It’s time to dust off this dormant blog and get it back in circulation. We’re leaving for Germany on Sunday as part of a home exchange with a family from Nuremberg and will use this as a central portal for pictures and journal entries. Our German visitors are Ruediger and his 9-year-old daughter, Belana, who will be arriving Thursday night. The rest of their family couldn’t travel this summer but they have a second home in Zirndorf, which is where Charlie and I will be staying til the 23rd of August. They are experienced travelers and love the U.S. but have always stayed in hotels. The great part about exchanging homes is the ability to live like a native. They’ll use our location as a central point for all of their vacation destinations and be able to enjoy the beach on their days at rest. We’ll be staying in their condo, just a short walk from a train station, which will be our transportation of choice for our entire stay.

At the moment we are frantically putting the finishing touches on deep cleaning the house, clearing out closet and drawer space, and putting together instructions on appliances and electronics. It’s amazing what you’ll put up with until faced with strangers living in your abode and it’s a good excuse to get rid of “stuff”. Friday and Saturday we’ll be showing them around, introducing them to the neighbors and giving them a chance to settle in and get over jet lag. Then Sunday we’re out of here and they’re on their own.

Our former neighbor in Thornton Park is letting us park our car there for the duration…a bus to the airport is around the corner so we’ll pick that up for the start of our trek. Then we head west to Dallas for our 9.5 hour flight to Frankfurt, hop on the 2 hour ICE train to Nuremberg where Ruediger’s wife, Andrea, will take us to the condo. Then we’re on our own. We’ve already planned several day trips via train and bus, a cruise on the Rhine, castle spotting, Black Forest Railroad, Alps, etc. We are also sneaking in a quick trip to London to catch the men’s marathon on the last day of the Olympics.

If anyone’s interested in following our journey, subscribe to the blog and you’ll be notified when we update it with, hopefully, fun times and pics. And if any of you have visited Germany recently and have “do’s and don’ts, let us know.

Gesundheit!  Susan & Charlie