Departing is such Sweet Sorrow!!

Sunset on the tour - Tschuss

16 Sep 10 - Today we depart Germany for the US.  It is bitter sweet leaving.  We did not have alot of time once we found out we were leaving to do all we wanted or see everyone to say "See ya Later!!!"  We truly enjoyed our 2 years here - especially with the friendships formed, places visited and new experiences.  We close out this blog with some Top 10s.  Not ranked but still - GREAT stuff.  We maybe missed something but we'll see. 
A special thanks to the many, many, many people who touched our lives this tour in Europe from family, friends, co-workers, team mates, teachers, volunteers, etc.

Top Ten things we will miss:

o Daily visits to backerei (bakery)

o Food, Beer and Wine

o Rigatoni Alforno, Hawaii Pizza, Orange Fanta, McRib

o Fests – Small and Large Christmas markets, Weinfest, Farmer's Market/ Fests, Local Beer Fest Garmish, Town Fest, May Day Fest, etc.

o European Bread

o Family and Friends

o Kim’s two treasurer jobs

o German Grocery stores

o Ability to use and learn more German

o Driving 100mph on the Autobahn

Top ten things excited about getting in the states
o Air Conditioner

o Plain Water

o Foods: Krispy Crème Donuts, 5-guys Hamburgers, Wendy’s frosties

o Watching sports at normal times

o A mall with American fashion clothes

o More than 10 TV channels and reruns

o Country/Christian radio stations

o Commercials

o More than one store to shop for American stuff

o Not showing ID every time you go somewhere!!!

Top 10 Favorite Memories in Europe
o First Trip to Slovakia - Going to meet Tina's family in a country we never visited and knew SOO little about was great.  Meeting families that grew up under Communism, seeing a different culture, meeting Tina's Dad who served in an Army that was an enemy of the US and now we share a daughter, cooking with Babka, hunting mushrooms, Vodka, anniversary boat ride with Slovak navy, cooking goulash, DONUTS!!!, everything - it was just priceless.

o Jamie wins 10 yr old 50m Breaststroke Division Champ - Cannot say more.  It showed Jamie that she CAN win if she puts her mind and ALOT of work into something!!!  VERY proud of her efforts.

o Michael’s Graduation - What a special day.  Being invited to be part of the family at Michael's High School Graduation was wonderful.  It was a very different experience from an American HS graduation but hey!! That is why we were so happy to go!!  What a great event to be apart of!!!

o Travelling Europe Pool by Pool - Visiting England, Spain, Netherlands, Berlin, Belgium and numerous small bases in Germany with the swim team.  We had a great time, had some GREAT food and wonderful memories.

o Europe Tour 2010 with students - What a WONDERFUL event taking the family and our extended family to 9 countries, 15 days, 2,800 miles. 

o Coffee and Cake with Family and Friends - It is truly about friends, food and fun.  Often we would visit German friends and family and talk over coffee and cake.....

o Holiday Meals with Unnold/Arnolds/Stoffels – Truly great events.  We enjoyed the meals we cooked for or shared with our friends.  We cannot share alot of American culture with our European friends but we can share FOOD. Just some of the enjoyable events - there we too many to count!!! 
     4 July 09 - American Meal with Unnold family - ribs, burgers - the works
     4 July 10 - American meal with Stoffel Family - cooked at Michael's - ribs, burgers the works!
     Christmas 08 - German meal with Stoffel family
     Chirstmas 09 - Raclette with Stoffel family
     BBQ meal cooked with Malinak family in PRESOV - we took all the items needed there!!!
     New Years Day 09 - American meal with Stoffel Family
     New Year's Day 10 - American meal with Pecho and Arnold family
     Thanksgiving 09 - American meal with Stoffel Family
     Thanksgiving 10 - American meal with Unnold family - 20 Germans!!
     Sunday lunch with Unnolds - German meal
     Lena Sophie's 16th Birthday - homecooked Greek food with Arnold family
     Slovak Goulash (Hungarian's stole it) cooked with Martin in Presov
     Any meal that Babka Cooked
     Traditional Winepicking Meal with Stoffels - on roadside by wineyard picking grapes :)
     Hunter Meal - German Deer from Eifel cooked by Petra

o Girl Scout trip to Our Chalet in Switzerland - Truly a highlight.  Jamie and the scouts visited the gorgeous Chalet in Adelboden Switzerland, met some wonderful young ladies, earned some patches and enjoyed the international girl scout experience.

