Castle Halls with Cristina and the girls

Castle

Goofing off with Cristina per Jazmyne's orders - she's bossy that little one

Jaz, Vanessa, me, and Cristina

View of Nurmberg from the castle

Imperial Castle Tower

Market Square

Ja! ja!

Houses along the Pegnitz

Beautiful Bridge over the River

July 4^th: Travel Day

Watched part of the Iron Man, the transition from bike to run. Man, I admire those guys…after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles, they put on their running shoes and head out to run a full marathon – 26.2 miles! That's awesome.

It was a travel day. I took the ICE from Frankfurt to Wurtzberg and then to Bad Neustead where my family is staying. My sister, my mom, my cousin Cristina and her two diva daughters, Vanessa (11) and Jazmyne (8) where waiting for me. I got to meet Oliver's (my sister's future husband) parents, Karl and Inge – we had bread, pizza, and German beer for dinner. It gets dark out here around 10p, so we were outside sitting in a deck in the middle of Inge's beautiful flower garden chatting etc..

Bad Neustead, is the town where Oliver was born and grew up. A lot of cities in Germany are named "Bad" something…apparently Bad means Spa in German and so those towns offering Spa's or have some sort of natural springs will be named "Bad…" It is a small quaint town of about 5000 surrounded by farm land.

July 5^th: Nurnberg

Jet lag finally caught up to me, I was up at 330a. It was nice to step out into the balcony of my room – we are staying in a "Pension" near Oliver's house, and watch the day come alive. The balcony overlooks a back yard with huge pine trees and all the birds were a tweeting. I ended up going for a run before everyone got up. Went out about 5 miles and ran through the corn fields, along a meadow with a lake, and coincidentally by the church Andrea will be getting married at.

When I got back, everyone was up and getting ready for the day. Today we went about 200 km south of Bad Neustead to the city of Nurnberg. This city is absolutely breathtaking. It dates back to the medieval times and it has a wall that runs along the perimeter of the city. Of course the city has grown since those times but the wall is well preserved and clearly outlines the border of the old city. This city has a lot of history. The city square(Hauptmarkt) used to be the Jewish quarters back in the 14 century. These quarters, around that time, were attacked and all of its Jewish inhabitants killed by the local Germans. Yikes, a little eerie! That was long before Hitler's time. When Hitler came to power, he saw Nurnberg as the idealistic city representing traditional German values (not sure if the massacre of the Jews back in the 14^th century had anything to do with that). This city became the major planning hub for him and his men during WWII. This made it an easy target and the city was heavily destroyed during the war. After the war, this was the same location where his men were brought to trial, declared guilty of war crimes and sentence to death by hanging. The city has rebuilt since and preserved a lot of its original beauty and charm.

My favorite part of it all was the Imperial Castle (Kaiserburg) which sits on top of a hill on the border of the city. The castle was the stay for many kings and queens traveling through Germany back in the day. The views of the city below were incredible. Also enjoyed sitting at the Café & Bar Celona next to the Pegnitz River and having a cold beer after a whole day of walking.

My brother Will and his girlfriend Milena arrive from Colombia today. I am off to Wurtzberg to see the town until they get here. I can't wait to see them. It's a little surreal to have all my family here this far away from Colombia, this far away from home, in Germany! Very special J