Otzweiler, Germany & Kenmare, Ireland

On Sunday we had to wake up very early to head to the airport for our flight to Ireland.

The quiet streets of Rothenburg.

Breakfast of champions...Schneeballs. We had to eat something on the road so we could make our flight.

On our way to the airport, we detoured through the small town of Otzweiler, Germany. Otzweiler is a very small town with no center and just about 200 residents. My great-grandfather, Julius Rech, grew up here before he emigrated to the United States. It was amazing to visit his hometown and to imagine his thoughts on leaving the only life he's ever known. It was a really cool experience. We passed someone on the streets who the kids thought looked like my Dad. You never know!

A view of the town.

Fields just outside of Otzweiler.

When we arrived at the airport we returned our rental car and made our way to the ticket booth. We were flying RyanAir to Kerry, Ireland. We received an email a few days before our flight stating we could save the boarding passes to PDF to show at the ticket booth or print them beforehand. We chose to save them to PDF but at the ticket booth the link was inactive. RyanAir told us that to print our boarding passes there would be a significant fee. They wouldn't take into consideration that we had a family of six and there was a fee for each person. We spoke to the supervisor and he was so, so rude. We had no choice but to pay the fees to make our flight.

Once boarded, the flight attendant came around to take drink orders. We ordered two hot chocolates for the girls to share. When the attendant came with the drinks she spilled a hot chocolate on Natalie's leg. Poor Natalie didn't want to cry but I could tell she was in pain. The attendant didn't even act like she cared. It took 30 minutes for me to get ice to put on her leg.

This looks better than it actually was.

We were so drained from the issues with the flight that we were just happy to land and get off the plane. As we were getting our bags out of the overhead bin, a passenger in row 1 started a verbal altercation with someone in row 3. We were in row 2 and one of the wives was holding her husband back as they were screaming and swearing at each other. Rosalie happened to be standing between these two guys. It was ridiculous and my blood pressure was boiling. Never fly RyanAir...it was an awful experience.

Happy to be in Ireland and off the plane.

Excited faces when we realized our new rental car is bigger than our last.

Jay's first experience driving on the opposite side of the car on the opposite side of the road. I may have said a little prayer.

A beautiful view on our drive to our hotel on The Ring of Kerry.

Making our way to Kenmare where our hotel was. My paternal grandmother's family is from Skibbereen.

After checking into our hotel we went into downtown Kenmare for dinner in The Coachman's Pub.

Traditional Irish brown bread and butter.

Guinness beef pot roast. Natalie really enjoyed this.

Fish & chips. Mallory loves this dish. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of it.

Happy to be in Ireland.