Hansel & Gretel

After a couple of days in Heidelberg, it was time to head into the Eifel National Park to find our little apartment for the week.  We detoured through Luxembourg because, why not?  It was a cool city, a little rainy, but lovely and then it was getting dark, but we plugged the name of the town of our resort into our rental car's GPS and headed back onto the autobahn.  The estimated time of arrival didn't seem like it was going to take us long enough, but after consulting the old school paper map, it seemed we were heading in the right direction so we carried on.  We stopped at a gas station to ask for clarification that we were heading the right way, and seemed to be doing okay, so again we carried on in the rain.  My uneasiness took a huge turn for the worse when we were directed to turn off the main, populated road onto a small side road directly into the forest - imagine those roads in canyons in Utah that are about half a lane wide and head waaaayyyy up into the hills.  All the street lights vanished, as well as any other traffic, and the trees on both sides of the car were thick to the point of impenetrable.  But, we carried on, trusting the GPS.  I admit, my imagination was cooking up some crazy stuff, as we continued kilometer after kilometer without seeing any other cars, or even signs of life.

Eventually, we did pass another car, and then as we were "nearing our destination" crossed a tiny bridge and passed an old shed surrounded by old farm equipment and a sign for a hostel.  We pulled into their parking lot to ask further directions because there was nothing else in sight - no signs of the promised grocery stores down the hill, or the familiar pictures of the resort we had booked.  Despite the "closed" sign on their door, Nate ventured in, and was gone a long time, which I knew was probably not good news.  The other problem was that the check in time for our resort closed at 8, and it was getting close to 7, so I knew we might be in trouble.  Yep, turns out that "this is wrong" feeling I had the entire drive was right on - we were in a different town of the same name, about 2 hours away from where we actually wanted to be.  The lovely woman in the guest house called our resort and explained our situation so she told us where she would leave a key, and we plugged new information into our "trusty" GPS and tried again.  Thankfully, the kids finally fell asleep and our continued drive was quiet, albeit long.  We arrived shortly after 8, and were able to get the key and crash!  I left the experience with a whole new respect for Hansel and Gretel, alone in the forest though - in their shoes, I most likely would have died from a fear induced heart attack as soon as the sun went down.  The lovely, sunlit pictures I included look nothing like what we drove through - but if you picture a black night, you will have it.

We happened on to this rainbow our first morning in Gemund, at the end of the road of our resort.  Seemed like a good sign after our rough night.  We spent the week venturing into small charming towns surrounding us, and a few bigger, more familiar cities too.  A highlight for the kids was finding this little slide,

shaped like an elephant.  A favorite for each kid - win win.  They would have stayed all day in the cold, but I wimped out.

A couple of girls came out to play soccer, and Will invited himself to their game.  One spoke pretty passable English, so they let him play for a bit.

Maybe it is living in Dubai, in the desert but it felt like almost everything in Germany was so quaint and charming and picture worthy.  And green - in the middle of the winter!  With Christmas lights everywhere.