o Egypt Trip - WOW.  travelling back thousands of years in time to see what you have always heard about. Nile, Sphinx, Pyramids, Tut's treasures, etc. Food, history it was all there.  Except for the camel ride and Jamie being sick, it was a perfect vacation!!

o Malinak Family Trip to Germany with 3 family reunion at Stoffel’s:  It was truly an honor to have Tina's family ask to spend their yearly vacation with us in Germany.  We visited Strausborg, Rhine River, and teh most special was the day we spent at Michael's.  It was a family reunion - 3 families brought together by fate.  We are truly blessed to have 2 wonderful additions to the Kennedy Family and we enjoy and have the deepest respect for their parents. 

We'll that's it folks.  We've wrapped up 26+ months on this tour and a lifetime of memories.  If we left out something, we are sorry but let us know!!!!  Everything was special!!!!!!!

A special thanks to the many many many people who touched our lives this tour in Europe from family, friends, co-workers, team mates, teachers, scouts, volunteers, etc.  This tour was sooo special and we are much better people and family because of each of you.

As we say in our family,

Good Bye
Tschuss
Ahoj
An Jung

The Kennedy's

Auf Weidersein Deustchland!!!

Stay Tuned for our new blog - Kennedy's adventures in Washington, DC----coming soon to a computer screen near you..

Dinner at Stoffel's

12 Sep - We visited Michael, Alfons and Petra to say "See you Later".  We had a WONDERFUL dinner of fresh mushroom soup, doe, yes doe, a deer, a female deer - called Rhea in German, Red cababge (Rot Kraut), and homemade bread dumplings and pear with cranberries and a wine creme dessert with Dornfelder grapes - YUMMY!!!!! as always.  Petra and Alfons were wonderful hosts again. 

We are very proud of Michael.  He will attend the University of Karlsruhe starting 4 October to study Business Engineering!!  He already has an apartment arranged, a car and learning to wash clothes :)  He will do very well in his studies!!!!

We will miss the Stoffel family very much.  We enjoyed our time with them so much and the many activities we did with them.  We learned soooo much more of the Germany culture and life than you can ever read or hear about.

We cannot wait to have Michael come home to Fairfax and have Alfons and Petra visit us for food and touring of the DC area.

The answer - Petra of course!!!

Dinner - YUMMY!!!

the Family :)

At dinner - Family - Food - Fun!!

Bad Durkheim Weinfest

12 Sep - The Kennedy's don't let a little thing like moving to the US in 5 days stop of from enjoying Germany!!  We visited the Largest Wine Fest in the World that is only 45 minutes from our town.  We rode rides, ate some good food, had wine and shopped at the booths that were there.  The winefest is similiar the Oktoberfest except with wine, smaller tents and the whole thing is about 5 time smaller than Oktoberfest.  They only sell wine in .5L or 1/2 quart glasses.  Of course we had a crepe - strawberry and chocolate!!

Jamie and Laura are in the last green seats - 100m up!!

Jamie at the Winefest

eating and wine :)

Schweinfleisch mit Bratkartoffel und sausse - YUMMY!!

WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!!!

Visits

10-11 Sep - Laura, our Aussie Friend from Berlin, came for the weekend to visit.  She arrived on 10 Sep.  Hannah, our friend from Cologne came on 11 Sep for the day.  We took them around Ramstein Airbase to see what "Little America" looks like.  We had lunch at the sports bar so Dominic could have an American Burger and ribs.  We showed them the BX and commissary.  It is not that much different than Germany stores but is gave them a little idea of how Americans live here.

Jamie and Laura

Hannah - shopping!!!

