G is for Germany.

The country of my birth. A part of me that is undeniable. Just listen to me speak. :)

After 13 years we finally made it back to the fatherland. My two oldest don’t remember much from their previous trips and the youngest had never been.

We packed a lot into 2 weeks and at times it got overwhelming but through it all I discovered that there are parts of me that are still very very German even after living in the US for 24 years.

One of the city gates in Bonn where my sister now lives.

During this trip we saw my sister and her family’s home for the first time since she moved back to Germany just before Ally was born.

It’s a beautiful area. Bonn is a big city with a small town feel and has a very international atmosphere since UN Bonn has their offices there. Once you leave the city, the country side is just so pretty with many vineyards vying for attention.

The girls an I after climbing to the top of the Cologne Cathedral - 533 steps.

It’s hard to capture the size of such a magnificent building. But we tried. We couldn’t even get the top of the Cathedral into the frame.

After a few days in Bonn and Cologne, we went to my home area and visited with family and friends. It was so good to see everyone again, especially the great uncles and aunts. My uncle (mom’s brother), my aunt and my cousin have visited us a few times in Florida over the years, so it hadn’t been quite as long since I saw them last but the rest of the family and even most of my friends I hadn’t seen in over 13 years, one even longer.

It was so good to be “home” and feel that connection to my roots. The kids enjoyed themselves and liked seeing where I grew up.

Ally’s first time seeing snow. She had a blast.

I miss the food. All the yummy food. I felt so good while we were there, like my body remembered, “hey, this is what you are supposed to eat” and truly enjoyed every morsel that went into my mouth.

After “home”, we headed to Berlin for a few days. There is so much to do, so much to see and you just can’t do it all. We hit some highlights, like the Berliner Fernsehturm, the Reichstag, the Berlin Cathedral and the Brandenburger Gate. The boys went off for a tour of the BMW Motorrad Werk and totally geeked out over that and they also met one of my old school friends to go to the Military History Museum Airport Berlin-Gatow (say that 5 times fast). We sure had a busy few days there.

Me peeking out from behind “The Wall” - at least a piece of it.

The last pit stop was Hamburg. It was so cold, so windy and sooooooo crowded, our time there happened to fall on a holiday weekend so the crowds were crazy. We had head so many wonderful things about Hamburg and were kind of excited to go but unfortunately, due to the holiday and the crowds and a lot of construction, we didn’t get to see what we wanted to see and also, didn’t enjoy our time there too much. Maybe we were just tired at that point of our trip, maybe it was the cold, but Hamburg left us strangely disappointed.

From Hamburg, we took the train back to my sister’s to spend Easter with her and the family before heading back to sunny South Florida. The train ride was so relaxing… probably the best part of that leg of our journey.