Deutchland ist sehr gut!

Greeting from Germany! I have finally found internet at the same time that blogger is working - no small miracle I tell you! Anyway, we have had so many crazy adventures so far - too many to possibly post right now, but all is good. As some of you may know, American Airlines totally screwed up our flight out of St. Louis so we didn't actually arrive in Paris until the day after we were supposed to - that left us with about two days to do all of Paris - not a possible feat - thanks to crappy American Airlines (who by the way did nothing at all to compensate us for losing an entire day of our trip). Upon arriving in Paris it took us almost 2 hours to get out of the airport because none of us speek ANY French and we couldn't figure out these stupid machines or then how to get change (we got Euros but needed coins instead of bills for the machines). Anyway, we got out of the airport, onto the train to Paris, got a hotel and saw as many of the sights we could in two days - The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, Sacre Coure, St. Sulpice (yes, Jason and I both recently read The Da Vinci Code), etc. Then we were off to Köln (Cologne for American's) where Cody's uncle (actually just an older cousin, but an uncle of sorts) picked us up and took us to his home in Marl. We hung out with his family that night and had quite a little party.
The next day the madness really began! We woke up (after sleeping a ton since we got no sleep on our crappy airplane ride and were still behing), went to The World Cup Fan Fest in Gelsinkirchen (not spelled right), and then we were off to our first World Cup game - US v. Czech Republic. In case you've been stuck in a box for a week, we got killed 3-0, but the experience was AMAZING! Most games we follow in America, the teams play for their city - in the World Cup they are playing for their entire country - and while in America we might not find that too intriguing (not great soccer fans), in the rest of the world that is HUGE! Great game nonetheless. That night we were on a train to Berlin for our next game - long messed up train story goes here but not enough time to write it all out. We finally arrived in Berlin the next morning, met up with Cody's family who had driven there (because his cousin Patrick was going to the game with us in Berlin) and were off to see the sights of Berlin. Great time, but everyone's feet were hurting like crazy by the end of the day. Seeing the Berlin Wall in person was quite an experience - as was Brandenburg Tor (that's the Brandenburg Gate). The game that night was Brazil (reigning World Cup winners for those that don't follow such things) v. Croatia (not a great team but their fans were amazing). The energy in that game was palpable (especically compared to the relatively lame and subdued US fans). Brazil, of course, won. Then we were on our second night train in a row to Munich. At least this one was over four hours so we got a few hours of sleep. Munich was a much different city, but still very neat. They are VERY into their beer gardens. :) The game that night was Tunisa v. Saudi Arabia. Another great set of fans who were really into the game and loved their country's team. After this game, we hung out at a beer garden watching Germany win their second World Cup match in the last minute. The entire country shuts down when their team plays - quite an amazing thing to see. Then we were on yet ANOTHER night train - this time to Hamburg. The train was booked solid so Jason and I actually slept on the floor under the luggage racks (we have great pictures of this). While that may sound pretty crappy, I must admit is was more comfortable then sleeping in the train seats (even though we have a first class train pass - not by choice though since we're now all too old to get the second class passes - good thing though since second class has been booked on every train we've been on and first has been relatively easy to get seats). Our last game was Costa Rica v. Equador in Hamburg. Another great stadium, more great teams and spirit, but by this time we were all dead tired - we were just simply beat after having slept so little on the trains. Off we were after the game for one more train ride - this time to Essen where Cody's cousin/uncle picked us up and brought us back to his family's home in Marl. We ate and then passed out, not waking up until 14 hours later, more because we were hungry then over our tiredness. :) So that's where we are now, hanging out with his family, trying to figure out where our adventures take us next. So many more adventures to tell of, but they'll have to wait until I'm back on an American keyboard and have more time.
Hope all is well back in the states!
Oh - one more thing - I'm actually learning a bit of German -this from a person who took YEARS of Latin and learned nothing and who lived in France for two months and learned no French! I'll impress everyone when I return with "Das is gut" and such! Take care!