This past week, Tim gave me the good news that he had a long weekend off from work—meaning 4 days of unstructured time where we can be crazy and generally goof off.  In past years, we really do go crazy by undertaking some DIY house project that turns into 4 weeks on non-stop stress.  But, living in government quarters limits the options for creative design. So, I tackled something I’ve wanted to do for many years…plan and execute a weekend excursion in under 24 hours.
Some limitations for our family:
we have 6 people in the family–this means at least 2 bathrooms for accommodations (no more hostel experiences for the Rietkerks, thank you Denmark!)
someone to watch our dog Lady because we weren’t about to travel with her in the van
A location in Germany that can be reached in 4 hours by car (Tim couldn’t technically leave the country so Italy and Croatia were out)
Some place we haven’t been before