5 Reasons...

I wish I were in Germany:

1: R&R someplace exotic like Greece or Crete or the gorgeous shores of France or Italy. Can anyone else say Mediterranean Cruise?!

2: It's easier, and much more plausible to secure a job in a place that you actually live- I could have sworn I heard or read that someplace before.

3: Build my friendships. I met some weirdos in a few months in Germany. But I also met some pretty awesome ladies I can't wait to get back to.

4: Random trips: So far I missed trips to Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, MWR trips to Paris, scheduled trips to The Netherlands. One Easter Egg Festival and One Tulip Festival. And most tragically The Sound of Music tour. :(

5: I will have lost 8 months out of our allotted 36 in Europe (down to 28). Just gone- BAM. In fairness so did my husband. We'll make up for it right??

Color me sad. I'll be using this as motivation to thoroughly enjoy all the remaining months we're given in Germany!

I LOVE Bavaria

Really what's not to love!?

Picture it, a lazy Thursday afternoon at home in Baumholder, Germany. The hubs and I have barely said 2 words to each other all day because you know- we're being lazy and just bored witless. I see a commercial on AFN for Edelweiss..... I've heard of Edeweiss before and been told how amazing it is. I'd looked into booking a room 2 separate occasions before with no luck (nothing available). So I went over to the Edelweiss website and plugged all of our info in, and sure enough they had available rooms (shocking, for a Thursday night)! So we QUICKLY got our shizzle together, fueled up and got on the road. We didn't get checked in until about 830 pm, you see it's a 5 hour treck from Baumholder to Garmisch... the drive was a God-awful experience but it was ultimately VERY worth it.

We immediately feel in LOVE with Edelweiss, it has a very relaxing, welcoming vibe. We weren't there an hour and already made plans to go back for Christmas (and got details on how to go about booking a room for that)! Because I'm kind of a dumbass I failed to take exterior pics of the hotel, but the lobby was gorgeous:

We only had enough time to eat, explore what the resort has to offer (arcade for kids, casino for adults, multiple restaurants and bars, SPA, pool, gym.....), grab a few drinks then get to bed- that drive was rough. haa. We had to get up early Friday to see anything and get home in a timely fashion, we were up at 6AM got ourselves looking acceptable for being out in public, hit up the breakfast buffet and then made our way out. But not before the view from our room stole our breath away:

Amazing, right?

So we had to get home at a somewhat reasonable hour but I knew being so close we just had to stop by Neuschwanstein Castle (you may know it because it's inspiration behind the Disney Castle). I'm so glad we went it was amazing! Again with absolutely awesome views. I can see with King Ludwig had it built there (although he only live in Neuschwanstein for 170 days).

I told you the views were awesome.

The castle, itself wasn't too bad either..
Unfortunately we didn't have much time to explore the exterior of the castle as the Army intervened and we had to go running.... Such is life, right?
We did, however take the tour of the completed rooms of the interior castle (yeah, you read that right the entire castle wasn't completed before King Ludwig's "suspicious" death). You aren't permitted to take photos of the interior of the castle (not sure why- I was afraid to ask, our guide reminded me of the creepy weird character from Lord of the Rings- Galum?). But you could take pictures from the interior of the castle of the views...

my favorite pic from the trip.

The last few pictures were of King Ludwig's childhood home Schloss Hohenschwangau. These photos were taken from Neuschwanstein, they are very close together. I picked up a few books on the history of the castle (the guided tour was just hard to follow with our Galum-like tour guide... still creeps me out) and can't wait to fill in a few of the blanks.

We had to leave Neuschwanstein quickly but it's ok because I KNOW we'll be back. I can't wait to tour Hohenschwangau, walk the bridge (pictured above), and spend more time taking in the views and snapping a few more photos with my love.

Yea, I know it's a CLOSE up, but there's only so much you can do when you're forced to travel alone and you have this bulky DSLR. I still love it! :)

Moody

So I've been in a funky mood lately. I find myself without anything nice to say (hence the lack of posts lately). In the absence of anything nice to say I figured I'd share some pics with you all from our trip to Baden Baden a few weeks ago.

The hubs and I had been aching to get out of the house and we had a four day the weekend before Valentine's day so we figured lets just jump in the car and go. We had heard Baden Baden had great spas and we figured could there be any better way to celebrate our V-day? So we booked a room and headed down there. Little did we know (or fully think through) that this was A: the most pompous and expensive town around and B: the spas would obviously be all booked up with it being Valentine's Weekend- Duh...

The fun (and by "fun" I mean our first blow-out with our Garmin GPS) started on the drive down Friday night. We were blindly trusting our GPS to get us there without nervous breakdowns, trips out of the country, in the fastest, most fuel efficient way possible; something we would later learn was too much to ask of our dear sweet Garmin (maybe if I say nice things about her she won't cause me future headaches haha). We were driving along going through an awful lot of Villages... this only bothered me because it slowed us down- at first. Then after we leave one village we were on some anchient one-way-both-ways road and I bust out my handy-dandy iphone to see (where the hell we really are) and realize ummmm... we're literally ON the boarder with France. Swell. Queue nervous breakdown. We enter another village and what do I see?

