Triberg Bus Trip

On Sunday 30 December, we went with Magda, Nadim, Melanie, and Adam on a bus trip to Triberg which is in the Black Forest region of Germany. Triberg is known for its cuckoo clocks and its waterfalls. After touring the House of 1000 Clocks, we watched a spectacular fire show over the waterfalls set to Mannheim Steamroller music. Afterward, we strolled around their Weihnacht Markt (Christmas market) where we warmed ourselves around a huge bonfire and drank Glühwein (warm mulled wine) under decorated Christmas trees.

Here is the description of the trip:
The visitors of the “2007 Triberger Weihnachtszaubers” will experience a unique Holiday event, which takes place directly at Germany’s highest waterfall. Special ambiance is provided by the 300.000 lights, scattered throughout the city of Triberg, forming a gigantic sea of light. The waterfall, especially during this season with snow and ice, presents the visitor a great natural display and leads the traveler to an impressing and lasting encounter. A thick program of various shows, national and international artist’s music performances attend the guests. A light avenue, 26 meters long tunnels with 50.000 lights, offers a true unique Holiday stroll experience.

Here are some of our pictures from the day:

Triberg

Paris

We traveled to Paris, France for the weekend of 19 October with Kate and Shaun. Getting from the Charles de Gaulle airport to our hotel Friday night turned out to be quite an adventure. Paris transit employees went on strike on Thursday, protesting a proposed cut in retirement packages. This meant that the metro wasn't running. Additionally, Paris hosted the World Rugby Championships over the weekend. Since the metro wasn't running, and there were at least 60,000 extra people in Paris, the taxi line at the airport was at least 1.5 hours long. So after a 1.5 hour bus ride, we ended up at the Arc d'Triomphe. From there, we caught a taxi to get to the hotel. At this point, we started getting excited to be in Paris and getting closer to our hotel and eating dinner...until the route was overtaken by some hundred roller bladers. That's right, hundreds of roller bladers apparently wind their way through Paris every Friday night between 10:00pm Friday and 1:00 am Saturday!

After starting the day off with delectable French pastries, we spent Saturday morning touring Notre Dame de Paris. In addition to touring the inside of the cathedral, we climbed a few hundred steps to the top of the cathedral to view the Paris skyline as well as see the gargoyles up close! Afterward, we found a boulangerie for a coffee break and croissant snack, and then walked throught La Sainte-Chapelle. The walls of the upper chapel are almost all stained glass and depict the story of the bible. After lunch, we headed into the Louvre where we hit the highlights, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the Code of Hammurabi. We all agreed that we are now officially cultured! Saturday night, we met up with friends of Kate and Shaun for dinner at L'estrapade near the Panthéon for a French meal. Carrie's meal consisted of prune soup, roasted quail with grapes, and chocolate mint crème brûlée. Kurt started with whole sardines, moved on to a cut of beef and finished with 'chocolat du suicide.'

Sunday we climbed to the top of the Arc d'Triomphe and then made our way to the Eiffel tower. Since the lines were long, we didn't go up to the top but did touch the base so that we can say we were really there! We then walked to the Musée d'Orsay where we saw several paintings by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, and Degas. Luckily, we decided to leave early for the airport because it ended up taking almost 4 hours to get there! Due to the strike, a few of the metro trains weren't running and the trip took longer than normal. That and the fact that the train we took, which normally does go to the airport, turned around about half way there taking us back to where we started. But in the end, we did get to the airport and on our plane...so all's well that ends well!

We had a great time in Paris and are looking forward to going back to see more sights that we didn't have time to see!

Click below to see some of our pictures from the weekend.

Paris

Brugge, Belgium

We took a road trip with Adam and Melanie to Brugge, Belgium over Columbus Day weekend. The roughly 5 hour trip from Mainz went pretty fast and we arrived in Brugge around lunchtime on Saturday. After winding our way through the tiniest cobblestone streets you can imagine, we took advice from Rick Steves and ate at a cute little Italian restaurant called Pili Pili. After lunch, we toured the Halve Mann Brewery, the only brewery still producing beer in Brugge, and enjoyed a Belgian Blonde Ale afterwards. The tour guide was very animated and we enjoyed learning how beer is good for us and how to enjoy a beer, not just guzzle liters down like the Germans. In the late afternoon, we went on a horse-drawn carriage ride around the city. The driver pointed out different sites and some of the meanings behind the architecture. For instance, many of the buildings had angels above every door and window to keep out bad spirits.

