Christmas

As you can see from my previous post, we had a white Christmas.  The snow started falling the morning of Dec. 24th, and didn't stop until the late afternoon of Dec. 25th.  Shanna had off the entire day of Christmas Eve, so we had a relaxing day.  Since it was snowing outside, we didn't leave the house.  We had plans to go over to some friends house on Christmas Day for a potluck style dinner, though, so that morning we cooked.  Shanna made deviled eggs, homemade ice cream, and a something I don't know the name of, but consisted of apples, onions, and Brie wrapped in a giant pie crust and baked in the oven.  I made my usual, the Mac & Cheese.

By early afternoon, I'd already been out shoveling once and the snow was still coming down.  At that point Shanna said she had grabbed a last minute stocking stuffer for me, but wanted me to open it now so we could watch it.  She had me guess, and it didn't take long before I guessed the Shrek holiday movie.  I was right, but before I opened it, I said she had to open one of her gifts.  I then gave her one gift to open...the complete box set of all the Shrek movies, including the holiday movie.  We had to laugh at that...we essentially got each other the same thing. :)  Since Shanna hadn't unwrapped the DVD's she got, she was able to return them.  That afternoon we spent watching Shrek and some of the football games that were on TV.

Later in the afternoon we Skyped with Shanna's parents.  While being in person with family for the holidays is the best, we're fast learning that Skype is the next best thing.  It's one thing to call friends & family on the phone, but to sit & watch them open presents and see them has been fantastic.  I've been saying for the past month that I need to get a winter hat, but haven't gotten around to it...one of the things I got from Billy & Pattie (Shanna's parents) was a Chargers winter hat.  I've already used it several times when we've gone out or I've been out shoveling.  We also got some great clothes and I got some Playstation games I've been wanting.

A few hours later, after my brother had gotten to my parents house, we Skyped with them.  We had shipped the package home with their gifts a little late because we were waiting on one last thing to come in, but surprisingly it only took 3 or 4 days to get to them.  So we got to see them opening their presents and we opened their presents to us.  Shanna got a necklace & earrings, and I got the noise-cancelling headphones I've been missing since my last pair broke.  I hadn't even really realized how much I missed them until I started using the new ones.  Mike had sent me money early on to pick up something for Shanna from the Christmas Markets, so I got her a female Oktoberfest smoker to compliment the male one she already had.  Mike also got me a Playstation game I've been wanting.

It was great seeing both of our families again, even if it was over the computer.

The next morning Shanna was up bright & early.  There are few people I know who get more excited about Christmas then her.  I woke up about 7:45, and it was a good thing too...she said she was going to come wake me up if I wasn't up by 8am.  She had been up for at least an hour at that point, if not more.  She made Sausage Balls for breakfast, which I love.  You should have seen the look she gave me when I said I was going to go shovel again, then take a shower, then we could do presents...I would have been in trouble if I'd been serious. :)

The dogs got their presents first...beanie babies.  They LOVE them.  They even played Tug of War with one of them!

Next, Shanna opened hers.  First was a Blu-Ray box set of The Sound Of Music.  Next was something she'd seen at the Ludwigsburg Christmas Market and liked, but didn't get, a wood carving of a Razorback.  For those who don't know, Shanna went to the University of Central Arkansas, but was only a short drive from the University of Arkansas, whose mascot is a Razorback.  She's a huge fan of their football program, so I had to get it for her.

Next up I opened my gifts.  I got a "do it yourself" beer brewing kit, and the entire series on DVD of Home Improvement.  I can't wait to watch those again!  And once things settle down next week after New Years has passed, I'm going to start on the first beer batch.  It comes with a Blond Ale and a Lager, and Shanna, knowing the kind of beer I love, bought me an IPA packet to try.  I'll get the first two down, then try my hand at the IPA...I'm so excited!

Around 1:30pm our time we Skyped with Shanna's brother & his family.  It was 6:30am their time, but from what he was saying, the kids had gotten them up about an hour prior to that.  As fun as it was opening gifts with our parents, it was really fun seeing how excited the kids were opening their presents.

Later that day we headed over to our friends Jenny & Chris's house.  They live about 30km from our house, which normally doesn't take long, but the roads weren't great.  The Autobahn was fine, but their house is pretty far out of the city, so the roads by their place had barely been plowed.  We got there safe & sound, but it took some time.  Dinner that night was fantastic.  In addition to what we brought, there was steak (which isn't easy to get around here), green bean casserole, and a dish I'd never heard of, but apparently is pretty common in Milwaukee, where Christ & Jenny are from.  It's basically hashbrowns mixed in a crock pot with cheese.  GOOD STUFF.  We also had a White Elephant gift exchange.  That was fun, and ended up working out for Shanna & I since we both got little mini smokers.

We brought our laptop & webcam with us so that we could Skype with Shanna's nieces & nephews when they opened their presents later in the day at Shanna's parents house.  Around 7pm our time (noon theirs) we started.  I remember how crazy it was last year when the go ahead was given to the kids to start tearing in to their presents.  It was funny to watch, and almost as fun to watch over the webcam.  After things settled down, we opened their gifts to us.  Pattie, Shanna's Mom, had taken the 5 kids to the mall and given them each $10, and told them to pick something out for both of us.  It was by far the most interesting stocking I've ever received.  I got a 1 pound bag of Reese's Peanut Butter cups (not a bunch of small ones, it literally contained two 0.5 lb cups), a Razorback cup with accompanying lid, an Iron Man 2 comic book, a plastic Candy Cane filled with M&M's, and a word scramble book.  Shanna got a little dog that's used to put your rings on at night, some lotion, a princess coloring book with sticker sheets, and a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head.  It was funny seeing how excited the kids were watching us open our presents, they all crowded around the webcam.

After we were done we stayed for a bit longer, then headed home.  It was getting cold out, and we wanted to get home before the snow on the ground turned to ice, especially since we live part way up a mountain.  When we got home we had one last Skype session to do.  My parents & brother had gone up to CT to do Christmas with my Dad's side of the family.  Some of them I haven't seen since the wedding, and some of them I haven't seen in years, so it was great seeing the whole family again, including my Grandmother.  We talked for a bit, then it was time for bed.

Shanna had off Monday, so Sunday was spent cleaning around the house, doing laundry, and watching football.  On Monday I had a phone interview for a job at 2pm.  I'm not getting my hopes up, but we'll see.  An interview is definitely a step in the right direction.  After the interview Shanna wanted to head down town to see if there were any good after Christmas sales.  We walked around town, going in to various stores, and had a good time.  I enjoy walking around downtown, and for Shanna, it was one of the rare times we were down there with no agenda other then just walking in & out of stores.  We ate dinner down there at an Italian restaurant (which still had prices listed in both Euro & Deutschmark on the menu), then headed home.

