Landstuhl and Pumpkin Fest

Last weekend was the last weekend we had together before Nathan leaves for the field. On Saturday we went for a bike ride around town in the morning and then went to Ramstein for the afternoon. We did some shopping trying to gather items that Nathan needed for the field. And then for dinner we went to this wonderful hotel in Landstuhl (the town just adjacent to Ramstein, also where the US hospital is) for dinner. The hotel is tucked up on the hillside completely enclosed by trees. You cannot see the hotel from any part of town, a bit tricky to find, but totally worth. When we bought our car the dealer gave us a dinner coupon to the hotel which is how we ended up there in the first place. We had a wonderful meal of steak and lamb, wine, dessert, and coffee all thanks to the dealership.
On Sunday we went about 20 minutes past Landstuhl to the pumpkin fest. There were lots of vendors selling homemade crafts, jewelry, jellies, produce, etc. We had some awesome little cookie/pastry things from one of the vendors. Of course as in German tradition lots of food, beer, and wine was available. Tons of pumpkins from little tiny pumpkins to pumpkins bigger than me (I have a picture of this that I will post when I can post pics). And what pumpkin festival would be complete without a corn maze. I loved the little tiny town that the fest was in, it had beautiful gardens everywhere and the friendliest people I think I have met yet in Germany.

Whoever decided on these uniforms...

I am not sure if I have said this on the blog, but I know I have said this out loud before, whoever made the executive decision as to how many uniforms the Army wheres and what the uniforms consisted of definitely did not do his own laundry. And for that matter did not consult his wife. And I know it was a man because no woman would have made such poor decisions. Anyways, here is how I come to my conclusion. Starting with PT (physical training) in the morning Nathan wears at the minimum a pair of white socks, his running shorts and a short sleeve t-shirt. But being Baumholder and the not so great weather here most mornings you can add his running pants over the shorts, a long sleeve t-shirt over the short sleeve one and then his running jacket, and sometimes a hat and gloves. Mind you these are not every day clothes that anyone can buy, they are Army specific. So then after PT Nathan comes home quick to shower and change, next outfit his is ACUs. Another pair of socks (olive green knee highs), a light olive green (not the best description of the color but the best one I could come up with) under shirt, pants, jacket, and beret. And then if the weather is crappy his fleece or gortex jacket. I know that except for the undershirt which has to be the wonderful Army light olive green color and socks that not everything has to be washed everyday, but they still have to be washed occasionally. Then when he gets home from work another pair of socks, a white undershirt, a pair of jeans or shorts, a shirt, and most of the time a sweatshirt or fleece. I have for the most part convinced Nathan that he only wears his after work clothes for a few hours so he can wear them for two days, cuts back a little bit on the laundry. So as you can see I have a huge load of laundry without even adding my laundry or towels or sheets, etc. But then you get into how to wash everything. Dress blues (thankfully are only worn once every couple of months) can only be dry cleaned. ACUs you can only wash turned inside out and zipped up to save the velcro, with a special soap and then hang dried. Then when everything is clean you have to put all of the name tags and awards back on everything. As I said at the beginning whoever decided on all of this did not do his own laundry nor did he talk with his wife beforehand.

Dog school progress or not...

I am waiting for a meeting so I do not have a lot of time to blog, maybe I will post again in the next couple of days.
As of a couple of weeks ago we have been taking Ellie to the German dog school to hopefully make her behave better on the leash, around strangers, etc. One thing that we have been working on in dog school is the concept of stay. Ellie has the idea down, but only when you walk a couple meters away from her. Get too far away and she leaves her spot and comes to you. We have also been working on staying when their is food or treats involved. So here is our progress: the other morning I was sitting at the dining room table and Nathan was in the kitchen with Ellie. Keep in mind as I am trying to tell this story that you cannot see into the kitchen from the dining room table. Anyways, it was time to feed Ellie and Nathan was going to to keep trying to work on our dog school lessons. So Nathan filled up her food bowl and had her sit. Next thing I hear is Nathan yelling at the dog "Ellie stay" and the dogs feet running on the hardwood floor underneath her. This went on for a couple of minutes of Nathan yelling "stay" and the dog non-stop running in place. I can only imagine Nathan trying to hold her back with his foot and trying to lean over to set down her food and Ellie trying her best to get at her food. I couldn't help but burst into laughter as I heard his frustration and her just wanting her food.
So try as we may I am not sure we are making the best progress at dog school, none the less we will keep going for now.

