The beginning of the Bananza

We went to Germany! So get ready for A LOT of pictures. Awesome pictures. Or at least the places were awesome. Anyway, here we go:

 

We flew to Seattle on Nov. 1st

(Saint Anna Mae came up and watched our monkeys for us)

 

 

Waiting in Seattle.

I woke up that morning with red eyes. So, I wore glasses whilst traveling just in case. The flight was pretty good. I slept 3 or 4 hours and watched movies. The time went faster than I expected. My sister, Kelly, gave me some great advise to keep a journal on the trip and I am SO glad I did! I would never been able to remember all the cool details otherwise. Because I am known for my amazing memory. Or I might be remembering that incorrectly... Anyway, thanks Kel!  

 

 When we got to Frankfurt we got our luggage...except my big suitcase. Lame. We waited 2 and a half hours, which meant Kenna, Jason, Whitney (she flew in from Madrid just before we arrived)  and Amelia had to wait for us out in the lobby. But they saw a Sheik, so there's that. While hanging out the German officials started taping off a section of the luggage carousels right next to us with yellow tape and brought out a bomb dog (German Shepard of course) because they had a suspicious bag nearby. It was crazy. Anyway, turned out to just have been some dudes backpack. Check out this worker lady- they would ride their bikes back and forth in the luggage terminal. :) So, we didn't get my bag, gave them our hotel address and left (they gave us 50 euro which was nice).

Whitney! We had to take 2 cars with all the bags and people. This was The Girl's car. Way cooler.

 

Driving along the Rhine. You are going to hear the phrase 'So Pretty!' quite a bit. And it was.

The first place we stopped was called Rudenstein (not sure of the spelling). Cool little city. This is outside of the music box museum we went to.

Had to take this. Because we are immature.

Amelia was happy to see us.

Cool shutters. I think the attention to detail is what I loved most over there.

After eating some yummy German food. So full I look stoned.

Inside the museum. It was weird going on a tour in another language. They gave us a packet in English, but I'm sure she was saying more things and the translation was pretty funny. It was still very cool.

 This was our favorite I think. It was a player piano including violins and it sounded like an orchestra. I have video, but my computer won't let me load them, so I will put it on from Mitch's laptop next. These things were super popular back in the day. And I think it was Mozart (Kenna, correct me if I'm wrong!) that composed a piece of music for a player something and was written specifically for the machine and no human can play it. It was a cool story.

This was a music box chair. When someone sat on it, it played music from underneath. They found it at a yard sale for like 5 bucks!

I cigarette music box that rotated. It has a 'Quitting' feature that makes them spin super fast so you can't grab one. lol!

 

Check out the ceiling. It was a great place. I really wish we had gotten one of the musical advent calendars from the gift shop. Next time!

This is right about when my first bout with Ebola kicked in. Maybe it was something I ate on the plane, but for the rest of the afternoon and night I was sick. Boo.

Then we drove to Boppart (?) farther down the Rhine. More to come.