Geocaching

It's been months and months, but we finally went out geocaching again. Here are the intrepid explorers as the day began.



Apparently we lost one explorer in the woods. Geocaching is dangerous work.



If you are ever in Mankato and want to Geocache with kids, there's at least one great spot. Follow the Sakata Trail west from the Highway 22 parking lot, and there are six caches off the trail, all within a mile or so from the parking lot. We hit the first five and then turned back.

Koleman shows us one pretty nice hiding spot.



And Michelle found a modified Skippy Peanut Butter container. There were some hills and a tiny bit of bushwacking to do, but on the whole these were all relatively accessible caches.



So we had fun, OK?

Picking on Martin

In this post I will pick on Martin. Martin doesn't have a blog, so he has no way to fight back. Sorry, Martin.

Here is a picture of Martin on his wedding day. I suppose this is understandable.



Why is he hiding his face? Perhaps he doesn't want us to see the family resemblance?



Martin the tour guide explains that the house where Beethoven was born isn't much of a tourist attraction.



And to finish, vintage Martin. It's good that Nicole didn't marry the guy in this photo, because he's a rebel.

For Anonymous

This hat was found in Germany.



In the same room as these.



Is that symbolic, somehow?

Joy! Joy! Joy!

In Germany I mailed a box to myself. The friendly postman told me that it would take 30 to 40 days to arrive in St. Peter, but I wasn't about to spend an extra 50 dollars to make it come in a week. Well, it arrived on Saturday - only two weeks for delivery.

And what a box it was! Yes, there were boring things like dress shoes, books and a tie. But most important was the 11 pounds of German chocolate. Mmmmmm, chocolate.



Some of the goodies had already been removed by the time that picture was taken. Priorities.

And of course the chocolate must be eaten. Koleman and Milena crack into surprise eggs (gifted to us from Martin and Nicole).



Not all the treats were chocolate, I guess. Kelson organizes some kind of gummy or fruity candy. Looks gross to me.



Eli is being watched by Stevie, who really, really hopes that he drops something.



I think I'll go have some chocolate right now...

Good Friends

It's always nice to meet good friends when you travel. We were lucky to stay with Isabel and Penelope. On a visit to a Roman Colliseum in Catania, the girls did their impersonation of ancient turnstiles.



And then they took a picture with us!



Have you noticed I have lots of pictures of food and ice cream? It couldn't be helped. Here Isabel shows how a lady eats her ice cream.



And Penelope takes a different approach.

German Wedding Presents

While the German people have many failings, most notably their affection for bizarre signs, there are some things that they do quite well.

Make beer, for instance. Ahhhh, beer.

[sigh]

Anyway, another thing that they do well is give interesting wedding gifts. Sure, you'll get some boring old boxes wrapped in boring old wrapping paper, with boring old wedding presents, but you're more likely to get a bouquet of flowers with money, folded and attached in an interesting way.



Another gift that Martin and Nicole got was a Schuletute (like the ones we made for Eli and Milena on their first day of Kindergarten). It was filled to the top with goofy little plastic toys, but once you got past the toys, they found that it was weighted down with lots of coins.

Lots of coins.



I claimed the task of counting and sorting all the coins. My commission was a friendly 25%.

Another gift was a butter dish that contained hearts folded out of paper Euros.



And finally, the best gift of them all. In this picture you will see what appears to be a bucket of charcoal briquettes. Well, that's what it is. However, somewhere under those briquettes is a whole bunch of coins. Dirty, dirty coins. Probably over a hundred dollars worth of dirty money. I did not take the job of cleaning, sorting and counting that gift.

Typical German Vehicles

Every German (at least those that live near the Rhine or Mosel Rivers) owns three vehicles. The first one, of course, is the cruise ship. When Nicole goes to work every morning from Koblenz to Boppard, she just hops on her cruise ship and toodles down the Rhine.



Of course, a cruise ship isn't practical for city driving, so all Germans own small, three wheeled vehicles. They get great gas mileage and you can park them anywhere. You can tell that a rich German owns this one, since it is a convertible.



And finally, every German has a vineyard, normally on terribly steep hills facing the Rhine or Mosel river. To get up and down the slope, every German uses his or her Going Up And Down The Steep Hill Cart Thingy (GUADTSHCT - don't worry, it makes sense in German).



You see, one of the great things about this trip was that, since we lived with locals, we really learned a lot about the German culture. And then I can pass what I've learned along to you. Aren't you lucky?

St. Goar and Rheinfels Castle - Part 2

OK, we're still at the castle. Here is a different view of the rubble. It's actually very majestic rubble.



Looking back over St. Goar from the castle. You can see the place where we ate lunch. It's right there. No, just a little to the left. Yup, that's the place.



A very pretty cemetary in St. Goar. Taking photographs was not allowed, so I'm not sure how this picture got in my camera.



Lots of German cities have super fancy trains for shuttling tourists around. We weren't classy enough to use them.



Some people I don't know named Anita and Gary spent their first anniversary in Germany, and visited St. Goar and Rheinfels. You can look at their pictures, too. I don't think it changes much.

St. Goar and Rheinfels Castle - Part 1

Michelle and I did have some alone time in Germany, since Martin and Nicole needed to work. One day we took the train south from Koblenz to St. Goar, the home to Rheinfels Castle. St. Goar was a perfect little touristy town along the Rhine, situated under the looming presence of the castle.



We had a nice walk from the city up the hill to the castle, where we encountered some odd bathrooms. Let me just say this - you don't want to pull the wrong lever.



This is a picture of some dude who was important to the history of the castle, but is now dead. And, as a matter of fact, was dead when the picture was taken. That might even be a lock of his hair in the picture frame. Weird.



Rubble. I've got lots of rubble pictures from Sicily. I love rubble.

A great picture?

No, not just a great picture. According to one unbiased five year old, this is "the greatest picture in the whole world."

Martin & Nicole's Wedding

Since I showed Martin & Nicole in their wedding finery, I suppose I should show some wedding related pictures. Here is a picture of somebody taking a picture of the wedding service. Due to the large, poorly lit space, none of my actual wedding pictures turned out very well. However, the couple in front of me had a better camera, so I'm sure the picture she took is lovely.



Speaking of lovely, here is a lovely couple at the wedding reception.



This is a very artistic picture. Trust me.



And this is ... well, let's just say that this is a German Thing. I didn't understand most of what they said, but here's what I think this was about: In Germany it is customary for strange looking men in wigs and beards to bring small stringed instruments to your wedding reception. They then do a humorous interpretation of Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde". After that, they drink your beer, eat your wiener schnitzel, and drive away in your BMW.

At least that's how I interpreted it.

Nicole & Martin

Michelle noted that I haven't posted any pictures of Nicole and Martin, which is a gross oversight on my part. They put up with us for ten days, so I should show them the respect that they have earned.

Here they are on their wedding day. They make a good couple, don't they?



And here they are, two days into their married life, making food for us. Everything is right in the world.



I know I don't explain things very well, so let me clear things up for those that are confused: Michelle and Nicole were friends when Michelle lived in Germany during her senior year of high school. They have remained friends since then, even though we haven't seen Nicole for nearly 11 years. We went to Germany for Martin and Nicole's wedding, and stayed with them (yes, we stayed with them after their wedding. Don't worry, it makes sense in German).

We had never met Martin before this trip, but after a few days we decided that we approved of him. He's a good guy, for a Saarlander.