Travel Diary

7/25/10 Sven and Karin's House
Today I finally decided that I was going to start my travel diary. Today is the day of the christening for Nicolas and the two girl twins, Amelie and Josefine.  I have got on my purple shirt from Kid Robot, and some jeans. I look forward to the christening even though it will be all in German. After the christening we will have a party at the house. This morning we are starting breakfast late. It took a while for everyone to get up. The last two days were as follows. The first day we arrived off the plane in the late morning. Then we took a train to Neustadt am der Weinstrasse, Mussbach. Where we stayed with my Opa. That day we laid around and got over our jet lag.
I rode my bike around the wine and into the next village of Gimmeldinger. We went to a traditional Pfeltzer restaurant for dinner. I had a great wiener schnitzel. After this we went home. That whole night I had problems sleeping, because of the bad jet lag, so I was up most of the night.
The second day we were in Mussbach for a little bit before we headed out to Sven and Karin's house. Once we got there we laid around for a bit and I got to open my birthday gifts from them. From Sven and Karin I got a bluetooth keypad (which I am using right now), and from Oma and Opa I got over 200.00 euros. So now my total amount of money is well into the 300 euro range. This makes me very happy because having a lot of money is nice. However, now I have all this money and I don't know what to do with it. Maybe I can buy part of a vineyard. That would be nice. I could have my own little piece of Germany.
My mom has trouble opening the German doors which makes me laugh whenever she tries to come outside. Writing with this keyboard is really easy. The keys feel good. I love my iPad!!1!!! This keyboard is soooooo cool. Last night I had my best sleep of the whole trip. It was great. Oma made me some warm milk with honey, which made me really sleepy. I think that I should go inside now because it's time for breakfast (I hope).
Breakfast was really good. I had lots of lox, and cream cheese. I don't know why but the German lox is better than the American lox. The German lox is a lighter color than the American lox. It's probably because the lox in Germany is from Norway and the lox in America is from Alaska. After the christening we will have a party at Sven and Karin's house. Which will be very fun. There will be meat and fish. Which will be good. I really can't think of anything else to say. I think I'm going to write a story.
Roman and Birgit came over with Oskar and Leni. They gave me 50 euros and a series called Kidnapped I now have 394.70 euros. I just got back from the christening of the three children. The christening was long and sort of boring. We sang songs and watched children get dunked in holy water. Now we're all standing around in the living room getting ready to make toasts. Everyone's waiting for the children. We've made the toast and now we're giving gifts for the christening. Now Leni is running around saying that she has a tattoo. I want to get a tattoo. I want to get one of an owl standing on a stack of books. Last night my mom didn't sleep, so now she is tired and I told her that she should go take a nap. Everyone is talking an laughing, the atmosphere is generally happy. I am sitting here writing in my journal. I get the slightest impression that people don't understand my religious choices but I really don't think that is a topic of conversation. I feel kind of emo sitting on a bench alone writing, but I guess that's what it means to be a writer.
Now my Mom and Thorsten are whispering to each other about some secret. I'm getting hungry now, my mom wanted me to read some M&M's that have things written on them for the Niklas, and the two girls. After we ate I had a water fight with my cousins, Oskar and Leni. It was really fun, but it took a while before I was dry. Now I am dry and am writing. We just had dessert and it was very good we had: mousse, ice cream, cake, and hot strawberries. They were really good I enjoyed it. Then we went into my Mom and Thorsten's room and hung around in the bed. Now we are outside sitting around. My mom and Thorsten are asleep. I was reading my book but now I decided that I should write. All the guests have gone and now I'm sitting outside writing. Niklas is here with me. I look outside and it is very beautiful. The sky is cloudy, but it has rays of sunlight shining through. I had a lot of fun with my cousins. I taught Opa the 50 States in the USA. My uncle Roman thinks that there are 51 states in America, but he is wrong. Even when I proved it to him that he was wrong, he still thought he was right and that just annoyed me.
There is a hot girl in the house next to Sven and Karin's. There were two wasps inside of the house today which was kind of scary. I hate wasps so much. Now everyone is relaxing since the guests are gone. We're thinking about going on a walk, but I asked Uncle Sven if I could use one of their bikes. The sun is breaking through the cloud barrier, which makes it even more pretty. I wish that I could speak German. Now Niklas and Sven are sitting next to me doing something with the hose. Niklas has the hose now and is spraying everything. Now I'm turning the hose on and off-- much to the surprise of Niklas. I was outside playing with Niklas and the hose. Niklas decided that he wasn't going to wear any pants. Now I'm back inside and I am writing. My mom is upstairs talking to Nana, I think. Me, My mom and Thorsten went on a walk to the Neckar, we saw many cute cats, and the lovely Neckar River.

