I'll have the Schnitzel...... no on second thought, maybe I'll try the Pork.

The week of August 15th, Josh had off work because his entire office was shut down for the week due to a random Italian Holiday....rough, I know. We planned a trip to Germany to visit my cousin Doug, his wife Sandy and their Daughter Tori.
It took us about 8 1/2 hours to get there, and Mallory barely made a peep up the whole way. She was very content with the iPad (what she calls the Big Movie) and the iTouch(the little movie). We hit traffic going through the many tunnels in Swtizerland, and at one point were stopped long enough to get out of the car, have a stretch and change a diaper. Potty training was out of the question during our time on the road!

We arrived at Doug and Sandy's in Frankfurt Germany and had an awesome German dinner at a local Biergarten. Schnitzel topped with this amazing mushroom sauce and hockey puck sized hashbrowns on the side.. YUM. If you don't know what Schnitzel is...you'll be fully schooled after this, I promise. Schnitzel is a pounded out piece of pork, breaded and fried. That's it. The going slogan in Germany is "How would you like your pork tonight?" Pork, Pork, Pork and more Pork. Funny though, we didn't see a single pig while we were there...hmmmm?

A Castle in the middle of the Rhine River

The name of a town, that gave me a chuckle.

The girls passed out after our Boat Ride Day!

We were able to do quite a bit of sightseeing while we were there. One day we took a boat tour along the Rhine River to see all the castles that lined the River. It was a gorgeous day and the girls had fun playing on the slide on board the boat!

Mallory and Tori on the boat!

We did downtown Frankfurt a little bit, walked around, ate some schnitzel, soft pretzels(something you surely cannot get in Italy) bought some delcious Streudel that shamelessly fell out of the paper and onto the street as I was getting into the car. 5 second rule right? I dusted that bad boy off and Josh and I ate it for breakfast for 3 days. It was SOOOO worth saving!

We took the girls to this kiddie park called Lochmuhler. It was the greatest place EVER. It was fairly cheap to get in, and Mallory was FREE. When we got there it was raining and we were decked out in Ponchos, but it soon stopped and left us with a fairly empty park. Mallory was able to get on and off rides lickity split and ride them 3....or 4 times if she wanted. It was complete with a petting zoo where we fed and pet multitudes of animals, goats, deer, sheep, cows, ducks, bunnies, and a donkey. Josh and I were standing next to the donkey and I couldn't help but think we looked like Mary and Joseph with me being nearly 8 months pregnant and all. There was this giant cow, that I let slobber all over my hand and arm for the sake of the girls enjoyment and Sandy's well.....disgust. Hahah. She later told me she is NOT an animal person and couldn't believe I was letting that cow gobble up my hand. It was gross, I'm not going to lie, but when you've gone to Delaware Valley College (an agricultural school) you can say without a doubt that your hands have been worse places than a cow's mouth :)
At one point the cow gave me a big nudge on my belly, and I couldn't help but wonder later whether it was sensing the baby in my belly or the big burger I ate the night before.














This park was no ordinary park you'd find in the States...believe me. Some of these rides wouldn't even get past the first planning stages in the states due to safety concerns. Let me enlighten you....One ride, lets call it the Death Plunge...was for one person at a time. It was this log ride type car that you get in. It pulls you up this track backwards tethered to a rope. Once you reach the top, the rope disengages so that your boat goes flying down the hill, over a ramp where you are literally flying through the air (not attached to a track) only to plunge and skid across the water. There were no attendants operating most of the rides or makings sure everyone was buckled in safely multiple times. Some rides were even self powered. There was this 8 seater Ferris-wheel that was powered by an adult pedaling a bike that was attached to it. It was very funny to watch some of the adults trying to make that ferris wheel move faster than a snails speed! There were large trampoline areas, where Mallory got the hang of bouncing, she'd get 3 jumps in and go flying and rolling all over the place. She'd get right back up, bounce again, flop down, and giggle uncontrollably.

INSERT FAILED AND IMPATIENT ATTEMPT AT UPLOADING VIDEO OF MALLORY JUMPING ON THE TRAMPOLINE

Here's another thing that kept me entertained throughout Germany...regular road signs. Every "EXIT" made me laugh. Ausfahrt ironically means "exit" That is even more funny to me.

Then we found this sign at Lochmuhler. Translated I imagine it to say "Goodbye, and a good fart to you for that hot dog with sauerkraut you ate while you were here." I'm sure that's not REALLY what it says...but you have to admit, pretty funny nonetheless!