Packing the house

7-10 Sep - We spent all week with the packers loading all our stuff in boxes and crates.  It is much harder for an Overseas move.  We just unpacked from our move on base the past weekend!!!!  We had a good crew that did a great job.  We will see our stuff in about 2 months.  We received loaner furniture from the govt for the weekend.  Because we fly on Thur, the govt will only pay for 3 nights in a hotel.  We had no furniture so we got the temp furniture on Fri and it will be picked up on Monday then to the hotel. - That's life :)  We spent alot of the time while they were packing looking at used cars and houses to rent online. 

Our life all wrapped up in boxes!!!

Bastogne, Belgium

Sep - We took Jamie and her friend, Julia, to see the Bastogne Museum and tour the town.  On the way, we stopped at the Luxembourg American Cemetary near Luxembourg City. 

Bastogne is the central focus of a a great battle of WWII - The Battle of the Bulge.

The girls enjoyed the museum.  We had lunch in town - Jamie had Mussels and fries :) of course.  The girls rode a Ferris Wheel.  We had a Belgiun Waffle with chocolate :) and bought some beer to bring home and no - I don't share!!!!

Kim, Julia and Jamie in Bastogne

Jamie and Julia at the Bastogne Historical Center

Jamie at LTG George Patton's Grave

Waffles :))))))))

Stoffel Visit

2 Sep - Michael, Alfons and Petra visited us for a tour of Ramstein AirBase. We drove around and showed them the "Little America" that is a military base.  We saw housing, schools, Commissary (Grocery store) and the PX - Mall.  We had dinner at Chili's.  It was quite different for Petra and Alfons - food, pace, color of houses, and what was available on base. 

They had a good time and enjoyed the Honey Chipotle chicken with fries and corn on the cob and the refills that kept coming!!!!

Europe Trip 2010 Day 15-16 - Prague, Czech Republic

18-19 Aug - After a long drive and an adventure finding the hotel and a place to park, we settled into the hotel and had a good dinner.  Fortunately, Tina was there as our translator.  We all enjoyed it.  Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic and tourism is king much like DC.  Tourist everywhere. Prices are very reasonable compared to other cities in Europe.  The old part of the city is small and most vendors and tourist places speak English and Russian since alot of Russians visit the city.  I visited Prague with my aunt in 1980.  It has changed quite alot in 20 years but I remember the dark Budwar beer.....very good.  Fortunately, it is still there :)

We had a tour of the Prague Castle including the St Vitus Cathederal which is very nice.  It was built over a 500 year span - begain in 1300s and completed in 1870s.  If you remember your christmas carols about Good King Wenceslaus, he was the King of Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic).  He is buried here.  He was canonized as a saint by the Pope.  He was loved by the people.  The start of the Thirty Years war began here between Protestants and Catholics in the 1600s.  It was the most destructive war i Europe until WWII.

After the tour, we walked the Charles Bridge for great views of the city, we had lunch at a pub which was nice and then did a longer walking tour thru St Wenceslaus Square.  We saw the monument to Jan Palach and two others who were protestors of Communism.  In 1968, to protest the Soviet military coming to Czechoslovakia, Jan set himself on fire and died days later of his injuries.  He is a patriot in both Czech Republic and Slovakia.  We walked back thru the town, just looking at the beautiful buildings, hitting a few stores, etc. 

That night Tina's boyfriends, Jakub, and his family arrived.  They were going back to Slovakia from Germany where they dropped off their youngest son for his year as an exchange student.  We met them last year when we visited Slovakia.  They are a very nice family and Jakub is a very nice young man.  We were happy to see them again.  We had a great dinner together, with Pivo (Czech for beer).  Afterwards, we went to the small summer market for dessert - crepes and these things called Trdelnim - basically bread rolled on a wooden roll, cooked over hot coals and then sugar applied.  It looks like tree bark and is GREAT!!!  yummy.  We walked back to the Charles Bridge to see the castle and town lit up at night.  It was very nice and pretty.

