Christmas Markets

Shanna & I said this year that we wanted to visit Christmas Markets outside our area, and outside of Germany.  This past weekend was the first time this season we'd had a chance to do that.  We spent the weekend in Colmar, France and on the way home today, stopped in Freiburg, Germany.

I got off work Friday at 3pm, headed home, got the dogs, and drove out to Esslingen where Shanna was enjoying a Christmas party with her coworkers.  I took the dogs in the restaurant and we had dinner, then we hit the road.  It was raining a bit, but the wind was ridiculous.  More then once I felt like the car was getting blown into the next lane.  We eventually made it, though, around 9pm that night.  We were both exhausted, but we hadn't had dinner yet, so we ate at the hotel restaurant.  We brought the dogs down with us, and when the waitress saw them, she petted them and put her hand out to Milo and said "Bonjour'...and Milo shook her hand!  I couldn't stop laughing.  She put her hand out, so that's what Milo recognized, but seeing her say "Bonjour" and seeing Milo shake her hand cracked us up.

Saturday morning when we took the dogs out to do their morning usual, I noticed a plaque on a rock in front of a tree.  It was a Sequoia tree from California that was dedicated from the US to the people of France in recognition of 200 years of friendship.  After that we ate breakfast at the hotel, and they had the most amazing spread of cheeses out.  My favorite was this goat cheese that I couldn't get enough of.

After breakfast we put the coats on the dogs and hit the town.  Colmar had five separate Christmas Markets, but they were all connected, so you could easily walk from market to market.  The first one we came to was the kids Christmas Market.  They had vendors with kids toys and a few rides.  One that stood out was the mechanical horse rides.  Kids would sit on the horse, and it'd ride along a track in a circle.  For those that have heard the story of the debacle of when I attempted horse riding, this would be the closest I'll ever come to riding a horse again.

From that market we walked along one of the many canals that run through Colmar and noticed a sign that said at 5pm that day there would be kids singing Christmas Carols in boats in the canal.  We made a note to come back later that evening.  Next up was an indoor market with all kinds of fresh food being sold.  Cheese, bread, seafood, you name it, they had it fresh.

We walked around the various markets until it was obvious the dogs were starting to get worn out.  On the way back to the hotel we came across an old Carousel that had been converted into a cafe!  It was closed, but we took a few pictures.  The owner (we assume) was cleaning up inside and his dog was in there...it looked like a Jack Russel, just like Murphy.  As we walked around the Carousel looking in, the dog was running along with us, inside, growling at Milo & Murphy.

We headed back to the hotel from there and laid down for a bit.  Once Milo & Murphy were settled down we left some toys out for them in the room and left them there.  They've gotten to be great hotel dogs...even though Milo whined a bit, he quickly quieted down and they were quiet the rest of the night until we got back.

From the hotel we walked back into town and headed to some of the places we couldn't go earlier because we had the dogs.  First up was St. Martin's church.  It was built in 1375, and has survived ever since.  Inside there was a plaque thanking the Virgin Mary for protecting the city during WWII and liberating it from the Nazi's on Feb. 2nd, 1945.  There was also a plaque dedicated to those killed in WWI.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering through the beautiful old town area.  It looked perfectly preserved, exactly like it might have 500 years ago.  Shortly before 5pm we headed back to the bridge over the canal.  We got there early, but there was already a crowd.  Luckily a spot opened up and we were able to get a good spot overlooking the canal.  Shortly after 5pm, when it was dark, the first boat pulled up to the bridge.  5 more pulled up and lined up side by side across the canal.  Then a boat pulled up behind them with Santa inside and a ton of presents.  The kids then began to sing various carols, some we recognized, but most we didn't.  It was strange hearing "Oh Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bells" in French.  The Jingle Bells song was neat because they sang it in French and English.

Once they were done we took a walk, looking for dinner.  There was a place we thought looked good, but the lady said they didn't open until 6:30, and it was only 5:30.  Place after place we went to were all closed until 6:30 or 7pm.  So we got some Gluehwein (or Vin Cauld as it was called in French) and sat on benches along the canal for a bit.  We also headed to a Belgian Bar we'd seen earlier in the day.  Eventually it was 6:30, but when we went back, the same lady said they were booked for the night.  Why she didn't tell us that an hour ago was beyond us.  We tried a few more places, and they all said the same thing...they were booked solid with reservations all night long.  Who would have thought we'd need reservations??  We eventually found a place that wasn't too expensive, and what a find.  The food was AMAZING.  The waitress didn't speak much English, and the menu was entirely in French.  Here's an example of what the menu looked like:

So we decided to be adventuresome and randomly picked two things off the menu.  I got a DELICIOUS chicken cooked in a Riesling sauce (although it was brown, which I thought was strange), potatoes and mushrooms.  I demolished the entire thing, even the mushrooms.  It was one of the best meals we've had while living here in Europe.  Shanna got Salmon on top of buttery garlic mashed potatoes and capers.

For dessert we decided to roll the dice again, and again came up with a winner.  It was a plate with a shot of cappuccino, a brownie, ice cream, and a glass with some sort of strawberry sauce and whipped cream flavored jello.  I wasn't a fan of the coffee since I don't like coffee, but the rest of it was fantastic.  All & all it was an amazing meal, and I'm so glad we ran into problems with other places which forced us to try this place.  Had we gone somewhere else, the menu would have been in English and we wouldn't have tried something new.

After dinner we were full, and worn out from walking around all day.  We went back to the hotel & called it a night.

Sunday morning we woke up to snow coming down outside.  I was less then thrilled since we had 2 1/2 hours to drive home, and the last thing I wanted to do was drive home in snow.  But we got lucky.  It only lasted for 15 minutes, didn't stick, and the sun came out after.  After breakfast & checkout, we loaded the car up and headed to Freiburg, Germany.  It was close to Colmar, and on the way back home, so it was easy to get there.  Freiburg was pretty neat...it was no Colmar, but few markets are.  We walked around the old town area, and saw something interesting.  Apparently, Freiburg is a sister city with Madison, Wisconsin!  Who knew?

Shanna found a wood molding of a boy & a snowman that she can use to make Christmas cookies, as well as some special paper so that she can use that same molding to make Christmas Cards.  It's too late to do it this year, but maybe next year.  We wandered around the market, and once done, headed back home.

This past weekend was a LOT of fun, and Colmar is by far our favorite Christmas Market.  The food, drinks, and ambiance of the town was amazing, and we highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Southern Germany or Eastern France.

Over the next few months we have trips to Hamburg and Ireland planned, so check back soon!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.

Thanksgiving in Sicily

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but not too much has happened.  Last week I started at SAIC and life's been busy getting myself acquainted with the new job.  Last week was Thanksgiving and over the summer, Shanna & I decided we wanted to go somewhere warm.  After kicking around various ideas, we settled on Taormina, Italy, on the island of Sicily.  I mentioned it to my parents and invited them along.  They got their tickets and met us down there.  They flew into Rome Sunday, toured there, then flew to Catania Airport Thursday and met us there.