The last thing we did that night before heading to bed was to Skype with some friends who live in VA.  Pat Batu was my best man at our wedding, and we'd been trying to coordinate skyping all week with him, his wife Luzette, and their 2 1/2 year old daughter Marella.  Luzette had to work, but Pat & Marella were there.  They had wanted to skype with us mainly to have Marella tell us the news.  Shortly after we connected, she told us that "Mommy & Daddy are pregnant".  Yup...they have another son or daughter on the way.  We were so excited for them and can't wait to meet him/her.  Marella also wanted to show us the presents she'd gotten for Christmas, but the funny part was she hadn't quite grasped the webcam concept down yet, so when she'd show us something, she'd put it right up in front of our faces on the laptop screen, not the webcam.  So she thought we could see it, but in reality she was holding it way down.

So that was it...all in all, a great Christmas weekend.  We wish we could have spent it with family, but it was nice that we could at least see all of our family in the same day, even though we were thousands of miles away.

You can see a link to a handful of pictures here or click on any picture above.

Snow...and lots of it

I'll put up a more in-depth post later (probably Tuesday) about Christmas, but for now I wanted to put up this picture I took from our balcony.  It started snowing Friday morning and didn't stop until Saturday afternoon/evening, and all told I'm estimating about 18 inches of snow.  I shoveled four times over that span, and the first three times there was 5-6 inches each time, and the fourth time there was about an inch on the ground.

Today it's nice & sunny (albeit extremely cold at -12 C or 10 F).  Below is a picture I took a few minutes ago using a new app on my phone from our balcony that allows you to "fake" a fish eye view picture.  I think it turned out pretty well, and shows that while the snow was a hassle, it sure looks pretty when the sun is out.

Click the image to see a larger, hi-res version of it.

More to come Tuesday!

Weather differences

I posted in the previous post how crazy the weather is around here.  I thought I'd post a perfect example here.  The first picture was taken Monday, as the snow storm was subsiding.

This next picture was taken two days later, but this is what it also looked like 24 hours after the picture above was taken.  Notice the things you can see below but not above, namely half a mountain and a TV tower.

And, for no real reason other then I like putting up pictures of the dogs, here's Murphy making a bed out of my lap, and Milo making a bed out of Murphy.

Clicking any of the pictures above will take you to a hi-res version of them.

Wiesbaden & friends from home

Wow!  What a full weekend.  Things started early around noon on Friday.  It was the annual holiday party at Shanna's work, so we all met in downtown Stuttgart at what is fast becoming one of our favorite places to eat, Zum Paulaner.  Paulaner is a brewery based in München and not only do they make great beer, their brew pubs make great food.  We ate lunch and talked, and around 3pm everyone started to disperse.  A friend of ours who lives in Huntsville (a civilian) has been in Afghanistan for the past 6 months, and was on his way home.  He was flying via Rammstein, so he extended his lay over for a few days and met us down in Stuttgart.  He was staying with a friend in Heidelberg, but they came down for the day.  So we showed them around the Christmas Markets downtown, then the 4 of us met back up with some of Shanna's co-workers.  We walked around the Christmas Market, sipped Glühwein, and had a good time.

The next morning Shanna had to be up early.  She and two of our friends had signed up for a German Christmas Cookie class with the USO on base.  Since we were leaving later that day for Weisbaden, I dropped her off and drove back home to pack up.  The plan had been to pick her up at 2pm from class, and we'd hit the road.  I left about 1:30 (normally it takes 15-20 minutes on the weekend), but it took me an hour & a half to get there.  Someone had a trailer bed attached to their vehicle and were towing a car on top of it.  I didn't see the accident, only the aftermath, but the trailer & the car being towed had flipped over and were blocking both lanes of traffic on the Autobahn.  As a result, everyone had to scoot over to the exit lane and use that to pass it.  So we got a later start then expected, but we still made good time to Weisbaden, getting in around 5:15pm.  The weather was *supposed* to be nice this past weekend, but if we've learned anything, it's that taking a wild guess at the weather is as accurate as their prediction system here.  We got settled in at our friend Regine's place, then we headed in to downtown Weisbaden to Palmyra's, a Lebanese restaurant.  I've never had Lebanese food before, but this place was DELICIOUS.  I had the garlic chicken and Shanna had the lemon chicken.  Shortly after they served dinner, the lights dimmed, and a guy came out playing a bongo drum type thing, followed by a belly dancer.

It was a lot of fun...someone told them that Regine was the birthday girl (pictured above in the white shirt), so the belly dancer had her come up & dance with her.  Below is a link to the video of it:

Remember how I said it was supposed to be a clear weather night, but weather prediction was impossible to tell?  Well during dinner it started to snow, and snow hard.  The original plan after the dinner was to drive to Frankfurt 20 minutes away and hit the clubs there, but the snow was so bad that we decided to head back to Regine's house and take a cab.  By the time we got back, the snow was coming down hard, and we figured there was a good chance that if we went to Frankfurt, we wouldn't be able to get back.  Since we had brought the dogs with us, that wasn't an option.  So we told Regine to have fun, take a cab, and we'd look after her dog as well as ours, so if they got stuck it wasn't a big deal.  It's a good thing we did that, because sure enough, the cabs stopped running due to the bad weather and they had to stay with some friends who had a hotel room already lined up.

The next day Regine got home around 9:30am, and cooked a spicy egg casserole that was delicious.  We then packed up, dug the car out, and headed home.  When we left Weisbaden it was cloudy, but not snowing or raining.  Within 20 minutes of driving, the snow started to come down.  When we got past Heidelberg, it turned to rain, and by the time we got to where the A5 ends and the A8 begins, about 80KM from home, it was bright & sunny without a cloud in the sky.  A typical German day of weather.

On Monday Shanna went in to work in the morning, and I spent the morning doing some last minute cleaning around the house in preparation for our friends from DC, Ryan & Christina, who were visiting.  When I got the call from Ryan that they were close, I went looking around the house for the dogs to put them up before I left.  There was a blanket thrown on our couch, and the couch has a pillow on each end, so this is where I found Murphy.  He didn't move an inch as I took the picture.

Ryan studied German in High School, then lived abroad going to college for 2 years after he graduated High School.  His old room mate from then works for the State Department, and is based in Frankfurt. They stayed with them for the week, but on Monday took the train down to Stuttgart.  I met them at the train station, then we took the U-Bahn back to our house.  I had been worried about them getting in on time because that morning it started to snow pretty hard.  We had more snow Monday then any previous single storm so far.  So much that they shut the Autobahn down and Shanna had to take side roads to get home.  Thankfully she made it home ok, and the train made it to Stuttgart on time.  Below is what it looked like from our balcony after the snow had slowed down.

They were excited about trying as many new German beers as they could, so on the way home from work Shanna picked up a case from the base Shopette.  We caught up over some beers, then headed in to town for dinner.  Remember how I said we loved Zum Paulaner?  Well that's where we went for dinner. I knew Ryan & Christina would like it, and sure enough they loved the place.  They said it felt like the most "authentic" German place they'd been to on the whole trip because of the "hunting lodge" atmosphere and the great food.

