We made it!

After a long 24 hours, we made it to our new home! We started off with a long drive to Chicago (thanks Katie!) and a long wait in the international terminal before our overnight flight to Dublin. As we waited, Todd showed Therese the planes out the window. This was the first time she had ever seen a plane. Her response to the large, still planes: "Looks like a fish." :-) Therese was a trooper on the long flight and did really well through the take-offs and landings. She fell asleep after a few hourse despite the bright lights of the plane- too bad Todd and I couldn't manage to do the same. We really lucked out having 4 seats to ourselves so Reese was able to lay down. After a few hours in Dublin, we flew to Zurich. Reese and I slept for the entire flight. We then grabbed some McDonalds from the Zurich airport (which is also a train station) before catching our first train. We were a bit exhausted, going on little to no sleep, lugging around our three suitcases and a 2 year old who was NOT happy about being in her stroller, and having to switch trains twice. The people were so nice though. We always had people helping us on and off the train, usually picking up part of the stroller for me or some of our suitcases. Still, the train rides themselves were amazing, especially when we were still in Switzerland. We saw cute houses, huge forests, and then we turned a corner and we were looking at the top of a waterfall. Amazing.

When we arrived at Radolfzell, we immediately saw the Lake Constance. It is beautiful. There are interesting trees, beautiful flowers and cute little shops right on the lake. There was also a small playground right there. Therese immediately noticed the ducks and wanted to feed them ("like at Papa's" as she said).

When the taxi drove us to our new place (a guesthouse or hostel owned by the Carl Duisberg Center), there were kids playing in our street. I took this as a good omen. We were greeted by the man who runs the guesthouse and he immediately showed us inside, not speaking a word of English. Until this moment, everyone had been able to speak at least a little English to me. Todd says he told this man that I know NO German, but he keeps speaking to me in German at a normal speed and with no real hand gestures :-). Our room is very large by European standards and we are sharing a "kitchen" and bathroom with only one other person (a German who also speaks English and plans activities for the CDC) which is nice.

Today (Monday) Therese slept until 11:15 German time. She is still making up for some lost sleep, as are we. Todd and I bought our first German beers today and the bottle is calling me. I will have to write about our first full day in Deutschland tomorrow.