Lis and Tyler in Germany

We returned on Wednesday night from our little jaunt around The Netherlands, France and Switzerland. While we were gone, spring came to Steinbach. The grass grew, the trees are in bloom, there are little flowers all around and the weather is amazing. It’s good to be home and it was neat to come home and have it feel like home. I don’t think either of us was expecting it to, and it was a pleasant surprise.

Since we weren’t able to write while we were away, we have tons of stories and pictures piled up. Perhaps I’ll do it in instillations. And hopefully there will be some entries from Tyler as well. Stay posted.

Our trip started with a rude awakening about how little Tyler and I know about traveling in Europe. We put off planning our trip thinking we’d just buy a Eurail pass and head out. We had a glorified idea of what this would look like…show up at a train station with our packs, see where we felt like going and hop aboard. Fun, right? Not so quick. Apparently the Eurail pass is not available to European citizens and is therefore not readily available for purchase here. After MUCH ado, and thanks to Miriam and some quick, fast German in a rather loud and serious tone, we were able to get our hands on a Eurail pass for two. At 4:30am we took at 60 Euro cab ride (no other way out of Steinbach at that hour…) to the train station and boarded our train to Holland. We transfered several times and were loving the scenery, feeling good about being on the road, and pretty cocky about how savvy we seemed to be with the stations and the changes and all. Not long after we left Zwolle, just one short stop away from FINALLY meeting grandma and Hans, we heard the announcer mentioning several cities, which we assumed were upcoming stops, none of which was “Leeuwarden,” which was our much awaited destination. Because of the language barrier, I hoped my body language was enough and with a puzzled look on my face I asked a fellow passenger “Leeuwarden???” Ummm…no. Luckily she spoke English and was able to explain that the train had split in Zwolle. One half had gone to Leeuwarden, but our half was not. WHAT? Seriously? Only certain seats are going the right way? But, we figured it out and got ourselves there. And only an hour late! And what a start to a fantastic visit worth every minute of stress getting there.