We're back! Sorry it has been so long. We have arrived in Germany and have been relaxing at Teresa's. I believe Florence was our last blog. We spent that Monday morning by the pool, and headed into town in the afternoon. We saw the Pitti Palace and gardens, which were much more interesting than we thought they would be. We got to see a Pompeii garden recreated, quite the contrast from the ruins we'd seen the week before. We ate at a restaurant where we had our fill of spaghetti (but more like goulash because it didn't have a tomato sauce.) We got on our night-train about 9:30 pm and slept in couchette bunks. It was only us in the little compartment until a fat guy came in and snored it up all night. We pulled into Munich at 6:30am and boarded the train to Hamburg. Max has a youth pass, which is cheaper, but is second class. We enjoyed our space from one another and I got to sit in first class. We found Teresa finally in Hamburg after some searching, and then had a Chinese buffet for lunch.

Since then, we've been lounging about Teresa's, getting pampered. We've had the kickass German breakfast (boiled eggs...not Max's favorite, but mine, as well as rolls, meats, cheeses, jam, and juice or milk) and have stayed very busy when we weren't sleeping in. Teresa has taken these couple weeks off, and we're relieved to let somebody else do the planning. Although, Max has been driving a bit to get used to the roads round here. There are some different laws about traffic, and certainly a world apart from the Athens driving experience. Teresa got all ticked off when Max drove on the sidewalk. But seriously, we can't even jaywalk here. Tuesday night we did some walking around in Buxtehude and got ice cream. Wednesday morning we did some shopping and both got new shoes...much needed. We took one of Teresa's friends to the airport, then took a ferry from outside Hamburg into the downtown. It absolutely poured and it was my fault because I'd wished for rain. We had authentic German food and a good time despite the weather.

Thursday we went to Kiel for Kielen Woche. (A yearly festival in a pretty big city...I'd imagine it to be like Freedom Festival in Cedar Rapids.) We walked around (in the rain...again, sorry,) and saw several bands and ate a variety of foods from around the world. This morning Max and I were treated to massages that Teresa set up for us at the local massage-therapy place. We did some grocery shopping and drove to the Wild Animal Park. I was imagining a petting zoo, but this turned out to be this huge wildlife center where you can feed the semi-domesticated wild animals. We saw pot-bellied pigs, goats and sheep from around the world, peacocks, ducks, other fowl, wolves, deer (that ate from our hands,) and Max claims to have seen the image of Jesus in a potato chip. Just kidding, we didn't have potato chips. We went with Anye and her two sons, Daniel and Julien. They had a good time, and I'm sure they'll sleep as well as we will tonight.

Tomorrow we hit the Schutzenfest (the annual party for the local shooting club) for a couple nights/days of liver exercise. That should do in that feeling of restedness I've worked so hard to achieve this week. We're happy to be in an internet cafe, updating for our loyal followers, all 5 of you, and hopefully can get some photos uploaded.

Auf Wiedersehen!