Germany 2011 - the first few days leading up the the birthday party of the century.

Once again we returned to Germany!  This time was to celebrate my father in law's 70th birthday.  I know I haven't even blogged about my October trip to Spain or November in Morocco, (I will, I swear) but remember I was so morning sick back then I could barley function.  I know you don't feel bad for me....throwing up all over Spain and Morocco is better than never seeing them.  I'll admit I've been pretty blessed to travel the last 10 years but I have a feeling that my passport might soon start collecting dust.  We do have a baby coming in T minus 60 days.

Yep I'm 32 weeks.  Or for those of you who don't speak "weeks" I'm 7 months along.

So now a quick overview of our latest Germany adventure.

We flew - SLC - Paris - Frankfort.  It was long but uneventfully.

Then we took and ICE (very fast train) to Hannover where Heinz picked us up.  It was 8:00 p.m. by the time we got to his house but we weren't tired so instead we changed in to pj's and played some pool.

We were sleep deprived and pretty giddy.  

Needless to say I was super excited to have authentic German breakfast.  If you are a long time follower of my blog you know how much I LOVE German breakfast.

Eric and Spencer with great Bed Head and cold cuts.

The next day was Sunday.  We went to Church like good Mormons.  It is always pretty fun to hear all the service in German again and I love singing the hymns in German.  This is great practice for my German which has never been as good as I want it to be.  After Church we went out to a restaurant like not so good of Mormons.  Does that cancel out going to 3 hours of church?

The restaurant had great atmosphere.  

Spencer looking so handsome!

Me fulfilling every girls dream to be a pregnant bar maid. right?

This guy tipped me well.

After Lunch we took some time to visit Spencer's Grandparents Grave.  

An interesting cultural note:  German cemeteries function VERY differently than American cemeteries.  In America once you are in the dirt you are in for life...or whatever...they never dig you up.  In Germany your body only gets to own a particular cemetery spot for 25 to 35 years.  Then they give your headstones back to your family and bury someone else on top of you.  Americans are appalled by this.  Germans are used to the idea.  

Then we "as in Heinz my father in law" decided to drive across Germany to check out his apartments.  We got onto the autobahn and soon were stuck in STAU.  

People have this idea of the Autobahn as being nothing but a blur of Mercedes and BMW's and Porsche's racing down the lanes.  That is sometimes true...but not on this Sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately for us we were stuck in "Stau" the German word for traffic for TWO HOUR.  Did you hear that TWO HOURS of not even moving.  In America they at least get one lane going and you can creep along.  Not in Germany.  We and 1,000's of others just sat trapped.

People got out of their cars.  Two girls walked around passing out candy.

After an hour Spencer and I walked up to an overpass to check out the view.  Cars were stopped for miles.

Meanwhile back at the ranch Heinz my father in law was asleep at the wheel.  

Eric my brother in law was also catching some ZZZ's.  

Eventually we made it out of the Stau.  We made one more stop at a random castle.  (they are all over the hills) to check out a pretty view of Green Germany.

castles and little villages

Then we returned home to get all rested for Heinz's big Birthday which was the next day.  Stay tuned for the Big Party Blog which I'll post later this week!