Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Two days of Touring in Heidelberg

First of all, thanks for tuning in again. We have posted a few photos on the last couple of posts if you'd like to take a peek.

A typical day in the R.V. with no games to attend.

Breakfast
Adult workout thanks to Rose Baker and/or Elysia Tsai
Soccer Tennis
Pack, KP Duty, Wash up
Lunch
Site See
Watch a World Cup Game on T.V.
Dinner
Soccer again at the camp site
Mad Game of UNO; I think Zach and Jack are vying for King's Court
and Bed (no simple task)

Sounds like your run of the mill day.

As has been the case on our camping venture, we have been suspicious of a gas leak in the RV as nobody...even our resident insomniac, can seem to get out of bed before 10:30. So our first trip into Heidelberg didn't commence until 3pm...fortunately, like Seattle, it stays light pretty late here. So off we go to see the Schloss (castle) and stroll the Hauptstrasse in Zentrum (central) town. Here we'll skip to the part where we are all okay and it wasn't our fault. Little fender bender caused by an overzealous German who was going the wrong way in a RED X lane into head on traffic and had to cut in front of us to avoiding killing himself and his girlfriend. He clipped us,and Amy, expert reactionary that she is, kept us from harms way and besides a scratch on his car and a hubcap needing to be replaced on our rig, disaster was averted and we finally made it into town.....now to park the beast. Okay...so 45 minutes later and we won't bore you further, but we did finally make it to town and walked the cobblestone strasse ooohing and ahhhing at the people, shops, wares, and general ambience of this very hip European, university town.

As we always like to say...well, there are two things we like to say: "Nothing is ever easy" -Dr. Donald Z. Silver, and "Things happen for a reason"-unknown.
If not for our little "scrape" or our nightmare trying to dock McRent, we wouldn't have had the great fortune at the end of the strasse to run into the entire Mexican National Team and our little friend Vero! We were so excited to see her again, and good thing we did because we needed to remind her (even though we're pretty sure we've told her no less that 1,000 times) that we are going to her 2nd game versus New Zealand! She was thrilled (does she have amnesia?). Also had to throw in the "You do remember you promised us tickets, right?" No problemo! Viva Mexico!

Second highlight and great timing due to our ineptness and misfortune, spotting BIG BLUE in the Karlplatz! Yep....as we stood in awe of the Heidelberg Castle with mouths agape, all saying, wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww, this is awesome, Jack stood with the same expression and saying the same thing only when we turn to look at him he wasn't looking up at the castle....he was in awe of BIG BLUE....otherwise known as the ESPN production truck! So we walked around it as the broadcast team of Bob Ley, Monica Gonzales, and Tony DiCicco, starting the pre-game show for Brazil-Norway. Amy and I both were curious as to where our anchor buddy Brandi was and no sooner had we wondered than, poof, she appeared out of nowhere, looking as svelt and cheery as always! So good to see our old friend.

She took the boys inside Big Blue where they met the crew and got to sit at the anchor desk! Very nice of Brandi and very cool experience for the kids! They'll watch ESPN with a whole new insight now!





The boys juggled a ball around with Brandi and then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and watched the second half of Brazil spank Norway...OMG, Marta is amazing, who is going to mark and deal with her each match...will be interesting.

We left town, looked up at the Castle and said: "Tomorrow! We storm the castle tomorrow!" Which, even though we still slept til about 10am, still played soccer tennis, still cooked, ate, did dishes and grocery shopped (is this vacation?), made it into to town around 3, found awesome parking (why didn't we see that yesterday?), and stormed the castle! 10 minute hike to the top and the boys, as well as the adults, were in awe of this huge piece of architecture that has been here since the 1700's. Very cool to walk the grounds...Nicholas was only disappointed that we didn't get to see the King's chair. Oh well.
Back down to the village, Eis for the men folk, and back to the campground for pasta (bland) and salad (decent). M & M's for everyone to tide us over til morning and a 6 way game of UNO before bed.



Tomorrow is our last day in Heidelberg, we'll relax, play some more soccer tennis, get some much needed exercise, head to V's hotel to pick up the tickets (better communication on that this time) and then off to root HARD for Mexico to slaughter New Zealand where simultaneously we'll be rooting for Japan to demolish England. Really hope this is not Mexico's last game, but if it is, we are so very, very fortunate and proud to have watched our little V-Magic compete for her other country. We all feel a little Mexican. Vamos Mexico!

3 comments:

  1. What a great trip!!! Love the photos of the boys... seems to be a lot of hot dog eating hahaha. Btw, while I'm in Washington on cell roaming my phone exploded and reset to factory-out-of-the-box unusable hair pulling aggravation settings. Did you touch my phone?

    Ask Benjamin if i can have that hat!

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  2. Wow....10:30 Amy...I'm very proud. ;) Great photos!! My favorite of course are the ESPN ones. Sorry about Mexico. I have to admit I was rooting for New Zealand as I have more of a connection with them than Mexico. It looks like you guys are having tons of fun!! I'd like to see pics inside the RV. :)

    I think I need that hat E as I'm battling the insane heat.

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  3. Excellent defensive driving:) So cool about the ESPN experience. Benjamin and Nicholas looked quite natural behind that desk...

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