Germany Memories

We are on contingency plan number...six?

• Plan A- Evan comes to Poland and then we fly together to London to watch Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Saunders in Sister Act The Musical.
• Plan B- Sister Act got canceled, but we were still going to go to London.
• Plan C- Evan comes, but just to Poland. Evan's flight home from London got canceled, plus the UK was instilling a 14 day quarantine for all travelers. 
• Plan D- Evan can no longer come to Europe. Cameron and I are going to go to Georgia (country) with two of my friends.
• Plan F- Evan learns that Greece may be accepting American visitors. We start doing research on the best way to spend a week in Greece. 
• Plan D, again- We decide Greece isn't going to be a smart idea, so I go back to planning the Georgia trip. 
• Plan G- We find out that Georgia is not allowing any international visitors (even from the EU). Cameron and I decide to to a road trip to Weinheim, Germany. 

Let me just say you should never reach plan G, yet we have reached plan G and I'm actually really excited. Weinheim is the town I grew up in and I haven't been there in 15 years. Even just planning this trip has brought back memories, and I'm anticipating a good cry when we park across the street from Nächstenbacher Weg 39. We'll only have 4 nights in the Weinheim area, but I want to cram 6+ years of stories into that time. I want us to do day trips to Mannheim, Heidelberg, Burg Eltz, Baden-Baden, Europa Park, and the Black Forest, but we don't have that many days! Poor Cameron is going to be exhausted, both with the travel and from listening to a multi-day monologue!

Like I said, it's been 15 years since I lived in Germany. We moved away when I was 12 years old, so I know things probably have changed and living in a country as a child is much different than visiting as an adult. What I find amazing, though, is the items that have traveled with me all of these years. A handful of mementos have travels from Germany, to New Mexico, to Washington, then Poland. I want to pay tribute to those few things that have found their way back to Europe with me.

I got this cardigan in the 7th grade for the Tech Fair. As a tomboy, it was the first time I had to dress up in a long while, and I think my mom was excited to take me to H&M for a shopping adventure. I remember her calling this sweater a "classic" and she loves to say how classics never go out of style. Well I guess she's right, because I also wore this sweater on my first day of work at CLA and it remains a staple in my closet. 

I wore that blue sweater one day before this photo was taken (Day 1 of the Tech Fair). On Day 2, it was announced that me and my friends Mary and Kendyll won first place for our video podcast "Three Muskenerds." 

Another one of Mom's "classics." This one was part of her wardrobe while we were living in Germany, and it got passed down to me while I was living in Washington, because the season for heavy vests is pretty limited in southern New Mexico. 

All of these hair pieces were purchased at various German Christmas markets. 

In addition to Christmas markets, another activity we often did in the winter was ski trips. A family favorite was spending a week in the Alps taking ski lessons with Siegi Tours. There were always family activities in the evenings, like cow milking. I'm pretty sure I won a trophy for my milking abilities. 

Lots of heart necklaces. The first was a gift from Aunt Kathy, the second a hand-me-down from Mom, and the last came from Grandma Shirley. 

This tooth timer now lives in my travel toiletries bag, which means it will be joining me on our upcoming road trip. I'm pretty sure it also came from a Christmas market, or at least some sort of German craft market. 

That being said, I'm pretty sure it was an Easter present one year. 

Aunt Midge gifted this to me one year, and I still bring it with me on long car or plane trips. Dad and I would compete to see who could complete the pattern the quickest. 

Speaking of Dad, this is his fleece sweater I stole from his closet before moving away for college, but it probably was a good thing because Dad definitely had to borrow it back one time when he was visiting Washington. If I'm correct, this sweater is quite a bit older than just Germany, and maybe be even older than me. 

Not the same sweater, but you get the idea of the era it was worn it. This was a teddy bear picnic in the back garden; you can see our house in the background. For years I have been fantasizing about ringing the doorbell of this house and explaining (in German, of course) that I used to live here and asking if it would be ok to walk into the back garden to take a better look at the house. Of course in this fantasy the person answering the door invites me inside and I give Cameron a tour of the chocolate stain on the radiator from where I accidentally melted a Kinder Country, the scratches on the floor from Cara and I riding our scooters inside, and the flecks of bright pink spray paint in the attic residual from a devious afternoon.