Brugge, Belgium

On Sunday, we toured Choco-Story, The Chocolate Museum. The museum was really interesting and we learned a lot about the history of cocoa and it's role through the ages from about 600 B.C. to today. Since the fog hadn't burned off, we made our way to the Diamant (diamond) museum. It was rather unimpressive, although we did get a sample of synthetic diamonds. After lunch, we climbed the 360 steps to the top of the bell tower and were at the top while the bells chimed which was a neat experience. After a boat tour through the canals, we made our way to Brugge's four windmills. They are placed along a canal, and it was a pleasant walk slightly away from the hustle and bustle of town. We also visited Brugge's Church of Our Lady which houses Michelangelo's Madonna and Child sculpture. This sculpture is said to be his only sculpture to leave Italy during his lifetime and one of the few outside Italy today.

On Monday, we drove about 30 minutes North to Zeebrugge to see the North Sea.

Zeebrugge, Belgium

On the way home, we stopped in Brussels for lunch. We were very impressed by the architecture in the market square as well as the chocolates!

Brussels, Belgium

Oktoberfest 2007

After a very long drive from Mainz to Munich, we experienced Oktoberfest for the first time with a group of friends. The whole atmosphere was definitely something to experience. Many people were dressed in traditional garb and everyone was having a good time. The fest grounds were huge...42 hectacres (almost 104 acres) and were packed with people, rides, and stands.

We took the U-bahn from our hotel to the fest grounds around 10:00 am and made our way to the Schottenhamel tent. After pushing our way through the crowd to get as close to the doors as possible, we discovered about 30 minutes later that they were overbooked and wouldn't be opening the doors that day. So we pushed our way back through the crowd and ended up at the beer garden outside the Hacker-Festzelt tent. There weren't any available tables so we all split up for a bit in search of beer. Luckily, at this particular tent, they didn't care if you weren't sitting, and they walked around yelling "Bier, Bier, Bier, Bier!" and we just had to follow them get our mass (1 liter) of beer.

Eventually, our group of about 14 people took over a table that some Brits had been occupying. We had it all to ourselves for a bit, but they ended up taking it back from us later on in the afternoon. While at the table, we had a great time laughing with friends and with others that were partying nearby. We saw a lot of cheering, singing, and chanting. We saw people standing on tables, chugging their mass of beer, and eventually passing out... basically we experienced a frat party at a whole new level. It was fantastic!

We had a blast drinking and eating with friends for most of the afternoon and look forward to next year!

Oktoberfest 2007

Documenta

On September 9th, we drove north to Kassel, Germany with Kate and Shaun in a quest to culture ourselves by viewing Documenta. Documenta is "the 'Museum of 100 Days,' that started in 1955 and takes place every five years. The Documenta is one of the world's most important art exhibitions." The entire experience was rather draining, and we didn't get what the vast majority of the modern artists were attempting to convey... mainly because 90% of the works were "Untitled" with no commentary. It's a huge exhibit in multiple buildings around town. We kept going to different places thinking, this building HAS to have the cool stuff in it...but alas! Anyway, it was an experience nonetheless and we got to hang out with friends which is always fun!

Check out our pictures from the day!

documenta

1 year anniversary - in France!!!

Carrie and I just celebrated our first year of marriage together by enjoying the Labor Day weekend in Strasbourg, France. Very cool place just 2km from the German border. It has a neat mix of German and French culture, so you get the best of both. Having studied French in school, it was very cool to hear it spoken by natives in person.

We enjoyed good food on Friday night and just took it easy the first night we got in.

Saturday, we took the boat tour on the river that circles the inner city first thing. Then we spent the whole afternoon walking through the town, enjoying places like "Little France" and touring the smaller cathedrals. That night we caught the light show where they illuminated the Notre Dame (not the Paris one, but still very cool) all coordinated to music.