The next morning, Tina and I took Anastaysia to the airport for her flight back to Tashkent.  We had a great time with her and enjoying having her on the trip!!!  We returned to the hotel and breakfast with everyone.  We did a little extra shopping and then packed and headed to the car.  We moved ALL of Tina's stuff in the van to Jakub's family car.  We said our goodbye's to our Favorite Slovak Daughter and we all departed.

We arrived back home about 6pm - 7 hours from Prague to home with a few stops.  Yana is the last survivor and will stay with us until Wed when she returns to Ukraine and university.

Overall I would rate the trip an A-.  The girls were wonderful and everyone got along with no complaining except when the next bathroom break was :)))  It was 16 days, 2800 miles and 9 countries.  We ate, walked, drove, rode, laughed, adapted and enjoyed the company of each other all the while doing things that are different.  The downside was we did not get into Notre Dame, and the weather cancelled our mountain hike, not the best views of the Alps and our beach afternoon in Holland.  We learned alot from the ladies and would do it again in a heart beat.  The girls are wonderful young ladies with very bright futures.  They are special to us in many ways.  They help Jamie to see different views on things.

In the Town Square

Town Square at Night

Praque from the Castle

Dinner with Jakub's family

Astronomical Clock - 600 years old

St Vitus Cathederal

Trdelnim - yummy!!!!

Tomb of St Wenceslaus

Sisters - Absolutely!!!!

Europe Trip 2010 Day 14 - Salzburg, Austria

7 Aug - Salzburg.  After breakfast, we headed out for a tour of the town.  It was raining so we decided to get a van tour with one of the companies.  The tour was OK and we saw alot of the outside of town and a little of the history. The guide was a little quirky......... After the riding tour, we walked the old town on our own.  Salzburg is a very pretty little old town. Mozart was born here and the Sound of Music was partly filmed here.  Despite the weather, we had a good time.  We finished at the market and bought items for lunch: bread, fruit, etc to eat in the car on the way to Praque for 5 hours in the car!!!!!!!!

Mozart Birthplace

Inside Hohensalzburg Castle
Built by the church to protect the citizens from an attack by the Roman Empire

Fruit Stand at the market - it all looks SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOD

Home where alot of Sound of Music was filmed

BIG pretzels - all types

Salzburg

Europe Trip 2010 Day 13 - Berstchgaden

16 Aug - We stayed in Hotel Bavaria in downtown. A very nice hotel with the best breakfast table we've seen in 7 years in Germany.  We ate, alot, and headed to our first stop - Salt mines.  I know you are saying, how fun can salt mines be - well the girls LOVED it - especially not having to wait in the HUGE line!!  You change into miners clothes, hope a small train to ride deep into the mountain.  There are two wood slides, a boat ride on a salt water lake and alot to learn about how they mine salt with water.  Really interesting and fun.  The girls had a blast.   We had a nice lunch in town of traditional food - Hawaii toast for the girls and a pig knuckle for me with yes, what was that drink - BEER!

Ready for the tour of the Salt Mines

Lunch

Our next stop was a very good one.  We visited the Eagles Nest.  This was a building build by the Nazi party for Hitler on his 50th birthday.  It is one of the last few standing Nazi era buildings.  It is now a privately owned restaurant.  We toured part of the bunkers for the old hotel used by the Nazis.  We then hopped the busses to take us to the top of the mountain.  You walk thru a long tunnel in the mountain to the elevator that will hold 45 people then abot 400' to the top.  Hitler only visited it 9-10 times.  Eva Braun visited very often.  It was basically an entertainment building to showcase German engineering superiority and the Beauty of the German Alps.  Check on both.  there are no bedrooms as it was not intended for living - only entertaining visiting heads of state, etc.  The trip was raining on the way up but we caught a good patch of clear space for some great views!!

In the Bunkers under the Obersalzberg

In the elevator

Tunnel to Elevator and Eagles Nest at the top

Eagles Nest with a GREAT view

After descending the hill, we drove to Salzburg, Austria for dinner and to spend the night.  dinner was very good and I think the girls entertainment was much more exciting than the food was good!!  We finished the night with a bottle fo Stoffel eiswein at the hotel as we just talked!!!