Thursday morning is when we left, and it was EARLY.  So early, in fact, that it was before the trains started running, so we had to drive.  We only live 15 minutes from the airport, so we got there plenty early.  It was FREEZING that morning.  By mid day it's been in the 50's for the past few weeks, but before the sun rises, it's been in the high 20's.  Our flight to Catania went smooth, and when we stepped off the plane, it was 70 degrees & sunny.  I had previously arranged for a shuttle service from the airport to the hotel, and am glad I did.  There wasn't really a public transportation option, so we'd have had to get a taxi for the 45 minute drive.  The drive was absolutely beautiful.  Catania & Taormina are right on the coast, so our entire drive was along the coast line.  Last May I visited Rome with some friends, and while I enjoyed it, I never really saw the Italian country side that I think of when thinking of Italy.  We definitely did this time though...it was the Med on our right and the beautiful old Italian countryside on our left.

We eventually got to our hotel and checked in.  I'd read in the reviews how friendly the staff was and how beautiful the view from the outside terrace was, and neither disappointed.  Our family must have been the only people checking in that day, because when I walked in & said I wanted to check in, the guy behind the desk, Sebastiano, said "Yes, welcome Mr. Norton.  Your parents are down at the restaurant.".  After we checked in, we walked out on the terrace and saw Mount Etna.

We then headed down to the restaurant and met my parents & brother there.  It was good to see them again.  We ate lunch and walked around the old town area for the rest of the afternoon.  Shanna & I called it an early night since it'd been a long day.

The next morning the plan was to explore the city.  The hotel provided breakfast, and then called a cab for us.  There was a village way up on a hill over looking the city, and up there was the remains of the old castle & fortress. 

On the drive up, our cabbie gave us a mini-tour, explaining all the things we were seeing.  He even pointed out the huge land mass in the distance across the water...turns out that was mainland Italy.  When we got to the top, we headed to the old fortress.  There wasn't much left of it, but it had a beautiful view of Taormina & the Med. Sea.

After exploring the fortress, we explored the little village up there.  There was a church (of course) and several restaurants and shops.  Mom & Shanna spent most of the afternoon wandering through the shops there, picking up all kinds of little things.  We also ate lunch while up there at a restaurant with a panoramic view of the city & hills.  The picture I posted above is pretty much what the view of the city was like from the restaurant...the picture below is of the hills.

Later that afternoon, we walked down from the village to a chapel on the hill side, but it had already closed for the day.  That night was the big Arkansas/LSU game, so we went to a local supermarket to get some beer, then set up the laptop in the lobby of the hotel, where they had free WiFi.  Arkansas is becoming an international sensation.  We've watched them play over the internet in Austria, Germany, France, and now Italy.  Unfortunately they lost, but it was still fun watching some college football.

Saturday we'd talked with Sebastiano, and he set up our day for us.  A driver would take us down to Siracusa, and we'd be met there by a guide who would give us a personal tour of the city.  Once we got there, we were met by Rosa.  The first thing I noticed was her perfect English...so perfect, in fact, that she seemed to have an American accent.  It turns out she was born in Sicily and when she was 8, her family immigrated to Connecticut.  When she graduated from High School, she moved back to Sicily and has lived there ever since.  She still has family in the US, so the visits have helped her keep up with her English, and her American accent.  We started in Largo Port, and walked through the city.  We started down a street with a house that was one of the few buildings to survive the devastating earthquake of 1693.  That fact jumped out to Shanna & I because we remembered learning that earthquake also decimated Dubrovnik, Croatia, killing 90 percent of the population in Dubrovnik.  We eventually got to the Siracusa Duomo.  That church had a fascinating history.  It was first built thousands of years ago as a Greek Temple for Apollo.  When Christians took the territory over, they converted it to a Church.  Eventually Muslims took the town over, and converted it to a Mosque.  Finally, the Catholics took the city back over and turned it back into a Church.  When you go in, you can see the old Greek columns, the area where the round top of the Mosque used to be, and of course, all the Christian symbols currently there. 

We continued walking around the city, seeing all the various landmarks, including the remains of the first Greek Temple built in the city in 800 B.C.  Our driver picked us up and drove us across town to the location of Roman & Greek ruins.  The Romans had built a small Gladiator ring there.  In the center was a pit with two columns in the center.  The Gladiators would stand on the columns and try to knock the other off.  The loser would fall into the pit of water, which had crocodiles in it.  She also showed us the mass graves they'd bury the dead Gladiators in.  Right around the corner from it was the old Greek Theater.  The hill it was built into consisted of Limestone, so all the Greeks had to do was chisel the stage & seats out right in the mountain.  It's the only Greek Theater in the world built that way.  Behind the theater we walked through the old rock quarry where they mined the rock that was used to build the city.  They used slave labor, and it was an accepted fact that once you went in, you never came out.  The slaves who died down there were just left there.

Finally Rosa showed us the old altar area where they performed animal sacrifices.  The king at the time sacrificed 450 cows for protection against the Romans.  What the people didn't know was he had made a secret deal with the Romans to not attack.  Siracusa had peace for 22 years of his reign.  When he died, a resistance movement sprang up and killed all the Romans who were living in the town and blockaded themselves.  Archimedes, who lived in the city, came up with inventions to keep the Romans at bay.  It's a 3 day journey by boat from Rome to Siracusa.  He first came up with catapults that launched stones doused in oil & lit on fire.  They repelled the Romans, who had never seen anything like that before.  They assumed Siracusa had a God protecting them.  When they tried again, Archimedes had a new invention.  He'd put a huge magnifying glass on a wooden lever that could move up, down, left & right.  The result was they could set the Roman ships on fire from a distance.  The Romans finally conquered Siracusa by sending spies, who found out the real reason Siracusa was able to fend them off.  One night the Romans snuck in and the spies let them in.  They then proceeded to decimate the city, and beheaded Archimedes.

The history of the town was absolutely fascinating.  The next & last stop was a Basillica in the town of Arcireal.  It's famous because it has the tomb of St. Clemente, the fourth pope, who died in 89 AD.  It was absolutely beautiful inside.  After we finished there we headed back to Taormina.  Shanna & Mom walked through a few shops until we came to a restaurant to eat at, Mama Rosa's.

It was some of the best Italian food we'd had.  We actually didn't have a bad dish the entire time we were there, but this place stood out.  I had lasagna & ravioli, and Shanna had seafood ravioli.  It was our last dinner before my parents left the next morning, so we had wine, great food, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  My parents & brother had a 6am flight out the next morning, so we said our goodbyes that night.

The next morning we got up early.  Shanna & I had a 5:30pm flight out, so we decided to do one more tour before we left.  Sebastiano made all the arrangements, and even acted as our driver that day.  Shanna & I first took a picture on the terrace with the sun rising.