Sunday was the first Sunday of the month, so all the museums and tours were free. We stood for an hour to see the Astronomical Clock do its thing at noon (technically 12:30). It wasn't really that spectacular, but I guess you have to say you did it. Then we climbed the cathedral tower, then climbed back down. We then walked to the Zoological Museum and the Botanical Gardens. That night we caught the light show again.

Monday, we stopped in Soufflenheim, France, a town know for its pottery and we picked up a few pieces. Pretty neat stuff.

Don't forget to check out the pictures!

1 Year Anniversary

We loved Switzerland so much we went back!

We travelled back to Switzerland with Melanie and Adam August 17-19. This time we camped in Lauterbrunnen at Camping Jungfrau.

Because we really only had Saturday, we tried to cram in a lot. We toured Trummelbach Falls, a set of falls that had cut through the mountain so much that it was like seeing waterfalls inside a cave. For lunch, we stopped in Interlaken, where we enjoyed traditional rosti and had an amazing view of Jungfrau. After lunch, we hiked around Interlaken and found an old castle. Then we drove to Grindelwald, and drove up the mountain to 2000m... the girls freaked out due to the small roads, but the view was amazing. For dinner we had some awesome fondue.

Sunday we packed up camp, hiked up to a waterfall by our campsite, then drove home. On the way out of Switzerland, we stopped in Bern, the capital of Switzerland and had lunch.

It was a quick but amazing trip. Switzerland still ranks as our favorite place to visit. Carrie and I just feel so refreshed after our trips there.

Check out the pictures!

Switzerland Part Deux

Switzerland

Last weekend, we met up with some friends in Hasliberg, Switzerland. The 5 hour trip South was mostly grey until we passed through an incredibly long tunnel in Switzerland. On the other side of the mountain, the sky was bright and clear and there were magnificent mountains to either side of us. Since neither of us have never seen the Rockies, this was our first experience seeing "real" mountains. It was exhilarating! And these were only the foothill of the Alps!

On Sunday morning, we went for a walk along a wanderweg. Basically, we walked out the back of the house and went up...and up...and up. Although the morning was a little foggy, it was still a beautiful walk! In the afternoon, we went to the Aareschlucht Meiringen, or the Gorge of the Aare Meiringen, a gorge carved by glaciers. The water flowing through the gorge was a gorgeous (no pun intended) blue green color and the walk though it was amazing! In the evening, we relaxed on the balcony staring at the mountains in the distance. We were able to see a glacier capping one mountain and enjoyed watching the clouds seem to get caught on the top of the mountains. Later that night, we went to dinner, intending to have fondue, but the small restaurant required a day's notice to prepare it. Maybe we'll get some later this summer when we go back camping with friends!

We've enjoyed every trip we've taken so far, but we've definitely been most impressed with Switzerland. It is incredibly peaceful and majestic and we're looking forward to visiting again!

Click below for our photo album of the trip

Switzerland

Visit to Trier, Germany 14 July 2007

On Saturday, we traveled with the Marxes to the ancient Roman town of Trier. Trier was the capital of the western portion of the Roman empire and was once ruled by Constantine the Great and claims to be the oldest city in Germany. It took us about 2 hours to drive out and our first stop when we arrived was the Porta Nigra or Black Gate. It is the last remaining of 4 city gates that were part of the original city walls. The sandstone has turned black over time and is held together by large iron staples instead of mortar.

Our next stop was St. Peter's Cathedral and the Church of Our Lady, two adjoining churches and UNESCO world heritage sites. After touring the churches and their gardens, we stopped for traditional German food at an outdoor restaurant just across the plaza.

After lunch, we went into Constantine's Imperial Throne Room, which was built around 310 AD and claims to be the largest surviving room from antiquity (220 ft long x 90 ft wide x 110 ft tall). We visited the remains of the Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen) and then took quite a long hike to the remains of the Roman Amphitheater where gladiators once battled in combat.

By the end of the day, we were getting pretty tired and hot, but we made one last stop to the house where Karl Marx was born before walking about 2.5km along the beautiful Mosel river back to our car.

