Summer time, birthday month and travels with Debi

Hello strangers!

Lol, well I am the one who has been a stranger, so forgive me for that. 

 

Somewhere above Canada.... the stories begin.

So it is summer time and school is done (YES) and I have been traveling or preparing for travel or cleaning up/recovering from travel during the entire month of June.  And I have to say, that is just how life should be.  I got back to some blazing hot weather- hotter than we have been here for at least 6 years.  And while Friday was crazy hot for this area- 95- yikes- we will continue to have warm summer weather for the next 10 days, for the most part.  Tonight we have been blessed with little reprieve time - it is, thankfully, almost cold right at the moment.  I'll take it!  The weather in Germany and London was downright delightful.  The last day I was in London was pretty warm- but it cooled off in the evening.  No complaints there.  The only time I got rained on was when I was changing planes in Iceland, and I couldn't see the beautiful country from the air.... boo.  Oh well.

EMILY!!!!  Graduation girl

Nice blurry picture of me, Rose and Joanne- Emily's Grandma

She did it!

I left my home June 8 to go attend my niece's graduation---  Emily is graduated from High School!  WHAT??  Anyway - (there were 739 kids in her graduating class, more than our entire school)  (and they had the ceremony in the ice arena for the U of M hockey team.)  it was an interesting change from graduations I usually go to!  Then I helped out with the grad party a bit the next day and saw my brothers and my sister in law, and just generally had a nice afternoon.  

Lunch at the gardens!

I spent the next few days with my delightful seester Rose and fam, before flying out of the Minneapolis airport Tuesday.  We did some shopping and eating out and went to the Botanic Gardens and other amusements. 

Who can NOT LIKE origami horse sculptures???  

I flew on Icelandair, which I highly recommend.  It was a really pleasant experience and they gave me VERY good vegetarian food!  A+ for them!  We flew north and across Canada to Iceland, and I didn't sleep, as about 2 am midwest time we had to change planes.  So I didn't bother.  It was morning there, I think, and so it just seemed like a long day.  Since I didn't get on the plane until 7:30, it really was a long day.  It (as previously mentioned) was raining a bit in Iceland and there was a lot of cloud cover, so I didn't get to see much as we flew over Scotland and England.  I did see a bit, but it was disappointing not to be able to see Iceland- much.  Ah well.

Any airline that give me Prosecco when I walk on the plane is ok with me

Here is a bit of Iceland as we were coming in for a landing... 

I landed in Frankfurt and was picked up by my friend Anne-Sophie and her little boy, Johann.  Who I adore, lol.  He is such a joyful little boy.  It was a couple hour drive down to Hohberg where she lives in the south east part of Germany.  Her village has like 4 or 5 names, from what I understand it is an area that has several little villages near each other and so you can use multiple names.  

At the family home in Hohberg- Anne-Sophie's dad raised the American flag in their yard in honor of my visit!  To say I was flattered is an understatement.  How nice was that??

Johann and his Eis! (ice cream)

The back of the beautiful house that was my home for a week.

It is SO beautiful there, on the edge of the Black Forest.  There are vineyards and BIG hills/gentle mountains that are covered in forest.  And CRAZY narrow roads.  So narrow they can't pass each other side by side on some of the little lanes, you have to pull over and let others go through.  SO different of course than our roads with our behemoth cars and trucks.  There are not very  many cars that can be considered full size by our standards, so that was interesting to observe.  The Autobahn is a different story- normal sized, 3 lanes and yes they do cruise right along.  It is fast, but I didn't think it was crazy fast.  

The formal walkway to the house- so beautiful!

So, Germany was playing in the World Cup and we celebrated in a few ways!  Including wearing of oversized jerseys.  lol

I have so many things to talk about from this trip, so I am going to be going slow and covering things as I edit the pictures and think about things to say.  This was such a different trip from my tour to Italy.  Staying in private homes and not being on the go 16 or 17 hours a day was a pleasure.  

If I could have these pretzels and buns every day for breakfast for the rest of my life I would.
I cannot explain how good they are and how different from anything I have ever had in the US.
Ja, eine andere Brezel bitte!

Morning

I  had 2 very different vacations in one.  The first in Germany was in - as I have indicated- a village with a family in a spacious home.  It was very quiet and yet fun with a little kid with us and a lot of people in and out of the house.  We went and visited some places in Germany, and also France and Switzerland!  WHAT??  It still astounds me.  It was relaxing and enjoyable, and I found I could understand a reasonable amount of German.  I would be able to be pretty fluent in a short period of time if I was there for a few months!  It was pretty cool to be able to figure out a lot of things being said and posted and such.

One of my first stop in my tracks views....  a teaser

The other trip I had was in the literal center of London in a tiny basement flat, sleeping on an air mattress in a room that filled up all the space not taken up by a desk.  It was just as amazing in different ways.  I rarely stay in a city, and to be in such a small space was also not my norm.  But it was so much fun.  But that will be coming in later episodes of Travel with Debi!  

I would like to say confidently where we were, but I would be guessing!
eta- I looked on my  phone- Westminster, west end!

Alrightie, I have been working on this post for a while now.  Finding phone photos and shifting them to the computer (thank you air play) and sizing and captioning and writing takes a long time!  So I am going to leave you with this beginning and add more tomorrow.  

Thinking about all I did and the stories that come up is so fun- definitely revisiting some joyful times.

See you soon!  muah!

OH HEY!!!!  BIRTHDAY MONTH, BABY!!  

                                 🎂🎂🎂