7/26/10 Sven and Karen's House/ Burg Hohenzollern
We just finished eating breakfast and I took a shower. Today I woke up at 9:00. The breakfast was really good today. We are leaving Sven and Karin's house today to go to Burg Hohenzollern, which is a castle. Maybe I'll be able to spend some of my money today, that would be nice. Oma and Niklas are reading a book in German that Niklas got for his christening. We left Karin and Sven's house in the afternoon. Thorsten got us a nice rental car which we drove in order to get to our new location.

The country side was beautiful on our drive to Tübingen. Tübingen was a nice city it had a pretty church. We went shopping in Tübingen, and I bought a really nice scarf, and my mom got some hand made Italian boots. 

After Tübingen we went to Schloss Lichtenstein (light-stone). There we went to a nice castle, which is still in possession of the Duke of Ural. It is their summer home. It was really cool to go inside the castle, which I thought was really beautiful. After the tour of the castle we went and took the postcard shot of the castle with the town below it. It was amazing. After this we went back down to a little park and looked around.

Now we are in Hechingen, which is a small town. The hotel that we are staying at is really cool. There are two parts to our room the lower part which has a T.V and then the upper part which is the loft (which is were I'm staying.) The loft has a beautiful view of the town. And right across the street from us is a big Catholic church, which at night is lit up so you can see the cross and all the saints and angels. Tomorrow we will go to Roman and Birgit's house and get ready for our bike trip around Lake Constance (known as the Bodensee) I am excited to go there but now I am sleepy. I really wish that we had Wi-Fi in the hotel room but alas we don't. Right outside my window there are some giggling people who I think are teenagers. For dinner tonight I had a Wildpot: full of stag, venison, and wild boar, with noodles, mushrooms, a meat sauce, and a berry sauce. It was really good. I think it was one of the best things I've had this whole trip. A lot of today was spent driving, which I liked. Now the church bells are going off in the distance. Which means that every hour, half hour, and 15 till my Mom and Thorsten will be woken up. Luckily I won't because I sleep like a rock. I really have to say my loft room is really cool. There are two beds and a closet and a desk. There is a great skylight and a tiny window which is by my bed. There is a lamp by my bed and two lights on the wall. My bed is the closest to the desk and the window. It is nestled in the corner, which I like. I don't know why but i like it when my beds are in the corner. The bed that my stuff is on is the closest to the bathroom and the staircase. Its been raining off and on which I really like. I like the sound of rain at night-- it really helps you to sleep. By the closet in my room there is this weird bench like thing which I guess is for your luggage. Today in Tübingen I passed by this really cool rock and fossil shop. There I bought this pyramid shaped black tourmaline, which is sitting on the desk close to my bed. I am getting sleepy so I guess I will go to sleep. Today overall has been a really good day and I have enjoyed it a lot.

7/27/10 Hechingen/ Roman and Birgit's House
WE just finished eating breakfast which was really good. They had Nutella there which I liked. I managed to smuggle out some Nutellas without my Mom or Thorsten knowing. I also managed to get a cookie from the maid's cart. I'm going to miss this room a lot. I really like how light it is. I wonder what I should write in my play. How am I going to get all that emotion into one act. Maybe I'll make it a two act play. Well now I think I'm going to get to work on that play. We went to the castle of the German Emperor.-Hohenzollern. It was beautiful. It was big and it had cool rooms and big turrets. It look like a castle should. Like if you picture the perfect fairy tale castle that's it. It was really cool going up in there. At the gift shop there I got a sealing set. I got wax, a seal, and a special lamp to heat the wax. The woman even gave me a free stick of red wax, which was really nice. Now I'm at Roman and Birgit's house. I have to sleep in Leni's room. Which is like a big pink fluff ball. It's also very small. Today we went to a climbing obstacle course, it was really cool! It was up in the trees, and in between each tree was a different obstacle. At the end we got to go down a zip line, that was cool! Every time I thought that I couldn't do the obstacle but I did. It was really fun, yet scary at the same time. My mom and Thorsten found a mouse outside which they say was a kangaroo mouse. Well I think that I'll watch my movie now.

7/28/10-7/31/20 Roman and Birgits, Bodensee, and Mussbach

7/28/10 Today is the day that we leave on our bike ride around the Bodensee. The drive will be around 2 hrs. and it will be beautiful. Once we arrived in Bodensee it was raining for the whole day. It looks like we couldn't do our bike ride. This day we checked into our hotel and then went around the town. We went to the Zeppelin Museum, which was cool and boring at the same time. My mom had a claustrophobia attack there, but we were still able to get her through the museum. There was a cool gift shop there, were I bough a book mark a postcard and rock, paper, scissors dice. After this we went and git an eis which was good. Then we went back to the hotel and my parents napped, I played with Oskar and Leni. After a good two hours, we went down to dinner. At dinner I had the killer Wienerschnitzel after that I went outside and played with Oskar and Leni on the playground. They sat on one end of the teeter totter while I pushed with my hands on the other end, thus catapulting them in to the air. That was fun also. After this I took Oskar up with me into my room and we watched a nature show until his parents came to get him. Then me my Mom and Thorsten watched the nature show until late at night, finally we went to sleep. IT was a hot night that night.