When we got home, we wrapped up our day with burgers on the grill and a movie. =)

Click below to see some pictures from the day.

Trier

Rhine Aflame!

Last night (7/7/07!) we went on a Rhein river dinner cruise. We boarded the M.S. Loreley in Wiesbaden and sailed west on the Rhein, from Biebrich to roughly Trechtingshausen. On the ride out, we passed about six castles and several quaint German towns to include the famous Rüdeshiem, and the soon to be famous Assmannhausen (Seinfield anyone?).

Once we got to Trechtingshausen, our ship turned around and waited with some 70 other boats, in eager anticipation of the celebration about to begin!!! (Carrie made me write that). Just before 10 o'clock the fireworks began. It was a little odd seeing fireworks at sunset, but we enjoyed it nonetheless (yes, the sun now sets around 10 - 10:30 here).

We proceeded down the river, stopping at the castles we passed which were now "Aflame!" They used bright red flares to illuminate the castles, and at several, they launched fireworks from the ramparts. At one, they had special fireworks that streamed over the edge of a tall tower, making it look like a waterfall.

It was a fantastically fun night, but we were very tired by the end - docking at 2:00am and not getting home until three. Hope you enjoy the pictures and the short video.

Rhein Aflame

Dublin Trip

In mid-May, we met up with John and the rest of the University of Penn Glee Club in Dublin. It was definitely a whirl-wind trip, but it was so much fun! We went to the Guinness Factory for a tour. We didn't have a lot of time to make it through every floor...but we were sure to get to the most important part, the Gravity Bar for our pint! Best Guinness we ever had! We also visited Trinity College, and although The Book of Kells had technical difficulties that day, the college and the rest of the library was amazing to see. Since we weren't able to attend any of the Glee Club's performances, John got they guys to do an impromptu concert while we were at Trinity. They definitely impressed a lot of people...however, security did show up to chase us away! (Be sure to look at a short video in our photo album below!) We had a good time walking through Dublin, eating lunch at a pub, and finding The Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest Pub. We also toured Saint Patrick's Cathedral. The entire church was magnificent, from the stained glass to the stonework.

Dublin Trip

Click on the picture to see our album!

Catch Up Time!

Ok, so it's been almost a month since we blogged last and really we don't have a good excuse. We have been busy and time seems to fly by and before we know it, we've done a ton of stuff and haven't told you guys about it at all! Hopefully, now that we're more settled in our house and getting more and more of the initial and one time only things out of the way, we'll be more efficient about keeping you informed. The nights seem to fly by...by the time we both get home, check email and the interwebs quickly, and eat dinner, it's at least 7 and then if we have to go to the store for anything, either groceries or a printer or vacuum or whatever, we have to get there before they close at 8. Since the time changed about a month ago, it stays light here until roughly 9 pm which is super exciting, although a little misleading at times! We're excited for the middle of summer, rumor has it that it's light until past 10!

So enough rambling, what have we actually been up to? There are a 3 new posts below, so keep on reading!And check back soon for some more info and PICTURES!

Trip to Holland

The weekend after Easter, Kurt and I went on the Tulip Time bus trip with Enjoy Tours to Holland. We boarded a bus in Darmstadt on Friday at 845 pm which took us to Mannheim, where we (luckily) boarded a larger, double-decker bus for the actual trip. When we boarded the first bus and sat down, I wasn't even comfortable. The seats were so close together, I didn't know how I would make the 6 hour trip to Holland! I knew Kurt couldn't possibly be comfortable and even offered, before the bus pulled out, to just forfeit the money and get off the bus rather than have a miserable weekend! Luckily, we were only on that bus for about an hour before we transferred to double-decker!

We drove overnight to the Netherlands. We arrived at a little bed and breakfast type place around 630 and got cleaned up as best as possible in a public restroom before a traditional European breakfast of primarily bread, meat and cheese. Postcard Charlie boarded the bus with us after breakfast and gave us a brief history of Holland dressed in traditional garb. He went with us to the first stop on the tour: the Cheese Farm, to explain the cheese making process. Attached to the cheese house, there was a little souvenir shop where we tasted several different types of cheeses and shopped for wooden shoes and other little souvenirs. I even saw some of the same souvenirs my Grandma brought back for me as presents when she went on a European tour when I was a little girl!

