Up up and away!

We finally took our balloon ride!

For those of you who didn't know about this, Wolf had given me a hot air balloon ride for my 33rd birthday on September 23, 2005. We tried to go on the ride 3 times before we had good enough weather to actually go 9 months later on June 23rd, 2006.

Initially, we had tried to go on November 1, 2005 because Wolf had planned on proposing to me up in the air, but unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. (He still did propose to me on that day, but at our favorite Japanese restaurant in Karlsruhe).

So anyway, on the left is our balloon at the "almost up in the air" state. I was told that I had to RUN so the balloon didn't just take off without me. About 30 seconds after I got in the basket, it "took off"--very gently, I might add.

Below is our "partner" balloon. I almost got sick just watching them because they kept on going up and down so quickly, we thought they were going to crash! But they were ok.


The day was absolutely gorgeous--temps in the 70s, a slight breeze and a mostly sunny sky. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

The ride took off just north of the city of Ulm--a city on the border of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemburg. You can see (below) the huge church in the city. This church has the tallest bell tower in Europe or the world--I forget which. Wolf and I climbed up the entire spire in 2004 and believe me, it was quite a hike--literally! I could barely walk for the next couple of days.

Anyway, it was great to see the countryside just slowly pass us by below. I can't remember what the pilot told us about how high we were, but we were high enough. There were 3 other couples in our basket, and we found out that there were 5 countries represented out of the 8. Amazing if you ask me!