The plan for the day was for Sebastiano to drive us to Mount Etna, us to tour it, then he'd drive us to the airport in Catania.  We hit the road, and it was a crystal clear beautiful fall day.  The leaves on the trees were turning and there was only a little bit of smoke coming out of the Mount Etna volcano.  We got there a little early, so Sebastiano took us to a crater that was now dormant.  All around us most of the frost had melted, but it didn't in the shadows.  The result was you had some interesting shapes of frost.  At that point we were only 2,000 meters high (approx. 6,000 ft), but we had a beautiful view of Taormina.

Finally it was time for the tour to start.  Normally they have a cable car running up most of the mountain, but it was broken, so they took us up by bus.  By this time the clouds had rolled in and you couldn't see much, but when we got to the 3,000 Meter mark (9,000 ft), we were above the clouds and it was bright & sunny.  It was amazing seeing the clouds from above.  The guide gave the tour in Italian, but we had some English speakers in the group, so he'd explain things sometimes in English too.  He showed us the house the guides used to live in that was now covered in Volcanic rock from the eruption in 2002.  Some parts of the rocks were above a fissure, so if you grabbed a handful, the rocks were actually hot!  It was surrounded by snow, so it was really weird grabbing hot rocks.  He walked us all over the top of the mountain, and it was one of the most amazing experiences we've had since moving here.  After the tour, they bussed us down part of the way, and now the cable car was working, so we took that the rest of the way down.  At one point the cable car came to a complete stop, and it was just Shanna & I in the car.  It was cloudy again, so you couldn't see far around you, but we could clearly see the LONG drop below us.  Thankfully it only stopped for a few minutes. :)  When we got to the bottom, we walked through some of the gift shops, and I finally found a souvenir I wanted.  I usually get beer steins, but I thought this time I'd get something more appropriate for Italy...a wine carafe!

Sebastiano then drove us to the airport.  It had been a long day, and in that warm sun, I was OUT.  Shanna told me at the airport that Sebastiano had noticed me asleep and made sure to go over speed bumps as slow as possible so he wouldn't wake me.  As you can see from this post, the hotel was GREAT.  If you ever find yourself in Taormina, stay at the Hotel Continental.  You won't regret it.

The trip home was uneventful, and we finally landed back in Stuttgart around 11pm...and it was back to the cold weather.

This trip was a LOT of fun, and Shanna & I agreed that this is one of the few places we really want to go back to to explore more. 

You can view the pictures by clicking here, or any of the pictures in this post.

Anniversary & France

Shanna & I have been doing a lot of traveling this month, and we had two trip weekends bookend the weekend of our anniversary, so we decided on a quiet night for the actual anniversary.  It was a Monday, so while Shanna was at work, I ran around town.  In town there's a great indoor year round market with vendors from all over Europe.  I was able to get some delicious Chicken Cordon Bleu, cheese stuffed peppers, French Brie, pretzels, a bottle of wine, and of course, chocolates all at the market.  I then picked up some flowers and a card, and headed home.  Once home I realized I'd made a mistake with the card.  Shanna was just going to have to pretend that Hochzeit meant "Anniversary" like I thought and not "Wedding", like it actually meant.  If you're curious, Jubiläum is the word I should have been looking for.  I knew that, but in my rush, I forgot, and got a wedding card instead of an anniversary card.  All in all, it was a relaxing evening with good food, good wine and...Survivor. :)

This past weekend it was FINALLY time for the International Beer Expo in Strasbourg, France.  Shanna had found out about it before my birthday back in June, and gave me a birthday card with a print out of the details so we could go.  I've been looking forward to it ever since.  Strasbourg is only an hour & a half away, so Shanna worked a normal work day, then I picked her up Friday afternoon and we hit the road.  That was definitely the biggest mistake of the weekend.  We've always traveled in the middle of the day, or on a weekend...this was the first time we'd tried to hit the road on a Friday and the roads were packed.  Instead of an hour & a half, it took us two and a half hours.  While most of the drive was on the Autobahn, the last half hour was through some really pretty French countryside.  The sun was almost set, there was a light mist over the ground about six feet high, and it was pretty to look at as we drove through some small French towns.

Finally we get to our hotel, get checked in, and head to the beer expo.  It looked a lot closer to our hotel on the map then it actually was, and I didn't realize the metro stop outside our hotel went right to it, so we walked that first night.  30 minutes later we were there, and ready to sample.  A friend of ours met us there, and we got to try some of our favorites, Dogfish Head, Stone, Weyerbacher, Lagunitas, and Ommegang to name a few.  A few years ago I went to Montreal for a friends Bachelor party, and fell in love with Quebec breweries.  They had some outstanding ones in attendance this year at the expo.  One of the neat areas they had set up was showing you how to pair French beer with French cooking...as expected, the food samples they had out were delicious.

When we were done for the night, we headed back to the hotel & went to bed.  The next morning we got up and took the metro into the city.  I'd been to Strasbourg last year with a USO tour and really enjoyed it.  This was Shanna's first time, so I was able to show her around the Old Town area.  We headed into the cathedral, which is the tallest one in France, and walked around all the shops.  The weather was cold & dreary, but at least it wasn't raining.  After we'd walked around for a few hours, we got a text from some other friends of ours who live in Wiesbaden that they were just about there.

We met up with them at the expo about an hour later.  Regine is a friend that Shanna has known since her early days with the Army in Texarkana, and her boyfriend Marcelo works with her at the Corp of Engineers.  It'd been a long time since we'd seen them, so it was great to meet up with them again.  Marcelo, like Shanna & I, is a big fan of Microbrew beers, so he was just as excited as we were to be there.  It was neat to see some of the things they had set up there, including a motorcycle with hops & barley all over it.

The previous night we'd wandered from booth to booth, but this time we did it right.  We bought fresh cheeses & sausages from some of the vendors there, as well as some bread.  We laid it all out at a table in the expo center, got our beers, and caught up.  That was pretty much how the rest of the evening went.  We'd wander from booth to booth, trying what they had to offer.  One of the stand out breweries we discovered there was À l’Abri de la Tempête, from Quebec.  They had two beers in particular (Corne de Brume and Corps Mort) that were outstanding.  No luck finding them here, of course, but they are definitely a brewery I'm going to keep an eye out for when we go home next.

The night ended with us heading to the shopping area, and buying beer for us and for friends back in Stuttgart who had requested a few bottles.  It was heavy carrying that back to the hotel, but definitely worth it.  One beer I got not because I had tried & liked it, but because it was in a big growler and we both really liked the artwork on it.  It was brewery that's near Neuschwanstein, and the artwork was all centered around King Ludwig.  The main image on the front is of Neuschwanstein, and along the bottom they had pictures of all his castles, including the one he grew up in that sits almost right next to Neuschwanstein.

The next morning there really wasn't much else left to do.  We checked out, loaded the car up, and hit the road.  The only thing of note was the weird weather.  There was some thick fog in Strasbourg, and through out the entire remaining drive in France.  Within ten minutes of crossing the border into Germany, the fog cleared, and it was bright & sunny, without a cloud in the sky.  Thankfully the drive home only took about an hour & 15 minutes.