Not my photo, I didn't have time during my Nervous Breakdown
to snap a photo

Swell, so we've now entered into France. Me without my Passport. YAY! How could this be better? So we've now successfully smuggled our way into France now we have to follow our evil loving GPS back into Germany (as that is where Baden Baden is). The entire 10 minutes we were in France I was very high strung. We now have learned to view the entire route of our trip before we hit the road- blindly trusting the GPS is bad.

All the same we made it back into Germany without problem. We knew they had a Casino and while packing I had this instinct the Casino would be high-class, versus our Vegas ways... I suggested Kevin pack something fancy-pants but he said noooo I have jeans and a button up shirt. Yeah...that was a no go. Turns out this was once the only Casino open in Germany and all the celebrity types would frequent it, "very James Bond" as we were told by one of many sales men we encountered while trying to purchase my husband a pair of slacks under 100 Euros. We spent saturday walking the streets of Baden Baden, eating and shopping. Saturday night we hit the Casino. Another interesting story: did you know Roulette pays 35/1?? Yea... I do! I was playing our anniversary (the 15th) for a few mins... of course it didn't hit. I say to myself "screw this table!" so we move to the next table and watch what's happening. I turn to get 5 or 10 Euro's from Kevin because I just KNEW 15 would hit, but he left me.... to see what else was going on. Guess what... 15 hit and continued to hit on every table but one! HA! At least we were > < this close to making some nice cash... right?

Anyway we made the best of our Valentines weekend and all in all Baden Baden wasn't too bad

Church

Outside of Casino

Casino Interior

Ooops, did I forget to mention how amazing and breath-taking the interior of the Casino was? My bad...

Living Situation..

When we first got our orders to Baumholder I knew that it was all apartment style living and that E6 and below HAD to (unless we had a valid reason for requesting an exception to policy) live on post. So we knew we'd been reverting back to an apartment. Which is a downgrade for us. We gave up a lot in our journey to Germany: our dog, about 500 square feet of living space, a car and other things. We took our lumps and carried on. The past 6 months have had their ups and downs but we're finally settled in here:

Smith Housing Area, Baumholder, GE

Not the best picture but you get the idea. The architecture (and I use that word loosely) reminds me of the projects, minus graffiti. They're just stale looking and all the same. On the upside the unit accommodates our furniture nicely (with the exception of our dining room table, anyone want to buy it?!) and the Master Bedroom is actually bigger than our last one.
But lets get real, the major issue with apartment style living is the other people. Us human folk need interaction from others... we crave it. While this is true I'm not always such a fan of people. There are 4 stories to each building. I live on the 3rd floor of the first stairwell. The only problem (outside of something rotting in the stairwell on the 1st floor) we have is with the people above us. They have a small child (not a problem, in and of itself) who doesn't appear to have any regular bedtime and likes very much to run and jump and scream (and be screamed at) when he or she is awake. Kids will be kids, I understand- truly I do and I know none of us chose this apartment-style living arrangement but since we're all in it I think we should go the extra mile as to not cause the people above, below, and beside us any undue discomfort. Seriously, I'm just looking for a little consideration: Don't blare your music so that I can not only hear the thud-thud of the base but can also clearly make out the words (I don't care if you're into country, rap, r&b or currently really loving Justin Bieber), Don't allow your small child to cause a huge ruckus at 1030 at night during the week (we're married to soldiers for goodness sake- they're up EARLY).
Ok, so I'm the first to admit, I'm no one's mother so I have no idea first hand the stress that comes with being with a child 24-7; dealing with all their wants and needs has to be daunting and extremely stressful. But here's what I do know. If and when I have my babies and they are pushing their Terrible Two's and I'm forced into an apartment style living situation I'm going to do my damnedest not to allow my child to put my business out in the street. Here's what I mean: when your kid throws an un-Godly fit for 20 mins+, daily that reflects on what's going on in the household, especially when the mother screams "SHUT UP!" about 5 minutes into the thing which only prompts Junior to scream louder. (parenting at it's finest)

It's just annoying. Especially (which I think I've said that word like 18 times in this post) when the hubs is coming off CQ. Things may get ugly today... eeeek. Hopefully Junior (upstairs) catches on soon. I know that we try to be considerate of the people around us. When we're watching a movie with the surround sound on we constantly adjust the sound, when there's shooting or explosions and a lot of action we turn it down a few notches, when there's more dialogue we turn it up so we actually have a clue as to what's going on. We TRY, I wish others would too!

