traveling fools

We are a bunch of traveling fools. It all started when my good friend Jackie was given the date for her husband to deploy. She and I planned a trip to Dublin to get her out of the house soon after his departure. After we booked our flight and hotel, she was told that her husband was leaving for Iraq from Garmisch, Germany a week earlier. I immediately volunteered to go down to be with her and her 2 kids. That evolved into "Garmisch is halfway to Vecenzia." Not long afterward, myneighbor and friend Sherry started looking for a small trip to embark on with her 2 kids after her husband left for training in the states. So we became one big traveling group.

After spending the night in Garmisch, we drove through the Italian Dolomites and converged on Vecenza military post for the night. The plan was to get up early and catch the train to Venice. It didn't end up being early after I forgot my military ID card, we ended up at the wrong bus stop, then we got off at the wrong stop. The 40 minute train ride was laughable in trying to keep Lincoln occupied.

After grabbing a bite to eat, we converged on the streets of venice with us four adults (the 4th being my sister Madeline) and seven kids, two of which were in umbrella strollers. WE meandered through the maze hoping to come out at San Marco Square to see the cathedral and the castle. After a lot of meandering, Jackie stopped to buy a map. Unfortunately, not all of us stopped. WE stayed seperated the rest of the day. Our little group enjoyed seeing San Marco, Doges Palace, shopping, feeding pigeons in the square, and taking the water taxi. We did meet up with our group eventually. We took the train back to Vicenza, and unfortunately, missed the last bus of the night back to the military post. What an adventure that was!

We drove back up to garmisch the next morning and enjoyed a little shopping before hitting the road for home on Monday afternoon. My little family and I did not have a moment to breathe. WE unpacked and repacked and headed out thrusday afternoon to drive to frankfurt-haun airport to catch our flight to dubling the following morning. We arrived at our hotel six and ahalf hours later because of the staus (traffic jams) on the autobahn. We had a late night and a very early morning to catch our 6:15 flight out.

We stayed at a five star hotel called Harrington Hall. It was beautiful. We were just a few blocks from the pedestrian zone and from a gorgeous park.