We caught a bus to our hotel (Hotel Vik). We decided during the bus ride to the hotel that we'd have time for a trip over to the Blue Lagoon. When we arrived at the hotel we changed into our swimming clothes and waited for the bus to come pick us up. The drive to the Blue Lagoon took about 40 minutes. We were able to spend about an hour in the water and then had dinner. You might be wondering what we ate, well here is the scoop. We paid $120 to feed four of us, a tad expensive. But it did purchase some yummy trout and salmon.

We returned to the hotel at about 10:00PM and it turns out we were in Iceland at the time of year where it's light 24 hours a day. So Robyn and I decided to walk downtown to get some pictures of the cathedral and take advantage of the light. We returned to the hotel around 12 and went to bed.
Pictures from iceland

Left Iceland 7:25AM Sunday
Arrived Frankfurt, Germany at 3:00PM Sunday

Frank and the family picked us up. We crammed all of our luggage into the truck and headed off to Garmisch--eight of us stuffed in the Tahoe.

We arrived at the Edelweiss and checked into some suprisingly nice rooms in a very beautiful area (looked a lot like Yellowstone, except all the buildings had a distinct German look and feel). We dined in the hotel that night (my first Wienersnitzel in a while, I put vegetarianism on hold to experience the food).

The next morning we woke up early (6:00AM) and had a buffet breakfast. We left at 7:00AM and returned to the Edelweiss around 8:00PM. We had a nice tour-guide, although we couldn't follow a lot of what he was saying so we didn't learn an awful lot. The tour was a bus trip through three countries, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein (which is only about 60+ square miles and ruled by a happy monarchy).

At the first stop, in Austria, we had a free "breakfast" which we didn't know was included in the tour. The breakfast was just a muffin and butter, but it was free. The tour consisted mostly of riding on the bus through picturesque scenery. We saw a lot of castles and and ruins from the window of the bus. The tour wound through the mountains, we got high enough to even play in the snow. We had lunch in Switzerland at a place called Kessler's; this naturally meant my dad would have to befriend the owners since we all shared a name. Then we went to Liechtenstein, we walked around the town, saw the local church and spied the castle on the hill above the town. This is where we stayed the longest, we stopped at a little food court on the way home for dinner.
Pictures from Three Country Tour

We were all fairly tired so we went to bed pretty early. The next day we stayed around Garmisch. We went to the fabulous PX and commissary. After that we decided to head over to the cable cars that run up the mountains. It was a beautiful ride. We had lunch at the top of the mountain--eating with a great view. This is where I had my first Currywurst; they didn't have these when we lived in Germany before, it's basically a brawtwurst with a curry-ketchup mixture on top of it.

The boys rode down in one car and the girls in the other. Grandpa and Brendan had a lot of fun rocking the car. We wandered around Garmisch's downtown area after lunch and we stopped at a coffee shop and had dessert at a pastry store.
Pictures from Garmisch

That night was the kids favorite, we went to the pool and hot-tub and the they were allowed to sleep in Aunt Robyn's and Uncle Shawn's room.

The next day we got up early again and took a tour to Neuschwanstein Castle (the Disney castle). On this tour we had a different guide, she was an old German women who we all assumed was drunk. The castle was beautiful, the pictures can speak for themselves. It was built by Ludwig II in the mid 1800s, just above his father's older castle. No pictures were allowed inside but I snuck one or two... I know, I'm bad. We spent about four hours there and then headed off to the Wiess Kirchen, which was a church in the city of Wiess. It is famous for having a chained Christ that supposedly cried real tears at one point. The third stop on this tour was a gift shop. I don't know how that worked out, but we seriously spent 40 minutes at the gift store but only 30 at the church, not sure what the deal was.
Pictures from Neuschwanstein Tour

After the tour we jumped in the car and headed back to Frank and Jeanne's house. So there was another 6 hours of driving.

The next day we finally slept in. We went to Frank's promotion. Then we stayed with Brendan and Lauran while Frank and Jeanne went to a farewell dinner for him. We watched the Incredibles and intercepted the Ice Cream man from whom we bought spaghetti-ice from. Then we sat around the house the rest of the evening.
Pictures from Frank's Promotion

Next day we went to Trier, the oldest city in Germany. Mom and Jeanne stayed at home (mom wasn't feeling well). We walked to a couple of churches and hung out in the market. When we got back Jeanne and mom had prepared a new and exciting tortilla chicken dinner.
Pictures from Trier

Next day we had breakfast and then went to Burg Lichtenberg. It's an old ruined castle in the countryside. They had a couple museums in it (one was geology and the other was animal/plant/culture based). The kid's favorite part was chasing down lizards, although, they weren't able to catch any. There is still an intact watch tower there that we were able to climb up and see all the surrounding areas. After visiting the castle we went shopping for lunch, ate lunch and then sat around and watched TV. The next day we were planning on getting up early to go to Paris so we retired early again.
Pictures from Lichtenberg

The drive to Paris was long and uneventful. We drove into the city looking for a hotel and gas but only found gas, expensive gas. We put a little bit in and decided to go back to where we knew there were hotels that had tours into the city--Euro-Disney Land. We ended up at the Holiday Inn. The buffet there was 30 Euro per person so we attempted to order pizza. It arrived over an hour after we ordered it, but it was decent. The hotel had an indoor pool so Frank and I and the kids played in it for about an hour and then we all crashed and prepared for our early morning tour of Paris.

The next morning we awoke and had the free buffet style breakfast and caught our tour bus around 9:30. It took about an hour and a half to get into the city because of traffic. The Bus drove around all the major sites and then we were able to get off for lunch and spend about an hour roaming around Notre Dame (the bus actually stopped near the Eifel Tower and we took a boat down to Notre Dame). The cathedral was much more amazing than I expected it to be. We've seen quite a few palaces and castles and churches and mosques but the size of the inside of the cathedral blew me away. The arches, stain glass windows and the organ playing were all amazing. We were also able to hand feed the birds that hang out around Notre Dame. After that stop we got back on a boat and returned to the Eifel Tower and spent about two hours there. Are tour included a ticket up to the first floor and then we took the stairs up to the second floor (which was around half way up the tower). The view of the city from up there was quite amazing and worth the climb up, which I did twice looking for my mother. The trip was a little funky because my stomach was upset (and it didn't stop acting up before returning all the way home to the states). After visiting the tower the bus took us back to the hotel and we tried a Restaurant at one of the cheaper hotels (the Santa Fe) and had some weird Euro/Mexican cuisine.
Pictures from Paris Tour

The original plan was only to stay and see Paris that one night but my parents and Jeanne (and the kids) were so excited about being that close to Disney Land so we decided to stay an extra day and visit the park. The lines weren't too bad since it was the middle of the week and they even had a decent roller coaster. Not a whole lot to say about Disney Land, it's a lot like Disney Land in America, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking. When we were done, around 4:30, we drove all the way back to Baumholder (which was one of the quieter rides since the kids slept most of the time). We got back kind of late so everyone went to bed but I was able to finally sit down and chat with my brother alone for the first time during the trip.
Pictures from Euro-Disney

The next day we woke early to say good bye to Lauren (she was heading off to her last day of school for the year). We then said good bye to Jeanne and Brendan; Frank drove us the 200kms to Frankfurt.

Things I've learned: Being a parent and/or a soldier isn't easy, both are admirable jobs that I'm not sure I'd be good at.