When I took this picture I thought I had Ryan (on the left) and Shanna (on the right) in the picture too, but I guess it was cut off.

After dinner we headed back to the house just to relax.

Their train left Stuttgart at 3:30pm on Tuesday, but Shanna could only take a half day.  We got up and made breakfast, then I took them to the Mercedes Benz museum while Shanna went off to work.  They were thoroughly impressed with it, and bought a few souvenirs for Ryan's Dad who just recently bought a Mercedes back home.  We then headed to the train station for lunch, and said our goodbyes.

It was a packed weekend, and it was great spending time with friends from back home, both Friday and Monday/Tuesday.  We are having a lot of fun over here, and doing things we'd never have done if we didn't have this opportunity, but it doesn't mean we don't miss our friends & family back home.  So any chance we get to see them we look forward to.

There weren't many pictures taken this weekend, so any pictures clicked above will just take you a larger Hi-Res version.

Tübingen and Nürnberg

This past weekend was a three day weekend for Shanna, so we decided to make the most of it.  On Saturday we spent the day cleaning the house.  Next Monday we have two friends from DC coming to visit, and we're going to be out of town in Heidelberg & Wiesbaden this weekend, so this was the only time we were going to have to clean up before their arrival.  Sunday the weather had cleared up and was a sunny day, but still pretty cold.  Since the weather was nice we decided to drive instead of taking the train, so around noon we picked up our friend Penny and hit the road.  Tübingen is pretty close, and within 30 minutes we were there.  We were unsure of what to expect...it was day time, but Tübingen's Christmas Market was only this past weekend.  Most start in late November and run until Christmas Eve, but this particular one was for one weekend only.  Sure enough...it was packed.  We got lucky with parking, and walked a few blocks to the fest.  Of all the ones we've visited, this one was by far our favorite.  There were all kinds of food, drink, and trinket vendors and it stretched all through out the Altstadt, or Old Town, region.  Every time you turned a corner, you saw yet another street lined with tents and places to explore.  Since I posted pics last weekend of our trip to the Tübingen Chocolatefest, I left the camera at home...there wasn't really anything new to take pictures of.  But, I did snap this pic below with my phone.  I cracked up when I read it.

Auch means "also", so I initially thought this sign started with "Jesus was also a drinker", but apparently in this context, Auch means "even".  So it translates to a similar message, "Even Jesus was a drinker".  Yup...posted outside a bar in the Christmas Market.  I had to get a picture.  Below is a picture of the mugs they were serving the Glühwein in.

We spent about 3 hours walking around and I don't think we saw everything.

The next day we had tickets to Nürnberg.  We had tried to drive there a week or two ago, but ran into a snow storm and had to turn around.  This time we planned ahead and bought train tickets, and big surprise, it was a bright sunny day.  But that's ok, we didn't have to worry about parking or driving, we just took the metro to the train station, and the train straight there.  I've really grown to love riding the train here...it's more expensive then driving, but when it comes to travelling long distances, you can't beat the comfort.  Every seat has plenty of leg room.

We pulled up at the Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof around noon, and were hit with Christmas cheer as soon as we come up from underground.  There were tents all along the street leading to the main market square, where the Christmas Market was.  We walked along the street, and before we got to the main market, we came across the big church in town.  Every city seems to have one, and they are all impressive.

Nürnberg is one of the largest and most famous of the German Christmas markets, but I'll be honest, after Tübingen, we weren't that impressed.  It was neat to know we were in the same city that held the famous war trials after World War II, and it was neat seeing a new German city that we hadn't been to before, but as far as the Christmas Markets were concerned, they weren't that impressive.  They were nice, they just didn't live up to expectations.  The dove (or is it a pigeon?) in the picture below was not photoshopped in, I just happened to snap the picture right as it was flying by.

One area I thought was neat, though, was their "Partnerstadt", or Partner Town, section.  They had booths set up representing cities from countries all over the world.  For the U.S., they had people there from Atlanta, Georgia.  They had Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, BBQ sauce, Jiffy Corn Bread Mix, Heinz Ketchup, and a few other things...actually, it seemed more like a Tennessee stand then a Georgia stand, but I'm sure your average German Citizen wouldn't know the difference.  It was still nice to chat with some Americans though.  They also had a Glasgow, Scotland, tent, but sadly they had no U.K. beer.  They had some Scotch, though.

Towards the end of the afternoon Shanna & I got some Glühwein and Crepe's to warm up (it was FREEZING), and made our way back to the train station.  We still had 2 hours to kill, so we took our time, and had dinner at a Paulaner restaurant.  We also bought some French beer at a store next to the restaurant.  We were both proud of the fact that the majority of the time when we talked with locals that day, we spoke only German.  When we walked in to the Paulaner restaurant, the waitress said something in rapid German, and I knew what she said!  She spoke English to us once or twice, but the majority of the time she spoke German.  When we went to the French store, the lady didn't speak English, so I asked questions in German, and understood her response.  We're getting better & better with our German, and it's such a thrill when I can use it practically around Germany.

As we were leaving the store and heading to the train station, we saw the Grand Hotel, draped entirely in lights...it was pretty neat.

It was a fun weekend, and while the Christmas Market didn't live up to expectations in Nürnberg, we still had a good time there.  I definitely want to go back when it's warmer to tour the city.  And next year we're going to Berlin.  Some friends of ours visited there over the weekend and said their Christmas Markets were amazing.  So, something to look forward to. :)

Click here to see the pictures, or any picture in the post above.

Tübingen Chocolatefest

This past weekend we decided to keep it local.  We'll be travelling out of town the next two weekends, so this past weekend we wanted visit local markets.

Saturday we had arranged to meet our friends Charles & Kate at the train station and take the train out to a town about 45 minutes away called Tübingen.  Shanna & I had visited the town over the summer with some other friends, and had wanted to go back, but this was the first chance we'd had.  This particular weekend Tübingen was holding their annual Chocolate Fest, where they had vendors from all over the world offering up different types of chocolate.  They even had chocolate made with Chili spices that was GREAT.  I'd never had spicy chocolate before.  They also had a huge tent that was divided into two areas.  One area is where you bought the chocolate, and the other area was sealed off so you couldn't enter, but the tent walls were see-through so you could watch them make the chocolate.  Shanna & I were standing there watching, and I noticed a zipper that went from the ground to the top on the see-through tent flap.  There was also a guy standing inside making chocolates and he had a huge plate of chocolates in front of him.  I joked with Shanna that all we had to do was unzip the zipper, and I didn't realize the guy could hear me.  Thankfully he had a sense of humor and cracked up laughing as soon as I said that...he even pretended to drop some chocolate down in front of the flap for us to get.  The picture above is the town's Rathaus (Town Hall).  Every town has one, and in the smaller towns they are usually are intricately decorated, as you can see from the picture above.  They had every kind of chocolate food / drink you can think of, EVEN chocolate beer!  The beer part surprised me...I've had it before (and liked it) but knowing how the Germans brew their beer, I was not expecting it.  It made a little more sense when I saw it had been imported from France.  They also had beer brewed with almonds.  Shanna & I bought a bottle of each, but haven't tried the Chocolate one yet.  I liked the almond one, but Shanna didn't.

