Author: bethstapleton0201@gmail.com

We said our farewell to Julia’s family on Sunday. We had a relaxing breakfast in Nierstein center. It’s a beautiful village with pastel painted homes and narrow streets. They hope to have Matt and Liz visit someday.

We took the train to Basel but did not have reserved seats. I thought we were going to have to stand for the whole 3.5 hour ride but we eventualy got seats once some of the reserved seat rider got off at their stops. We then got off at Basel Bad which was in Germany instead of Basel SBB which would have been the next stop after crossing the river into Switzerland. After a little confusion, we took Bus 30 to Basel SBB and called it a day after a quiet dinner.

Today we met the group of backroads riders who will be with us for this week. We did a 14 mile ride  (alot of downhill) in the Black Forest of Germany and then stopped for lunch. There was a cool bike rack (see below) that they made with old grape vines. Those Germans are so clever (no surprise as they did invent the Sham Wow!)

 

We finished with an easy 24 mile ride to the  ship in Basel, Switzerland. The hardest part of riding is trying to follow our route on their Garmin GPS. At one point both our GPS had different instructions (ugh).

Last night we went to Mainz wine market which is an outdoor festival. There were kiosks for wine tasting and others for food. All drinks are served in wine glasses that you return at the end of your night.  A very mellow evening.

In the morning we visited the Mainz town center which had a huge outdoor market selling fruits, vegetables, flowers and food. Many people bring blankets and spend the afternoon having a picnic lunch with wine spritzers. We met Julia’s cousin there. We also visited Julia’s friend Anka who has a famous ice cream shop (N’eis) in Mainz along the Rhine river.

We had dinner in Nierstein with Todd, Julia, Maya, Max, Nina (Julia’s sister)  and Nina’s boyfriend Franc at a nice courtyard restaurant. We had some some special fermented wine (federweisser) that is only available during this time of year for a few weeks. We learned that this side of the Rhine river is almost only wine drinkers (and vineyards) while the other side is mainly beer drinkers.

Tomorrow we take the train to Basel Switzerland.  Auf Weidersehen.

We arrived in Frankfurt and after a short nap we made our way over to “Old town Frankfurt”  for a quick look around.  We went inside the St Bartholomew cathedral and crossed over the Eisenberg Steg bridge to have a traditional Frankfurt dinner of schnitzel in green sauce and  a glass of “apfelwein” at a relaxing biergarten.

The next day Todd and Julia picked us up and took us to Nierstein. We will be staying at one  at her uncle Manfred ‘s properties he has renovated (below).  The house is across the street from Julia’ s mom and sister Nina.  Todd gave us a tour of another house next door that is being renovated which is where they will eventually stay once it’s complete.

We had a nice tour of Nierstein and Oppenheim off of the Rhine river. All the homes looked very well kept wherever we went and had  that old German town look.  Tonight we will be heading into Mainz for some more local cuisine.

Apologies to anyone following this for ending so abruptly.  We spent Sunday on base with Matt.  He had a few errands to run so we picked him up around 9am and headed for the BX.  I think everyone had the same plan as the place was packed.  We then found a quiet spot behind the bleachers for our one last attempt at fattening Matt up.  We brought him KFC and had a really nice picnic lunch then headed to church.  Since arriving at Lackland Matt was attending the “CP” or contemporary Protestant service.  I could completely understand the appeal for the fun, upbeat, musical service.  They asked the recent grads to stand while the rest of the congregation cheered!  Such a proud moment.

We are so proud of our Airman! Matthew knew this was the right decision for him and he embraced his basic training experience.

 

We had another great day with Matt.  The weather couldn’t have been nicer.  We picked Matt up at Lackland Air Force Base at 9:00am and came back to our Airbnb house.  We had planned to meet family at the Pearl Brewery at noon for lunch and decided to take the river walk to get there.  Unfortunately Scott and Kathy weren’t able to come so the 3 of us explored San Antonio together.

 

The Pearl is a great area with restaurants, shops, live music and lots of families having fun.

We had lunch at the Boiler Room restaurant and then explored the area.

We walked back along the River Walk into the more touristy areas and saw many Airman with their families.  During the walk we were approached many times by people congratulating Matt on his graduation and thanking him for his service.  We also did the same for other Airman.

The walk was really beautiful and the weather was clear.  This interesting section had huge fish that would light up at night but even during the day there were amazing!

On our way back we stopped off to visit the Alamo.  Tom and I have been there before but this was Matt’s first visit.

We had a great Mexican dinner at Rosarios before Matt needed to be back at the base.  Tomorrow is our last day with our Airman 🙁

 

Today was Matt’s official graduation from BMT and swearing in as an Airman.  We were joined by his Aunt Kathy and cousins Drew and Xander from Austin.

Unfortunately because of all of the recent rain the usual graduation parade was cancelled so they held smaller parade events in each of the squadrons.  The event was held in the atrium which was like an underground garage so the lighting wasn’t great and it was a challenge to identify Matt among the crowd.  In fact we were taking pictures of another Airman for much of the event.  Xander tapped Matt out so he could join us.

Although it was abbreviated the ceremony was really very nice.  The Airman were sworn in and recited the Airman’s Creed.  They also sang the Air Force song.

After the ceremony we were give a tour of the dorms and got to inspect the hospital corners and rolled/folded clothes.  Matt’s room never looked so orderly.

 

Finally free of the base after 7 1/2 weeks we headed to San Antonio.  We stopped at our Airbnb house so Matt could open his graduation and birthday cards.

