Traveling with the Parents...

Well immediately after I returned from Paris, I had to gear up for the visit from my parents. They were arriving at 5:45am in Frankfurt the very next morning and I had to get myself to Frankfurt. The earliest I was going to get there was 7:30am, which required me to leave Freiburg on the 4:47am train. Thanks to my friend Mitch, I was reminded that the Trams don't run that early so I would have to get a taxi or walk to the main train station. This just created immediate stress because I had no idea how I was going to manage to get a taxi. Luckily I was able to ask a roommate what to do and I booked a taxi online.

The next morning I got up at 3:40am to meet my taxi at 4:15. It was soooo early! The taxi driver smacked her gum so loud that I thought I was going to go crazy. When we got to the train station I only had a 50 Euro bill to give her, so she proceeded to chew me out about it in German at 4:30 in the morning. I definitely was not in the mood for that. The good news was that once I got on the train, I was able to sleep for pretty much the entire ride.

I was able to find my parents really easily and that was when the fun began. They had one huge suitcase, a smaller rolling suitcase, a huge Vera Bradley bag, and a black bag. Essentially way too much, but we were able to get it all on the train. I knew right then and there that it was going to be a long week with all of those bags. When we got back to Freiburg, I showed my parents the city and my room. I was able to get all of the goodies they brought from home, like a gigantic jar of peanut butter, girl scout cookies, and other nicities from home. We then had lunch and I put them back in their hotel because we were all buckling down for the big NATO protest that afternoon. I was able to hang out with Liz, Jon, and Mitch for a while and run some errands. We went into DM so Jon could buy some things like shampoo. I found it really funny when Mitch suggested the volumizing shampoo (no offense Mitch, but you're hair has never struck me as voluminous). Then, while Jon was trying to smell the conditioner, he squeezed it too hard and he got it up his nose and all over. We all just burst out laughing and had a good roar. What a great way to end that day!

The next morning I was up early to go meet my parents so we could head off to Zurich. Well the first disaster of the trip involved us getting off one stop too soon in Basel and then having to figure out what to do. I did discover that even if you miss your train time, your ticket is still good so we were able to eventually get on another train to get us to Zurich. The bad thing was that my dad was rushing to get off the first train with the huge bag and ended up really hurting his foot and limping the rest of the week. Not good! Once we arrived in Zurich, we were able to get to our hotel and settle in a bit. The greatest thing about Zurich was the hotel. I have never stayed in such an amazing hotel. We had a huge room, huge bathroom with a TV in the bathroom (my dream come true), and lovely swiss chocolates awaiting us. Sadly because it was so cloudy, we couldn't see any mountains at all, which was kind of the whole point of coming. We mainly spent the day walking around and having a delicious Italian meal. That night I took a great bath, yes I took a bath, while watching TV, and then I slept extremely well.

The next day we set off for Innsbruck. We had amazing weather and the entire train ride we got to stare out at the Alps. It was so breathtaking to be able to see all of that for hours on end. Innsbruck was really nice and was surrounded by the Alps. We spent the day walking around and having two lunches. The first lunch was at a trendy restaurant that wasn't what it said it was in the guide book. After paying too much and not getting enough food we literally got up, walked a bit, and then went straight into another restaurant. That food was actually better and cheaper. We saw a few of the sights in Innsbruck and like usual, took it pretty easy. This trip was definitely not like Paris where we walked for hours and hours every day.

After Innsbruck was Salzburg. We took the train and saw a few more mountains. Sadly we were all crammed into a Harry Potter-like room on the train and it was a little uncomfortable. Once we got there we did lots of walking and saw where Motzart was born and where he lived. We also went and saw a few of the places related to the Von Trapp family and the Sound of Music. We could have taken the Sound of Music tour, but we decided not to. I think I want to go back and do that sometime. It would be awesome! The one thing about Salzburg though was all the tourists. I heard a good amount of English and the Americans were always easy to pick out. It was a nice city though and I would definitely go back.

One of our last stops was Rothenberg ob der Trauber. This is a medieval town that is still surrounded by the wall that was built a long time ago. We had to make three different connections in under 10 minutes and that was just stressful in itself. We were bookin' it a lot that day. The funniest thing though was discovering what kind of water my dad had actually bought. Throughout the whole trip, we were having troubles buying plan water that didn't have that mineral water, bitter taste to it. Well he decided to just get some sort of flavored water. As we were sitting on the train, I looked at it closer and realized it was strawberry and pepper flavored water. Yes, it had pepper in it. He was not too thrilled, but he did laugh really hard about it.

Once we got to Rothenberg, we just walked around a little. We had a nice lunch, but it went pretty slow and by the time we were done a lot of things were closing or about to close. So we didn't get to see everything in Rothenberg, but it was still nice. I thought there were lots of Americans in Salzburg, but the number is Rothenberg was astounding. They were everywhere! I couldn't believe how many people knew about this city and actually wanted to come. It was nice, but I don't know how special it was.

The last day we went to Frankfurt because my parents were flying out of there the next morning. Our hotel ended up being out by the convention center and not near the center of the city at all. Since we were all to tired, we didn't even attempt to go into the city with the bus and metro. I think all there really was to do was shop, so it wasn't a big deal. I don't think there was that much to do in Frankfurt unless you were a businessperson. Since we used the hotel shuttle to get out to the hotel from the airport, which was complementary, we assumed it was complementary to go back to the airport. Well we were wrong. It actually cost 7 Euros a person to go back to the airport, but we had to pay it and were on the first shuttle out the next morning.

I saw my parents off at the airport and then headed back to Freiburg all by myself. It was a great week, but very exhausting. I was really glad to have seen my parents and I think they came at a good point so that it put off any possible homesickness a little while longer. Once I got back I had to immediately get ready for my next adventures!