Cologne & Bad Durkheim

This past weekend we went to Cologne on Friday and Saturday. The city is full of history, music and culture. We got to see the very impressive cathedral that Cologne is known for, Roman ruins, the ruins from a Jewish bath house, the remains of churches from World War II that have not been touched since, new museums and old ones. We took the dog with us and walked around the city using an audio guided tour that we picked up from the tourist stop, pretty much every town has a tourist information shop area that has maps and information books in many languages and many have an audio tour that you can rent. I highly recommend if touring Europe at all to check out the tourist information stops in any city that you visit. We still do not have internet, so once again I cannot post the pictures yet. I have over 100 pictures to post when we do get internet. We drove up on Friday afternoon, about 2.5 hours from here. We found a little hotel to stay at, we were lucky to find the place that we did, apparently there was a train convention going on in town over the weekend and most hotels did not have any rooms. We walked around the city square a bit and then the park and then had dinner, we did take the dog into the restaurant, most Germans will take their dogs into restaurants, she was so tired that she passed out almost immediately. On Saturday we did the guided walking tour and then had a lunch of traditional dishes of Cologne. The one dish is best descibed as blood sausage, I did not care for it all that much but Nathan liked it, I am still not really sure what the other dish was but it was some kind of meat patte thing. This was the time that the dog had the hardest time as pigeons were literally under the table with her, she really wanted some pigeon for lunch. We had to keep pushing the pigeons away with our shoes. Ellie did bark once in the city square at the birds, pretty much everyone turned to look at us, I was so embarrassed. We then did a little more walking and some shopping before returning Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday we drove about an hour in the other direction up to Bad Durkheim, to the largest wine fest in Germany, possibly the world depending on which site you look at. It was incredible. There were over 50 different tents that could easily hold 500 people each. Each tent is owned by a different vineyard, you can choose from about 4-5 wines at each tent to order. When you order though you get a full glass, about 12 oz (not a typical wine glass), of wine, there is no sampling at the wine fest. On top of all the wine tents there were thousands of other tents selling food, goods, crafts, carnival activities, etc. the place was huge. I bet we didn't even see half of the fest and we walked pretty much all afternoon. We did find the local wine house on our way out and bought some wine.
Nathan had Monday as well as Friday off so Monday we took it easy cleaned around the house, went for a walk and then I made the goulash recipe from my cooking class last week. I also made a German dessert called quark with fruit in it, I cannot really explain what it is, its a creamy substance that is kind of a mix of yogart and cream cheese. Nathan really enjoyed my cooking and cannot wait for me to go to more German cooking classes. Today I made a cake for my birthday, nothing special just a carrot cake but it was what sounded good! My task for the next couple of days to start planning our trips over Nathan's block leave for Christmas.

Spreading our wings a little bit more...

This past weekend Nathan was on-call for the Batallion so we were not allowed to travel far, but that did not keep us from traveling to a nearby town called Idar-Oberstein. It has a beautiful church built into the side of a cliff, two castles, and a gorgeous downtown. The town is also known for its gem mining, we found some really neat stones and jewelry. We had a wonderful lunch, we both tried some local dishes, it was awesome. While we were home for the funeral the post office sent our router for our internet back to the company since we weren't able to pick it up right away, so I have to wait a little bit longer to have internet to post some pics, sorry!
As some of you know, I love to cook. So this morning I took the first as what I know will be many German cooking classes. We made goulash today. I have had frozen goulash from the Schwans man at home, but it is nothing like what we made in class today. Fresh beef, fresh produce, yummy German noodles, and a special sauce, making my mouth water right now thinking about it. I am definitely going to be making this dish again. I do not have the recipe with me right at the moment, but next time I do I will post it on here. During the class we went to the German grocery store, which I have yet to do, but I will now go there, the local economy is very expensive so we will have to watch what all we get there. I also like taking the classes that ACS (Army Community Services) offers because I find that it is a great way to meet others, I am trying to create as much of a support network as I can before Nathan has to leave for the field.
Each day we are here I am getting a little more confident in what I am doing here, yesterday I ordered and purchased my bread by myself from the German bakery. I was very proud of myself. Hopefully in October I can start some of the German language classes and refine my skills a little bit more!

Since we came back...

We got back to Germany last Wednesday and it feels like we have done more since we got back than we did before we left. On Friday we went to Rudeshiem, a wine village on the Rhine river known for its Riesling wines. We were able to take the gondola above the vineyards up to a huge monument, way cool. I have photos that I will post as soon as we get internet at the apartment. After the gondola ride we had lunch then headed to an ancient castle that now also serves as a wine museum, you can climb up to the high tower and down to the dungeon. We had interest in going to the ancient torture museum, but ran out of time. We did make sure to try some wines including the new wine, its from the harvest just coming in. We are told that soon that we will be able to have the holiday wine, a warm, spiced wine.
When we got back the neighbor that took care of Ellie for us told us about dog school here in town, we decided that since he was suggesting it to us that we should go. So on Saturday we went to our first day of dog school. The Germans put us to shame, it was a group class. As soon as we arrived everyone got into a circle and had their dogs lay down. Then they took them off the leash, the owners walked around and into the circle, and dogs remained laying down. Needless to say we were not allowed in the group but rather had a private lesson. We went back yesterday and lets just say it went much better and we were part of the group, not as good as the rest of the group, but part of the group. We have set a new goal for the dog to become as good as the rest of the group.
On Sunday we went to Birkenfeld, a town about 20 minutes away, for their wine fest. It was very small but still fun to try German food and see the different vendors. We met Nathan's new Cpt there and his wife. It is nice to meet other couples that have similar interests to ours, makes us feel not so lonely over here.
On Monday we were supposed to get our express shipment of goods, the people came and only had about 1/3 of our stuff. I was pissed! I couldn't believe that they lost some of our stuff. Needless to say that after lots of phone calls they found our stuff and it was delivered yesterday! So nice to have at least some of our stuff from the States. When we move again though I am thoroughly inspecting what Nathan packs, I don't have much but he has almost everything!
I am almost out of time on the computer here at the library, like I said as soon as we get internet at the apartment, which should be any day, we are just waiting on the Germans to bring us our stuff, I will be able to post tome pictures.

World Class Canine!

We got back today, I have to say I do not have any funny stories about our flight this time:( However, we found out that the neighbor that agreed to take care of Ellie had her in his apartment the whole time, and apparently became quite the traveler while we were gone. She went all over Germany and Luxemborg, she has officially seen more of Europe than we have. Too bad she doesn't have a passport so that we could have the stamp from Luxemborg. I think Nathan is a little jealous of her at the moment. This weekend is a long weekend here, as Labor day is Monday, we are unsure at the moment where all we are going to go this weekend but we are planning on trying to make it somewhere everyday. We will let everyone know where we end up, maybe we can catch up with the dog.