Just a tease

We finally made it out of the Lagerhof and are settling into (what will be our) home for the next three years. All in all the move went smoothl,y somethings were kind of scraped up but nothing major (thank God). Here's a few pictures just to wet your whistle:

Tomorrow I'll be baking my Yellow Cup Cakes in Miss Lola's honor!! I hope you'll all join me in my baking adventures and baking in Lola's honor since she can't participate for herself this month! Spread the word, bake them yourself, then come back and link up!!

Idar-Oberstein

Kevin and I have been to Idar-Oberstein a few times now.... it's slim pickins of places to visit when you don't have a car and you're cheap like me. Idar does have more to offer than Baumholder but from what I understand most people only go there as a means to an end; the train station is there. Which was the purpose for our first visit there. Our second visit was a great learning experience- everything is closed on Sunday's! We had to get out of our room though so we jumped on the bus and headed over there. We were lucky to find a little cafe that was open and we stopped in for a hot cocoa and just walked around for a while more. A few photos from our Sunday visit to Idar:

Had to enjoy a Beer...

Shops closed up and there was still snow on the ground.

There is a legend about the Church in the Rocks involving two brothers, love and death (after all, isn't that what all legends are made of). All the same it's interesting to see.

After our failed attempt to visit the town about a month ago, we decided to try again yesterday. We jumped (back) on the bus and went back to Idar-Oberstein in hopes of visiting the Castle ruins as well as the church... I'd heard it was a nice hike up the mountain to see both of these sites but good lord it kicked my ass!

long-ass hike to the top!

Gorgeous countryside isn't it?

I knew you all were dying to see pictures of ye ol' castle ruins... well you've had your fill for today!

Coming together

Finally we have our moving date. We will have been in The Lagerhof (hotel) a grand total of 43 days (!!), and without our belongings for 123 days. Can you believe that? One hundred twenty-three days since we lived in our house, slept in our bed, cooked in my pots & pans, watched our TV or simply enjoyed each other company in the comfort of our own space. It's an understatement to say I miss my life. I miss being comfortable and being inclined to cook. I especially miss having more than just one room to call my own.

Moving day will be next Friday, January 21st!!

Color me happy!

Volleyball and Surprises

I bet you didn't know that I played volleyball in Middle School, once upon a time I was actually pretty good. Betsey suckered asked me to play with her and some other wives from her husband's company (completely different unit from Kevin) are playing in a double elimination tournament tomorrow. I really thought it'd just be good ol' times, with a general goal of getting the ball back over the net. Well, I come to find out that these girlies will be playing against their husbands, so their all rather revved up over the idea of kickin' the boys' asses which makes for more competitive play. It's ok, even though it's not what I expected I'm still really enjoying myself. I'm trying to convince the other girls that we should start a team and play ever Sunday. So far they seem interested.

I love how people surprise you. I've been blessed since arriving in Germany. Blessed with perspective. Friendships that I've cherished for a long while have faded, people don't make an effort. While others who I have to admit, I honestly had lower expectations from, have made the effort and come through in times I would have never thought. I always say when it comes to relationships you should really lower your expectations or try not to have them at all because if you don't expect anything (or much) from people they can't let you down. It's easier to maintain relationships when you don't weigh them down with expectations.

Looking forward, the countdown is on for our apartment! Spoke to housing last week and they said it should be ready "on or about 25 Jan." I'm trying to optimistic about the 30th, seeing as how they originally told Kevin our place wouldn't be ready until 1 Feb. T-minus 37 days, AND COUNTING!!! Our household and Unaccompanied goods have both arrived, which is great news: means when we get our house we'll also have all of our own things and not crapola from they let you rent from the Lending Closet on post.

More of Wiesbaden..

Friday night we discovered all the beauty and joy Wiesbaden's Christmas Market had to offer. Saturday morning we wanted to get out and see some of the other sites. We happened through Warmer Damm Park (I couldn't make that up- I'm not that clever):

The park was just gorgeous. I loved all the snow- something so pure and easy about it. The last picture, with the lady feeding the ducks was just amazing to me- they all attacked her!

St. Bonifatius Church, is the oldest Catholic Church within the city limits. It was beautiful. The stained glass windows were like nothing I'd ever seen before. The architecture was amazing as well, the towers, the interior ceiling of the church was just breathtaking.

This photo is quickly becoming one of the favorites that I've ever taken:

For all my Catholics out there, you can back me up: kneeling in these pews through Mass would be boarder-line torture! I did it though... well, in truth I just said a small prayer while inside the church- no I didn't attend Mass, but it was still not something I'd love to do for any extended period of time.

I know this is quickly becoming a very picture-heavy post, but I have just a few more I HAVE to share with you:

Aquis Mattiacis- "dedicated to the springs of the Mattiaci". Aren't the fountains majestic? Interesting fact: This building is now home to a CASINO.... hmmm.

Just a fun picture:

That's it now.. promise! :) Happy Sunday Everyone.