Germany and such :)

Ahhhh..... Where to begin?....
So post- Aarau, Switzerland (where we spent most of our day at the Archive Bldg researching family history..)
We ended up leaving at about 4:30pm-ish, running thru the rain to get to the train station to make a 5pm departure, and made our way on a last-minute and spur of the moment trip to Montreux, Switzerland for a Jazz festival. (This event goes on for about a week, and is aparently a "big deal" over there... I could see why if you're familiar with all these German jazz groups, but if not......) Hmph!
So here's setting the scene: ETA in Montreux is 6:30pm. Final departure from Montreux is 8:15... OR 5 am the next day. Its raining cats and dogs (and a few horses and goats), its crowded, loud, smokey and cold, and the cherry on top: both Jason and I are so incredibly low on sleep that the teeniest tiniest thing will ignite the bomb that rests daintily on a string that both he and I hold. So for those who know both of us (and probably those who dont), Im sure you can guess what happens 30 minutes into this awful idea of a trip.. KABOOM!!!!!!!! Lets just say (and mom, no need to worry, we acted like the adults you raised us to be and figured/talked/worked things out) my voicing my opinion on the whole thing (AKA me not wanting to hang around to watch a 9pm show (who knows how good) and then having to wait til 5am to catch a train) was not a "good" thing. At that moment, that is not what Jason wanted to hear (note: we went there for him) so things went sour quickly... Before I knew it, I was alone in a crowded smokey place full of all sorts of [drunk] people, sitting there waiting for something bad (or worse) to happen.. *you know those moments when you just need a hug or a sincere smile??? For someone, anyone, to just reassure you thats its ok?.. well, it was that moment (the first of this trip) that I longed for home... * Im a big girl tho, so I held back the tears, put on my tough face, and stuck it out until I was back at Jason's side again within the hour.. All is well.

In a nutshell, we ended up deciding sleep was more important, so we booked it through the rain to the train station with literally 30seconds to spare... and on to Mannheim, Germany we went.

Mannheim, Germany:
Haha! Oh boy... so you think sleeping on a bench surrounded by Swiss slugs is bad?? Well, the train to Germany arrived at about 2 am.. hostel? None. Open store or cafe? Nope! A human being capable of understanding and responding without slurring their words and falling over? Of course not. It was too cold and rainy to sleep outside, so that was outta the question too... so what did we do??? Guess! Take a guess!!!! Oh come on, you know you wanna!!!!!!!!!!
.... YOU GOT IT! We slept on the super-clean train station floor! Oh my was it soft and cushy! Smelled like roses too :) ... **So for those who are too literal, please note that I am being VERY sarcastic. It was pitiful... but cheap...? ha! For whatever reason tho, I was actually able to fall asleep (must have been a God thing).***
A few hours later (after someone tossed us a coin- must have thought we were homeless) we got up and started out our day with a cup of cafe and some breaded something... I dont even know... I was dead to the world. Im sure I looked it too.. BADLY. By 5:30 ish we were on our way to find our hostel for the next eve...
Hostel check-in: 3pm!!! Which meant we had 9 hours to kill... So we went to wandering the streets of Mannheaim... Learned the layout of the inner city, found a farmers market (Reminded me of home!!! :) I thought of you Rachel! and Neen and Seth and Casey.. All ya'll! How I miss you...), bought some food and fresh fruit, wandered some more, bought me a computer (Yay for mini laptops!!! and its in German too.. ha! One cool souvenir if you ask me.. if only I could figure out how to make in English now...Was a steal of a deal tho! Wes, you'd be proud of me :) ), got some lunch -Thai place called Wan Wans..mmmmmm...- and gradually made our way back to the hostle, where luckily they let us check in 30 min early.

So....... You wanna know what we did for the next 15 hours????????????? (after a long shower of course!) SLEEEEEEEEEP!!!

Yes, 2 sleeping pills and 15 hours later, we were charged and ready for the next day! 7am and we were downstasirs eating breakfast, and on our way to the next town over: Marnheim, Germany.

Marnheim, Germany:
This is where we found 2 of 3 farms that once belonged to the Haury family somewhere along the line back in the 1700/1800s. Cool stuff actually! LOTS of walking though (approx 10 miles.. with the 25 pounder on the back).

...Now I know I'm wordy by nature when it comes to writing (and I can just see some of you nodding off) so I'm gonna cut to the chase on this bit and just show you pictures!
(in process... slow internet :/ )

After all that business, meeting some of the people who now live on those ol' farm houses (and finding a living Haury right there in in a part of Marnheim), we went on to a few cities over (about 1:30 train ride), found a haostel after getting lost one too many times, and are now in for the night.. at almost midnight. Im only up cuz Im doing the laundry.. plus there is free internet and I wanted to take advantage of it! Sweet yo! (..as Heather would say)

So now its off to sleepy sleep town to get a little shut eye so at 6am I can be up and half-way runnin! Guten nacht to you all back home (even though its only mid afternoon), and until next time!