This week, we continued our visit with Kathy and Elsie!
On Monday, we drove to Strasbourg, France. Some of our other previous neighbors, Susan and her daughter Tori, who now live in another part of Germany, drove down to meet us. The girls all started elementary school together and it’s so cool we get to reunite across the ocean! Before they arrived, we started our day at the Strasbourg Cathedral, where we took many photos from the outside before entering to view the astronomical clock.
After seeing the cathedral and the clock, Susan and Tori arrived just in time for lunch. We ate at Le Gruber, which is famous for the teddy bears it decorates its windows with. We have tried to eat here several times but have never been able to get a table. Strasbourg seems like it is a ghost town on Mondays so we were able to walk right in. We ordered a bottle of champagne to celebrate our reunion and had a delicious lunch of French Onion Soup and steak with the house garlic-pesto butter. Wow! It was really good, and we will definitely be back!
After lunch, we walked along the river down to the Petite France neighborhood, where canals link together several mini-islands of cobblestones and half-timber. It’s so cute! Then, we wove back and forth through the streets of Strasbourg. We did some shopping, notably stopping at a patisserie/chocolate shop where we picked up a cake for Matt’s birthday along with some other treats.
After our long walk through the city, we stopped for coffee and ice cream at a cute cafe just down the street from the Strasbourg Cathedral.
We said our goodbyes to Susan and Tori and then started home. On the way, we stopped at a French “hypermarket,” one of their ginormous supermarkets, to pick up some French treats and more wine. Kathy loves grocery shopping, so she really liked comparing the shopping in Germany, France, and Austria. Then we headed home. We were all exhausted again, so we ordered some pizza and called it a night.
Tuesday was Matt’s actual 40th birthday! He took off work and had the pleasure of driving us all around. We started at Lidl, where Kathy and Elsie could stock up on German chocolates and treats for friends back home. Our next stop was the Metzingen outlets for some discount shopping before heading into downtown Stuttgart, where we did some shopping at Louis Vuitton for a new bag for Kathy.
After shopping, we took a quick walk around downtown Stuttgart and ate at Matt’s choice, Five Guys, for his birthday lunch. Then, we went home for a nap before it was time to pick up Brooklyn and Ryan from school. From there, we returned to Stuttgart and had a birthday dinner at Abacco’s.
We finished the evening back at home with the cake we had picked up in France and a bottle of champagne.
Wednesday morning we said a tearful goodbye to Elsie and Kathy as they started their journey back to the USA.
We were so tired and needed to catch up on sleep, and I feel like we spent every free moment resting over the next couple of days.
Sometime in between naps, Ryan was able to rank up at Boy Scouts to Second Class. This was a huge relief as he’s been done with his requirements for some time, but conflicts prevented us from getting the Board Review done. We are so proud of him and know the next rank is right around the corner!
Saturday was Wrestling Sectionals at Stuttgart High. I’m still new to all the wrestling stuff but Sectionals is the equivalent to a playoff game. Across Europe, the teams met at three different locations to wrestle and determine the seeding for the European Championships which will be next weekend.
Ryan did absolutely amazing at the meet! He wrestled three times and pinned his opponent each time. In the first match, he got a pin within 16 seconds! He also wrestled against the varsity wrestler for their school and won! He ended up taking 1st place in the tournament in his weight class and stole the varsity position for his school. When the final rankings came out on Sunday for the weekend, we saw that Ryan is the 1st place seed for the upcoming championship! He has been working so hard and improved so much over the course of the season. We are so proud of him and excited to see what happens next weekend!
Brooklyn also did an amazing job with the managing duties, helping to set up, run the scoring table all day, and then the break down.
Saturday night, Ryan went to spend the night with some friends and Brooklyn had to stay and clean up after the tournament. Matt and I went to a friends’ house for dinner and some wine. It was much need after a long week.
On Sunday, the wrestling team was preparing for the European Championships by bleaching their hair, which is one of the annual traditions. One of the parents hosted a hair dying party and both kids went. Thankfully, Brooklyn did not dye her own hair, although Ryan came home looking quite yellow, which is one of their school colors.
We ended Sunday with dinnerin our favorite place, on the couch, and some TV to relax before the week ahead started.
Gilcrests Abroad 