That's it for traveling for a few weeks now.  My next post most likely won't be until December.  For Thanksgiving, Shanna & I are flying down with our friend Penny to Sicily, and meeting my parents & brother there.  We are both really looking forward to it!

There weren't enough pics to upload a new album, so the pictures above will just take you to a hi-res version of which ever pic you click on.

Croatia and Montenegro

For Columbus Day weekend, Shanna & I wanted to take a trip somewhere.  A few months back our friend Penny had mentioned cheap deals to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  I'd heard so much about how pretty the country was, and we're always up for visiting somewhere new.  It was good deal, so we jumped on it.

Friday morning I dropped the dogs off at the kennel, we hopped on the train, and headed to the airport.  Once there we met up with our friends Craig, Penny, & Adam.  You might remember Penny & Adam because they went with us to London back in July.  The flight there was uneventful, although the last part of the leg to Croatia we started to talk with the lady sitting next to us.  She was from the Ukraine, and was on her way to vacation with her 8 month old grandson, daughter, & son-in-law.  She insisted that we visit the Ukraine sometime, because it was beautiful.  Sounds good to me...any place we haven't been is a place I want to visit.  When we had landed & collected our bags, we took the shuttle I'd arranged to our hotel.  It was about a 30 minute drive to the hotel, and along the way the shuttle driver would point out various things along our route.  For example, I knew we were close to Bosnia, but had no idea that one point, we were only 6 miles from the border.  I remember all the news coverage of the war in Bosnia during High School, and never pictured myself vacationing a few miles from it's border.  The view during the drive was spectacular.  Dubrovnik sits along the Mediterranean cost, with huge mountains behind it, so it's an amazing view.

Once we arrived, we checked in, got settled, and took the 10 minute bus from our hotel into Old Town where Penny, Adam, & Craig were staying.  We walked around the old town area for a bit, and stumbled across an unexpected memorial.  It was a room dedicated to Dubrovnik Defenders.  I'll admit my knowledge of the history of this area isn't the greatest.  I remember the conflicts in Kosovo & Bosnia, but the other major conflicts following the fall of the Soviet Union I don't know too much about.  This room told a small part of it. Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia all used to be one country, Yugoslavia.  When the USSR fell, the country fractured into Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia.  Montenegro was it's own country, but part of the greater Serbia.  In 1991, the Montenegrin army, Serbian army, and the remains of the former Yugoslavian Army, all attacked Dubrovnik, trying to annex it to their own country.  The bombardment came from sea, air & land and lasted until July of 1992.  Then, from 1992 - 1995, there were sporadic bombings and attacks.  In 1995, Dubrovnik rejoined the rest of Croatia.  This memorial we found was dedicated to those who died fighting against the invading armies.

After that we were all ready for dinner.  There's a show that Shanna & I watch, as well as our friend Adam, called Three Sheets.  The basic premise is the host travels around the world and explores whatever food & drinks the area is known for.  He had done an episode in Dubrovnik, and ate at a place called Pupo.

When we walked up, we weren't sure we were at the right place.  The waiter walks up, sees us looking around, and we ask for a seat.  But he knew what we were looking for, so he asked if we had any questions. We told him we wanted to know if this was the place from Three Sheets, and he starts laughing.  He tells us to take a seat, and he goes in the back and brings a glass for each of us, filled with Grappa that had been infused with Rosemary and other Italian Herbs.  It burned at first, but the after taste was delicious, just like garlic bread.  Everyone who comes there & mentions Three Sheets gets to try it for free.  We asked for another round (fully intent on paying for it), and he brought us out the entire bottle...on the house.  The food wasn't bad, but wasn't great...what really made the place, though, was the owner, Ivan.  He was funny, and put on a show all night for us.  Later in the evening a group of four Germans sat next to us.  We started talking with them, and found out they live just north of us.  Somehow we got on the subject of Volksfest, and then started the German drinking songs.  Even Ivan joined in for a bit.  Eventually we called it a night, and ran through a sudden rainstorm to get to the bus that would take us to our hotel.

The next morning we had breakfast, then headed to a kiosk outside our hotel.  We had seen it advertising excursions, including one to the country south of us, Montenegro.  Penny had really wanted to take a day trip down there, and after looking at the pictures of the country, I really wanted to visit also.  It was pretty a cheap too...an all day, guided tour, visiting famous landmarks and stopping in two cities, all for 33 Euros a person.  We signed up, then hopped on the bus to old town.  Shanna & I were doing our own sightseeing that morning, and would meet up with the rest of the group for lunch.  We started off walking on top of the old fortress walls that surround the city.  The view from up there was amazing.  It's a decent size city, so walking around the entire wall took about 2 hours.  While walking around, we noticed film crews.  We'd also seen some the evening before.  We figured they were shooting a documentary, but found out the next day while talking with our tour guide that we were wrong.  He asked us if we were here as tourists, or with HBO.  I told him tourists, but asked what he meant by HBO.  It turns out the series Game of Thrones is shooting it's second season in Dubrovnik.  The city will serve as a location called Kings Landing, and they were shooting location shots.  So if you watch the show, and see us, you'll know why.  :)

After we finished walking around the wall, we met up with the group and had lunch.  You'll notice a common theme with the food here...it just wasn't that good.  We didn't eat at a single place that we really liked, and what made it worse was it wasn't cheap.  It was hard to keep track of what you were spending because of the inflated numbers they use, but once you did the math, it wasn't cheap.  It's a 5.5 to 1 ratio, so 100 Krunes was just under $20.  After lunch, we wandered along the tiny streets, looking in on the various shops.  We even ran into the lady from our flight, and got to meet her grandson & family.  We then headed to a cafe Penny had heard about that was located just outside the walls, facing the sea.  It was nice to have a drink in hand & relax, watching the Med. Sea.  We ended the afternoon sitting at another cafe in the harbor, waiting on all the cruise ship tourists to leave.  It's amazing the difference in the early morning / evening when the cruise ships are gone, and during the day when they are there.  With multiple ships in the harbor, approximately 15,000 - 20,000 people visit, then are gone by the evening.  At this point it was early evening, and we knew we had to get up early the next day for our day trip.  Plus, it was starting to look like rain was coming, and Shanna & I didn't want to get caught in it heading back to our hotel.  We headed back, and ate dinner at a tiki theme bar on the beach by our hotel.  Again...not great and over priced.  It rained while we ate, but thankfully we were fully covered and it subsided before we finished.

