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.

Short update

I know it's been awhile since the last post, so I figured I'd put up a short post to say hello.  Not a whole lot has been going on over the past few weeks.  Shanna & I have been enjoying spending relaxing weekends at home with College Football & the NFL.  We are starting to get used to big time difference when it comes to games.  Now we can have productive days, come home, and watch football that night.  The College games start at 6pm on Saturday, and the NFL games start at 7pm on Sunday.  With the NFL & ESPN ticket we bought, we can watch all the games on demand too, so for the games that start at 1 or 2 in the morning, we can watch the next day when we get up.

Not too much new on the job front...the hiring manager that I spoke with last month has been keeping me posted on the job announcement.  It finally went up last week, and it closes next week.  Since the manager has kept me in the loop on it, I feel good about chances of getting the job, but we'll see.

I've started taking German Level 2 classes.  It's amazing how much you retain when you're surrounded by it all day, every day.  I've learned more German in the past 5 months (WOW, I can't believe it's been that long already) then I did Spanish in the four years I took it in High School.  I decided to go with the same teacher Shanna & I had for our level 1 class...she's funny, patient, and what I like the most is she tailor's her corrections based on each student.  Meaning, if a person is struggling and makes a mistake, she'll correct the major problems and not nit pick on the small stuff.  For the people who are picking it up faster, she'll nitpick on little details.  Wir Lernen, aber wir haben viel mehr lernen.  (We are learning, but we have a lot more to learn).

Finally, plans for the next month.  This weekend a friend of ours from DC who lives in Heidelberg now is coming to town for Stuttgart's Volksfest, their version of Oktoberfest.  Next Thursday Shanna couldn't get off work, but I'm going with some friends to München for Oktoberfest.  I'm REALLY looking forward to that...it's the 200th anniversary of it, so I'm definitely keeping my eye out for some specialty beer glasses / steins.  A week from Saturday we have tickets with some friends for a reserved table at Volksfest.

It's amazing how fast time flies...our Anniversary is in 3 weeks.  We kicked around various ideas, and decided to keep it within driving distance this year.  Salzburg, Austria, is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from Stuttgart, so we're going there from Oct. 16 - 20th.  I'm really looking forward to it...the town is supposed to be beautiful and it'll be nice to get away for a few days with just the two of us (the dogs are staying at the kennel).

So over the next few weeks I'll be posting more & putting pictures of Austria & Oktoberfest.

Hope everyone is doing well...stay tuned!