John’s dad , step-mom, sisters and brother; Jacoline & Jeroen (friends); and John’s mom and step-dad. Wow! I feel so blessed that we have had visits from family and friends on an average of just over every other month. If you add in our visit to the States in April as well as our trip next month, we really have seen family and friends every other month. That’s made this past year fly by, and I’m sitting here flabbergasted by the thought that we only have 8 and a half months here until we close this chapter in our lives and start a new one in Texas.
For a long time, I thought that when the time came for us to move, I would not want to leave. However, when I think ahead to 8 months from now, I know that I’m ready to move forward and start something new. The transition will be far from easy, but in 8 months, I will have had enough of our 3-4 year long European adventure. I’m ready to be a Texan again.
So…back to our last visitors of the year. John’s mom and Marcus arrived last Thursday, and on Friday morning we drove to Engelberg, Switzerland with a stop in Ulm, Germany. We stayed in a self catering apartment up on the mountain called Alphaven. The views were great, but I will always be partial to the Lauterbrunnen valley and our camping trips there.
During our 4-day trip, we explored Luzern, Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald, Interlaken (just for dinner) and a little tour through Engelberg. John’s parents left early on Monday morning to catch their train to Lake Como in Italy, while John took our time packing up. We left Alphaven around 10 AM and decided to stop of the monastery in town where they make cheese. We stayed for nearly an hour, watching the cheesemaker go through the whole process. He was making organic brie on the day we visited. We also ended up getting some pineapple cream cheese to take home for ourselves, and we’re still enjoying that delicious treat!
We were glad to get back home to see Béni – he couldn’t come with us this time, because the apartment didn’t allow pets – and it was great to sleep in our own bed. We have spent the rest of this week recovering from lost sleep. We even slept 9.5 hours on Tuesday night. Now that’s some champion sleeping!
John’s parents are in Paris now and will be back in Heidelberg tomorrow afternoon. We will spend the weekend showing them around town, and they will head back to the States on Monday. I’m looking forward to showing them our day to day lives and going to some of our favorite local restaurants. Schnitzel und Kartoffeln, anyone?
How fun! I wish we could go visit before you come back to the states!
So do we!! Whenever you do get the chance to take a European vacation, though, we’d love to share our tips. Living here for so long has left us with a wealth of travel advice.