Cha Cha Goes to Europe!

Sorry I haven’t updated in so long. I have been very busy the past few days. Things got pretty crazy yesterday when I decided to stay in Paris until Friday. It’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever done, but I am glad I did. I am supposed to be in Normandy with the rest of the crew. They left yesterday around noon. I just wasn’t finished with Paris yet. There is still so much I want to see and do. I didn’t realize how much I loved the city until I got here.

I know I am behind on uploading pictures. Will do as soon as I have time to.

Love and miss you all. Only three more days until I get home!

Bonjour!!!! I’m in Paris! I can’t believe it.

We arrived around 6 pm tonight. Our hotel is only a few blocks away from the Eiffel Tower, so that was the first thing we did. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant. On our way back I told Adam & Misty that I thought there would be a light show on the tower when it got dark. I wasn’t 100% sure, but I remembered seeing it on an episode of the Hills a few weeks ago. We were about to head back to the hotel when people started crowding around so I was really hoping something cool would happen. And it did!!! I was so freaking excited. I took some video of it, so I will have to post that as soon as Tristan figures out how I can do that!

I heart Paris. Well, mainly I just heart the Eiffel Tower right now. I feel so lucky to be here.

We are about to head out for our Paris & Normandy trip.  It is a 3 hour drive to Paris from here.  We will be staying two nights in Paris and 3 nights in Normandy.  Yay!!!  I’m not sure when I will be posting next.  I know we will be very busy seeing all the sights.  And I’m not sure if I will have internet access where we are staying.  Hopefully you won’t have to wait too long. 

 Eiffel Tower here we come!

On our way from Garmisch to Rothenburg, we spent a few hours at Dachau, which was the first Nazi concentration camp. I do not have any pictures to share because I was using the old snap and wind camera. It was an unforgettable experience. Overwhelming to say the least. Hard to believe those events happened so recent in history. I purchased a book about the history of the camp that also includes information about the prisoners. It comes with a cd you can use to print off the pictures. If any of you are interested in reading the book let me know.

Wednesday - May 14th

We visited this gorge on our last day in Garmisch. It was awesome! Half the time you felt like you were in a cave. There was rushing white water flowing in between the two mountains. I have seen a lot of neat things in nature, but this is at the top of my list. I could have spent all day there.

The thumbs up are just for you Hannah!!!

We did a really neat tour during our stay in Rothenburg. This guy, the night watchmen, takes you around the city and explains some of the history. It was a lot of fun. He had a great sense of humor, which made it even more interesting. The night watchmen were kind of like police that patrolled the city at night, ensuring that all of the townspeople were safe. I can’t remember the exact year, but it was within the past century that they stopped having the night watchmen. The city is still very safe, with essentially no crime. Most of the people staying within the city wall are tourists, or townspeople catering to those tourists.

Wednesday - May 14th

Rothenburg is the coolest city ever! If any of you take a trip to Germany you must visit this town. It is a very old medieval town that still has the city wall surrounding it. It is a tourist area with tons of cute little shops and eateries. They are famous for these pastries called schneeballs. They basically take left over pastry crust and roll it into a ball, deep fry it, and dip it in something sweet, like chocolate, powdered sugar, cinnamon, etc. I had been seeing these things in the window of every shop we passed and I knew I had to eat one before I left. Sad to say mine was not anything spectacular. It just tasted like stale pie crust with chocolate on it. Everyone else seemed to enjoy theirs, so maybe it was just me.

I left my camera battery charger at Adam’s house, so I only have one night’s worth of pictures from Rothenburg for you. I had to do the unthinkable and purchase a disposable camera! It was painful every time I had to wind up that stupid wheel after taking a picture. I guess I had it coming. I had been giving dad a hard time for bringing disposables on the trip. Anyway, I can share the rest of the pictures with you after I get home and develop them. Who freaking knows what they will look like though! I didn’t realize how much I depended on the preview screen.

The picture of me is from the window of our hotel room. It had a spectacular view of the city.

Here are a few breakfast pics. Muller is one of the bakeries we have stopped at several times. They have all kinds of pastries. I usually get some sort of cinnamon roll type thing which is made of croissant, and usually has nuts or raisins in it. They do have a few donuts, but mostly it is this croissant stuff with yummy stuff on it or inside of it.

We had a typical German breakfast when we were in Rothenburg. They had salami and cheese, breads, different types of jam, Nutella and hard boiled eggs. Their hard boiled eggs are more like a poached egg. They also had some sort of mixture of oatmeal grains and chocolate pieces. I can’t remember what else was in it. You don’t cook the oatmeal…just add milk. I was a little skeptical about it, but it was actually pretty tasty. Didn’t care too much for the rest of it. Can’t wait to eat at Cracker Barrel when I get home!

The picture of Eli is pretty funny because he always makes this face when people are eating around him.  He will follow the food with his eyes.  Misty has started feeding him cereal each night because he is so interested in food.

This is a video of Eli sleeping while we were driving through Munich. He must have been having a funny dream because he kept smiling. I only got a few seconds on video before he woke up. There is also some good footage of Addison sleeping.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Doesn’t get much cuter than this!!!