Kiste Parents First Visit

There is something so special about sharing where we live and our new home with our family and friends.

Jesse's parents, Monica and Greg, came to visit us for 9 days in June 2021. They were our first visitors since moving here in October of 2020.

Once we picked them up from the airport in Frankfurt our first stop was in Bamberg. Monica's Dad was stationed there with the US Army in the 1960s and she grew up hearing her dad talk about this beautiful city and wanting to see it for herself. Grandpa was not wrong! Bamberg was absolutely stunning and everything you imagine and more when you think of a classic German city. River flowing through the town, cafes on every corner, and lovely architecture everywhere.

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Next stop was Goslar, another beautiful city where where some of our friends live. Our friends, Beate, Uwe, and Thorben, gave us a personal tour of Goslar including climbing many stairs up to the top of a church tower where we could see the whole town! We also stopped for ice cream and shopping. That evening we headed up the Hartz mountains to XXXL Schnitzel King where the men attempted to eat a 1 kg (2.2 lbs) schnitzel and liter of beer in under an hour. Greg made good headway at the start but couldn't quite finish it. Jesse and Thorben didn't even come close this time (to their credit, they both have completed this challenge in their younger years). My favorite schnitzel is the one with geschmorten Zwiebeln (braised onions) on top of a regular schnitzel.

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After Goslar we made our way to Essen for a day to recoup and show them around our city and home. Jesse had prepared a German beer tasting for them and I had an assortment of chocolates ready. We enjoyed it all on our back patio. We also showed them where Jesse worked and took advantage of a large hiking trail nearby.

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The next day we were off on the train to Köln (Cologne). We packed the day full with the Chocolate Museum tour, Köln Cathedral, the love locks bridge, and of course Kölsch beer.

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Monica's birthday fell on the trip so for her birthday she decided she wanted to check another country off her list. The Netherlands are very close and we love the border city of Venlo, so that is where we spent her birthday. We tried but were unfortunately not able to get her passport stamped. It definitely wasn't for lack of effort though! Dutch fries and Heineken were on the menu for today.

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By this point in the trip we were all pretty exhausted. We ditched some of the places we had originally planned and just stayed in Essen the last couple days. It was wonderful. We were able to show them some of our favorite restaurants, home improvement stores (Greg's favorite), they met some of our friends/neighbors, and we even went to a "beach" where we totally stunk at mini golf. Although, to be fair, it was a very old and difficult course. We put a cap at 10 strokes each per hole and many of us hit that each round. That night for dinner was the classic döner kebabs.

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When Jesse and I dropped them at the airport the last day, I'm pretty sure we both came home, walked straight to the couch and took a two hour nap. You know, that happy exhaustion that only comes from spending time with family. ;)

We can't wait for them to visit again, maybe next time in the winter for Christmas markets!