Trip to Europe

I am once again behind in blog updating.  We had a great time on our trip to Europe over the holidays.  We started with a few days in Meersburg on Lake Constance in southern Germany, then met Jared and Hope in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for Christmas.  After that, we had a short visit to our friends in Kaiserlautern.  On the way back down south to fly home from Zurich, we spent a couple of days in the Alsace region of France and then one day in Zurich.  Here are some highlights of the MANY pictures that were taken on our adventure.

We stopped in Konstanz on our way to Meersburg, not long after our arrival.  We visited our first Christmas market of the trip here.

The view from our room in Meersburg was gorgeous!  We could see the Alps across Lake Constance.

They had a great playground that Rachel enjoyed on the way up the hill from lower Meersburg on the water to upper Meersburg, where the castle is.

Rachel got her first taste of snow in Meersburg and she loved it.  She did not seem to mind how cold it made her hands.

Clearly, Rachel is happiest when she is able to run free.

On the way from Meersburg to Rothenburg, we stopped in Ulm and enjoyed their Christmas market and a visit to the cathedral.

We visited yet another Christmas market in Rothenburg (are you sensing a theme of our trip?) where we met Jared and Hope

What's that?  Another market?  It is!  These are our examples of the many yummy things to eat the the Nurnberger Christkindlsmarkt - Gluhwein, wurst, roasted nuts and lebkuchen.

There was also plenty of beer and yummy food to be had on our trip.

Here we all are at our Christmas lunch after church.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas day, there was a lot of snow.  We had fun playing in it and it was beautiful.  It was slightly more challenging when it came time for Jared and Hope to leave and we had to borrow a snow shovel to dig out their car.

Rachel enjoyed relaxing in our room on Christmas with George and Elmo on the iPod.

Before we left town, we took a nice walk to enjoy the snow and the lovely old walled town of Rothenburg.

Here we are above the snowy Tauber valley.

En route from Rothenburg to Kaiserslautern, we took a detour to Heidelberg and were surprised to find a fun little market there as well (even though it was after Christmas!).

We had a very yummy lunch and fun visit at Ursula and Marco's house.

We enjoyed spending a couple of days visiting with the Schuffs

Once we got to France, we enjoyed spending some time in the hotel pool and hot tub.  A nice break from the snow!

Rachel and Wes at a church in Rouffach, France

There were lots of vineyards (and wine) in the Alsace

While in Zurich, we took an iPhone-guided walking tour.  There were some stairs involved, but Wes was a trooper carrying Rachel up and down as needed.

Overlooking Zurich

Rachel wanted to see, too.