Our objective for the next few days is to fatten Matt up since he’s lost quite a bit of weight so we headed to a BBQ restaurant.  Most BBQ restaurants are real dives but have great food and this one was exactly that.  Great food but no ambiance.  We sat on damp picnic tables but really enjoyed the food.

After resting a bit we headed out to a Burger place nearby.  They have great music, fun graphics and really good food.

When we returned to the mini mall on the base many of the other Airman congratulated Matt.  They all knew he just graduated because he was wearing his “blues”.

 

We left NJ early Tuesday morning in the dark.  For some reason we now can’t recall why we planned to drive to San Antonio in just 2 days.  Day one took us through NJ, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia into Tennessee.  Day 1 driving was about 14 hours.

We left Tennessee and drove for about 15 hours to arrive in San Antonio.  We drove though Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas on day 2.  We stopped for breakfast in Texarkana.  I didn’t know that was a real place.  We’re staying in a cute Airbnb house about 20 minutes away from Lackland Airbase where Matt is completing his Basic Military Training.  We were told to arrive early (by 6am) to ensure we had a place to park.  When we pulled through the gate we had no idea where we were going and expected to follow about a hundred cards in front of us.  Unfortunately they all seemed to disappear and we ended up driving aimlessly around until we found the reception area.

The first thing that struck me was how large the group was.  I didn’t realize that there are 780 trainees graduating this weekend to become Airmen!  The place was packed and very chaotic.  We attended a briefing and then headed over for the Airman’s run.  This is a symbolic event that the Airman obviously love to participate in.  Matt’s group is in the gray t-shirts and he’s in the first gray shirt group.  See if you can spot him. 🙂

Next we saw the honor graduates, the top 10% in each flight. They also had a brief ceremony where 6 new Airman were sworn in as citizens of the US.  They were from the Philippines, Jamaica and Columbia.  This was a very moving event to see.

Next was the coin ceremony, where each Airman was given a symbolic coin to acknowledge their elevation from trainee to Airman.

 

Finally it was time to “tap out” our Airman.  This is when a family member approaches the Airman and he/she can leave formation.  I had a hard time finding Matt because on the information the Air Force provided they had him in the wrong group!  It was also difficult because of how he’s wearing that hat (see below).  Most of his face was covered.  I had to check 2 groups but finally found him.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with Matt touring different parts of the base.  We’re really looking forward to the official graduation ceremony tomorrow and excited that Kathy, Drew and Xander are coming to celebrate with Matt.

 

With an early check out time (9:00am) and an afternoon flight (4:00pm) we decided to take another cooking class.  Our chef teacher Javier was originally from the Sacred Valley and had worked as a porter on the Inca Trail.  He also worked as a cook so it was great to hear his stories from the porters point of view.  We were joined in the class by Sam from Dallas who was also leaving today.

Javier first took us to the San Pedro Market to get the ingredients for our meal.  It was very interesting watching him navigate all the different stalls and interact with the merchants.  He told us later that he likes to purchase items from as many people as possible to help them all. All of the food was natural, farm fresh and he frequently talked about the health benefits of the different foods.

We made stuffed peppers, potatoes with a peanut sauce, rice pudding and a Pisco Sour.

 

After eating our fill we headed to the airport.  Our adventure is over but we both are very proud to have successfully completed the trek to Machu Picchu.

When there are 500 people all trying to get to the same place first you need to get up very very early.  We got our wake up call at 3:00am and breakfast was at 3:30am.  We lined up to take our final hike to the Sun Gate and Machu Picchu.

As we were preparing to leave we could see the stars in the sky.  They were so bright and seemed so close you could almost touch them.  We knew it was going to be a beautiful day.

Our group (minus us) raced to the sun gate which should have taken about an hour and a half to two hours.  They arrived in just under an hour!  We joined them and the view was amazing.

We headed down from the sun gate to Machu Picchu…we arrived!

We spent the remainder of the morning exploring Machu Picchu.  Unfortunately the photos don’t do it justice.  It was massive and beautiful.

 

We had our final group meal together in a small village called Aquas Calientes.  It was time to celebrate our success!

 

The group split up and 8 of us were headed back to Cusco.  We took a train to Ollantaytambo and it was the strangest train ride we’ve ever been on.  About 30 minutes into the ride this strange creature came out and entertained the group.  Then the fashion show started.  It was a very odd combination but a lot of fun.

 

We arrived back in Cusco around 9:00pm and very anxious to take very long hot showers, put on clean clothes and sleep in a nice soft bed with sheets!

 

 

Today we climbed another summit (12,234 feet) which was followed by a steep descent. After this is it was an up and down day followed by another steep descent.  At one point we went through a small tunnel. We took pictures before going through it. Christian our guide hid inside and came out and scared me (Tom) and a few others as we  went through.

The day was very foggy so we didn’t get to see or take pictures of the views but it’s okay because we’re hoping for clear skies for tomorrow’s trek to Machu Picchu. We did manage to entertain ourselves by talking about our favorite cartoons.  Most of the others were remembering their childhoods but we were remembering our kids.  It was fun to learn that kids in the US, Canada, UK and Australia all loved SpongeBob, the Rugrats and Blues Clues.

We stopped to see a couple ruins along the way and ended up arriving at our camp in the dark. After dinner the cook surprised us with a cake he made without an oven.  We were off to bed early as our wake up call in the morning will be 3:00am!