Patricia and Ryan: Germany Trip-unabridged

Well, the unabridged version of my trip goes like this:

It started in Zurich, Switzerland, where I met Nora and her fiance, Fernando and we left for a trip to the Italy of Switzerland in the southern part of the country where the weather was a little nicer. We took a train to Locarno and explored around the Locarno/Ascona area.

Then we went back to Zurich for an afternoon of self-guided walking tour through the city. It was cold cold cold, and expensive. $8 CHF (~8USD) for a hot chocolate?! no thanks. But was worth seeing, at least for the short amount of time we had.

Then we headed to Stuttgart, where I got to spend some time with my parents, shopping with mom, hanging out with Soren, Nora, Maureen and their guys! Saturday was Maureen's wedding and it was beautiful! Maureen looked gorgeous:

And it was a beautiful ceremony at a gorgeous location - despite the snowy treacherous conditions required to get to it!

Then the party commenced. There was lots of fun, lots of dancing, lots of beer drinking (when in Germany...). The party was definitely a European style celebration and went on until all hours of the morning!

One of Markus's tech savvy friends even had the party live streaming so Ryan and other people from afar could watch the party!

Also, Nora, Soren and I performed our choreographed dance for Maureen during the party! ...In case you haven't heard it, the story goes like this. When I first got engaged, I called Maureen to tell her and the first thing she asked me was, "Can we do a choreographed dance at your wedding?!" I said, "Sure" and then promptly forgot all about it. A year later, when my wedding day arrived, right in the middle of the reception, all of my bridesmaids sat me down in a chair in front of the stage and performed a dance that they had choreographed to Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny From the Block." They were wearing giant bling and had even changed the lyrics to fit my wedding day. ("Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got, I'm still, I'm still Patty from the block...") So when Maureen and Markus got engaged, we decided we need to do a dance for her in return. We decided on Beyonce's Single Ladies, and modified the lyrics to be more appropriate: "Markus liked it so he went a put a ring on it..." We used a few of Beyonce's moves and choreographed the rest ourselves. Maureen said it was so awesome and we got some great cheers and crowd participation at the end. I'll have to track down the video of it and if you're lucky, I'll put it up on the blog eventually!

Sunday after the wedding was a great brunch, where Maureen performed the passing of the sash to Nora, among other things! There was also much beer drinking and eating of food (when in Germany...).

The rest of the week, I got to relax and catch up on some sleep as well as hang out with Maureen and Markus, and help them get ready for their trip to China, where they're currently on their 4-week honeymoon! We went to the Christmas market and ate bratwurst!

And a huge thanks to their friends, Armando and Birgit who were excellent hosts and whose cool top floor apartment was a great place to call home during my stay in Stuttgart!