:: Day One ::

When we first arrived we went for a walk around Kgordees Parent's neighborhood in Dortmund, their part of town is called Hombruch. This is a little fruit and veg stand that looks just like the displays that are set up on market days. More on Market days later! The middle picture shows a fun pedestrian zone round the corner from the Jones's apartment, I think we counted six bakeries on this stretch of street, but we might have underestimated a bit.

This is a shot of a street in downtown Dortmund. Every where we went we ran into these pedestrian only promenades.

After a short tour of Dortmund with our professional tour guides (Kgordee’s parents) we took a longer then expected power nap. Kgordee’s parents had to go to the center that evening where they have activities for young adults in their ward/stake so we ventured off on our own.

We caught the subway downtown in search of food. It was pretty wet out but we found the donor kebab stand that we wanted to eat at. Kgordee had a hard time ordering (though let’s be honest if it was left up to me we would have starved) and we ended up with a Turkish kebab that was good but not what we wanted to order. We ate al fresco under a large umbrella at a table for some sit down restaurant. I had an orange Fanta and Kgordee had a Mezzo Mix (1/2 fanta and 1/2 coke) and oh how I love German Fanta.

We walked around a bit more and then headed home. Luckily we brought some umbrellas because on the way home it poured and the streets became little water ways. Getting around was pretty easy, Kgordee figured out the subway system and I fingered out how to get home once we were back in Hombruch.

It was so good to be back in Germany again, (last time in 2003 we spent most of our time in Vienna, which was amazing and only had a few days on either end of the trip in Germany) I love people watching, listening to them converse in German and seeing the beautiful architecture everywhere.

Vacations are always fun, but add on not having the kids with us plus being in a foreign country and that equals AMAZING. We had the non-responsibilities of teens yet (hopefully) the attention span to really appreciate the history and beauty before us.