Hello from Füssen

Well we made it to Füssen safely (pronounced Foo-sen)... it was a bit of a long train ride (well actually the train ride wasn't really that long, just for a portion of it we were on the "school bus" train that had all of the school kids on it that had just gotten out of class). Sorry about the lack of Rothenburg pictures once again, we copied all of the pictures off of our memory cards on to the portable hard drive so we would have room for pictures today, and of course left the hard drive back at the room. But I promise, tomorrow I will post some Rothenburg pictures since we now have the ability to post them.

Füssen is a bavarian town about 20 kilometers from the Austrian border. It is amazing as we walk around town, as the Alps loom all around us. Tomorrow we plan on going to Neushwanstein Castle (the "disney" castle) and then ride a gondola up to Tegelberg peak (and Ryan is hoping to take the stell luge ride down :-) ). So tomorrow we should have TONS of pictures, today we don't have many pictures to post since it was mostly a travel day and the pictures I took from inside the train turned out kind of fuzzy, but I can at least post this one. The country side here is beautiful and really reminds me of the northwest, except we don't have these huge Alps looming in the background.

I hope everyone back home is doing well, everyone here is doing great. It was probobly a good thing today was a travel day as we spent a lot of yesterday walking the wall in Rothenburg (it was QUITE impressive) and we had to leave a bit early in the morning, so everyone (except for maybe Maddie, who hasn't been fazed once yet on this trip) is happy for a slower day to catch our breath.

We are staying in a hostel the next 2 nights, it will be the only nights of the whole trip that we aren't staying in a hotel. It is really nice since it includes breakfast, a nice room, and most importantly, laundry service... there is only one small problem. They were out of double beds. Shalisa and I are in the same room and we each have a bed... I just don't remember the last time I slept in a bunk bed :). It will be fun though and they had a crib they provided as well, so Maddie doesn't have to spend the night in "the tent" (we have a portable crib called a peapod that looks kinda like a minature tent) and will get a nice crib to sleep in.

Oh, and last thing, while eating breakfast this morning we met a couple from Denver that had flown in about a week ago. They have been to Europe 3 times now and have always flown standby. They were able to fly first class from Denver to Düsseldörf and out of Zurich in another week for only $300 per person!!! They also have flown standby (first class again) to Maui for only $150 per person! Shalisa and I know what we are looking in to when we get back. Oh and John (my boss) if you are reading this, how much time off do I have left? :P