Deutschland

December 28th, 2011 at approximately 3:30 pm the journey we had been counting down for months was finally a reality. We arrived at the airport in Atlanta only to immediately jump into chaos. There were about 45 of us traveling together. Imagine you, your family, about to go out of the country, and the busiest airport in the world. Multiply everything you're imagining by...well...45.

This was mine and Andrew's first ever flight out of the country. And first ever flight that would be more than 5 hours long. (Our flights for our honeymoon were right at 5 hours and absolutely miserable!) I was only anticipating how little sleep I would get, how uncomfortable I would be, and how bad the airplane meals would be.

And well....

All were just as I anticipated! On our 8 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany, I got a grand total of 1 hour of sleep. This view was so beautiful I almost forgot how tired and crabby I was...

Sun rising over Europe

However, I didn't forget. We landed in Frankfurt at 2:30 in the morning EST and 9:30 in the morning there. (Shortest night of my life!) Despite being so tired and uncomfortable, I was very eager to get to visit Germany. Never had I been in an area where English is no where to be found. (Which we felt a little on the plane considering it was a German airline.)

But luckily we had a wonderful lady to show us around the sights and translate for us. 

saw many beautiful old churches

inside one of the many we visited

I know this is going to sound really silly, but the one thing that finally hit me was how old and how much history Europe has. Old in America is 1800's. Old in Germany was 1200's. Crazy difference! This was my first time seeing buildings built before America was even around. (Okay so it's obvious I don't get out much.)

And by so much history, I mean we stood in the square where the Nazis are famous for marching. 

standing in the square

a shot looking down at the square

a picture of the Nazi soldiers in the same place

See the banners with the swastikas draped down the walls of that church? I took the picture (looking down at the square) from the roof of that church near the bell tower on the left side of the building and fixed in the middle of the picture. Crazy! My feet stood where amazing history took place. My next goal...to have my feet stand where Jesus once stood. One of these days. 

We couldn't come to Germany and not get some traditional German cuisine. 

where we ate lunch

we were given platters for everyone to share

the damage

the end result

The group was so exhausted. We just had the shortest night of sleep in our life, which most of us got no sleep, then walked around Germany all morning. We were zonked! 

So after a few more of the sites.....

visited the holocaust memorial for all those that lost their lives from frankfurt.
anne frank was one of them.

inspiration for the whomping willow in harry potter...
i think so!

the bridge where couples "lock their love" then through the key
into the river. if i had known we'd be there i would have
come prepared!

We all passed out at the airport as we waited for our 10 hour overnight flight to Africa. Sorry, I think our group gave another reason for the Europeans to hate Americans. We didn't move for anyone. 

Andrew and I would love to go back to Germany sometime. Both my mom and his mom's heritage is German. Supposedly the castle called the Linderhof Palace was once in my family. I'd love to go see it.