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| Isn't she beautiful?! |
On December 10 at the crack of dawn my mother arrived in Germany! Her visit was a long time coming and highly anticipated from the moment she sent me her flight itinerary. We spent her first day here getting her settled, doing bunny introductions and shopping for all the necessities. We went to the Commissary at one point and the coolest thing happened. We ran into my Uncle Tommy and Aunt JoBeth! They were here visiting my cousins Doug and Medina (Doug is a Commander on base). But I thought my mother had lost her mind because it went a little something like this (keep in mind we're in Germany and they live in Texas):
(Making our way to the checkout)
Me: Okay I think we can do the self checkout
Mom: Oh....wait....hang on
Me: Did you forget someth....Mom???
Mom: I have to go say hi to my aunt and uncle real quick!
See what I mean?
Mom got to meet and experience our GPS. We have many names for this GPS, several of which I cannot post for family to read, and mom got to hear just about all of them haha! That thing keeps our lives very interesting and humorous on road trips.
Penny got VERY spoiled having my mother here! Every time we walked in the door Mom would walk over to her cage and let her out! It took a few days for Penny to not go hiding from her the whole time. Mom got a kick out of her spazzy jumps and sprints around the house....plus her obsession with the Christmas tree was entertaining. She made another attempt at jumping into the tree.
I wanted to make sure she had a chance to go to some Christmas markets so we started with a little one in K-Town. It was COLD! We would walk around for a few minutes and then find any store to walk into so we could take a break from the cold. I took mom to Hannenfaas which is where Chris and I like to enjoy a meter of beer in the summer! Introduced her to croquets which she freakin loved just as much as we do! Croquets are fried mashed potatoes. But they're done so perfectly. It's delicious but a very rare treat. Oh and this was also where Mom found out they sell sex toys in little vending machines in the bathrooms like they're feminine hygiene products or something haha. It shocked us the first time we saw it too.
We attempted to buy her some cigarettes from a little vending machine in our village. We were unsuccessful due to the fact that the machine only took euro coins and we had just used all of our coins to pay for parking.
The highlight of her visit was our trip to Koln (Cologne)! Chris and I had never been so it was a first time experience for all of us. We went with our friends Mark and Heather. It was definitely cold outside but not nearly as miserable as I thought it would be. I was also wearing a big furry hat, coat, tights, jeans, scarf and a couple shirts. I was very comfortable :)
Of course the main attraction of Cologne is the Kolner Dom - or the Cologne Cathedral. I have seen pictures of this cathedral but they could not have prepared me for the architecture which was in front of me. UNBELIEVABLE! The height, alone, blew my mind and the detail was immaculate. The cathedral took 632 years to complete. The construction started in 1248 and they stopped in 1473 and didn't resume until 1842. Its completion was celebrated August 14, 1880.
I feel like we could have spent all day in this church. So incredible. A good section of the floors were mosaics made up of pieces of rocks no larger than the tips of your fingernails. These are VERY detailed mosaics too. Seriously. Everything about this place amazed me. The stained glass windows were something else. Every one of them was just breath taking and told a story. This cathedral also contains The Shrine of The Three Kings. It is made of silver and bronze and is believed to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men. We did not get to see it very well because a lot of the cathedral floor was blocked off and this happened to fall pretty far behind the ropes. But even from a distance it was beautiful.
After the cathedral we explored the Christmas market and everyone enjoyed some Gluhwein....I did not. I hate Gluhwein haha It's like warm spiced wine and I'm not a fan of that. I did, however, enjoy multiple Starbucks treats! MMMMM!!!!
Oh and OF COURSE we went to The Hard Rock Cafe! Another one checked off our list :) This one was far more impressive than Paris so I was satisfied. Our waitress was pretty awful though. They were not busy at all when we came in and we had to hunt her down every time for any kind of service. Mom and I had a good time singing along to the music videos.
We spent the last days of Moms visit wrapping presents and relaxing together. It was so awesome to just get to lounge around with her again and enjoy tasty wines while bunny terrorized our presents. She even let us open a present early! I definitely miss her and hope she is able to visit again before we PCS. Hopefully my Dad and Brother can join her!
Penny got VERY spoiled having my mother here! Every time we walked in the door Mom would walk over to her cage and let her out! It took a few days for Penny to not go hiding from her the whole time. Mom got a kick out of her spazzy jumps and sprints around the house....plus her obsession with the Christmas tree was entertaining. She made another attempt at jumping into the tree.
I wanted to make sure she had a chance to go to some Christmas markets so we started with a little one in K-Town. It was COLD! We would walk around for a few minutes and then find any store to walk into so we could take a break from the cold. I took mom to Hannenfaas which is where Chris and I like to enjoy a meter of beer in the summer! Introduced her to croquets which she freakin loved just as much as we do! Croquets are fried mashed potatoes. But they're done so perfectly. It's delicious but a very rare treat. Oh and this was also where Mom found out they sell sex toys in little vending machines in the bathrooms like they're feminine hygiene products or something haha. It shocked us the first time we saw it too.
We attempted to buy her some cigarettes from a little vending machine in our village. We were unsuccessful due to the fact that the machine only took euro coins and we had just used all of our coins to pay for parking.
The highlight of her visit was our trip to Koln (Cologne)! Chris and I had never been so it was a first time experience for all of us. We went with our friends Mark and Heather. It was definitely cold outside but not nearly as miserable as I thought it would be. I was also wearing a big furry hat, coat, tights, jeans, scarf and a couple shirts. I was very comfortable :)
Of course the main attraction of Cologne is the Kolner Dom - or the Cologne Cathedral. I have seen pictures of this cathedral but they could not have prepared me for the architecture which was in front of me. UNBELIEVABLE! The height, alone, blew my mind and the detail was immaculate. The cathedral took 632 years to complete. The construction started in 1248 and they stopped in 1473 and didn't resume until 1842. Its completion was celebrated August 14, 1880.
I feel like we could have spent all day in this church. So incredible. A good section of the floors were mosaics made up of pieces of rocks no larger than the tips of your fingernails. These are VERY detailed mosaics too. Seriously. Everything about this place amazed me. The stained glass windows were something else. Every one of them was just breath taking and told a story. This cathedral also contains The Shrine of The Three Kings. It is made of silver and bronze and is believed to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men. We did not get to see it very well because a lot of the cathedral floor was blocked off and this happened to fall pretty far behind the ropes. But even from a distance it was beautiful.
Oh and OF COURSE we went to The Hard Rock Cafe! Another one checked off our list :) This one was far more impressive than Paris so I was satisfied. Our waitress was pretty awful though. They were not busy at all when we came in and we had to hunt her down every time for any kind of service. Mom and I had a good time singing along to the music videos.
We spent the last days of Moms visit wrapping presents and relaxing together. It was so awesome to just get to lounge around with her again and enjoy tasty wines while bunny terrorized our presents. She even let us open a present early! I definitely miss her and hope she is able to visit again before we PCS. Hopefully my Dad and Brother can join her!
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