Hello from Minneapolis!

I told you all that BonnGiorno would be history when we arrived home to Minneapolis... alas, we're home, and I've still got a few more posts in me... 

We took the train from Bonn to Utrecht in Holland on Saturday morning, and arrived in the Dutch city around lunch time. Getting from the train station to our hotel was quite a challenge. Even though it was only a three block walk, Big Red and the rest of our suitcases totaled 5 pieces of luggage, including one suitcase who's left wheel had broken off in transit, making it basically an 18 pound hand bag. 

We managed to make it to the hotel all in one piece, no torn off limbs from the heavy weight, and settled into our room on the fifth floor. On our way out to explore the city, we noticed that the other rooms on our floor had signs on the doors, with the names of the guests, and a "Welcome to the Little Sins Christmas Party". Curious, we stopped at the front desk and asked for some more information, only to find out that half the hotel rooms were reserved for participants in a famous Dutch swingers convention. 

We left for the day a bit worried that we would not have a peaceful night's rest.  Utrecht was positively charming, with it's old canal,  Oudegracht, weaving through the city center.  On either side of the canal were beautiful shops, interesting bookshops and old cafes.  

Our night, and our room on the fifth floor were, in fact, very quiet.  However, when we left we learned that it was not so quiet on the other floors. The concierge told us he had been called up to the third floor several times to quiet down a room full of naked couples. Apparently these people were also running around naked through the halls of the hotel throughout the night. I guess the Dutch really are that liberated! 

After a long, but comfortable flight, we arrived home on Sunday evening, and were picked up at the airport by my mom, younger brother, and our two doggies. It was an emotional reunion. Gus seemed a bit confused at first, but he has since readjusted and looks pretty happy to see us again. Charly seemed to recognize us at once, and it feels like we never even left him. 

It feels great to be back home, although we're already missing several things and people from Deutschland. It's nice to know we'll be able to go back there some day, and say, we lived here. We spent four months here, in this German city, learning German, meeting new people, experiencing new things, and having an adventure all of our own.