August 6th, 2017
On August 5th, I drove our last, scheduled guest to the airport. Her departure wrapped up six months of visits from far-away family and friends. Eleven visitors came through our front door in the Spring followed by another seven this past summer. Some lingered for a few days while others spent a week. One even came through two times! We felt extremely loved by all those who made the trek to our little, German village to reconnect with us. There were many, surreal moments when we just couldn’t believe who we were hanging out with…in GERMANY!
Though we are far from venturing into the hospitality business, our all-inclusive program (lodging, meals, transportation and private tour guide) seemed to be a hit! At some point, we began to ask our guests if they would consider taking the train. This added to their adventure and eased things on our end, especially with back-to-back visits. We still stayed incredibly busy as we traveled with our guests within Germany and to two other countries, explored various castles and castle ruins, ate our fair share of ice cream from our favorite Eis cafe, introduced our guests to our friends, shared the good and the hard of everyday life and enjoyed deep conversations around our table with so many faces we deeply love. In the calendar spaces between visitors, we squeezed in five trips of our own, E’s tonsil surgery, crutches for me after spraining my ankle, school, work, and our every day commitments. Consequently, the past six months flew by!
We know a lot of AMAZING people and were so grateful for the opportunities we had to reconnect with them. Here’s a pictorial glance at the faces who signed our Guest Book and a look at how we spent the past six months…
Aunt Grace-March
I actually wrote an entire entry about her visit because she was the first one. You can find it by scrolling back a bit here on the blog. I have barely written since then so it should be easy to locate.
Dear & Pop Pop-March
My parents came to celebrate my birthday, a tradition I absolutely LOVE and cherish! Together, we enjoyed a local festival, the children’s Science museum in Pirmasens and a day trip to the city of Trier alongside a bunch of sweet time together. Mein Mann threw me a surprise birthday party this year with our village friends and I loved having my parents there in the mix! Pop Pop also made it to one of S’s soccer games while Dear so lovingly sewed on all of E’s patches to his Cub Scouts uniform.
Madrina Peggy (dear friend and E’s godmother)-April
Before we moved here, Peggy said she would come to visit us in Germany. What a treat it was to see those words come to fruition and get to live life with her again for a few days! She had lunch dates with the boys at school, came to E’s soccer practice, hung out with my village friends (answers to Peggy’s prayers for me), joined us one afternoon at the International Tea in our village, and explored the village of Rüdesheim with me.
Audra-April
After an insane travel experience trying to get to us, we were all relieved when we were able to hug this dear friend from home!! Audra and I navigated the trains to Amsterdam and showed up on their Kings Day. We stayed at a lovely Bed & Breakfast, wore our orange in honor of the royal family, took a tour to see all things tulip, visited the famed Keukenhof, and toured the Van Gogh Museum, the Anne Frank Huis and the Hidden Church. What a full, fun and memorable adventure.
May-Daniela & Thomas
A few days after we bid farewell to Audra, our niece, Daniela and Thomas arrived at the beginning of May. It was so good to have family with us and provide them a sense of “home” in the midst of their own European adventures. We explored the nearby Frankenstein castle ruins (a short drive away), walked amongst the flowering canola fields in our village, spent some “sweet” time with the boys and cheered on our family fussball players together. !
Middle of May-Andy
It was so good to have Andy with us for a few days. I think his visit was extra special for our youngest who adores his godfather. Andy speaks Swiss-German, is incredibly adept at all things travel and fits himself into other cultures with grace and ease. We were so grateful he fit us into his own travels!
June-Nate, Kendra and Eliana
What a delight it was to pick up our nephew and his precious family at our local train station at the start of the second week of June. They were on a discerning trip regarding their own move to Germany in the future. Nate and Kendra are not just family but also dear friends. We had a sweet time together catching up, exploring the wine town of Bad Dürkheim that hosts the world’s biggest wine festival and playing 10 Days in Europe.
July-Sari
After closing our B & B for about a month so we could wrap-up the boys’ school year and travel back to the US to see our family and friends in San Diego, Kansas and Colorado, we opened our doors again to Danny’s college friend, Sary. He stayed with us on the front end of his own German train-adventure and then popped back in before moving on to see more of Europe. It was great to reconnect with this dear friend who stood up in our wedding and has continued to value his friendship with Danny all of these years. The boys loved having him too!
July-Aunt Sarah
The same day we took Sary to our village train station in the morning, we picked up Aunt Sarah in the afternoon! She flew out to attend a U2 Concert in Paris with Danny. Before going, she got a taste of a rainy day in Germany while we explored Burg Rheinstein along the Rhein River. We have learned to not let the weather hold us back from getting out. Sarah jumped right in with an umbrella and her adventurous spirit!
End of July-The Werner Family
Kevin, Alisa, Ani and Kaia Werner, beloved friends from Colorado Springs, spent three days with us before venturing on to Paris and Uganda. My village friend, Dora, graciously let them stay at her house while they were on vacation since Ani is allergic to cats. We were so grateful for this backup option! We filled their visit playing at our village Naturerlebnispfad (nature trail), eating ice cream from the Eis Café, hiking the Fußweg Burg Eltz (the footpath to the Eltz Castle, exploring Burg Eltz and the castle grounds, riding the train to the Dino und Gartenschau (one of our favorite parks in Kaiserslautern) and playing a game of Settlers of Catan around our kitchen table. It was so good to reconnect in this new season of life we are all in!
August- Our “Favorite”
A couple of days after the Werners left, the boys and I drove to the Frankfurt airport to pick up Favorite (aka Terri). It was so good to have our beloved friend back in Germany again for a few days on her way to Uganda. Favorite, as she is affectionately called by the boys, jumped right into village life with us. We took her hiking to one of our favorite spots in a nearby village where the boys played in the cool, stream water under the forest canopy, enjoyed bakery treats from the Barbarossa Bäckerei in our village, and explored Burg Lichtenberg a couple of hours away. Terri also gave Danny and I the gift of a date night out while she spent the evening at home with the boys. This was Favorite’s second visit to our German home and was a definite treat and gift for all of us!
Terri’s visit wrapped up our B&B Spring and Summer Season for 2017. Our visitors were all gracious to share in the mundane moments as much as they were in their guided tours. Thankfully, living in a little German village is a cross-cultural experience in and of itself. Alongside the lingering goodness that came with seeing so many loved ones came a couple of speeding tickets later in the mail with my name on them. Turns out there is a hidden speed camera on the way to the airport that cashed out on this busy season at the Cowell B&B. Since I did seven airport runs within a three week spread, I felt pretty fortunate that I only got a couple of tickets. Not a horrible trade-off!