We had decided to leave Milo & Murphy at home because they don't do well in crowded areas, and at festivals, where people drop food, they go nuts trying to eat & sniff everything on the ground.  Kate & Charles, though, brought their dog, Pixel.  Pixel is a Shiba Inu and built for the cold weather.  They told us it's not uncommon for German people to stop & ask them if the dog is part fox.  One thing Pixel likes to do is sit on Charles's shoulder and watch people as they walk by.  If you click the above picture, and look in the lower right, you'll see Pixel partly sitting in Charles's backpack, and partly sitting on his shoulder.  We got stopped multiple times by people wanting to pet Pixel...they even got stopped twice because people wanted to take their picture with him & the dog.

One of Shanna's coworkers met us there, and took us to a Whiskey store he likes to visit from time to time.  The above picture is of a bottle I picked up of Whiskey distilled in a nearby town.  If you click the picture, you can see the label more clearly and you'll notice it says "Schwäbischer" on it.  The region we live in (the state of Baden-Württemberg) is nicknamed Schwaben after the Germanic tribe that settled in the area approximately 2,000 years ago.  Schwaben food & dialect have distinct differences from the rest of Germany, so it makes living here all the more interesting.  They gave out samples, and this particular type tasted great.

We had lunch there, and at that point were ready to head home.  It's been cold & snowy for the past two weeks here, and while it wasn't snowing on Saturday, it was definitely cold.  We took the train back home, and spent the afternoon/evening cleaning around the house and watching College Football.

Sunday we met Kate at the train station (Charles had to work) and went to Ludwigsburg.  I've mentioned the town in previous blog postings because I went there back in June w/ a friend from DC who was visiting, and more recently Shanna & I went to their Pumpkin fest.  This time we were going for their Christmas Market.

Christmas markets are generally much prettier at night, but they are also MUCH more crowded.  Because of this, we decided to go right when it opened, and even then, it was still sort of crowded.  They had plenty of Glühwein stands, as well as stands selling every kind of Christmas trinket you can think of.  Smokers, Nutcrackers, lace, you name it, they had it.  At this point they are starting to blend together and look sort of the same, but it's still neat to visit all of them.  Each Christmas market also has commemorative mugs that they sell the Glühwein in, and I've enjoyed collecting one from each market.  We're starting to have quite the little collection, I can't wait to see what it looks like after we've been here a few years.  We stayed a few hours, ate lunch there, then headed home.

I didn't take many pictures, so there isn't a separate page like there usually is...every picture I took is in this post.  Next weekend is Nürnberg, and the weekend after that will be Wiesbaden & Heidelberg...stay tuned!

Thanksgiving and Weihnachtsmärkte

It's been awhile since our last post because to be honest, not much has been happening.  The job hunt continues, but that's about it.  Finally, though, we have something to write about.  In the past week we've had our first snowfalls, had two Thanksgiving dinners, and visited several Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas Markets).

At the beginning of last week we started to see forecasts for snow.  Nothing major, and accumulation was around an inch.  But we had several storms through out the week, which all added up to the 3-4 inches that sits on the ground now.  Of course not really a big deal, but...it's only November.  I can only imagine what the coming winter months will bring.  Thankfully, though, the Germans are prepared and the roads were mostly fine.

As you can see from the picture above, the dogs were prepared with winter jackets.  We also found out that Murphy loves to eat snow.  We were playing with them by tossing small snow balls their way, and after chomping down on a few, Murphy figured out the source of the snow was a lot easier to eat then waiting for snowballs, and went to town on the piles of snow on our deck.

Thanksgiving week started at our friend Penny's house.  We met her when we first got to the hotel back in April.  We'd seen her in the lobby a few times and said hi, but it was when she saw us walking the dogs that we really started to talk more.  Her husband stayed back in Minnesota with their three dogs, and at the time she was not only homesick, she missed her dogs, so enjoyed every opportunity to play with Milo & Murphy. Not only was it us three, but several other friends of ours.  By the time it was all said & done, there were about 15 people there, with everyone bringing food, drinks, and dessert.  One of things we thought of back when we were discussing moving was that for the first time in either of our lives, we wouldn't be around family for the holidays.  I honestly thought for at least the first Thanksgiving / Christmas, it'd just be us & the dogs, so it was nice to spend the holidays with friends.

That Saturday some other friends of ours who had to work on Thanksgiving day invited us over to their house.  They live in a small town outside of Stuttgart called Esslingen.  Their Christmas market is one of the older ones, with the earliest records saying it started in the year 777.  In addition to the normal Christmas tents, they also had a Medieval section with a tent to practice your Archery skills, fire breathers, sword swallowers, and tons of great food.  Shanna & I decided to visit it a few hours before we were supposed to be at our friend's house.  It was a neat market, and the Glühwein was great, but I liked the place even better when we came across the Medieval section.  While I was looking at a tent with wooden beer steins, Shanna noticed a game that was being played near us.  When I walked back over, she showed it to me and we both thought it was great.  It's easier to describe if I show a picture first.

As you can see, it looked almost like a wishing well, surrounded on the edges by little "houses".  You bet on a house, then the lady would put a mouse in the center of the "courtyard" area.  If you bet on the house the mouse went in to, you won.  It was fun to both watch and play.  I ended up betting on the wrong house, but I still enjoyed playing.

We walked around for a bit more, then it was time to leave.  When we got to our friends house, they had done me a HUGE favor.  American Craft beer is not easy to find around here...in the past 7 1/2 months I've yet to find any.  But I knew of a store in Amsterdam that sold them, and our friends, Kate & Charles, had been up there a few weeks prior.  I'd given them a list of beers to look for, and they delivered.  It was pricey, but well worth it.  I even enjoyed one of them this past weekend watching the Chargers game.

We brought a few dishes over, but they supplied the majority of the food and it was DELICIOUS.  Afterwards we sat around talking as Milo and their dog, Pixel, played...for HOURS.  They went non-stop from the time we got there around 7 until we left around 10.  Needless to say, after all that walking around & playing, all we heard was snoring in the back seat the entire ride home.  When we got home the night wasn't over yet...LSU was playing Arkansas.  We left Kate & Charles's house after the game started, so Shanna watched part of the game on my phone, then the rest on our TV when we got home.  Arkansas won, which was the perfect cap off to a fun day.