The next morning the tour van picked us up from our hotel, and we hit the road.  It took about 45 minutes to get to the border, then we sat & waited.  Normally when you drive across a border where you need to show your passport, there's two checkpoints.  First for leaving the country you're in, then for entering the country you're going to, and typically they are right next to each other.  There's still tension from the war 20 years ago, though, so the two checkpoints between Montenegro & Croatia are 700 meters apart, and not within line of sight.  We sat to have our passports stamped on the way out of Croatia, then again on the way in to Montenegro.  Once that was squared away, we headed in.  The pictures did not do the country justice...the coastline was beautiful.  We made a few stops along the way for pictures, but the first major stop where we had an hour & a half to walk around, was Kotor.  Kotor is an old city that sits on a bay, with huge mountains behind it.  Once inside, we went to the three major churches, including one that was first built in 809 AD.  It had been damaged & renovated over the years, and in 1979 a devastating earthquake severely damaged it.  Finally, in 2009, they had the funds to renovate it and now it's a beautiful church.  One of the things we noticed was all the dogs & cats running around.  The dogs had collars, so they probably weren't stray, it was just strange to see it.  They were friendly though...Penny would pet both the dogs & the cats, and they seemed to eat it.  We picked out some souvenirs, and when our time was up, headed back to the van.

The next stop was just for pictures, and it was Sveti Stefani, an island that is only accessible if you are a guest.  And being a guest doesn't come cheap.  It costs 1,000 Euros per person per night.  There's also a private beach that is split in half (makes more sense when you see the picture).  If you aren't staying at the island, you can still access the beach for a price.  The right side of the beach is 35 Euros per day, and the left side is 55 Euros per day.  Maybe we'll stay there next year. :)  After seeing the island from above, we headed to our final stop, the capital of Montenegro, Budva.  Budva was neat, it sat right on a bay, and was still surrounded by an ancient fortress wall.   The first thing we did was have lunch, and it was by far the best meal we'd had on the trip.  Shanna & I both got Calamari, and hers was stuffed with garlic & onions.  It tasted amazing.  We had beer from Niksicko, the only brewery in Montenegro.  After paying the tab, we headed into the city to sight see.  It was a neat town.  It was small, with narrow streets, but it connected to a pretty beach, and the mountains surrounding it were breath taking.  Finally, the trip came to an end, and we headed back to the van.  We took a car ferry across the Bay of Kotor, and continued on the drive home.  We rolled back in to Dubrovnik around 7pm.  We were all beat, so we headed back to the hotel to watch some College Football on the computer, then called it a night.

Monday was our departure day, so we didn't do much that day, but we did have until noon before our shuttle to the airport was going to arrive.  Shanna got up early for a massage at a spa next door, and afterwards we walked along the beach and explored our part of town since we hadn't really done that yet.  We got to the airport early, and watched the Arkansas game on the computer while waiting for our flight.

Normally I'd end the post by saying the flight home went smooth.  While that's true, something did happen.  We had a lay over in Vienna, and when we touched down, I turned my phone back on.  I had a voicemail.  A week & a half ago I'd interviewed for a network security job with SAIC.  The interview went well, and later that week I found out a friend of ours is friends with the hiring manager I interviewed with, and he put in a good word.  I listened to the voicemail, and it was that hiring manager.  All he said, though, was that he was calling about the position and would call back later.  At this point it was too late to call him back, so I had to wait an agonizing 12 hours until 9am the next morning, when he called to offer me the job.  It's going to take 4-5 weeks due to the paperwork on SAIC's end, as well as the fact that the German Government has to review it to make sure I qualify to be exempt from German taxes.  Once that's all said & done around December, I'll finally be employed.  I cannot wait to go back to work!

The next post will be in about two weeks, when we get back from Strasbourg, France, for the International Beer festival!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.

Fests, Fests, and more Fests

All summer long there are all kinds of Fests all over Germany.  Beer, Wine, Beans, Onions, Strawberries, you name it...it has a fest for it.  In April when things start to thaw out, and the weather gets warm, the Germans like to be out in it as much as possible before the Winter sets back in around October.  This past month the local brewery by our house had a festival, and of course there was Oktoberfest and it's cousin in Stuttgart, Volksfest.

The weekend of September 10th/11th, the local Dinkelacker brewery had it's annual festival on the brewery grounds.  Shanna & I had gone last year, but we brought the dogs with us, so we couldn't go inside the brewery grounds.  We had to stay outside where they had live music, benches, food, & drinks.  This year we left the dogs at home and walked through the brewery.  Within the brewery grounds they had people making clothing with old fashioned tools, like they would hundreds of years ago.  They had Woodsmiths, Metalsmiths, and all kinds of Medieval tools, weapons, and clothing being made.  They even had a Pottery making tent.  It was neat to walk around in.  The best part for us, though, was this big truck they had inside with all kinds of prizes.  You paid one Euro for a scratch card, and whatever number was on the card corresponded to a prize on the truck.  We got a mug, long socks, salt & pepper shaker, and more.  Outside the brewery grounds, they had people who owned classic cars giving people rides in them.

While we were there, we also took a tour of the brewery.  It was in German, but between what we already know about the brewing process, and the guide speaking slowly because he knew we weren't German, we were able to understand a decent amount.  After we were done, we were heading out & ran into a friend of ours who lives nearby, so we ended up staying later with him.

Two weeks later kicked off the official start to Volksfest.  We had gotten tickets through some friends for opening night, and met up with them down there Friday evening.  It was our first chance this season to put the Lederhosen & Dirndel back on, and we couldn't wait.  I don't have any pictures from that night, but the two videos on the picture page I'll link to at the end are from the night.  One is the band getting ready to kick the night off, the other is some dance off that started right next to our table.  When you hear someone yell "Doug Lee", that's a reference to a friend of ours back home who was the first person we thought of when we saw it.

The next afternoon some friends from the US came in to town.  Chris Comes, and his girlfriend Hillary, showed up Saturday afternoon.  They were doing a European tour, and arranged to stay at our place for that weekend because we were going down to Munchen for Oktoberfest the next day.  They would leave after that, head to Italy & other places for the week, then come back Friday for Volksfest.  That evening we tried to get downtown so Hillary could buy a Dirndel, but all the stores were closed by then.  We ended up taking them to one of our favorite German restaurants, Zum Paulaner, for dinner.  After that they were exhausted, so we headed home.

The next morning came bright & early.  The bus from base to Munchen left at 7am, and we were able to make it there with plenty of time.  On the ride there our USO escort passed out an "Oktoberfest Survival Guide".  I laughed at one page that said "Don't Sleep on the Train"...if only I'd had that advice last year at Oktoberfest.  :)  We get there a little early, before our tent reservation was set to start, so walked around and picked up some souvenirs.  We also stopped to see the horse carriages with the decorative beer barrels in them.  They have them every year to show how they used to bring beer to the festivals.

