Day 1 - Kenosha to Chicago to Amsterdam to Hanover to Wolfenbuttel

... and so it begins.

Our first day of travel began with a limo picking us up. First of all, Tim was under the impression that the limo was picking us up at 1:00P CDT. So Tim was sitting at the kitchen table monitoring the weather situation (which had taken a turn for the worst, not wurst). It was raining in Chicago and raining pretty good - at least that is what the radar said. Of course, the limo cares nothing for that. We left Blake in his kennel (Aunt Michelle would come to get him later) and headed off to Germany. Of course, Annya, Noah & Adam though the limo was pretty classy!
We arrived in Chicago with plenty of time to spare. Mark (our limo driver) dropped us off at the KLM spot in the International terminal at O'hare. We checked our luggage and went through security. This is a very laborious process. Shoes off, computers/DVD players out, no liquids over 3 oz... the rules are endless and the "professionalism" of the security staff is unnerving. Unfortunately, Noah & Adam's juice boxes did not make it through.

We had to wait about an hour and a half for our flight to Amsterdam to leave. We waited by our gate with Tim reading a newspaper, Kathy meandering around and the kids watching a movie. The rain seemed to be getting worse but it was not storming. This is the first time we have flown on a 747 - there are lots of people. The crew arrived late and we left our gate about 45 minutes late.

The flight over was uneventful, though cramped. Tim tried to tell the kids that they needed to sleep on the flight to Amsterdam but it was a loosing battle. Tim did not sleep either. The food was good: pasta for supper and yogurt for breakfast.

We arrived in Amsterdam on time. The airport in Amsterdam is quite large and we needed to go from one side to the other to make our connection to Hanover (of course). We needed to go through security again in Amsterdam. Before going through security again we looked around in a shop or two. There was all sorts of "stuff" - handbags, shoes, liquor, Cuban cigars, $45,000E Rolex watches, Dutch wooden shoes... the list goes on. Unfortunately, while browsing, the line into security went from short to very long. After clearing, we needed to get to our connection gate in 25 minutes. We made it. They were already boarding; not boarding a plane, mind you, but a bus. They bussed us from the terminal to our plane going to Hanover. The plane was sitting at an out-area with other planes of its type - a prop plane.

Again, the flight from Amsterdam to Hanover was uneventful... well Noah and Kathy might beg to differ! Lets just say that the decent was "turbulent". Coming through the cloud deck caused a few "roller coaster" drops (as Noah called them).

The Hanover airport is fairly small. In comparison, it seemed to be about the same size as the airport in Bozman, MT. There were no customs to clear in Hanover as we seemed to do that in Amsterdam.

Reinhard picked us up at the Hanover airport in the University van. We drove from Hanover to Wolfenbuttel in about 30 minutes. We took the Autobahn and yes, they do drive really fast on the Autobahn. We did not drive very fast, but many of the others do.

We arrived at our hotel, Landhaus Duerkop, and unloaded the van. We carried our luggage to front desk and checked in. The hotel is very, very nice and very "local". Unlike our "chain" hotels in the US, the hotel we are staying at is more like a "Bed and Breakfast". Our room is on the third floor... the entire third floor! Annya was set up for her own room but once we saw our "apartment", we decided that she did not need (nor want) her own room.

After check-in, Reinhard left to return the van to the University while we carried up our luggage to the room, changed cloths and waited for Reinhard to return. Reinhard was going to show us around Wolfenbuttel "quickly" to show us some spots we can return to latter in the week.

Our walking tour was outstanding! Reinhard is very knowledgeable about Wolfenbuttel and its history. We walked down the long narrow street out hotel in on to reach an intersection (4 blocks). When we got to the intersection, we saw we were at the "Kenosha Bridge". Kenosha and Wolfenbuttel are sister cities: Kenosha has Wolfenbuttel Park and Wolfenbuttel has the Kenosha Bridge.

We seemed to be making our way toward the center of the city and the shopping district called Lange HerzogstaBe. It was fairly busy as it was Saturday; everyone getting things done on the weekend. We headed around a large "hill" that was left over from the old city fortifications and went to Wolfenbuttel's "Little Venice". This is an area of the city where the city canal meets some homes, much like Venice, Italy.

As we approached the "downtown" we saw many different buildings and saw many different people. One building Reinhard showed us was the narrowest building in Wolfenbuttel. (BTW, it seems the housing slump is here in Germany too. The narrowest building in Germany has been on the market for a while!)

We walked through a archway and came into Lange HerzogstaBe. We walked on a bit and cam to Stadtmarkt. On Saturdays, Wolfenbuttel has market day and many vendors are selling fresh fruit, vegetables, sausages and bread. The smells of cooking sausages and fresh bread were amazing. We looked around for quite a while, stopping and sampling "currywurst and fries", one of the local favorites.

Going through Wolfenbuttel's Lange HerzogstaBe and Stadtmarkt is quite amazing. Since it was market day, there were many people all over the place. But they did not seem to be hurrying hectically. They were getting dinner or just looking around like us. Old people and kids, everyone was having a good time!

Next, Reinhard took us to the Ducal Palace. Built in the 18th century, this is the largest surviving castle in Lower Saxony. There is a tall tower and an inner courtyard. Today, there was a wine and cheese sampling going on! What luck! This building is now a high school and Reinhards sons attend school here. We looked around and sampled some cheese. Noah liked the Gruyere so much he bought some!

After wine and cheese, it was the library! The Herzog-August Library has some very old volumes in it. Some date back to the 15th century.

At this point we were getting pretty tired. We started to head back to the hotel. But before going back, we stopped at a supermarket and picked up some fruit and soda. We walked back to the hotel and left Reinhard.

Tomorrow: Brauschweig with Friedheld.