The next day we called our friend Penny and told her we were heading downtown to Stuttgart's Christmas Market.  She met us down there and we walked around.  It was pretty neat and HUGE.  It stretched all across the Rathaus, Schillerplats, and Schlossplatz.  In the Schlossplatz, which is where the two Palaces are, they had built up an ice skating rink that stays there through the Christmas season.  And like all Christmas Markets in Germany, there was plenty of Glühwein to go around.

Monday was a day off for Shanna, and we had planned on driving up to Nürnberg for their Christmas market.  When we woke up Monday morning, though, there was a few inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing.  By 11am the roads were mostly clear, so we decided to give it a shot.  It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive, but traffic was jammed up and the snow was starting to come down hard, so after an hour of driving (with still 2 hours to go according to the GPS), we decided to turn around.  The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house and putting up Christmas decorations.

So overall, while we missed our family on the holiday, we were thankful to have friends here to celebrate with.  I'll be writing more about Christmas markets in the coming weeks as we have plans to go to a few each weekend until Christmas.  This weekend is the Chocolate Festival in Tübingen on Saturday and the Christmas Market in Ludwigsburg on Sunday.  Next weekend we're heading to Strasbourg, France, for their Christmas market on Saturday, then we have train tickets for Nürnberg that following Monday.  The weekend of the 18th we're heading up to Weisbaden for a friend's birthday and seeing their Christmas Market, and on the way back home stopping in Heidelberg for theirs.  And finally, on December 20th, some friends of ours from DC will be in the area on vacation and are staying the night at our place.  Busy times ahead!

Click here or any pictures in this post to see all of the pictures from the Christmas Markets and the first snow of the season.

Weekend Update

With the holidays approaching, and Shanna & I planning on a home visit in mid-March sometime, we're trying to save money and therefor aren't planning any big trips for the time being.  That said, though, we still plan on day trips, like the one we took this past weekend.

We'd received an email from our friends Kate & Charles earlier in the week that they were going to the Pumpkin Festival at Ludwigsburg Palace in Ludwigsburg.  It's not related in anyway to King Ludwig II, whose castles we've visited.  King Ludwig II was a king in Bavaria, but this palace is only a 20 minute drive from our house in Stuttgart, which is located in the state of Baden-Württemberg.  It was built by Duke Eberhard Ludwig in 1704 of the region that was then known simply as Württemberg.  For a short time it replaced the Altes Schloss (Old Castle) in Stuttgart as residence of the royal family, and Ludwigsburg became the capital of the Württemberg region.  His successors later transferred the capital back to Stuttgart, which remains today as the capital of the state now known as Baden-Württemberg.

Some of you might remember that I'd been to this palace before.  When a friend of Shanna's & mine, Patrick, visited back in June, he & I went here.  It's called Schloss Ludwigsburg, so the thought was this was a traditional castle.  But as we quickly found out, a palace is a more accurate description.  Shanna had never been, though, and we'd heard the Pumpkin Fest was fun to go to, so we decided to meet them up.  We took the U-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof, met Kate & Charles there, then hopped on the S-Bahn to Ludwigsburg.

When we got to the palace, we headed to the back where the Gardens were, which is where the Pumpkin fest was.  I have to admit...I was impressed.  I was just expecting rows & rows of pumpkins, but they had artists who had come in and made all sorts of animals and creatures from pumpkins & various gourds.  The one below was a fountain made from pumpkins...I thought that one was particular impressive.

As we approached the fest area we noticed a section where they had three HUGE pumpkins.  The sign in front of them said they were Europe's largest pumpkins for 2010.  The largest pumpkin weighed in at 668kg, or just under 1,500 lbs.

We looked around for a bit, and even bought some pumpkin seeds to munch on.  They had three different kinds.  One was cooked with Cinnamon, Sugar, and Vanilla extract, one was cooked with Chili powder and the last was cooked with Sea Salt.  They were all good, but Shanna & I decided to share a package of the Cinnamon, Sugar, & Vanilla ones.  For lunch, EVERYTHING was Pumpkin orientated.  Except for the beer of course...if you've never tried Pumpkin beer, you're missing out.  Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale is one of my favorites, but with the German Purity law in place in regards to what brewers can use here, I knew I wasn't going to find any there.  For lunch, Shanna & I had a Schwabien classic (the nickname for the people & the region we live in is Schwabien), Maultasche, but with a twist.  Maultasche is similar to ravioli, but larger and stuffed with meat & cheese.  The ones we had were stuffed with that, but also pumpkin.  Plus it was served in a bowl Pumpkin Soup.  It was GOOD.

We ended up walking around the palace grounds for a little bit more, then headed out.  ESPN College Game Day started at 4pm, so we had to be home in time to catch that. :)

The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet.  Shanna had to go into the office on Sunday, and since she had to do manual labor, I was able to come in and help.  She had been tasked with cleaning out & organizing their storage room, and they have a ton of old computers, monitors, and other equipment in there, so I was able to help with the heavy lifting.

Well that's it!  I'll post periodically with how things are going.  Click here or any of the pictures above to see the rest of the Pumpkin Fest pics.

 

Salzburg, Part 3 (final)

Before we headed to bed Monday night we planned out Tuesday.  It had been grey and rainy since we got to Salzburg, but the weather was supposed to be nice on Tuesday.  Cold, but sunny.  On the drive to Salzburg we had passed Chiemsee, which is where King Ludwig II built one of his three castles.  We said that if we had time, and weather permitting, we'd go visit it.  Shanna had also heard about the Salt Mines in Berchtesgaden.  Both were back in Germany, and only a 30 minute drive.

The next morning we headed to the Salt Mines first.  We figured it might be grey & foggy in the morning, so it would be better to visit the mines where weather didn't matter.  It turned out to be a good decision, because sure enough it was grey and cloudy that morning.  When we got to the Salt Mines we walked in with the tickets we had already purchased the night before, and the first thing they do is hand you a Miner uniform that you put on over your clothes.

I even got to practice my German when I asked someone to take our picture!  Unfortunately they said picture taking was forbidden, but I was able to sneak one shot.  The tour guide gave the tour in German, but gave us English audio guides so we would know what he was saying.  The tour started with us sitting on a little train that descended into the mine.  When we got to the bottom, we disembarked and started the tour.  They first told us the history of the salt mine, then we walked a bit to a giant wooden slide.  I thought it was used to send materials or something further into the mine, but I was wrong...it was a quick way of getting from one level of the mine down to another.  They had a walking path for people who didn't want to take the slide, but Shanna & I couldn't wait to get on it.  We FLEW down...it was amazing how fast we went.  At the bottom they had sand to slow you to a stop.  We got up, and once everyone was down we continued the tour.  We got to a room where they showed us a video of how they determine if a spot is worth drilling by taking core samples, then if they decide it's worth it, they drill far down and fill it with water.  The water slowly expands and separates the rock from the salt.  The salt mixes with the water.  It takes several years before it's ready to be flushed out.  When it is, they send the water to a processing facility where the water is evaporated and the salt is collected.  It was a fascinating video seeing how the whole process worked.  After that it was time to head to yet another slide further down in the mountain.

