Europe Here We Come!!!

Craig and I are getting really excited for our first Europe trip together. We finally bought our tickets!!! We are leaving on July 29th and will fly from SLC to Chicago and then to Germany. We will land the next day around noon time and my parents will pick us up to drive straight to Munich so we can watch the AUDI CUP. The AUDI CUP is a one time soccer tournament to celebrate 100 years of the AUDI car brand. AUDI invited four great soccer teams, FC Bayern Munich (German Club), AC Milan (Italian Club), CA Boca Juniors (Argentinian Club), and Manchester United (English Club) to fight for the Audi Cup Trophy. We will watch the two final games for 1st and 3rd place. Oh man you have no idea how excited Craig is...he cannot stop thinking about it since his dream to see some of the greatest soccer club teams play agains each other will become reality. His favorite player is Bastian Schweinsteiger from FC Bayern Munich and he prays every day that this guy will be playing the tournament. We have great seats and the Allianz Arena in Munich is one of the stadiums where some of the 2006 Soccer World Cup games where hosted. Here are some pictures of the arena and our tickets. You can check out the AUDI CUP @ http://www.audi.com/com/brand/en/experience/audi_cup_start.html

We will stay in Munich for one night and will make sure to visit the famous HOFBRAU HAUS. After Munich we will drive through Austria to Switzerland and will spend about a week at our cabin. On August 1st we will celebrate the Swiss National Day, which is fun because all the Swiss people dress up in their traditional clothing and have great traditional foods and entertainment going on. We will also do some day trips to France and Italy as both countries are really close and this way Craig will be able to see a lot. I am sure he doesn't really know what to expect but I really hope he loves it and enjoys the different cultures, languages, and food.

From Switzerland we will drive back to Frankfurt, where my parents work and Craig and I will take the train to my grandparents that live in Thuringia (Southeast Germany). We will stay with them for three days and I cannot wait to see them again. I haven't seen them in forever and they always cook up a storm for me...this will be a perfect time for Craig to find out what real Greman food tastes like. Then my parents will pick us up and we will drive to our home in Berlin, where we will see my other grandparents and that's where Craig will experience where I went to school and where I grew up. I am hoping to see lots of high school friends and show Craig the capital of Germany. Berlin is very historical, like Paris or London, so we can cover lots of sights there. I am so excited to just be at my house...I miss my house and Berlin sooooo much! If time allows and the weather is good, we will also drive to the Baltic Sea Coast, which is only 3 hours north of Berlin. I love the beaches there...they are white sand strands and the coastline is just so beautiful. I grew up vacationing there and I would love to spend a couple of days just on the beach.

Finally, we will head back to Frankfurt and fly back to Utah on August 16th. I know I will be sad to leave but I am happy I get to go at least once a year back home now. I am so excited to see my family and for Craig to meet everyone. We finally got Craig's Passport as well and for fun I compared both of ours. Of course Craig like the US Passport better and thinks it's way cooler than the German one...but at least my picture looks much better than his...haha his Passport picture is hilarious :)