Over the hill and through the woods to Petra’s house we go

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The flight attendant wakes me up…. Wow, I slept pretty good for being on an eight-hour flight over the pond.

“Vould Ues likes some breakfast Mr Wagan?”. Yes, please as I’m put my hearing aids on.

I’m served a great breakfast and no sooner than they take it away, we’re on the ground taxiing to our gate. Kirsten and Omi breeze through passport control, then it’s my turn. It seems I always get the 3^rd degree when entering Europe. I finally point to Kirsten and the inspector laughs Yah, Yah.

Normally we go straight to get our rental car. However, this time is different, Kirsten and Omi’s bags had to be checked in Orlando due to no overhead room on the flight from Orlando. Finally, the bags come out we make our way to the car rental.

We get our car and now we have to find it. It a RED Ford Focus. Brian would be so happy.

Like every vacation we name our car. And yes, it’s Rudolf.

No sooner than we have the bags loaded and the doors click shut Kirsten has Rudolf into a break neck turn exiting the garage. I lean over and whisper, OMI is in the back seat, oh yea I guess I should take it easy.

Off we go to Petra and Eberhard’s house in Fulda. Over the hill and through the woods to Petra’s house we go. Yea, you get it.

About half way there we go over a small mountain and Kirsten see’s the first snow. Kirsten was so excited I think I saw a twinkle in her eye.

We arrive, Petra is so happy to see Omi. Lots of hugging and German being spoken. Me, I just lay back, looking for the bathroom. Yea, I gotta go, like now!!!

We stay with Petra, Kirsten and I get to stay in their neat attic. Like really nicely finished, very rustic with skylights.

I take my normal nap, by the way It's way overdue.

After my nap, we’re all up and we head out to dinner. Eberhard takes us to his favorite restaurant. I know it has to be good because he took such good care of us when we visited them at lake Garda, Italy. Yes, dinner was great.

Off to bed, I’m tired, Kirsten’s tired and Omi ……she already asleep.

Best night sleep, better than Berchtesgaden…. which held the number one position so far.

However, I woke up at 2 AM. Normal on first nights.

The first night is always a transition. I lay in bed thinking of all my first nights in Europe, then I think about:

Happy moments in life

Holding Drew & Lori for the first time

Marrying Kirsten

Delivering newspapers in the spring

I could go on but I’ve fallen back asleep.

Good night

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