Hallole! I’m typing this update from about 36,000 feet. Marty and I are headed back to the States after a great trip. Here are some highlights from the end of our time in Germany.

• The last couple of days of our trip were quite relaxing. On Friday, we got up relatively late after our excursion to Austria and Munich the previous two days.

• After breakfast (brunch, really), we headed south to Switzerland to meet some family friends and see some sights.

• We hung around Schaufhaffen for the afternoon, window shopping and visiting a local waterfall.

• Switzerland was nice but VERY expensive. I was hoping perhaps to get a nice Swiss watch with automatic movement, but was flabbergasted at the prices (not that I really expected to get one, but still…).

• The waterfall was cool. Not very big, but still quite scenic. Makes me want to visit Niagra Falls.

• Saturday was an even slower-paced day. We stuck around Burladingen and had an afternoon snack (cake, coffee, and mimosas) with some of Marty’s relatives. The weather was so nice that the two of us just walked to the house.

• Marty and I returned to Sofie and Gerd’s and stuffed our faces with a variety of grilled meats, salad, schnapps, and (of course) beer.

• The meal was delicious but a little on the indulgent, unhealthy side. To give you an idea, at one point I put a garlic cream sauce on top of buttered, cheese-filled, bacon-wrapped sausage. Yup, you read that correctly: garlic cream sauce on buttered, cheese-filled, bacon-wrapped sausage. My aorta hurts just typing that. It’s a miracle we didn’t keel over and die from a heart attack right then and there.

• The alarm didn’t go off so we had to rush a bit Sunday morning.

• No worries, though, as we made it to the Frankfurt airport with plenty of time to spare.

I’ll post the next (and final) TraveLog update from Long Island, including some of post-trip reactions, pictures, and things I learned along the way. ‘Til then, guten Tag!