I made it home. What a long flight and long drive home. I wasn't sure I was going to make it, dozed off a few times, but God led me home to my wonderful husband who I missed so much while I was gone. He was so good and kept the house up so nice. It was awesome to come home to a clean house, thanks baby, I love you.
Emily and I had a great time. Oh the stories we have to tell.
Our trip to Triberg, Germany in the Black Forest was amazing. I bought a beautiful coo coo clock. I forgot to take pictures at the store, so I'll post one once I get it in the mail. Tricia's friend Laura went with us. I know Tricia was worn out when we got home, but she was such a trooper and stuck with us through all the shopping. Oh and just a little tid bit of information I found out, Snow White and the 7 dwarfs lived in the Black Forest, cool huh?
The next day Laura took Emily, Mikki and I to Appenzel, Switzerland (Tricia just wasn't up for the trip after the day of shopping in Germany). We got lots of goodies and some awesome cheese (that stinks so bad, no one will try it). Another day of shopping, what fun!
The day after that Emily, Mikki and I went on a walking tour of Zurich, Switzerland. We stayed lost most of the time, but still had a great time and ate the best food we had our whole trip. Emily's salmon was to die for. I lost my train ticket and had to buy another one (very frustrating) and this is the day I started passing my kidney stone. Not the best day, but the architecture in Zurich was beautiful.
The next morning we left for Bellagio, Italy. Let me tell you how amazing God is. First off, the day we went to Germany Tricia got some Euro to buy something and had some change left. I owed her some money and she had to make change for me and gave me 10 Euro since we were going to Italy and she didn't want to be stuck with it. So Emily and I walk to the train station in Uerikon and take the train to Zurich. We switch trains in Zurich and go to Lugano, Switzerland. Laura, wonderful Laura, had mapped out our trip for us and told me I needed to get Italian bus 12 to Menaggio and then bus 10 to Como. So once we get off the train in Lugano, I go to the ticket booth and tell the man that I need tickets for bus 12 to Menaggio and even show him the hotel we're trying to get to. He sells me two tickets to Menaggio and I pay with my credit card. Again I confirm that this is the C12 bus to Menaggio and he finally asks a lady, who says that is not the correct bus and they can only refund me the ticket in cash (which was Frank because we were still in Switzerland). She tells us that we have to go out front and take a bus to Cassarada (which I think is a bus station). Well, once we get outside we realize this is a city bus and we have to know what zone to buy a ticket for, so Emily asks a girl sitting there is she speaks English and Praise God, she does. She looks on her GPS on her cell and tells us the zone. While we are purchasing the ticket and talking to the girl another lady walked up and overheard our conversation (she speaks Spanish). She said she knows Cassarada and will help us out. So we get on the bus with her and off we go. After a short ride we stop and she tells us to get off. Ok, we are in the middle of no where on a city street and we just get off the bus. Well, I'm freaking. So we walk across the street to a bank (I'm sure someone has to speak English in a bank and there was). She walks us back across the street and is trying to tell us how to read the sign and all of the sudden I look up and there's a bus coming directly at us that says Menaggio across the top. Another Praise the Lord. We get on and tell the guy we don't have a ticket. We drive a little ways and he just pulls over on the side of the road and everyone on the bus is telling us to get off to buy and ticket. We can't find the ticket booth and Emily starts to run across the street and the bus driver honks at her and everyone on the bus is pointed the other way. So I walk up to a man at a paper stand and ask if he knows where we buy a bus ticket and lo and behold it's from him. So I have to buy the tickets with cash, which I wouldn't have had if I hadn't have bought the wrong ticket at the train station (Praise the Lord). We get to Menaggio and the bus driver dumps us off at a bus barn and walks away. So I'm walking around looking for someone to buy a bus ticket from and a guy walks up. I told him what I needed and he whips out a book and writes down 6,50 Euro. Praise the Lord I had 10 Euro that Tricia gave me in change. So I buy that bus ticket and we get dropped off right in front of our hotel. Once Emily and I make it to the hotel, we just look at each other and say, OMG do you realize how much God was just with us. We would have never made it to Italy without Him. Praise God. We shopped and had a great time, except for the Lasagna Emily got, it tasted like Chef Boyorde Ravioli sauce, it sucked. Once we got back to the hotel we walked down to a restaurant to order pizza to "take away" (to go). We asked them if the have pepperoni and they say yes and ask if we want ham too. We said just the pepperoni. We get back to the hotel, go out on the terrace to enjoy our pizza and open it up to find red bell pepper sliced and placed on the pizza. I told Emily maybe they thought we wanted pepper only, lol. We found out from a lady on the train home that pepperoni is a vegatable (a red bell pepper), but the pizza was good (oh and they don't cut it for you either, we had to tear it apart). Our trip home was almost as eventful. We didn't get off at the correct train station and had to take a bus back (which we didn't realize until the bus brought us back), but we had to stand out in the cold and drizzle for about 30 minutes waiting on the bus. Not fun! (also when I say the people God placed in our path spoke English, well that's stretching it, they understood more than they spoke and we used alot of "sign language")
I woke up hurting so bad Friday morning and by the time we got back to Tricia's I realized I was passing a kidney stone. So the rest of my trip was not the greatest. We left the next morning for home with a 9 hr flight to Washington, DC, a 4 hour lay over, a 3 1/2 hr flight to Houston and then a 2 hr drive home, in pain. Oh but the trip was worth it and we had a great time. It was amazing to see the wonderful things our God made! Just amazing!
Our thanks to Tricia and Adam for the experience. We loved it!
And a special thanks to our new friend, Laura. We enjoyed having such a wonderful tour guide. We appreciate all the time you took to make our trip so special and memorable. You're the best!
I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to experience this trip of a lifetime and enjoyed spending time with Tricia and her family.