From here, we went to the Ratterman Wooden Shoe Factory. It was pretty impressive to see how a pair of wooden shoes is made in just a few minutes! Even though there were a number of patterns and colors to choose from we decided that we didn't really have the right outfit to wear with wooden shoes. =) But we did find a little pair for to use for a Christmas ornament!

By mid-morning, we were heading into Amsterdam. As soon as we arrived, we went on a canal tour of 'the Venice of the North.' An amazing amount of land that makes up the Netherlands actually was under water until the land was 'claimed from the sea' when dams were built. As a result, there are canals throughout the city that people use for transportation and have houseboats on. It was kind of surreal when the tour guide pointed to an industrial section of town and said that 5 years ago, that land wasn't there, it was under water.

Afterward, we toured the building that was the original Heineken Brewery. The tour was similar in concept to the Chocolate Tour at Hershey Park but fun all the same! There were several interactive portions of the tour, the favorite being "What is it like to be a beer bottle?" We stood on platforms and were jolted this way and that as if we were a beer bottle. We started in the factory, and went through the entire bottling process to being shipped and then opened at a club. Ok, so I lied, the favorite interactive portion of the tour were the two times we got free beer. About midway through the tour we each got a half pint and then at the end we got a full pint...Very nice. The end portion was so packed and sort of dimly lit and smelled like beer. We all agreed that it felt like a frat party...ah the good old days! =) The free gift at the end of the tour was a bottle opener that is the size of a credit card that fits in your wallet...pretty ingenious! =)

Amsterdam is one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. There were people riding bikes Everywhere! We saw women in short skirts, long skirts, people in dress clothes biking. There were kids sitting on handlebars and what looked like wheelbarrows attached to bikes. It was crazy. Seriously, when we wanted to cross a street, we had to be more cautious of bikes than of cars!

For dinner we went to a 'Traditional Chinese-Indonesian Rijstable (rice table) dinner' which basically seemed like a family style Chinese dinner. We had fun visiting with other friends on the tour with us, but felt that it was overpriced and we would have been just as happy eating at a bistro down the road!

After the bus got lost for about an hour trying to find the hotel in The Hague, we checked in and then went on a walk with 7 other friends who were on the tour with us. We originally set out to go to a beach on the North Sea but it got late and we were worried we would get there and then not get back before the buses stopped running for the evening.

On Sunday, we visited the Madurodam, the miniature city , where landmarks of the Netherlands have been constructed on a 1:25 scale. The detail is perfect and we could have easily spent an entire day browsing around the city! There were even miniature tulips! We also walked through an Ice Zoo. I've seen ice sculptures before, but nothing like this! Literally, it was very cool! No wonder Europe doesn't have air conditioning, all of it was in this building! In addition to the zoo, there was also an ice slide and ice maze that we navigated through...very fun!

From there, we went to the Delft Porcelain Factory. The process of making the porcelain was explained as was the art of hand painting each piece. It was interesting to learn that the design is first painted on with a black paint and it is only when the piece is correctly heated in the kiln that the design turns the signature blue color. There are only a handful of factories that make authentic Delft pottery any more. There were some really pretty pieces there, but nothing that we absolutely had to have for the prices!

The highlight of the trip, without a doubt, was the Keukenhof Gardens. Unfortunately, we only had 2.5 hours there. We easily could have walked around all day! Maybe next year. The day was gorgeous, barely a cloud in the sky and about 80 degrees. The flowers were brilliant and fully blossomed...we really lucked out! Some of our pictures make the flowers look like they were glowing! They really were that bright and colorful in person! It was really cool to see some of the flower fields...they really look like the pictures. Rows and rows flowers! How beautiful would that be to wake up to every day!?

On the way out, we stopped at a stand along the edge of the road, I bought 50 tulips for about $10! It was fabulous to have 5 vases of flowers around the house for a while!