Next up was Mirror Lake.  This was at the bottom of the previous slide, and Shanna & I were one of the first ones down.  We walked up and I was able to sneak a quick picture before the guide came down.

When you first looked at it, I thought we were seeing crystal clear water, and the ground underneath it.  Turns out it was an exact mirror reflection of the ceiling.  What you can't see in this picture is on the far right there is a boat.  We got on the boat and took it across, and when people started getting on it there was a ripple effect in the water and you could see the image distorted.  While we were on the boat crossing the lake, the lights went out and they had this huge laser show.  The lights would reflect on the water, causing an amazing reflective effect.

The rest of the tour they showed us drilling equipment, and talked a little more about the mining process.  They also had a bubbling fountain that contained the brine (the salt & water mix) that we could taste.  Shanna didn't want to, but I was curious.  I put my finger in the water, then tasted my finger.  It was by far the saltiest thing I'd ever tasted.  I was literally still tasting it in my mouth an hour later.  Once the tour was over we took another train to the surface.

At this point the sun had FINALLY come out.  Below is a picture of a brook near the salt mines.

Next up was Chiemsee.  We plugged the address into the GPS, and headed that way.  When we got to the dock, we parked the car and got our ferry tickets.  By now it was a beautiful day, and the Chiemsee ("see" means "Sea" in German) looked amazing.  Below is a picture taken from the Ferry as we headed to the Herren Island where the Schloss Herren-Chiemsee was.

When we got to the island we started the walk to the Castle.  It was only a 10 minute walk, and we soon came to the castle.  Even though it's called a Castle, it really looked more like a palace to me.  One of his other castles, Neuschwanstein, looks like how I picture a castle.  Just like Newschwanstein, though, no pictures were allowed during the tour.  They claim it's to preserve the items, but I'm sure it's just so they can sell you pictures at the end of the tour.  It was neat though...while this castle was also never completed (like Neuschwanstein), it was more complete then Neuschwanstein is.  It was modeled after Versailles, so there's all kinds of references to French design inside.  At the end of the tour we were able to walk through a small museum that included, amongst other things, Ludwig II's baptismal robe.  Once the tour was over we headed to the other castle on the island, the original one that has been there since the 7th century.  It was pretty disappointing, though...it was more like an art gallery then anything else.

Once we were done there we took the ferry back to the main land, and drove back to the hotel.  That night we walked around looking for somewhere different to eat.  We found a little restaurant that looked promising, so we headed in.  They had an amazing "HerbstBier" (Fall Beer) on tap that was one of the best beers I'd had in awhile.  We started off with soup, and Shanna ordered the Pumpkin soup.  It was pumpkin soup, served in a real carved out pumpkin.

It was GOOD.  We over heard the couple sitting next to us speaking American English, so Shanna asked where they were from.  They were here on their Honeymoon and were from Philly.  They were nice, so we talked with them a bit through out dinner.

The next morning we were ready to head home.  We checked out, and had one last stop in mind.  The little shop we stopped in in Mondsee had some great breakfast items, so we decided to drive back there for breakfast.  It was only 15Km from Salzburg, so it's not like it was going to add a lot of time to the trip home.  We got there, and wouldn't you know it...Wednesday they are closed.  We ended up eating at a cafe across the street that had great apple strudel also.  While driving home, we were able to capture this picture that portrays, as close as a photograph can, the sheer size of the mountains.

So over all this was a great trip.  We both had a lot of fun, and Austria is definitely a country I want to explore further.  If you ever find yourself in Europe, and can make it down there, it's well worth it.

To see pictures, click here or any pictures above.

Salzburg, Part 2

Before we called it a night Sunday night we bought tickets for the 9:30am Sound of Music tour the next day. I'll be honest, as of two weeks ago I'd never seen the Sound of Music. I'm not a fan of musicals, so I never really had an interest. Sure, I knew most of the music from having heard it all over growing up, but I never saw the actual movie and knew next to nothing about the story. Shanna insisted I watch it so the trip would mean a little bit more, and I'm really glad I did. While I can't say I really liked the movie (the breaking into song while you're trying to follow a story drives me crazy), she was dead on when she said it would make things more interesting. It was neat seeing the huge Fortress in person after having seen it in the movie, and it was neat to see all the places they filmed at 50 years ago. It was a Sound of Music tour, but really it was a sightseeing / historical tour.

We didn't know where the start point of the tour was, so we selected the option for a free pickup.  If we'd known it was literally a block away, we would have just walked.  The pickup was late, but thankfully the bus knew that, so they waited.  The tour guide was fantastic.  He had all kinds of interesting information to tell, and he was constantly joking around.  He was funny, informative, and gave a great presentation.  We started by driving to one of the houses where they filmed at.  The house you see in the movie is actually two houses.  The house we were at now was used for the back, which was by a lake, and the inside.  The house is privately owned by Harvard now, and is used by exchange students studying abroad.  As a result, we couldn't go on the grounds, we could only see it from the other side of the lake.  The front of the house in the movie, where you see them pushing the car out at night at the end, was another house that we would later drive by, and could only see from a distance because it was privately owned.

Next up was a trip to the Gazebo.  In 1964, when they were filming the movie, the Gazebo was located right next to the house here at the lake.  In 1991 they decided to move it to a state owned park nearby, which is where we headed next.

After the Gazebo, we drove by the actual church that Maria & Capt. Von Trapp were married at.  The church they shot the scenes at were filmed in another location that I'll get to later on.  The guide told us that the movie & broadway musical are loosely based on reality.  The real story was Capt. Von Trapp was a Navy Captain in the Austro-Hungarian Navy in World War I.  Shortly after the war ended his wife died, leaving him with 7 kids to raise.  He sent a request to the local convent to hire a Governess to look after the kids while he was away.  They sent Maria, they fell in love, and were married shortly after...in 1927.  Not 1938 like the movie.  When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, Capt. Von Trapp knew he'd be drafted into the German Army, and he didn't want that.  One day they and their 10 kids (he & Maria had 3 more) dressed up like they were going on a picnic, got on a train to Italy, hopped a boat to the US, and never went back to Austria.  Capt. Von Trapp died in 1947.  The family had a singing group called the Singing Von Trapps in Austria, and they continued in the US.  Eventually they stopped doing it, and Maria Von Trapp settled in upper Vermont because of how much the scenery reminded her of Austria.  She died in 1987.

The Nuns of the Convent don't want tourists coming in and gawking, so we could only drive by it.  After that we headed to Mondsee.  That's where the church is located where they shot the wedding scene.  To get there, the bus took the scenic route and we drove through the mountains.  The scenery was absolutely breath taking.  Finally we got to Mondsee around noon.  We were given an hour to walk around, see the church, grab a bite to eat, then meet back at the bus.  The tour guide pointed out a shop to us where he said they had the best Apple Strudel in all of Austria.  I'm sure the shop pays the tour company for that kind of promotion, but the apple strudel WAS good.  We also stopped in at a Pizzeria that had some amazing wood fired pizzas.

