My parents arrived in Germany yesterday, so today I tooke them to the pedestrian zone in Wiesbaden for lunch. We at traditional german food and had the best dessert of my life! The waitress called it a pancake (appfelflannkuchen?) and it had and apple and custard filling, with ice cream and whip cream on top. If Ben and I ever get date night again we'll have to go back there just to get the dessert.After lunch we stopped in the Market Church. The main chu...

First and foremost, traveling with ankle-biters can be horrible, but you have to do it anyway. So, in an attempt to make things a little more enjoyable (or to just let you know what you're in for), here are the top 10 things we've learned about traveling with a toddler and preschooler in 2012:10.) Research everything before you go. Read about the sights you will be seeing and plan out which hotel and restaurant you will be eating at.   Asking your hote...

We drove up to Dresden this weekend to enjoy the Christmas Market and the beautiful baroque buildings. Dresden was referred to as the Florence of the Elbe before WWII. The city was firebombed on February 13th, 1945, where somewhere between 25,00-35,000 people died. Over 75% of the city was left in rubble. The old town is now filled with new or restored buildings and the Neutown, on the other side of the river, has some of the oldest buildings. Dresden ended up on...

The Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche) has been and still is the pride of Dresden. It was originally built completely by the citizens with local donations.  It was the tallest Protestant church when it was completed in 1743. The day after the firebombings in WWII, the people came out to the square to witness the church still standing, but smoldering with fire. It burned for two days before it fell in on itself. It was left as a pile of rubble as a reminder o...

You can see St. Martin's Cathedral from across the river. The towers rise above all of the white and half timbered buildings in the market square. The cathedral advertises that is 1,000 years old. While it is true that the original cathedral was begun in 975 AD, it has been burned and rebuilt several times since then. Most of the cathedral that we see now is from the 13th and 14th centuries (which is still quite old in American terms! We had this discuss...