At noon, we met back at the Hippodrom tent, where our reservation was.  It was at this point we realized there was no way we were doing this again next year with the USO.  We had one escort who had to look after & accommodate almost 50 people.  That's tough to do on a regular tour, but next to impossible when you're taking everyone to a beer drinking event.  It was made more difficult by the tent who had a ridiculous method for keeping track of food & drinks.  Every tent we've been to before would give out coupons to everyone.  You get one for your meal, and 2 or 3 for drinks.  This tent instead just had a total Euro amount, and once that amount was reached for all 50 people (not individually), you had to start paying.  So some people ate/drank faster then others and got more then the slower eaters/drinkers.  That, of course, led to huge complaints with our escort, who had no control over that.  The four of us just ended up taking our drinks out of the area and walking around the tent, only coming back when we wanted a refill.  Once we did that, we started having a good time.  We even got a commemorative mug from the tent.

Our reservation ended at 3pm, but we didn't have to be back at the bus until 5pm.  We just ended up finding a biergarten near the entrance and relaxed with a few other people on the trip until it got close to 5.  We got back in to Stuttgart around 9pm, and headed home.  Needless to say it had been a LONG day, so we all crashed pretty early.

Chris & Hillary left the next day, but were back on Friday afternoon.  Shanna had taken a half day that day, and once they arrived, we headed into town.  Now it was early enough that the stores were all open, so Hillary got her Dirndel, changed in the store, and we headed down to Volksfest.  Having done both festivals two years in a row, I definitely enjoy Volksfest more.  It's large (the second largest beer fest in Germany) but not as large as Oktoberfest (the largest beer festival in Germany), it's not as touristy, and feels more authentic.  At Oktoberfest, no one really talked with anyone outside their group, but at Volksfest we were talking, dancing, and having fun with all the tables around us.  We also met up with our German teacher, Sandra, and her husband Jens.  She's a lot of fun, and we hit it off with her fast when we first started taking classes.  We had a lot of fun with them that night too.

Sandra wanted Jens to come out with us, because she said his English isn't very good, but after a few beers he's more willing to speak it.  We found Jens to be like most people in Germany...he said his English wasn't very good, but we had NO trouble speaking with or understanding him.  He told me (and I feel the same way) that normally he's afraid of messing up the way you're supposed to say something in English, but after a few beers, it doesn't bother him.  When I speak German, I always stress about perfect pronunciation & conjugation, but after a few beers, I'm not as concerned.  He was really nice, and it was good to finally meet him.

It was lot of fun that night.  The band played good music, and we got to sing, dance, and talk with Americans, Germans, and even a guy from Italy.

The next morning Shanna made pancakes, eggs, & sausage...it more then hit the spot after a night at the fest.  The original plan had been for Chris & Hillary to head to Heidelberg and stay with friends there on Saturday, then head to Frankfurt Sunday morning & fly home.  Plans with their friends in Heidelberg fell through, so they stayed with us Saturday.  We took them all around downtown Stuttgart, showing them the market area, Town Hall, the weekly antique market, and the farmers market.  We then took them to the suburbs of Stuttgart to our favorite Italian Restaurant.  It was a 5 minute walk from the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived a year & a half ago (WOW time flies).  We took Shanna's parents there when they were here, and they loved it too.  We get there, and I first notice something's different when the waiter who comes out is not someone I've seen there before.  It's a family run business, so it's always the same people there.  Then he brings out a completely different looking menu.  Instead of the huge book with pages & pages of dishes, it's a laminated sheet that looks like something you'd see at a bar.  We order the pizza, and when the guy brings them out, we KNOW something isn't right.  The pizzas looked like cheap bar food.  The guy apologized, saying they just got a new oven, and that's why they were a little burnt.  Thankfully, though, he said the pizzas were on the house.  It was at this point that I glanced behind us where they have the menu on display for everyone to see before they enter the restaurant, and it's a different menu.  That's when we realize while the location is the same, the place we loved was no longer in business.  We apologized to Chris & Hillary because we'd gotten them excited talking about how great the pizza was, and this stuff was awful.  It's too bad.

We paid our bill for the drinks, and headed home.  Chris & Hillary packed, then watched the Arkansas/Texas A&M game with us.  Before they went to bed, they gave us a thank you gift for letting them stay and showing them around.  It was not necessary, but very nice of them.  It was a bottle of Limoncello from Venice, and I thought the bottle was really neat looking.

That mask isn't painted on the bottle, it's an actual mini carnival mask attached to the bottle.  The next morning, bright & early at 6am, Chris & Hillary hit the road to Frankfurt.  Shanna & I went back to bed after saying good bye, then spent all Sunday relaxing watching football.

It's been a fun month, and there's more to come.  This weekend we're heading to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We've heard nothing but good things about it, and can't wait to head there.  I'll have plenty of pictures and a blog post about it ready to go next week!

To see the pictures, click any image above or here.

Lawings Visit

This past week Shanna's parents, Billy & Pattie Lawing, came to visit us. They had said they didn't need to travel all over the place, but Shanna & I wanted to show them around where we live and some of the places we'd been to that were within driving distance. A few days prior to their arrival Shanna had to travel about an hour north of us to Heidelberg for a training class. There was nothing going on around Stuttgart, so the dogs & I went with her. It was fun taking the dogs out on the town and exploring the old town area. Our hotel was literally right in front of the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge), so it was a pretty view.  The picture below was taken from our hotel window.

The day before their arrival I took the car & the dogs home while Shanna got a train ticket to get home the next day.  Thursday morning I was at Stuttgart Airport at 9am to pick them up.  Once they came through customs we headed to the car & back home.

If any of you have made an international trip you know how dirty & grimy you feel once you land, so the first thing they did was take showers.  Once they were all cleaned up I took them to downtown Stuttgart.  I showed them all the same places that I had shown Kimber & Josh a month ago, including the Koenigstrasse, Schlossplatz, and there happened to be a fresh produce market that morning, so I took them through that.  For lunch I took them to our go-to, Zum Paulaner.  I wasn't sure what types of food they liked, but thankfully they were both big fans of German food.  The loved the food we had all week.  After lunch the jet lag was starting to catch up with them, so we headed home.  They took naps that afternoon, and around 5:30 Shanna called to let me know her train had arrived, so I went to get her.  This isn't related to their visit at all, but Shanna had a "small world" encounter on the train ride home.  She was sitting there on the train when a few kids that were college age walked on.  She heard them talk, and heard their American accent, so when they couldn't find a seat, she invited them to sit by her.  They started talking and Shanna noticed one of them had a University of Maastricht shirt on.  She asked if they went to Teikyo University in Maastricht, NL, and it turns out they did.  They were doing a study abroad program, and went to Baylor University in Texas.  The study abroad program they were doing was the same one Shanna did in college.  They were talking about the places they liked to go, and it was all the same places Shanna & her friends went.  She had a blast talking with them the whole trip home.  Who would have thought, 8 years after she left the school, she'd be on a train to Stuttgart talking with current students doing the same program she did. Once we got back home, Shanna threw in Manicotti that she had made earlier in the week & frozen, and we had dinner.  At this point her parents were exhausted, and called it a night.

