Where is Ausfahrt?

Anyone who has ever lived or been to Germany is probably chuckling right now. The autobahns in Germany are lined with this sign everywhere you look. Ausfahrt is not a town but indeed the word for exit. None the less it still makes for a pretty funny t-shirt that they try to push at the PX.

This weekend was a four day for Paul so we took full advantage of it. Friday the kids had school so Paul and I headed out early in the morning to Wurzburg Germany which has a giant PX. This gave us the opportunity to get some much needed items for the house since our PX is nothing but a glorified 7-11 shop.

Saturday was the big road trip for the weekend. We traveled to Kasierslautern Germany also known as K-town for short. K-town is where Ramstien Air Base and Landstuhl Army Medical Center are at. Again we had to hit the biggest PX I have ever seen in my life. I now understand why they call K-town "Little America" because it has all the luxuries of home but with an German flavor. It also caused me to wonder why it is all my girlfriends that are stationed there complain they can never find what they need. I swear I have never seen a place like it. The base comes complete with a Chili's Restaurant and a mini-casino downstairs full of slot machines.


Sunday was another road trip day this time to Hohenfels Army Base. The drive was absolutely beautiful there. One of my favorite things about Germany is the fact you can be driving down a back road and suddenly see a castle overlooking a town below. We were lucky enough to pass through two towns on Sunday where this happened. The first town we stumbled through was Burglenfield, Germany. I couldn't find any information on this castle on the Internet to share with everyone but it still was an amazing sight...



A church in Burglenfield....


We passed through the town of Kastel on the way back and was lucky enough to see this beauty....

If you look closely enough you can the walls of the old city...





Monday was a pretty quiet day. The weather was horrible so we stayed close to home only traveling to a few shops here in town looking for various items.




All in all we had a great weekend and saw some great sights. We also are finally settling into life here in Germany. The kids are in school and have made a whole new batch of friends. I also started back to college this week and passed my driver's license test for Europe. Paul is gearing up for a busy month at work so it looks like things are finally falling into place.

Auf Wiedersehen till next time.

Three Weeks down 156 weeks to go...

Today marks three weeks that the kids and I have been here in Germany. So far it has been an experience to say the least. There was the mailman incident where he could not understand me and I most DEFINITELY could not understand him. Finger pointing and super basic German has gotten me by. I know a few phrases now the biggest one being "Do you speak English".

Even day to day life has been interesting from how to work the front door, to trying to explain to the kids that their TV is not broken the plugs are just different here and they are better off letting me or Paul handle plugging things in. Tv has been an experience too. AFN is decent with their 8 channels but its the commericals that will really get you. I suspect i will be a history genius by the time I get home after 3 years of watching "Little Known Facts of American History".

We are slowly adjusting. The kids FINALLY start back to school tomorrow. So far Sydney has spent the entire morning upstairs trying to figure out what to wear tomorrow morning. Could this be a preview of what is to come in a few years?

With the kids going back to school tomorrow marks the first day I can finally finish unpacking the house and getting it set up without the constant interruption of Syd and Zac fighting.

We didn't go anywhere this past weekend so I don't have anything new to post. This coming weekend we are planning a trip to Kaiserslauten also known as K-town and Little America. This is where Landstuhl Army Hospital is at as well as Ramstein Air base. Hence the name little America because it is over run with Americans. I will be sure to post pics from our trip there :)

However this past week was not a total waste...Zac lost his first tooth!!!

Amberg

Last weekend we ventured out to do some exploring. Paul is trying to expose me and the kiddos to small doses since we are on cultural overload. We wandered down to Vilseck which is a town not far from one of the bases around here and we also drove to the city of Amberg.

Amberg is a beautiful city but then again I don't have anything else to compare it to yet. We didn't get to see all of the sights but we did get to experience the Marketplatz. Saturdays are the day to go to the Maretplatz because they sell anything and everything. In Amberg the marketplatz is in the old city. The original wall still stands around the old city. We had the chance to see the inside of St. Martin's as well as another church within the old city's walls.

It was cold cold cold that day!!! Thank God there was Gluehwien. For those of you not familiar with Gluehwien it is a red wine served warm. I myself HATE wine so I was very hesitate about trying it but given I was freezing my butt off at the time it sounded like a great idea!! It actually was good. It did leave the horrible aftertaste that I so hate about wine. To go with our Gluehwien we of course had to have some good ole Bratwurst. Now that was very good. Zac and Syd have now found their favorite food.

All in all it was a great day. Here are a few pictures from Vilseck and Amberg.

St. Martin's Church....


Inside of St. Martin's



Entrance to the MarketPlatz


The outerwall of the old city....



Zac's first Bratwurst....

Welcome to Our Blog From Germany :)

Paul and I decided that the easiest way to keep everyone informed and to post pictures of our adventures without filling up everyone's mailbox was to start a Blog.

There are so many friends and family to keep in touch with that this just was the easiest thing to do to ensure no one was left out.

To kick off the blog I have posted a slide show or our new home. I took these pictures Christmas Morning. Please excuse the mess in the house as we are STILL unpacking and trying to get settled.

I did not post pictures of our basement because that by far were the scariest rooms in the house...lol They still are. Our furniture that came broke is down there so we are at a stalemate until we can get someone from the base out to look at it so we can file out claim.

So to kick things off here is a little background on our living arrangements in Germany...


To give everyone a little background on our house we do NOT live on post. We live in what is called Govt Leased Housing. This is where the govt goes out and leases various properties from the local Germans. The govt covers the cost of rent, utilities and trash in return we no longer receive out monthly housing allowance in Paul's pay.

In our housing area we have a few other American Families but are mainly surrounded by German families. Most who do not speak a lick of English. We have a bakery down the street as well a grocery store and hardware store. There are bike paths everywhere and we are not far at all from plenty of things to do. All in all I have to say we lucked out with our living arrangements.

I LOVE our house!!! It is roughly two years old. My only issue is how new it is. I am about to give myself and ulcer over the kids tearing this place up. For those of you familiar at all with Army Quarters we really hit the jackpot with this place. Typically Army Housing is worse off then the projects you find in the inner city. So when Paul was offered Govt leased housing in lieu of on-post housing it was a no brainer!! It also is a lot larger than what we would have been offered on post.

It is four floors starting with a full basement and laundry room. The laundry room is what sealed the deal because on post we would have had to go to a laundry mat. Next floor up is our living room, dining room and kitchen. We also have a half bathroom on this floor. Next floor up is Zac's room, our room and the main bathroom of the house. Our bedroom has a full bath as well. The fourth and final floor is all Sydney's bedroom also with a full bath. We have a garage as well as fenced in backyard NONE of which we would have had if we live don post.

Here are a few pics of our new house....(again excuse the mess)

I hope everyone had a Happy Holiday season and be sure to bookmark this page. I am hoping to have pics of our Christmas and our trip to the city of Amberg up by the end of the day :)