Life on the Vine

It's been almost two weeks since I journeyed to Ludwigsburg Palace for the palace tour and to visit the annual Pumpkin Festival.  It was really nice getting out and seeing something over the long Columbus Day weekend. Apparently this is the world's largest pumpkin exhibit - some 500,000 kürbis, which is the German word for pumpkin.  All different shapes, sizes and colors.  It seems they have a theme for each festival and this year's was fairy tales.  I didn't recognize some of the stories.  Here are a few. The Pied Piper is below.  You can't tell very well but even the mice are pumpkins.  Yes, gray pumpkins! Here is Gulliver's Travels...the part where he is tied down by the Lilliputians. Behind me you'll see three characters...this is Hansel and Gretel and the evil woman trying to lure them into her home. Each exhibit had a storyboard.  Here is the one for Hansel and Gretel.  I can't remember which fairy tale this was but

I'm told that the Germans take any opportunity to celebrate and hold a festival.  Over the long weekend I got to take in two local festivals.  The first one was the Cannstatter Volksfest, an annual two-week festival.  The locals in Stuttgart commonly call it Cannstatter Wasen.  It is supposedly the second largest beer festival in Germany behind Oktoberfest in Munich. A wonderful couple that Tom and I met here at the hotel journeyed down to the festival grounds with me on Saturday, as Tom headed back to the States Saturday morning.  We traveled on the U-bahn, a terrific railway system here in Stuttgart.  People openly drink alcohol on public transportation and the sight and sound of empty beer bottles rolling around the floor of the train car was the ambiance as we neared the fairgrounds. I didn't know what to expect at my first beer festival but it was essentially a giant carnival.  There were lots of rides, including two Ferris wheels, roller coasters, carousels and free f

Week two of in-processing couldn't have gone better.  In-processing included a day and a half of briefings, a tour of several hospitals in the area (familiarizing us with the medical system here), and finished off with driver's orientation and training.  After the class everyone took a written test (100 questions).  The test is a mix of True and False questions, multiple choice and about 20 signs.  In order to pass you can miss no more than 15 questions.  I'm happy to report that I now have my license.  Tom will have to retake it when he returns as he missed 16 questions. Other big news for Tom and me this week is that we have a contract on our house in St. Louis and should close on the sale by the end of the month.  We have also found a very nice place here in Stuttgart that has great access to work, the airport and Stuttgart's great public transportation system.  Since I am now the proud bearer of a U.S. Forces Europe Certificate of License, I thought I'd shar

After a week of in-processing, yesterday (Saturday) was the first full day Tom and I had to venture around Stuttgart.  We decided to try out the bus and train system and go downtown.  There was a market we were particularly interested in finding.  The Markethalle is an indoor market that features goods from 38 international vendors.  We found this historic landmark but unfortunately it and all the other shops downtown were closed due to a national holiday.  So Tom and I just walked around exploring some of the parks and pedestrian streets. After arriving at the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) we started walking and soon came to the Palace Square and the New Palace.  It's known as Palace Square because it was once part of the ducal garden.  Duke Carl Eugen commissioned the building of the New Palace starting in 1746. The Palace Square was redesigned as a public park in the 19th century.  The Jubilee Column that you see in the picture above was designed and erected

Unless you have lived or worked in the Washington D.C. area you most likely are unfamiliar with the commuting phenomenon known as 'slugging.'  I was first introduced to slugging the Summer of 1998 when I was in the D.C. area working as a summer intern for the Air Force Audit Agency.  I was living with my dad and stepmom in Springfield, Va.  We caught our bus to the Pentagon at a stop just up the road from their townhouse.  Several times during that summer a gentleman from the neighborhood would be on his way to work and he would stop and pick us up, giving him enough passengers to ride in the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane.  He'd deposit us at the Pentagon and then continue on to his office.   There is a formal process for those choosing to slug daily.  There are assigned parking lots all over the commuting area where people gather and stand in specific lines, depending on where they are going.  Drivers come up and pick up passengers, whoever is next in line.  It works