The next day, Friday, we headed to Tübingen first to show them around that town.  This was mostly a shopping trip, so Billy & I spent most of the time outside the stores chatting while Shanna & her Mom looked around the various stores.  Eventually it started to rain, so we took them to the Neckar Müller brewery for lunch.  We'd been there last year with Jenny & Chris for dinner & drinks, and really liked their food & beer.  Their outdoor area was covered and right next to the Neckar River, so we ate outside for lunch.

After lunch the rain had subsided, so while Shanna & her Mom went into more stores, I introduced Billy to the lack of open container laws in Germany.  We grabbed a few beers and sipped on them as we walked from store to store.  After they were done, we headed up (with Shanna driving, of course) to Schloss Lichtenstein.  We took them through the same tour that Kimber & Josh went through.

After the tour, we headed back home.  That night we took them to our favorite Italian place, located near the hotel we stayed in when we first moved here.

On Saturday we had plans to head to Heidelberg.  That night they had a big fireworks show planned.  They do it three times a year to commemorate when the French tried to over take the city, eventually destroying the castle.  They light the castle up in all red light to symbolize it burning, then shoot fireworks off to commemorate the battle.  We relaxed around the house that morning, then that afternoon headed to downtown Stuttgart for the Wine fest.  Our friends Kate & Charles had reached the end of their tour, and were heading back home to DC.  We had wanted to see them one last time before they moved back.  We got down there, found them and ordered a bottle of wine.  Shanna's Mom enjoyed meeting the people she'd been reading about for the past year & a half.

We stayed down there for a bit, said our goodbyes to Kate, Charles, and of course, their dog Pixel.  We hit the road and started the drive up to Heidelberg.  We got there, parked, and were hungry at that point.  Shanna & I had been to this place in the old town area that had amazing pan dishes.  They literally brought the food out in the pan it was cooked in, and it's some of the most amazing food I've ever had.  They serve beer there from a local brewery in Heidelberg that's fantastic...if we lived in Heidelberg, this place would definitely have us as regulars.  After dinner Shanna & her Mom wanted to walk down the main street part of Old Town, so Billy and I bought a six pack of beer, grabbed the blanket, and headed to the bridge to cross over and find ourselves a spot to watch the fireworks.  When we got to the bridge, it was closed off because of the fireworks show.  We couldn't figure out why, but we were stuck on this side of the river.  We made do and found a place near by that had a decent view of the castle and laid out the blanket.  A short while later Shanna & her Mom found us.  When the fireworks started, we found out why the bridge had been closed.  They were shooting the fireworks off FROM the bridge.  So, without realizing it, we'd gotten a great spot right in front of the fireworks.

I like the shot above because it shows the old bridge with the fireworks going off, the reflection in the Neckar River and the German flag flying in front of it.  Yes, that's the same Neckar River that also runs through Tübingen.  The show was beyond amazing.  I've come to the conclusion that the Chinese may have invented fireworks, but the Germans have perfected it.  I thought I'd outgrown being impressed with fireworks, but after this display and the display we saw this past New Years, I can definitely say I was wrong.  We were so close to these fireworks that we could feel the debris falling on us from time to time.  One of the neat things they did was shoot these things in the water, then it got dark & quiet for a minute, and suddenly the water exploded.  The firework explosions you'd normally see in the sky were exploding on the surface of the river.  I wish I had known it was coming, but it was over before I could even pull my camera out to take a picture or video.  I did get some video, though, and it's on the pictures page that will be linked to at the bottom of this post.  The show lasted about 30-45 minutes, and when it was done we headed to the car and drove home.

The next day, Sunday, jet lag was really wearing on them and we had been up until about 1am the previous night, so we decided to make that just a day of rest.  Shanna took her Mom to the Exchange on base do some shopping, and then the Commissary to get food for dinner.  Billy and I stayed home and alternated between napping and watching College Football from the day before.  When they got home we grilled out and cooked a huge meal.  It was a nice change of pace from the go go go we'd been doing with sight seeing.

Monday we had planned on taking them to a nearby town of Baden-Baden.  It's a ritzy town famous for their bath houses and spas.  Shanna had the great idea of taking the scenic route.  She remembered the drive I'd done a few months back through the Scharzwald (Black Forest) and wanted to take her parents through it.  We drove to Freundenstadt, where the Scharzwaldhochstrasse starts and runs through the Black Forest, up into the mountains, and ends in Baden-Baden.  It's a beautiful drive, and one I could make every day and never get tired of it.  Her parents absolutely loved driving through the country side and seeing the valleys & mountains through the Black Forest.  Along the way you pass various resorts and ski lodges.  There was a big hotel with gift shops outside that Shanna said we should stop at as we passed.  I pulled over into the parking lot & we got out.  The first thing we saw was a big stone with various mermaids carved in it and the word Mummelsee.  "See" means lake, but I didn't see any lake there.  We walked over to the hotel, around the corner, and immediately saw the lake.  I had driven by this hotel back in May and had no idea a huge lake sat back there.

I picked up a neat Stein at the gift shop with a picture of the Mummelsee and it has "Schwarzwald" written on it.  Some of them said "Black Forest", but I wanted one with the German word on it instead.  There was a deli, butcher, and bakery right there at the hotel, so we got some pretzels, cured bratwurst, and smoked cheese and had a "snack lunch" there.  It was DELICIOUS...the cheese & sausage was the perfect mix with the pretzel.

After lunch we continued on and eventually got to Baden-Baden.  The temperature difference was drastic...in the mountains it was 55 degrees.  When we got to the bottom in the town, it was 70 degrees.  We found a place to park then headed to the tourist information center.  This place looked more like an old Roman government building then a tourist information center.

Once we had the information we needed, we walked around the old town area and headed to the Roman Bath house ruins.  They had built a brand new bath house on top of where the ruins used to be, but had built it above the ruins.  They built a museum around the ruins, then the new bath house sits on top of the museum.  When we got to it they had strange hours.  They were open from 11-2 and 3-4.  We got to the museum at 2:30.  You could look in the window & see the ruins, though.  At that point, Billy & I found a Czech pub to sit at and enjoy some Budweiser (the original one from Budvar, not Anheiser-Busch) and Billy was an instant fan.  He has always been a Miller Lite guy, but he really enjoyed this Czech beer.  When 3pm came, I decided to just sit at the pub and keep chatting with Billy while Shanna & Pattie headed to the ruins.  They came back about 15 minutes later.  Apparently what we saw from the window was all there really was.  We stayed for a little bit longer, then called it a day & headed home.  

We had checked the weather forecast  right before her parents came and saw that Tuesday was supposed to be beautiful.  We saved that day for the trip down to Lake Konstanz.  The lake is a huge glacier lake, and surrounded by Switzerland, Austria, and Germany.  You can even see the Swiss Alps from the lake.  It took about 2 hours to get down there, and we arrived in the town of Konstanz.  We got in line for the ferry, drove the car on, and took a ten minute ride across the lake to Meersburg.  Once we got in Meersburg, there was NO where to park.  We drove around what appeared to be the only parking lot around for 10 minutes before we decided to try & find somewhere else.  We saw signs to parking, and followed it, but it was definitely a hike.  We parked, and got lucky, finding a bus stop right next to parking that took us directly to the old town area.  The parking was cheap too...only 4 Euros for the whole day.  We walked around the old town area and eventually found a seafood place to eat at.  Good seafood isn't easy to come by in Stuttgart, so we were excited about eating fresh fish from the lake.  It wasn't bad...not the best I've ever had, but I enjoyed it.  

