A Weekend Excursion

This weekend we drove to Shweinfurt to spend the day with my aunt and uncle. We had a wonderful time. It was our first real excursion on our own, and it went off without a hitch. Nuvi (see previous entry) guided us to our destination and home again without any problems, so driving wasn't stressful, the weather was beautiful, the kids were well-behaved, and it was wonderful to spend time with family.

We spent the morning at a truly beautiful park. It has playgrounds, sprinklers to run through, a mini-golf course, a HUGE petting zoo and kilometers of beautiful walking paths through the forest. We spent most of our time looking at, feeding, and petting the animals. What could be better than bunnies nibbling your fingertips or goat saliva coating your palm?

                                        

We spent some time hunting the white stag. Do you think that if we had chased it long enough it would have led us out of Narnia and home to our friends and family?

                                                        

Look - we caught him on film! Do you think our wishes will be granted? In all actuality, this is an albino stag - he really is completely white. He is very, very tame. He walked right up to the fence and let us (and the kids) pet him.

After the park we had lunch (hooray for yummy German bread and cheese!) and rested. I was able to visit with my aunt while my uncle entertained the kids (he is amazingly good with children) and my husband slept. (Someone had to be alert enough to drive us home!) We then headed downtown Schweinfurt. Schweinfurt was one of the most heavily bombed cities in the war. It was targeted because of its 2 ball bearing factories. Unbeknownst to the Allies, Hitler moved the factories out of the town and into the countryside, so, tragically, the city was destroyed and the factories remained intact. As a result, the city is newer than a lot of German cities. It is still a beautiful town, however, and the residents have really made the most of what buildings were left. (For instance, they turned an old stone warehouse into a beautiful library.)

                                            

Note the subject of the sculpture - this is after all Schwein - furt (pig-crossing)!

Our Lovely New Home

Well, we’ve been able to obtain occasional internet access, so I thought I’d go ahead give you all an update on our housing situation. As I mentioned before, we are in a stairwell apartment building. The upside is that the apartment is completely renovated. The downside is that it is a tiny apartment in a stairwell style building. We are on the middle floor. This will be a challenge for us. After 3 years of living on a slab foundation my kids aren’t exactly used to being, well, quiet.

We gave off post living our very best shot. It was not meant to be. It’s unbelievable how strict they are about making everyone live on post. We were only shown 2 apartments and were expected to take one of them. I wouldn’t feel so bitter about the whole thing if I didn’t know that contracted civilians and single soldiers get to live off post….why ON EARTH should a single soldier get a 5 bedroom house on the banks of the Neckar river and NOT ME?!?! In any case, I’m over it now (or really trying to be) and I’m determined to make my apartment not only livable, but beautiful. So, here are some “before” pictures.

Obviously I can’t do much to beautify the actual stairwell, but I do plan to plant some flowers in the entryway. Painting is a definite must, as is curtain installation. We’ll give it our best. Finally, in an effort to be positive, I’m including a picture of my favorite feature in this apartment. Isn’t this the BEST DARN SILVERWARE DRAWER YOU HAVE EVER SEEN??? I thought so.

Further Adventures

Does watching fireworks over a river lined by four castles (2 of which are in ruins) sound like an absolutely fabulous experience? We thought so too….

Last Saturday we drove up (along with several other families from our ward) up to a town called Neckar-Gemund to watch its annual lighting of the castles. We parked alongside a field and plopped ourselves down on a borrowed blanket (ours hadn’t arrived yet) to watch the display. We got there around 7:30 – well before dusk – and spent the evening chatting with friends, eating snacks and watching our kids play in the field. Around 9:45 we noticed lights drifting up from the town below us into the darkening sky. We’re not certain, but we think that they were miniature hot air balloons propelled by candles. As the last balloon (out of maybe 10) was launched, the lighting of the castles began. Each castle was lit with flickering red and orange lights to make it look as if it were on fire. We’re not sure which battle was being reenacted, perhaps it was a siege, or maybe just a bombing. In any case, the result was spectacular. After the lights died down, the fireworks over the river began. Because we were up on the hillside (directly opposite the castles) we were right at eye level with the castles and the fireworks. We all had a great time (although Naomi had her eyes partially covered during the entire fireworks display) and definitely plan to go again next year.

· A note about the pictures – It was a very, very misty evening, so it was difficult to get a clear picture. Also, this experience strengthened our resolve to get a really good telephoto lens, and to never, never, never travel again with only our pocket camera.

Signing Off

Well, they found housing for us. I'm not going to go into too much detail today, because I want to save my ranting for a time when I can do the subject justice. Suffice it to say that we've been assigned (rather forced into) an on-post stairwell apartment. We're moving in tomorrow, and there is no internet set up, so I'm signing off for the next little while. (Hopefully it won't be too along until we are internet ready - I'm such an internet junkie this is going to be a real hardship!) So, I hope you all have a great week. I'll miss our world wide web interactions....

My New Best Friend

Today I spent quite a lot of time with my new best friend.....quality time - time discovering the pathways and pitfalls of my new place in life. I can see him/her really being a guiding force in my life here in Germany. Would you all like to meet him/her? Without further ado, here he/she is:




That's right - Nuvi and I had quite the day today. And all because our car FINALLY arrived!

*Note the nifty European license plates!

I can't tell you how happy I am to FINALLY have our car here. Of course, one of the first things we did today was go to a car dealership to look into buying another car....But, before I did that, I drove to my friend's house (only 1 or 2 wrong turns, which Nuvi quickly corrected), drove to a lovely German grocery store and purchased some tasty German bread, cheese, yogurt and chocolate, and back home all without incident. And mom, just so you know, I didn't go over 120 on the Autobahn today. We'll save that for tomorrow....

One last picture, just in case y'all are curious. Here is our current home. We've now reached day 15. Hopefully 15 more to go!

Another Expedition

One of the great things about Heidelberg is it's central location in Germany and in Europe. I think we'll be able to go somewhere fantastic every Saturday for quite a long time without duplicating trips. This last Saturday our friends rescued us from our hotel (today is day 12 in the hotel) and took us to this monastery:


I don't know much about it's history (all the signs were in German, and after a week here, I'm still not fluent :) ) but what I do know is that parts of it are extremely old. There was a tomb in the crypt dated at 1080 A.D. It was renovated in 1889, and destroyed in the 1930's. Apparently Hitler wanted a swank place to hold a rally, so he pulled apart the monastery and built this amphitheater:


Wow. Can you imagine all of that stone back in place at the monastery? It must have been beautiful. The sad thing is, apparently the amphitheater isn't used for much these days. What a waste. The whole area has become a picnic/hide and seek destination. It was a perfect place to take our kids - they loved it, and so did we.

Thanks to our friends....

We are extremely blessed to have some good friends from Georgia here (they moved here last summer) who have been hauling us around so that we can get things done and also do some sightseeing. On Tuesday, they watched our kids for over 4 hours while we sat through a scintillating class on German rules of the road and took a written exam. (I have to insert here that I was quite nervous about the test - it has been over 7 years since I finished school, and pretty much exactly that long since I've taken any kind of test.) Thankfully we both passed - I won't mention who did better....ANYWAY, last Thursday (the day we got here) they took us to a beautiful town just outside of Heidelberg called Ladenberg and last night they took us to Heidelberg itself. Here are a few pictures. As our friends put it, isn't it cool that this is now OUR TOWN?!?!