After lunch we headed into the Basillica, and it was nothing short of amazing.  Of course we took pictures, but they just don't convey the impressiveness of the sculptures & paintings inside.

At 1pm we headed back to the bus and drove back to Salzburg.  Once we got back, we headed back to the hotel to lay down for a bit, then got ready to head out.  Since we didn't make it the first night, we were heading to the Augustiner Brewpub tonight.  We decided to just eat there this time.  This place was pretty neat...they had a huge tap that ran back to their brewery in the back.  The beer was incredibly fresh, and the food wasn't too expensive.  Shanna & I shared a giant pork knuckle.  We enjoyed the place, but it would have been more fun with a big group.  I ended up getting a mug from there, and we headed back home.

That's it for Part 2.  Click here to see the pictures, or any pictures above.  Next up is the final part!

Salzburg Part 1

This past Sunday, October 17th, was Shanna's & my one year anniversary.  We'd kicked around various ideas of places to go, and eventually decided on Salzburg, Austria.  We came really close to going to Paris, but decided at the last minute to head to Salzburg instead...and man are we lucky we did.  I don't know if people have been following what's going on, but there have been massive strikes and protests (some turning violent) all over France, and largely in Paris, over the Government trying to raise the retirement age.  All of the nation's refineries are being blockaded, and 2,000 of the nation's 6,000 gas stations are out of gas.

You wouldn't think you could do so much in 5 days, but there was a TON of things to do there.  Since a single post about the entire trip would be a long read, I'll break it into three parts.  This post, part 1, will be about Saturday & Sunday.  Part 2 will consist of Monday, and Part 3 will be Tuesday & Wednesday.

Saturday morning we loaded the car up and dropped the dogs off at the kennel.  It's the same kennel we used the last time, and the dogs seemed right at home there.  Well, Milo did.  As soon as we dropped them off in the gated area, he ran off to play with the other dogs.  Murphy stood at the fence watching us until we were out of sight.  The drive to Salzburg, including a stop to get an Autobahn Toll Sticker, took about 4 hours.  Of that drive, 3 hours & 45 minutes was in Germany.  I knew Salzburg was near the border, but I didn't know it was THAT close.

We pulled up at the hotel around 4 or so in the afternoon.

The place was nice, and was right next to the Old Town area.  After we got settled, we headed out to explore.  We quickly found out that the hotel was literally right next to Schloss Mirabel, and the Mirabel gardens.  Anyone who has seen the Sound of Music will recognize the gardens as the area where they filmed the "Do Rey Me" song.

We walked around there for a bit, and when we left the gardens we stumbled upon the Mozart Wohnhaus, which translates to "Mozart's Residence".  Unfortunately I completely forgot to take a picture of it.  After that we were ready for dinner.  We'd both read up on the largest Brew Pub in Austria still in existence, the Augustiner Brewery.  We knew it was close, but had read that the food was extremely over priced.  But, they let you bring in outside food.  So we decided to head over there, find a take out place nearby, and bring food and have their beer.  Once we found the place, we quickly realized there wasn't really any take out places nearby.  We finally decided to just head into an Irish Bar called Murphy's Law that we stumbled upon.  The original plan was to eat dinner there, then head to the Brewpub for drinks.

When we walked in, we immediately felt like we were back in a bar in the US.  Everything was in English, the bartender greeted us in English, and hanging on all the walls were shirts, jerseys, flags, and other sports paraphanelia from European Soccer teams, American College Football teams, Major League Baseball teams, and NFL teams.  And the bartenders working in the Irish Pub were actually from Ireland.

And, like most dive bars in the US, their food menu left something to be desired.  I asked for the menu, and the guy opened the freezer and said that was it...all they had were frozen pizzas.  We laughed and said why not.  They also had some good Irish Beers on tap...I haven't had an Irish Red beer in awhile.  The bartenders were extremely friendly, and it wasn't long before we started talking with them.  I happened to notice they had 3 TV's on, and one of them was connected to a computer.  It turns out the English Soccer game they were showing was actually streaming over the internet, and they had it hooked up to the TV to show there for people to watch.  It was pretty quiet in the bar, so I told the bartender I had my TV at home hooked up to the internet, so if at 9:30 no one was watching whatever game was on, could I give him the website to connect to so we could watch the Arkansas / Auburn College Football game.  He had no problem with it.  Come 9:30 they had a game on that a few people seemed to be watching, so I asked again to confirm it was ok.  He said it was just Spanish Fussball, people were only watching it because nothing else was on...he said he was a little busy, so just head behind the bar and "work your magic".  So I did, and within a few minutes, we had our home TV in Germany streaming an American Football game happening in Arkansas to this little bar in Austria.  Technology can be great sometimes. :)

It ended up being a really fun night.  It got busy around the time the game started and as people noticed us watching the game, they would start asking us questions about American Football.  The whole bar also got a kick out of the cheesy Armed Forces Network PSA's we get to watch instead of commercials.  Shanna even taught the bartender the Arkansas cheer, which is called "Calling the Hogs".  Within no time at all, he was calling the hogs everytime Arkansas scored.  Unfortunately Arkansas lost.  The bartender tried to console us by telling us it could be worse...we could be French.  That got a laugh.  The game ended around 2am, which is about when the bar closed.  We paid our tab, and the bartenders gave us both a free beer "for the road".  Of course we were walking, so no worries there. :)

The next morning was our actual Anniversary date.  The day started great with us sleeping in late.  Around noon time we were cleaned up and ready to walk around the city.  While looking for a place to eat lunch we stumbled across Mozart's Gebursthaus, which translates to Mozart's Birth house.  That I did remember to take a picture of.

We walked inside for a bit, then headed out.  The fortress on top of the hill is huge, and impossible to miss from anywhere in the city.  We walked in the general direction of it until we got to the base of the mountain it was located on, and took the trolley to the top.  The tour was interesting...we got to see the "torture room", which was never actually used for torture, as well as go to the very top where the view of the city was amazing.  It's just too bad the weather was so lousy.

After the tour we walked around town some more, then headed back to the hotel.  We ended up having a nice dinner at the hotel, and calling it a day.

That's it for Part 1.  To see the pictures, click here or any pics in this post.  Part 2 to follow!

Strasbourg

Yesterday I took a day trip with a few friends to Strasbourg, France. Shanna had to work, so it was just me and two friends. I'd heard good things about it, so when the opportunity to go on a USO trip there came up, I jumped on it. We left on the bus from base at 7am and got there shortly before 10pm. The trip normally would take an hour & a half by car, but the buses can't go faster then 100 KM/h, we hit traffic, and by law the bus has to stop for a 30 minute break for every certain amount of hours traveled.  The weather that day could not have been more perfect...sunny and 70 degrees.

