Stuttgart

We've arrived in Germany and have been having a great time the past couple of days. Our flight landed in Frankfurt and we had the day to explore the city before our train ride to Stuttgart to meet up with Jochen and Susanne. We stored our bags at the train station and then walked around the town. We had some gulausch and a beer for lunch which was very tasty. Then while walking through the streets there was a man with a portable sausage grill on his shoulders. It was very cool, so I got 1 euro 30 out of my pocket and then bought a very good sausage...Erin got a picture of me which was great.

The train ride to Stuttgart was 1 and 1\2 hours and when we arrived Jochen was waiting right there to greet us and it was great to see him (partly because my bags were heavey and he helped out...haha). That night we relaxed with him and Susanne at their place in Köugen which is a smaller town outside of Stuttgart. (If you don't remember Jochen he was on secondment in New Zealand but came back to Germany 1 year ago.)

Germany has been great so far and although our German language skills are extremely poor, most people speak English so we've been able to get around. Although most people speak English, very little is written in English which is very different from all the Asian country's we travelled to, where many things were written in English.

Yesterday, Jochen and his Dad were able to use some of the connections to get us football tickets. Tickets are always very hard to get over here, but especially right now as the season is coming to a close. VfB Stuttgart is currently in 4th place and were playing VfL Wolfsburg who were in 1st place. So after they pulled some strings, they got us all tickets for the game and they were great seats (and free). The game was very exciting with Stuttgart winning 4-1. We then headed into the city to walk around, have a few beers and eat some dinner. They took us to a place which specializes in Swabian food (Swabian is the region of Germany that they live in). The food was delicious!!

Today we are having a BBQ with their families and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the MOMs or MUMs out there.