The start of the trip ...

Kermit (who belongs to a friend of ours -- Thanks, Beverly!) has been around the world, but never to Germany or France. So...we stashed him away in Ashley's carry-on bag and away he was. Apparently he is an American citizen...who knew?!?

This is us, delerious from no sleep, on the plane. We are happy about our trip.

We sat on a bench across from this station and watched people for about 15 minutes.

Ashley is practicing taking "reflective" portraits - I was her first test subject.

[**Mom, the white chair has the same shape as what I was describing on Monday. ashley]

This is the front of our wonderful hotel - the NH (it is a chain based out of Madrid, Spain). Very nice.
Using the free wireless Internet in the lobby to type our posts ...

Ashtrays can be found on all tables in the lobby. Smoking is permitted nearly everywhere in Germany....yuck!
We think this means Cosmetic Studio...haha...the German vernacular is quite practical. You can combine words to make compound words - similar to the US but much more commonplace. For instance, street names are generally one word containing the name of the street and the word street in the same word. We are trying to find the word with the most letters...we are up to 21!

Another "reflective" portrait in our hotel room. Cute couple! As in the above photo, Ashley's new quest is to be in a reflection in as many photos as possible, as she says - to provide "evidence" that she was here.