The day was broken up into two parts. When we first got there we were given a walking tour of the city, including Le Petite Notre Dame cathedral shown below.

We were also shown the building where Marie Antoinette used to stay, the statue to Johannes Gutenberg (the inventor of the printing press), and other parts of town.

When the walking tour was done around noon, we were given about 5 hours to walk around and see whatever we wanted.  The town was beautiful...I took some pictures, but the majority were taken by the two friends I was with, so once I get them I'll add them to the album I put up.  We had lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant, then we walked around some more.  I came across one store called "Beers of the World".  The time was about 1:30pm, but a lot of stores (this one included) close from 12:30 to 3pm.  Maybe for a lunch break, or siesta...I have no idea.  So I looked through the window and saw three cases of some fantastic American MicroBrew.  Rogue Chocolate Stout, Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, and Smuttynose IPA.  IPA's are one of my favorite styles of beer, and it's not a style you find in Europe, except for maybe parts of England.  Even then it's not exactly the same thing.  So to find two cases of IPA's in a hole in the wall store in France blew me away.  It was a LONG hour & a half wait until 3pm when it opened.  When it finally did, I ran inside and grabbed the first box...and it was empty.  All three boxes were empty.  They did have a single 12 oz bottle of a beer from Dogfish Head (but not 90 minute), so I bought that for 1 Euro.  It was like being told as a little kid that you have to wait until 7am to come downstairs and open presents on Christmas, only to find out there is no Santa Claus and no presents.  Oh well...the search continues. :)

After that we picked up a few souvenirs, met our tour group back at the bus, and headed home.  Strasbourg was a beautiful city and we'll definitely be back.  Supposedly they have a huge Christmas market that starts in November, so Shanna & I will probably head back for that.

Click here or the picture above to see the pictures.  There will be more pictures coming as I get them from my friends...when I do, I'll post an update blog to let everyone know.

Fest Week

From September 18th through October 10th, the two largest beer festivals in Germany run almost concurrently.  The largest is Oktoberfest in Münich, and the second largest is Volksfest in Stuttgart.  This was a fun week...we met some great new people, I had an adventure on a train, and we got to try all kinds of great beer.

Last Saturday Shanna & I met a friend of ours from the area, and some of Shanna's co-workers, at the festival grounds in Stuttgart.  It was a cold rainy day, so as soon as we all found each other we went straight into the first tent we saw, the Schwaben Brau tent.  The beer was fantastic, and I LOVED the beer glass they served it in, shown below.

We met several locals there at tables next to us and had a great time singing & dancing on the tables with them.  Afterwards Shanna & I took the train back and stopped in at a local tavern near our house.  We found it awhile back, and go occasionally.  It's a quiet, cozy atmosphere, and the people who work there are nice.  There was a small group of people there who loved our dirndl & lederhosen.  We ended up having dinner and talking with them for awhile.  Finally we walked home, and the fun & games were over...it was Arkansas Football time!

Unfortunately Alabama beat Arkansas, but it was a fun game to watch.

This past Thursday Shanna wasn't able to get the day off, so it as just me and a few friends from here who drove to Münich for Oktoberfest.  Of all the beers in Germany, so far the ones from Münich are my favorite.  Unfortunately the beers sold in Germany are typically sold only in the region they are made.  So Bavarian beers are hard to come by in the state we live in, Baden-Württemberg.  So I was excited about tent hopping at Oktoberfest and trying all the Münich beers.  Shanna had gone to Oktoberfest a few years back, and had said you couldn't tent hop because they get so busy, but she had gone on a Saturday.  With this being a weekday during the day, it wasn't nearly as hard, and we were able to hit quite a few of the tents.  The food was good, and the beer was better.  And I got to try one of those huge pretzels you always see in pictures!

That evening the adventure began.  The friends I went down with had gotten a hotel, but I had bought a train ticket and was going to take it back that evening to Stuttgart.  I had thought the last stop was in Stuttgart, so I got on my train in Münich and took a nap.  The plan had been to hop on the 7:20pm train, arrive in Stuttgart around 9:45pm, and with it being the last stop, I figured one of the people who walk around to make sure the train was empty would wake me up, and I'd be home by around 10.  Sure enough, someone does come around at the last stop and wakes me up.  The first sign of something wrong was it was 11:30pm.  Then I saw the sign at the stop...I was in Frankfurt.  For those not familiar with the geography, if you drew a straight line between Münich and Frankfurt, it would take 4 hours to get from one to the other, and half way in between is Stuttgart.  So I had overshot Stuttgart by over 2 hours.  Of course my cell phone battery was dead, so I couldn't call Shanna to let her know what was going on.  Thankfully there was one last train back to Stuttgart that night at midnight.  I was able to get on that one, and got into Stuttgart around 2:45am, and was home by around 3:15am.  So it was a LONG night, but it makes for a funny story I guess. :)

The last fest day was yesterday.  On Friday a friend of ours who lives in Heidelberg came down with her boyfriend.  We went downtown so she could buy a dirndl, then came back to the house to call it an early night.  The next morning we headed down to the fest grounds.  We had gotten tickets with some friends in this area a few months back, so since our Heidelberg friends didn't have tickets, and our tent was packed, they went to another one with the plan for us to meet them after our reserved time was done.  This tent served the local Dinkel Acker beer.  It was pretty good, but I liked the Schwaben Brau beer from the previous weekend better.  Our reservation got us three 1 liter glasses of beer, as well as a half chicken.  They had a huge rotisserie with a ton of chickens on it in the kitchen that you could see and man...the food was good.

After our reservation time was over, we went looking for our friends.  A few of their friends had also come down, and we had mentioned we had space for them to crash, so we were looking at a full house.  It took us awhile to get into the tent they were in, and unfortunately as soon as we got in, they had just left.  It turns out someone had thrown a beer glass up, it had hit the ceiling above them and shattered, and a bunch of glass had fallen on one of their friends and cut them up.  They went to the emergency doctor area, and we met them there.  She ended up being ok, just a couple of cuts.  At that point, though, they were ready to head home.  We all met back up at the house to watch some college football for awhile.  Some of them wanted to go back out, but Shanna & I were beat, so we gave them the house key and they went out.  One of the guys was tired and stayed behind.  He fell asleep on the couch and Murphy made himself comfy with his new buddy.

The night ended with Shanna skyping with some of her friends from Texarkana and catching up with them.

Sunday morning everyone got up pretty late.  It was fun though...we had a good time talking about the adventures from the previous day.  The four people who came down with our two friends from Heidelberg ended up being some really nice people, definitely ones we'd like to go out with again.

So that's it for Fest week...it was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to do it all over again next year!

To see the pics from the past week, click here or any picture above.  One thing to note, all the pictures were taken with our cell phones.  We considered bringing our camera, but it's not a cheap camera and we didn't want to risk leaving it, having it stolen, or spilled on or dropped.