Great way to cap off a great day - Stoffel eiswein!!

Europe Trip 2010 Day 11-12 - Bavaria, Germany

15-16 Aug - Bavaria tour.  The night of 14 Aug, we stayed at the Edelweiss Lodge an American hotel.  We had an American dinner and one LARGE margharita there.  We woke and had a big American brakfast then headed out.

Our first stop was Linderhof Castle, the main living castle of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  Oh yes,the girls liked it!!!!!!!

Linderhof Castle and fountain

We moved on the 1 hr north to Munich where we met Annika and her boyfriend, Tommy. Annika is a wonderful young lady who was also a student we knew in the US.  She is our Favorite Munchener!!  She lives there.  We met and had lunch at the famous tourist destination - Hofbrauhaus.  It was about 1pm but Annika and I had the Weisswurst and a beer anyway :)  Everyone enjoyed lunch and we began our walking tour.

Hofbrauhaus, Munich

Our tour took us up the tower of St Peter's Church, Marian Platz, Munich University, Frauen Church and the English Gardens.  the Gardens are HUGE and alot like Central park except there is a VERY LARGE Beer garden here serving, yes, beer, and alot of food like smoked mackeral, pig knuckle, kaiserschmarn, large pretzels, wurst, etc.  There was a band playing.  We had a beer, or two, and a snack. We walked over to the lake and took a quick paddle boat ride.

We finished back at the trainstation where we parked.  The parkhouse had a car elevator that takes the cars from the street to the top 2 floors for parking....fun!!!

Paddle Boat ride

English gardens Beer Stop

Marian Platz - Munich city hall

Girls are Angels....................about that!!

Thanks to Annika for taking us on a tour of Her town!!!

We had a guick Kabob and pizza for dinner and drove to Berschtesgaden to the hotel for the night.

Europe Trip 2010 Day 9-10 - Switzerland

13-14 Aug - We set off for Murren Switzerland. The drive was beautiful.  However, when we arrived in Grindelwald, the clouds had moved in and our plans for a hike in the mountains to a lake were cancelled.  We decided to go to the Rodelbahn which is a half-pipe track that you ride down on a sled.  FUN!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpDiP1HXKVY (video of someone else) The girls loved it and Tina is, well, let's just say she is not ready for the Indy 500 race.  We had a coffee and beer at the little restaurant then went to the hotel in Murren.

We drove to Murren and parked the car.  The Girls looked around and said - "Where is the Hotel?  this place is too small!"  I looked at the 300m cliff infront of up - pointed my finger and said "The hotel is UP THERE!!"  (http://www.muerren.ch/alpina/) We had to ride two cablecars to get to the hotel.  The town of Murren is a no car town on a plateau in the alps.  Remember the clouds were in so the area was foggy and not that pretty but the kids ENJOYED the idea.  We lugged everything up and went to the hotel.  We ate some local Swiss specialities - cheese fondue and Rosti.  The Rosti was excellent and the cheese fondue was OK but hardly a meal - melted cheese and bread........exciting.  Afterwards, we had a bottle of Stoffel wine and played card games. 

The next morning, the clouds had cleared a little and we had a fantastic view of the mountains across the valley.  We had a traditional Swiss breakfast and headed out.  We drove thru the Susten Alps Pass and saw some beautiful scenery and the girls took ALOT of photos.  We drove down the otherside of the pass and had lunch in Luzern, a beautiful city on a lake at the base of the Alps.  Then of course had some shopping.

We packed in and headed to Garmish, Germany for the night.  On the way, we took a quick detour thru Vaduz Leichtenstein so they could see it.  Vaduz is the capital and main city. The country is about the size of Charlotte - maybe.  Unfortunately, I accidently deleted the photo of the girls at the palace :(   

Town of Murren from the cable car

Looking out over one of the lakes around Interkaken

Getting on the Rodelbahn

At the top of Susten Pass by a glacier lake

Lunch by the river in Luzern Switzerland