A Long Day

Today we started early since we were on the road to Erfurt.  When we got up, Sabine wasn’t happy.  We thought that she was just tired and didn’t want to leave Heidrun’s since there are so many animals there.  We packed up, said goodbye to Heine and were on our way.  She fussed the whole way to Oma and Opa’s so Patrick concluded she was hungry.  We fed her as soon as possible and that was a mistake.  She vomited!  After that, she had a drink and was ok.  In fact, she ate almost all the rest of her brötchen and a slice of meat.  After eating, she drank her bottle and fell asleep.   We had a nice breakfast and chat with Oma and Opa.  Anna was really sad to go and she hugged both Oma and Opa a couple of times. 

Sabine continued to sleep for about 2 hours and we thought the vomiting was just stress.  We were wrong.  She woke up about 2/3 of the way through our drive to Goslar and started fussing.  When we were almost into town she got sick again.  Patrick tried to find a place to pull over but there aren’t tons of options when you are on a narrow mountain road.  As soon as we got into town, Patrick stopped at the first Apotheke he saw.  The woman there was very nice and gave us some tummy medicine for Sabine with some water to take it.  She sucked it down, we changed her out of her barfy clothes and she seemed better. 

Goslar was very nice.  There is a large, old section of town that is a UNESCO world heritage site.  We walked around looking at the old buildings and churches.  It was really cool to see all of the old buildings and walk on the narrow cobblestone streets.  It wasn’t long until we decided to eat.  We found a nice little place with outdoor tables and had lunch.  Sabine ate great.  We gave her another dose of medicine after lunch as a precaution and everything seemed better. 

We got back in the car and continued our journey through the Harz mountains.  About 30 minutes later we stopped in Braunlage for ice cream.  It is a cute little ski resort town.   We had a nice time eating ice outside in the sun and then continued on our journey to Erfurt.

We drove down the other side of the mountain through a few more cute little towns.  On the other side, we drove past the line that used to divide eastern and western Europe.   Of course we had to stop to take a picture.  We chose back road for the rest of our journey since they are more scenic and they were.  As we went back up into the Thuringian mountains we could see the hills, fields and towns.  It was very pretty.  As we got almost all the way to our hotel, Sabine got sick again.  This time we anticipated a bit better and we got stopped before she was actually sick.  We still had to change clothes again and she took another dose of medicine. 

At last, we were within a few minutes of our hotel.  We ended up on a narrow, cobblestone street driving right past a huge church.  When we got to the end of the road there was a problem however, the GPS wanted us to turn on a small, pedestrian only bridge.  By this time we were all done and ready to be at the hotel.  The car GPS was able to find the hotel easily.  We drove around to the other side and down more narrow streets and found it.  YAY!  It was after 7PM when we finally got to our room.

After making our way to the room it was time for dinner.  We walked a little bit and found a nice Thuringian restaurant.  We had a relaxing dinner and then started back to the hotel.  As soon as we left our restaurant, we noticed people everywhere.  Every restaurant and bar was packed with people and we heard music.  We walked down the street and found a beer fest and plenty more people.  We walked back through and found the café where we will eat breakfast.  The hotel we are at tonight doesn’t include breakfast in the price of the room so we are going to branch out.  Anna isn’t certain how it is going to work but once she has her brötchen it will be fine.  We stopped at a playground on the way back to the hotel and the girls played a bit.  By the time we were back in the room it was just after 10PM.

Tomorrow we will be on the last leg of our journey.  Sabine is ready to go home, Anna wants to stay here….