We're Here!

It's been three years since the last time I was in Europe, and then it was only for a week in Ireland. I'm so incredibly thrilled to have this opportunity to spend so much time here and in so many different countries.

We've been here two days and it still feels like a dream (although that could be the jet lag talking!). I remember flying down low as we came into land, and it didn't even look like the US. To be honest (and I'm sure this is cliche), it looked like a patchwork quilt- all the different colors of greens and browns interspersed with these bright, bright patches of sunflower yellow- though I'm pretty sure they weren't sunflowers. We've already settled at AIB headquarters in Bonn, and I love the city. It's not overly touristy, which is nice, because since I've only been to Europe for a short time before, I feel like all we did were tourist cities. And already we've seen so much history. This morning we visited the Maria Laach monastery which, according to our guide, was "only" 920 years old (he tells us that the Germans have a saying- "Texans think 100 years is a long time, Germans think 100 miles is a long distance"- love this, haha). The entire setting was gorgeous. The monastery and the lake it was named after are situated in an enormous valley that was created by a volcanic eruption in- near as they can tell- 10,000 BC. The eruption created this soft, pale stone that they used in building the monastery, but the weight-bearing parts (especially the corners) were built of black basalt so the buildings look outlined- very cool.

We also visited 2 castles (and I have a thing for castles, so even though this was not veterinary related, it was good fun) in the Eifel region. One had been lived in until the 1930s, and had much of the original furniture and decoration, so that glimpse into the not-so-distant-past was pretty cool. The other was in Monreal, dubbed the most romantic town in Germany. The castles were ruins, but the town was lovely. There were flowers everywhere and the building were pretty much what you'd expect the quintessential romantic European town to be, haha. We got our workout climbing up to the ruins, but I felt like a kid on a (very large) jungle-gym once we got there.

If this is the pace for the rest of the trip- oh dear. It will be jam-packed. And fabulous. Can't wait to see what's next!