Let's rewind back to December. We got home from our trip to California and only 2 days later we left for Germany. Talk about turn around. The thing that kept us excited as we were on our way home from California was knowing that in 2 days when we did all of this again, the airport, security, the long drives, airplane rides etc., that we would be doing it without the kids! That simplifies so much about traveling!
Ben had been asked by a nearby John Deere dealership if he would like to go to Germany for their Customer Fly-in program. Ben came home and told me and my first reply is, "I want to go, too." Ben didn't know what was "normal" and if there would be other wives along. So after some looking into it we found out many men do bring their wives along and I wouldn't be out of place or the only wife tagging along. So, we booked the trip. And when I say we, I of course mean the dealer did everything. We pretty much just showed up.
We arrived in Seattle and found our gate. Boy were we excited to be headed out by ourselves! We love the boys, but this chance doesn't come very often so, we though we better enjoy it! Turns out the flight was fine until it was time to land. We had a very long descent and it was very bumpy due to wind. I ended up getting sick just as the plane touched down. If they could have got the plane down 2 minutes sooner I would have been fine!!! Ugh.
It turned out there was one other couple and a man and his dealer rep on the same flight as us for the trip. We all got off and found the John Deere people holding their signs at the airport. From that point on we were in their hands! We loaded onto tour buses and our trip began.
Most of the trip was spent in John Deere Factories either touring or learning about Forage Harvesters (aka choppers). If you don't know what one looks like here you go:
I know it isn't the best picture but it was taken inside one of the factory hosted dinners. That night the keg was actually hooked up to the chopper and running off of it!
One of our days we went on a dairy tour to a local dairy farm. Of course here is Ben with some of the other guys examining the silage. They were talking about the cut length if I remember right!
There were a dozen women along for the trip and they realized that we weren't all that interested in hearing the training sessions so they took us to Globus which is a HUGE indoor shopping center. The inside of Globus is like a Wal-mart. But around the edges (yet still inside the huge building) were smaller stores and a food court. Here I was with a meter of cookies. I joked that Lou would really like these but there was nothing it would fit in to bring it home to him!
The John Deere people do this trip yearly and they sure have it all figured out. They took us to some really cool restaurants. This particular night we went wine tasting in an old cellar. Afterwards we got to walk through it and out to a nicer part that was cleaned-up and that is where we ate. These are the kinds of places we never would have found on our own.
On our last full day in Germany they took us to Heidelberg to tour the castle and then we got to spend the day shopping in the Christmas market and around Heidelberg.
This photo was taken from up in the castle.
Here is a pyramid that was on one of the roofs of the shops in the Christmas market. I got a small version of one of these as my souvenir as did many of the people on our trip!
We left Germany the next day. The flight home was 10 hours. I did fine until hour 7 when I got quite sick and remained sick the rest of the flight. Ben was very embarrassed that his wife got sick on the plane and said we (and by that he means me) aren't traveling that far for a long time. But we did have a wonderful time and are so thankful to Ben's parents and my parents for taking care of the little guys while we were away. We really appreciate it!! And of course we also thank John Deere for taking us on a wonderful trip!
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