Germany, Part 2
We started out our family vacation by doing the Alpsee Coaster, and it was a blast! I would love to give you all the details about it, but I can't read German. You can go to the website and see more pictures. Basically, you ride a ski lift up to the top and coaster down. We had to take turns, guess it's our new normal since we have three kids now. I stayed at the bottom with Addison and Cerys while Marc and Bailey rode down. Then Cerys and I went up. Here we are on the way up- lots of nervous giggles from me and Cerys. I had quite a grip on her, and she had quite a grip on me!
Then we drove a few hours to our hotel and did nothing and it was great! We ventured out for a little while to find some nappies and food, then we just relaxed in our hotel. Some dear friends of ours and their four children also stayed in our hotel, so the next day we set out to Neuschwanstein Castle- this is the castle in the movie Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang and it was also Walt Disney's inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle in the Disney parks. It was breathtakingly beautiful driving up to it, pictures don't do it justice!
Addison enjoyed the tour- that is after I speed nursed her and changed her major blow out while the tour guide held our place in line. I didn't have time to get her new clothes on, so we had to dress her while on the tour! Ha.
We took a pic of all the kids- our three and their four! Their oldest, Hadassah is just precious. She was 9 months old when we first met them and I just can't believe how she has grown up. They live in Spain and it's so cute to hear them all rattle off Spanish to each other. (Addison was not too happy about it!)
This is the Mercedes Benz Museum, right next to our hotel. I just thought it was cool and reminds me of Hot Wheels in their plastic box.
We had dinner at lovely Italian place and it was such a nice night we opted to sit outside! We had to keep the kids entertained!
Addison, about 10pm, chillin' on the table!
Ok, funny story- that was not-so-funny at the time. The Alpsee Coaster takes a while to do because you wait in line for the ski lift, then there is another line at the top to wait to get on the ride. They say it could take about 45-60 minutes to come back down. So, while Marc and Bailey were doing that, we played on the playground and just walked around. We saw them come flying down and Bailey was just squealing, she loved it! Then it our turn. Cerys and I had to wait for about 15 minutes to get on the ski lift, but when we got to the top there was no line at all because people were either at the cafe or playing on another playground at the top of the mountain. We just walked right up to the coaster and got on. We were down in about 30 minutes total. No Marc, Bailey or Addison in sight.
I walked to the car, nothing. I went into the cafe, nothing. I went into the gift shop, nothing. I kept telling myself NOT TO PANIC. Cerys was catching on to my nerves after about 15 minutes. She was hot and thirsty, I had no money, no wallet, no car keys, no phone, NOTHING on me. After about an hour, I tried desperately to explain my situation to this nice German lady who had seen me on the playground previsouly, thinking she would understand. I felt like I was playing charades, and I felt ridiculous! I was trying to act out "husband pushing baby, and a three year old with him" and I was getting no where! She just nodded her head and smiled at me. Ha! To the Glory of God, a nice woman came up to me and said she noticed me trying to explain something (well who DIDN'T notice me acting that out!!!) and wanted to know if I was okay. She was German but spoke very good English and her husband was English. They were extremely helpful and she translated for me to the workers there that I could not find my husband and two kids. Who knows WHAT they were thinking and I wanted to reassure them and say, "Please, don't worry too much, my husband would not run off with a three year old and a five month old by himself!" But then a bunch of other scenarios were running through my head and I was starting to panic.
They put a call out for Marc and the girls, descriptions, etc and I was just told to sit down and wait. The husband of this nice lady walked up to the top of where you get on the ski lift and said he saw a man with a baby in his arms, had dark hair and was wearing a yellow shirt. For the life of me I could not remember what Marc was wearing, but he told me where this guy was and I went to check it out. Sure enough it was Marc and the girls, waiting under the coaster, hoping to get pictures of me and Cerys coming down. He did not think we would get down so fast, so we somehow missed each other. I could tell he was frustrated when he heard me screaming his name and waving at him, and I was ready to give him a piece of my mind too! He was worried about us taking so long and I was thinking something terrible had happened and how I should have fed Addison before I went up that thing!!!
Thankfully we are all okay! It's funny now, but at the time I was so scared and so mad that I didn't take German in high school. I don't even know if it was offered, but I was sure hoping I could say something!!!