Arrival of my Parents

My parents arrived last night to visit us for the rest of the week. Things got off to a bit of a rough start, though, because I was a little ticked off at them for not following my instructions to contact me to let me know when they would arrive. Funny how they used to get mad at me for not listening to them. I knew they were in Munich already and were planning to spend a couple days there, but they were supposed to e-mail me to let me know which train they'd be on, so I could pick them up at the train station. Apparently they got too busy and claim they "didn't see any internet cafes" (not sure how they missed the hundreds of them they probably passed). Laura and I started to get a little worried that something happened to them in Munich, since we didn't hear from them. But I knew when a couple of trains would be arriving to Kempten from Munich in the early evening, so after Laura got back from work, we just went out to the train station to see if, by chance, two stupid Americans were lost in the Kempten train station. Sure enough, just as we turned the corner for the first platform, there they were, getting off the train and walking down the steps. They were in a much happier mood than me. I let them have it for a bit, but eventually got over it. They seem to have had a great time in Munich, they couldn't stop talking the whole drive back to the apartment, telling stories of all they saw and did for a couple days. They pretty much saw everything in that city, got to know the subway system very well, and did lots of walking. They even made it out to the BMW plant to take a tour of the 3-series production facilities, a suggestion I made last week but didn't think they'd get to. I've been to the 6 and 7-series plant in Dingolfing, but I'd like to find a time when Laura and I can get out to the one in Munich, a little closer by, cause it's pretty cool to see.

After we got back to the apartment, I introduced my Dad to some German Bier and my Mom to some German Riesling, while we heard more stories from Munich, and let them unpack a bit before we headed out for dinner. They brought us tons of stuff from the US that we needed here and either couldn't find or was so expensive here that we didn't want to buy it...much appreciated! On the way to dinner, I tried to break my parents out of the olden days and get my mom to use an ATM machine for the first time. I insisted that she get her PIN setup before she came, since it's the best way to get money overseas, but she set it up wrong and her first trip to the ATM failed (as you can see in the picture here), and I just had to take some cash out for them. We then walked through town, over by the Residenz building and had dinner at an outdoor restaurant/biergarten called Zum Stift. It was recommended to us by the hotel, a typical Bavarian restaurant. Not knowing exactly what we were ordering, we each ordered something different so we could try 4 different things. Some were more of a hit than others; it's not the most exciting food here.

After dinner, it was back to the apartment so they could finish unpacking all the stuff they brought us, blow up the air mattress they brought, and go to bed. It's a bit tight in the apartment with 4 people and the extra blow-up bed, but we'll make it work for one more night. Hopefully the ear plugs tone down my dad's snoring tonight though!

This morning we got up early, dropped Laura off at work, and then my parents and I drove back out to Schwangau so they could visit the castles there. Worth noting, on the way there I spotted a couple of cows at a farm on the side of the road getting to be a little more than just friendly with one another. It was a first-time experience for me to see that, and was good for a couple of laughs with my dad. Not much more to say about the Neushwanstein castle, since I was just there a couple days ago. I led my parents on pretty much the same trip I did earlier in the week with Laura. We hiked up to the Neushwanstein Castle, got the 30-minute tour inside, then walked over to the lookout bridge for views of the castle, and then back down to Schwangau. After having lunch with them, we walked over to the tourist information booth so they could figure out the bus schedule back to Kempten, and I left them in Schwangau so I could return to Kempten for work. Their plan was to visit the other castle, walk around the town for a bit, and then take a bus back to meet us.

Thursday night, we had dinner at the Crepe restaurant in town. It was a bit interesting, because we couldn't make out the menu in either German or French. Although the waitress pretended not to speak any English, she suddenly could when it was time for the bill. Oh well, the food was really good, especially the desert crepe with bananas, ice cream, and topped off with rum.

On Friday, my parents walked all over Kempten and toured the Kempten Residenz building while Laura and I worked. It's a pretty small city, so you can do/see everything there possibly could be in not that much time, but they discovered a few things that Laura and I will probably check out at some point before we leave. After a day of exploring, they definitely know the city better than we do at this point.