Sunrise in the Netherlands (Click to see more pictures!)

Easter

We spent the majority of Easter Sunday with about 10 people at the Marx's. Melanie and Adam live in Griesheim, near Darmstadt where we stayed in the hotel for 7 weeks when we first arrived. They have an amazing view. Their deck overlooks fields to the mountains on the horizon. It's very peaceful. Easter was a nice day, a little cool, but warm enough in the sun and we spent a lot of the afternoon out on the deck hanging out.

Melanie and Adam dyed and decorated an easter egg for each of us and gave us each a little rubber duckie. They made the traditional Easter ham and everyone else brought a side dish. I was so excited to be moved into our house so that I could make 'real' macaroni and cheese! There was awesome salad, macaroni salad, rolls, punch, easter beer, cookies and desserts.

Afterward, we came home and continued to unpack and get settled in the house.

Sycamore trees in Wiesbaden (Click to see Easter Pictures)

Wine Tasting in Rudesheim

We joined a group of about 15 for a wine tasting in Rudesheim on April 5. It was an adventure just getting to the Eibingen Zehnthof winery! Our GPS told us it would only be about a 40-45 minute drive since Rudesheim is just a couple of towns over from where we live. We drove along enjoying the scenery when we realized that we were driving right to the edge of the Rhine river! So we, and friends in the car in front of us, end up waiting and then boarded a ferry to cross the Rhine! It was a first for us...fun but a little unnerving at the same time! Then we drove up the side of a mountain winding through the town as all German roads do to the winery. The building was amazing...it is so astonishing that so many buildings here are as old as they are. This one was build in 1506!

We tasted about 6 wines and had a short history of the region and its wine production. We also had a tour of the wine cellar. They definitely gave us more wine to taste than the mouthfuls that we had up in NY on our honeymoon! We probably drank about 3 glasses of wine in less than 2 hours! Luckily we stayed for dinner!

The wines were good; we brought home 4 bottles to help fill our wine rack that we emptied before we left to come over =)

Wine Tasting in Rudesheim Album (Click to see more pictures!)

Move In Day

So we know we've been really bad about keeping up with the blog. I'm sure we have good excuses...really we do...the biggest one being that we Finally moved into our house!!!

So a description of our house for those of you who haven't heard. Basically, it's the biggest house we're EVER going to live in. We really lucked out! It's the end unit of a town house in Mainz, Germany. It has four finished floors. Kurt has turned the basement into an entertainment room with a projector that makes you feel like you're in a movie theater. The basement also has a washroom, storage room where the refrigerator will be as well as a sauna. The sauna hasn't been used in 6 years...so we'll see how that goes! The ground floor has a powder room, the kitchen with a breakfast bar and it opens to a dining room/sitting room area. I love this room because the majority of it is windows and it is always bright and cheery! The second floor has the main bathroom, the office, the guest bedroom (which currently has nothing in it!), and another smaller bedroom that we've turned into the Closet with our armoires and linens. The top floor is a loft and is the master bedroom and bathroom. It's very neat and airy but there is a lot of unusable space since the ceilings are sloped.

Move In 4 April 2007

It was very exciting that last Tuesday, April 3, was our last night in the Patriot Inn!!! We woke up early on Wednesday, packed up the room and headed to our house to wait for the deliveries. If you've never lived in a hotel for 6.5 weeks, you'd be surprised how much stuff you accumulate!

The move day went really well. The guys with the washer and dryer arrived around 830 and got those hooked up for us. Unfortunately, the refrigerator they brought wouldn't fit down the stairs, so we have to set up another delivery for a smaller one. Let me back up...we do have a refrigerator right now. It's in our kitchen but German refrigerators are pretty tiny so we're borrowing one for more storage space. Then around 930 or so, the guys came with our two armoires. Our house has no closets...this is pretty common for German houses...so we are borrowing two armoires for our stay here as well. After waiting anxiously, the delivery came about 1:00. It was so exciting! We were both giddy just seeing our stuff walk in the doors! We felt bad making the movers carry furniture up two flights of stairs...but it was better than us doing it ourselves! The movers were only able to bring half of our stuff at a time, and even taking a break to go back to the warehouse, they were done unpacking by 3:15!

