Update from Lisa

Summer is having an experience all right! Our road trip had some rocky moments (90 percent incredible and wonderful, 10 percent stressful, but only for the adults -- Summer slept through our difficulties finding two hotels) Then last night, oh my gosh, we had a crazy hotel ... it was sticky, sticky hot and noisy, noisy, noisy ... right across the street from a carnival. The good news is: Summer has now ridden random rides and eaten cotton candy in Strasbourg, France ... the bad news: I took a picture of her last night curled up on the floor underneath the window because it was cooler -- she was sort up wrapped up in fetal position around her suitcase and I thought ... here I've been entrusted with this beautiful girl and she looks like a homeless person in a sweathouse. Crazy! We are back in Munich and it's not quite so hot. Summer has bought a couple of neat things so far and a fair amount of candy. I've learned that she goes through gum like a chain smoker and I've also learned she is really hard to wake up! She really gets along well with my student Zoey and they are having a blast. Talk to you later, Lisa.


And from early this morning:
Yup -- we saw the most fabulous castles (the one I have pictured in the blue hallway) in the morning -- so incredible-- and then our drive to Leichtenstein took twice as long as it should have (3 hours) and Mike had a ridiculous tizzy fit (but he's better now) .... and so instead of going to our planned hotel, we drove to the Zurich airport and found a nice Radisson. The driving in Bavaria was difficult (I thought it was hilarious and entertaining and enjoyed it, but Mike was not amused). 1) The roads are really, really, really narrow which leads to dangerous moments and 2) you have to go through roundabouts every 1-3 minutes and at each roundabout you have to make a decision where to go ... and so you have a tense navigator in the front seat calling out the names of obscure little towns so we could head in the right directions ... just having to make route decisions that often was crazy. The infamous German autobahn (freeways) roads were fabulous ... totally normal freeway driving very very similar to Oregon and Washington with beautiful trees ... only the speed limits are in kilometers (100-120 kilometers) and there are gorgeous villages and castles everywhere ... so cool! Love you tons!