Please forgive me, it's been 9 years since my last "confession."
Haven't gone anywhere that y'all would care about since then, really. Now, though... watch out, I'm back with a vengeance!
So... back in 2013, when we were coming back from Rome, my darling wife and I talked about what it would take to get us to do another tour overseas. I put my foot down on one specific item: I wasn't open to learning a different alphabet. Different languages don't scare me much, but I draw the line at random squiggles - none of those for me, thank you very much.
Her agency doesn't have a huge presence overseas - we were going to be limited to a very small number of possibilities. The ones that stick in my mind that we discussed as strong possibilities: London, Paris, Frankfurt.
She had an opportunity to apply for Paris in 2019, but the timing really wasn't right - Cori was in her final year of high school, and we had some other things going on - but it started a serious conversation about the possibility of going back to a post in Europe at some point. We'd loved visiting Germany during our first assignment, and Frankfurt was the one possible post (within her agency) in Germany. The timing mostly worked out, and here we are!
What timing? Well, turns out we're going to use this to try out the whole "empty nest" thing. We're leaving the kids here (in Knoxville)... mostly. Cori will be doing one more year of college here in Knoxville, then coming over to Germany for a year; Palmer will be staying in Knoxville and coming over occasionally to visit. Cori will be making the initial trip over with us, and staying for about a month, then returning to the States to go back to work and school. We're keeping the house, and I'll be coming back over at unexpected intervals to check on them. Hopefully, I'll at least get invited to some of the parties that I'm sure are being planned.
In all seriousness, they're both good kids, they're legally adults, and we've got a couple of people around town to whom they can turn in an emergency. Additionally, I'll be able to get back to Knoxville relatively quickly, if necessary.
So... to sum up: Half of the Shores family is going to Germany, three bedroom apartment (all on a single level - no stairs! Yay!) We'll have plenty of room for you to come visit, and you're more than welcome to use our place as a jumping-off point and base of operations if you wanna trek around central Europe. We're on a subway line, which can get you to either the train station or the airport, or, if you're really nice, we might be willing to drive you around.
Once we get on the ground in Germany, I'll update the "Things to know before you visit" document (linked at the top of the page) - for now, that info might still be applicable, but it's a few years old (and it's for another country), so YMMV.
Frankfurt might not be the top place for y'all to visit, but one thing about it that we like is how centrally located it is. We'll be able to travel around Europe pretty easily from there - let us know if you find yourself in Europe, and we'll see if we can meet up somewhere on your itinerary!
Auf wiedersehen!
