It's Time!

Time to make reservations.  This makes our trip which we have been dreaming about more and more real.  We are going, as a family, to Europe!

Thanks to Gemut, we have a 9 passenger van rented for two weeks, and it is way under what we budgeted.  I have confirmed reservations for places to stay in Reutte, Austria, Munich, Erfurt, and Berlin, Germany.  The place we thought we could stay in Rome is no longer available, but I have other leads thanks to the friendly owners of The Beehive.  I hope to soon have confirmed reservations there as well.

We also no longer have a place in Wittenberg or Rothenburg.  I'm searching for other leads as well as asking advice and help from Bob at Gemut.

Would you like to see where we have made reservations?  We are excited and hope they all turn out just as lovely as the pictures and descriptions purpose.

We plan on using the town of Reutte, Austria as our base for enjoying the Tirol and Bavaria regions, including Neuschwanstein and Hoheschwangau castles and, of course, the Alps.  In the Rick Steves' Guidebook, we found Gastehaus am Graben and have made reservations.

In order to find cheap places for a family of seven to stay, we have looked mainly into hostels.  A local friend has told us they are quite nice and very reasonable.  In Munich we will stay at a YMCA, and in Erfurt we will stay at the Opera Hostel.

In Berlin, we will stay at a gastehaus which is with St. Mariengemeinde.  We heard of this from Jonathan, my husband's cousin.  He and his wife have been living in Berlin the last couple of years as he finishes his doctoral thesis in theology, and St. Mariengemeinde has been where God has bestowed His good gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation upon them during there stay in Germany.  Unfortunately for us they will no longer be in Berlin when we arrive for our visit.  They will be moving to England where Jonathan has accepted a call to Cambridge.

The time has come for our dream trip to take on flesh and bones in the form of reservations.  We have a good start and are hopeful that it won't be long before we'll know where we'll be laying our sleepy heads in each of our stops along the way.