We did a pretty good job of unpacking on Wednesday. The kitchen, office, and entertainment rooms were pretty much done that day. Kurt was able to test his projector and play Halo on a 142 inch screen so he was happy! When we got tired of unpacking, we walked to a nearby pizza place. Literally, it's a 3 minute walk...how fabulous is that?? Thursday and Friday, we finished more unpacking and started cleaning. There's still some cleaning to do...but only the rooms we're not using right away. It's wonderful to finally be settled into our own house again! It's true...you don't appreciate what you have until it's not there.

So now that we're all settled...who's going to come visit????

It's snowing!

So it's the first full day of spring...and the first snowstorm of the year over here! And we thought all the flowers springing up everywhere were here to stay! Kind of ironic!

We woke up to about 2 inches of snow and lots of big fluffy white flakes falling this morning. It was really pretty. By the time we both got to work, everything had changed mostly to rain. Around sunset, everything turned back to snow, so we might wake up to another winter wonderland tomorrow.

We're hoping that all the precipitation ends sometime tomorrow so that we'll have a great weekend to wander around town and check out Easter markets and go hiking with friends. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Happy Spring!

Karlovy Vary Trip

On Saturday, March 17th, I went on a bus trip with 19 other women to Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), Czech Republic. The bus got on the road at 6:05 and arrived a little bit after 11. The trip went fast, probably because we were all excited for the trip but also because the ladies who organized it, went all out. They brought a breakfast of muffins, donuts, and a huge basket of fruit as well as mimosas! There were several games: a trivia game, a name that song with lines of lyrics from 80s songs game, and a scavenger hunt to take with us in town. They also provided a delicious lunch of fresh bread, 4 or 5 types of meat, and 5 or 6 types of cheese. It was fabulous!

The town of Karlovy Vary is very quaint. We had a tour guide, Philip, who wasn't the best tour guide ever but pointed out The Grand Hotel Pupp (in the movie Last Holiday as well as Casino Royale); a balcony that Hitler spoke from; where Beethoven, Mozart, and Goethe stayed;as well as a few other spots.

Karlovy Vary is known for its hot springs. Philip pointed out the three large spa houses in the town and explained which one to get water from to cure different ailments such as intestinal, liver or kidney problems. At least one of the springs produces about 2000 liters of water a minute! There is a room in one of the spas where you can see the water shooting up in the air like a geyser. I only tasted a sip of the water from one of the 72 degree celcius springs. It sort of tasted like you put a penny in your mouth...not very quenching! But, ironically almost everyone in town walks around sipping the spring water from a characteristic mug! Maybe it's an acquired taste.

After the tour, we went shopping for the rest of the afternoon. The Czech Republic is known for its crystal. We didn't venture too far off the main street, but had more than enough to choose from! We looked in almost every store, made mental lists and then went back to make our purchases. Let's just say that Kurt's eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw my trunk! I found really cute everyday glasses that have a simple daisy pattern etched on them. I saw these in the first store and thought about them all day before I bought them. I also go a set of red and white wine glasses as well as a really pretty vase. I would definitely like to take Kurt back some time to show him everything I COULD have bought but didn't! =) Maybe I can convince him that we need a chandelier to bring back to the States with us!

Click on the picture to see an album

While the girls were off shopping, Kurt and a few friends got together to play video games on the xbox and watch movies all day. This was the first time in over a month that Kurt got to play on the xbox, so you can imagine how excited he was!

Next up, we're looking forward to going to an Easter Festival next weekend and then to Holland for Tulip Time the week after Easter.

Finally some pictures!

Hallo allerseits! (Hello Everyone!)

Everything is starting to come together and we're finally settling in to a normal work schedule. Although we've found a house, we're not sure when we'll be moving in since it still needs to be cleaned and painted. But we're not too worried since our household goods still haven't arrived; the hotel is better than the floor in an empty house!

We're starting to pick up more German; mostly phrases used in restaurants. And Kurt is getting to be an expert at driving on the autobahn! This past week, Carrie found a mall (rare in Germany) in downtown Darmstadt, and is looking forward to going back!