7/29/10 Today we go to Konztance on the ferry. It takes to hours to get there but it's cool. Once we arrived in Konztance we went to the town square thingy and there was a fountain and it had Elvitrich on it. IT WAS COOL!!!!1!! I guess the influence of Elvitrich goes farther than I thought. After we went to our hotel and looked at our room. Our hotel was cool, it had a giant mural on the side of it. The hotel was called Hotel Graf Zeppelin. Then we met Roman and Birgit at a swim park. There was a giant slide which I went down a lot. There was also a diving board high in the air. After this me and Thorsten caught the bus back to the hotel, while my mom and Roman and Birgit and the kids took the car. We got to the hotel before them. Then while my mom got ready at the hotel me and Thorsten went to the church and then went shopping for shoes for my mom. I found a turquoise Navajo ring for 89 euros. I bought the ring and went back to the hotel with Thorsten. When I showed him the ring and told him how much it costs he got mad. So, I went back to the place and returned the ring at the store. After this we met Ralph Peter for dinner at a greek restaurant, were we found these beer coasters which had the puzzle game that he created on them. That was cool also. After that we went back to the hotel and had a drink. Then I went in bed while my mom, Thorsten, and Ralph Peter went to the local Wienfest. I fell asleep in front of the T.V.

7/30/10 Today is our last day in Konztance. For most of the day we went shopping around the city. I went to an Osiander book store and bought a book of Ralph Peter's puzzles. We were walking around and we stopped at a Cafe in front of a Cathedral. There my mom and Thorsten ate while I walked to the top of the Cathedral. It was a spectacular view from up there, I could see everything. Once we got down from the Cathedral we boarded a speed boat that took us 45 minutes. Then we stopped for a spagettih eis. I went around town looking for my mom's chips fresh. I found them came back to my mom and Thorsten and they thought they lost me. So ya fun. Then we drove back to Roman and Birgits house were we spent the night.

7/31/10 Today is the day we leave Roman and Birgits house, and go to Mussbach. I am excited to see Oma and Opa. We drove for a long time. Then we arrived at Oma and Opa's while we waited for Roman and Birgit to get there. Then Thorstens friend Gergus showed up Me, Mom, Thorsten, and Gergus went on a bike ride, to a Wienfest. There we met Gergus's wife who was really cool. We went shooting and I shot down a flower for my mom but Thorsten didn't. I bought my mom a salt and pepper set that she wanted. Then once everyone was done Me Thorsten and Girgus rode home. While my mom and Girgus's wife drove. We had a blast. Then we came home and I went to bed.

8/1/10 Today is going to be fun. You know what I think is funny, is when my Opa reads the newspapers and talks to himself about the news.

8/3/10 Today we went on a 32 mile bike ride to Speyer which was really cool. It's been a while since I've written in my journal. This is what has happened so far: On the first we went to the Wienfest which was cool. I got to ride around in the bumper cars. On the second we went to the cool swimming pool in Bad Durkheim , but I got teased by a bunch of dumb cow girls that were there, fun. That night we went to Gergus's cool house for dinner were I got to talk to his cool wife about pens. Today the third we went on a bike ride to Speyer. It was sooo cool. We passed through beautiful forests and enchanting meadows. Then we passed through asparagus fields and saw a huge pile of carrots, and I stopped to get me and my mom some. Then we arrived in Speyer and ate at a beer garden, and then it started raining cats and dogs so we had to run under an awning to finish our meal. Tomorrow we will go get my nice pen to match my fountain pen. I am very excited. Today we went inside a beautiful church. There was the book of Kells. That was so amazing I got to go inside an illuminated manuscript room which was great. Then we went into a cool reliquary, which I liked as well. The church was called the Dom. Tonight my mom and Thorsten were going to go on a date but the place they wanted to go to is closed. So now they will look for a new place to go out to. I will eat dinner with my Oma and Opa.

8/4/10
Today is Thorsten's Uncle came up he is really cool, so is his wife. After breakfast today Opa took me to Neustdat to buy my rollerball pen. I haven't been blogging recently so I think I should. Now my mom, Thorsten, Sven, and Karen are going out on a double date. Thorsten is upstairs showering. Today we rode our bikes to go see Thorsten's friend Roger (pronounced Rouge er), and his wife. They had a really cool house that I liked a lot. Now I am preparing a book of hiakus. I hope that I can get it printed soon. That would mean a lot to me. My rollerball pen is so nice. Thorsten's cousin came with there two children. I played soccer with Oskar and one of Thorsten's cousins children. It was fun then I decided to read and write. I've been thinking about the book of Kells and writting a lot today. I really enjoy my pen.