After lunch we walked around a little more, then headed down to the dock.  Shanna had really wanted to visit the flower island of Meinau (pronounced 'my-now').  We got our tickets, and eventually the ship pulled up.  It was a beautiful day on the water as we headed to the island.

After docking, we headed up to the palace area and the flower gardens.  It was peaceful there...very quiet, with gardens everywhere, a ornately decorated palace, even a chapel.  They had a greenhouse cafe with palm trees growing inside.  They had one tree I thought was fascinating...a Cactus tree.  It looked like a normal tree from a distance, but as you got closer, you could see that the branches & leaves were hard & sharp, just like a cactus.

We walked around for about an hour, then headed down to the dock to get back on the boat which would take us back to the mainland.  When we were riding back, a flock of seagulls followed us for a large part of the way.  We were on the side of the boat, looking back, and there were 20 or so sea gulls chasing the boat. Some would get up almost parallel with us, then have to break off because they couldn't maintain the speed.

Once back on the island we took the bus back to our parking area and figured out that it would be faster to drive home from there then taking the ferry back to the other side.  

On the way home we stopped at the Rittersport Chocolate factory so they could get some chocolate to bring home, then headed back to the house to get the dogs.  For dinner that night we took them to the Dinkelacker brewery that's about 10 minutes from our house at the bottom of our hill.  I had this delicious pork dish served in black beer sauce with skillet fried potatoes.  

The next morning we got up early and took them to the airport.  Like most trips to the Stuttgart Airport, it was empty and they flew through check in and security.  We said our goodbyes and headed home.

It was fun having them out and it was over way too fast.

It's going to be quiet for the next two weeks, then we have some friends from the U.S doing a European vacation and they are stopping twice in Stuttgart, once to ride with us to Münich for Oktoberfest, and again a week later to go to Stuttgart's version, Volksfest.

To see the pictures, click here or any of the pictures above.

Bern, Switzerland

This past Wednesday I went on a USO day trip with my friends Katia & Jenny to Bern, Switzerland.  Shanna couldn't get the time off work, so it was just the three of us.  Shanna & I had been to Switzerland a few weeks prior when our friends Kimber & Josh were in town, and we loved it, so I was excited about seeing a new city.  Bern is the capital of Switzerland and is a few hours south of Zurich, where we'd gone the last time.  The bus left base at 6:30am on the dot.  The USO guide, Renee, was the same person who'd been our guide for the Rhein Fireworks trip a few weeks back for Shanna's birthday, and we'd hit it off then, so it was fun having her along this time as well.

After we crossed the border into Switzerland the bus stopped at a rest stop for a break.  When I walked into the rest stop my mouth dropped.  It was the most amazing rest stop I'd ever seen.  First off, it felt like I was walking into a Trader Joes or Whole Foods.  There was a large bakery area where a baker was rolling dough to be put in the huge wood fire ovens behind him.  There was a giant breakfast buffet spread out with all kinds of fresh meats, cheeses, fruits, yogurt, etc...  In the back of the rest stop was a convenience store for any quick things you might want to buy.   Then there were the bathrooms.  When you walked in you were greeted with sounds of birds chirping, ocean waves breaking, and a light piano being played.  After going to the bathroom, the toilets & urinals flush automatically.  The faucet & soap dispensers were also automatic.  It was finished off with an automatic high powered Dyson hand dryer.  And to top off the whole thing?  Free WiFi through out the entire rest stop.  It wasn't just a break from driving...it was an experience.

After we were done, we hit the road and didn't stop until we arrived in Bern.  Once there, we had about 45 minutes to kill until our tour was supposed to start.  We were on the outskirts of the old town area, near a river, so we decided to walk down to the river area and explore.  After taking pictures of the water, the first thing I noticed was a bear walking around.  It was in an enclosed area, but then I saw a few more.  There were 3 or 4 bears just walking around, playing with tree branches, swimming in the water area that was sectioned off for them, and having a good time.

We walked down the stairs, closer to the river area and closer to the bear habitat area.  The first thing we noticed was how fast the river was moving...it was flying.  On the pictures page I have a video so you can see how fast the water was moving.  We walked along the river side area for a bit and came across a bicycle attached to a rock in the river.  It looked like it had been underwater for awhile and had been been retrieved, then put on display.  On our way back to the tour meeting point we saw about a dozen apples floating in the water, and a bear swimming right for them.  One by one he swallowed them all.  He'd go up to the apple, open his mouth, and in a blink, the apple was gone.  I got lucky and happened to get a picture a second before the apple disappeared.

Back at the meeting point, we met up with our tour guide and began the tour.  The city was founded in the 12th century, and our tour guide showed us the three city edges they had over the years.  Legend has it that they got the name Bern because the Duke who founded the city went on a hunting trip and said that the first animal they killed they'd name the city after, and it happened to be a bear.  As a result, you can see statues and paintings every where of bears, including on the state flag.

Once the tour was over, Renee, Katia, Jenny & myself went looking for a place to eat lunch.  Our choices were limited because most shops & restaurants are only open until 2pm, then they close down until about 5pm when they open back up for dinner.  We found an Italian place, though, and it had DELICIOUS pizza.  I'd heard that Switzerland was expensive, but when we were in Zurich the last time, we never bought anything, we just took the city tour and drove back home.  The prices here were no joke.  Every place whose menu we looked at were all priced about the same.  My small portion pizza was 21 Franks, which is approximately $26.  The half liter glass of beer was $10.

The rest of the day the four of us wandered around the city.  We stopped in various shops to look around and at various cafe's to sample some of the local drinks.  One of my favorites was an amber Maerzen beer brewed at what I later found out was our meeting point that evening to leave Bern.

I was hoping to find a nice beer stein or glass that said Switzerland, but had no luck.  After a lazy afternoon of walking around shops and relaxing in the old town area, it was time to head back to the meeting point.  When we got there, I walked into what appeared to be just a regular restaurant to use the bathroom and found out it was a brewery.  Not just any brewery...they brewed the beer I had enjoyed at one of the cafe's!  They sold growlers and kegs of their beer, and the growlers looked pretty neat.  So not only did I get 2 liters of this great beer, but I got a collectible growler to display with my other beer steins & mugs.

Finally the bus arrived and it was time to head home.  Renee sat in the back and chatted with us, and we made it home in good time, despite running into a lightning & thunderstorm.  It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I got a chance to see it.  I think the next day trip I take, though, will have to be to a cheaper country.

To see the pictures, click here or on any of the pictures above.