We're looking forward to walking and hiking on some of the many trails in the area as the days are getting longer and more sunny. We welcomed searching for our sunglasses a few days this week!

We finally got around to uploading pictures and deciding where we'll be storing some online albums to share with you. Click on the picture to look through an album of a few of the pictures we've taken so far.

Some first pictures in Germany

Happy Birthday

As many know, I celebrated my 26th this week. Good times. On my birthday Carrie and I enjoyed a quiet night in, but tonight we went out with 11 friends to a local Italian place in Darmstadt called the Altes Schalthaus. It was fantastic!

Things are extremely busy, both at work and getting things ready for our house. We just got a landline and DSL ordered today, so hopefully that goes well. I am driving to the house tomorrow to change the name on the mailbox - exciting! We are still waiting for it to be cleaned and painted, but after that we can move in. There is really no rush, because our household goods are due to arrive until April 2nd. But when we do move in, Carrie is going to buy me a grill for my birthday present.

We still owe some blogs posts with photos about the hotel we are staying in and Carrie's new Jetta. We will get to it soon.

Hope all is well!

Daytrip to Wurzburg, Germany

Saturday, we traveled by train with friends to Wurzburg, Germany which is located in Bavaria.

It was a little rainy and dreary but we had a good time nonetheless. We arrived right around lunchtime and wandered around in the rain for a bit before finding a really cute café. The food was really good and the desserts looked so good we got a few and all shared. Luckily, when we were finished the rain was as well. We ended up seeing the Church of Our Lady (Marienkirche) and Stift Haug church, we also walked by the Residenz.

We walked up to the Fortress Marienberg, which has been around in some state since 1000BC. It gives an amazing view of the surrounding area! Unfortunately, it was closing when we got to the top, so we didn’t get to go into the chapel. We did steal into the spring room for just a second before we got kicked out. We were able to look down into the well and actually see water!

We look forward to visiting again to see more of the Fortress and take tours of the Residenz and possibly old town Wurzburg.

We took a good number of pictures that we'll post in a few days when we're not feeling so lazy.

Have a Great Day!

Carnival and getting things off the checklist!

For reference, I put some links to google maps. We are currently in temporary housing near Darmstadt, so I show places in relation to there.

This past weekend we went to the Carnival parade in Mainz, Germany a town near us. This is effectively the German spin on Mardi Gras and was pretty amazing. Fortunately for us, Mainz is known as a carnival "stronghold" and they actually claimed they had a bigger parade than Köln (Cologne) this year.

As for the German take on the party: huge parades, everyone in silly costumes and outfits, lots of food and drinks, and carnival salutes - in Mainz they yell "Helau" fairly non-stop (it sounds like hello, but it isn't... its sort of like "hurrah"). Other places call the festivals Fasching, and some shout "Alaaf." I found this cool article about the carnival differences.

Our friends have some pictures here.

As for our checklist: We passed our driver's test (big deal) and got cellphones (handys). We have a bank and a post office box. We registered Carrie's new Jetta and got plates for it, but it is still in Bremerhaven waiting to be shipped in land (German customs). My car I shipped arrived in Bremerhaven as well, and is also waiting to be shipped in land (slow processing). Apparently, Germany shuts down during Carnival.

The most exciting news, is that there might be a leased house available for us, that would split the difference between our two work places (Kurt in Wiesbaden and Carrie in Darmstadt) to about a 20 minute drive each. We've seen it from the outside, and we might get to tour it this Friday. We are trying not to get our hopes up, but it sounds really good!

Everyone here is really great and we are starting to relax and get excited about living here.

Hope all is well,
Kurt and Carrie

First Post

Just a short post to say hi and let everyone know we got in ok and are doing well.

Apparently, we got in for some exceptionally nice weather. It is 52 degrees here!

The flight went great and our sponsors and new friends are fantastic. Everyone is so nice.

It may be a while until we get the car situation figured out, and longer until we can move into a house, but we are just being patient and taking it easy.

Hope everyone is well.

Kurt and Carrie