July 31st, 2009

Yesterday marked the mid point of our trip. I can't believe it is half over!

This week and next week we are in Ingelheim. We're not even going any farther than Mainz for the weekend!!!!!

Yesterday I took the girls to Mainz on the train, it's about a 10 minute trip. I gotta say whenever you are ordering something in a foreign language you never know what you are going to get. Thank God I got the right train tickets. I wasn't nearly as lucky when I ordered the girls ice-cream! I thought I was ordering two cups of ice-cream one with a scoop of bitter chocolate and one with a scoop of chocolate nugget. We ended up with one cup of one scoop of vanilla and one scoop of bitter chocolate and the other cup with a scoop of chocolate nugget and one scoop of bitter chocolate. Our friend Yens later figured out that I had ordered a cone in a cup with bitter chocolate and chocolate nugget! Oh well!

Once again I nearly brought Olivia to tears of joy! Yes we had lunch at McDonalds again. Devastatingly though their pop machines weren't working so we all had to have orange juice. The good news is that it was really only orange in color there wasn't a trace of pulp (or nutrition) anywhere.

The girls have met a couple of little (3 years and 5 years old) kids. At this point no one cares how old they are. The only prerequisite is that they speak English. The Mom thinks she's won the lottery. She can't believe her luck! Their Dad works at Boehringer and they've just moved from Paris. They're feeling the same sort of shell shock that we were a few weeks ago. We are trying to get together for dinner, so far no luck!
Friends, yeah!

Because there is a lack of new travelling adventures going on with the Fairley's I'm going to do a 'best of' sort of thing...

For some reason when I rest my elbow on the arm rest in the car, 9 times out of 10, I inadvertantly unroll the window. I can tell by the look on Bruce's face that he feels so lucky that I'm his wife!!!!! It makes me laugh just thinking about it!

Another really annoying thing: Shannon has started making this sucking noise with her teeth! OMG! I can not begin to describe how crazy it makes me!!!!!

I think we all know Olivia's aversion to decent cuisine of any kind is pretty annoying to all the other Fairleys!

Bruce has kept his annoyingness to Amsterdamn where he must have reminded us 42 times that he had lived there 20 years ago. Clearly what he did there 20 years ago affected his memory!!!! The bottom picture is Bruce and the girls in front of his apartment there. Did I mention that he lived there 20 years ago? See how annoying that is?!?

Things I forgot to mention...

In Riems, France the parking is a premium. On our final day there, there were no parking spaces on the main floor of the parking garage. There was a sign that said 'car elevator', so we pressed the button and Bruce drove our entire family into an elevator that was so small that you couldn't open the doors to get out (say if something horrible happened like one of the people in the car had claustriphobic attack, and you really needed to get out) I had to go to my happy place and fast!!

One other thing about cars in Europe. I understand that the cars are smaller but they are still considerably bigger than the parking spaces! Unbelievable!

Keeping with the car theme...
In both the Netherlands and Italy we've noticed a peculiar phenomonen. When there is work going on on the highway they don't waste an able bodied person to wave a flag of warning they have these weird scarecrow/mannequin hybrids set up and somehow have them waving flags! It is funny yet disturbing at the same time! The ones in the Netherlands are particularly scary, crazy wigs etc. Of course the Italian ones are beautifully dressed!

Why is it that the German country side is so lush and yet there isn't a vegetable in sight in any restaurant?

TOILETS
It amazes me how many different ways there are to flush a toilet! There are the automatic flushers, the big pad on the wall behind the toilet flushers, the step on the floor flushers, and there are a few I just had to walk away from. The fact that many places charge for the use of the toilet is unpleasant yet not shocking. All the different ways they get you to pay is fascinating! There's the token approach the British are fond of, the different highway systems seem happiest with cash and in the German train stations you can get away without paying but if you don't pay before you go thru the turn style a loud buzzer goes off and won't stop unless you pay! I'm sure everyone in the vicinity suffers from hearing loss, it is unbearable. The amazing thing with that is how many middle aged guys are proud to save the 50 cents at the expense of their hearing (and mine!) I made eye contact with one guy and he gave me that proud look of 'boy did I jsut beat the system!'

SIGNS (a passion of mine)
As you enter Paris there are these signs that look like the car is on fire/exploding. They are directed to use the right lane. Really? I've tried to think of every possible explanation. I got nothin'!
Then there are the bathroom signs there. They are the best! Their sign people are elegantly dressed and it's a 50's rendering of a movie star type character. I feel like I should sashay into the bathroom! LOVE IT!

As we left Florence I noticed that their crosswalk signs are of little kids crossing the street running full out in shorts. The little girls pigtail is straight out, that's how fast she's moving. They aren't old signs either, they look recent. In Switzerland they have two 50's kids holding hands, carefully walking across the street. They speak volumes of how different the two countries are that share a border!

Just funny stuff...

In the visitors guide that was in our hotel room in Amsterdam they talk about how screaming and yelling in public are unacceptable and urinating in public is illegal, if caught it's a 50 EURO fine. Prostution is legal and please don't hesitate to contact the police if you have trouble with a pimp. please don't be embaressed they've seen it all and remember that if you use too many soft drugs a hot sugary drink will help make you feel better! Hard drugs are illegal and probably fake, jsut a ruse that will get you robbed! Watch out for fake police officers too! ...and parking is NOT free! What a crazy town. Did I mention that Bruce lived there 20 years ago?!?

I'm going to save hotel breakfasts for another Blog! It looks like things are going to be pretty dull for the next little while. I don't want to run out of material!
Have a great weekend!