Life on the Vine

On Monday January 18, Martin Luther King Holiday in the U.S., Tom and I went on our second daylong tour with the USO.  We traveled about three hours from Stuttgart to Trier, Germany. Trier is Germany's oldest city.  It was founded by Augustus in 16 BC but historians claim the area was inhabited by Celts for 1,300 years before Rome even existed.  Trier was a Roman town called Augusta Treverorum for 400 years.  When Emperor Diocletian (ruled AD 285-305) divided the overextended empire into four sectors - Trier was made the capital of the west (roughly modern-day Germany, France, Spain and England). Trier is smaller now than it was during Roman times but it is still a good sized city with lots of shopping, Germany's oldest Christian church and Germany's best Roman ruins. Our first stop was the Tourist Information center where a tour guide got on our bus and led us on about a two hour driving tour with two stops.  The first was a scenic overlook point and the ...

It's funny the things you find satisfaction in and consider little victories when living in a foreign country.  Who knew that a feeling of such delight could accompany the simple act of getting your car washed?  For U.S. service members here in Stuttgart there isn't an automatic car wash on any of the posts, and there is only ONE car wash bay that can be used during the winter months.  It's one of those do-it-yourself spray down wash stations and I'm told the lines to use it can be quite long.  So that means  option B is to figure out how to use the plethora of car washes around the area, most at gas stations but several stand alone facilities too. When learning how to do things like the locals, there is always the language barrier (which challenges me more than I probably let on in this blog) and then also having to figure out how to maneuver the particular challenge, whether it's getting your car washed, bagging and tagging your produce properly, or any ot...

Our plan for the long holiday weekend was to take two day trips.  On Thursday we went to Triberg in the Black Forest, and today we made our first trip to France, crossing the border into Strasbourg. Triberg is famous for its cuckoo clocks and it is home to Germany's tallest waterfall.  Weather-wise Thursday was not a very good day (pouring rain) so I do not have any pictures to share with you.  Despite the weather Tom and I spent a few hours exploring and did some shopping.  We came home with real, bona fide black forest ham and it is so good.  We got three different kinds.  Tom learned from the butcher that the ham is smoked using pine wood, and you can taste it. YUM! We decided not to go anywhere on New Year's Day because it's a holiday here too and most places were closed.  So we spent the day at the house, watched a few movies, read some and Tom made a really nice dinner.  We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland.  We got a go...

So long 2009 and hello 2010.  Thinking back over this last year and a lot has happened.  I spent the first five months in Iraq, completing a 7 month deployment.  You can read about that at my other blog .  And now I've spent the last 3 months here in Germany.    Ever since I can remember, I have wanted the opportunity to live overseas and more specifically, live in Germany.  When I was 6 years old my dad got orders to Germany (he's retired Air Force) but his orders were changed and we ended up going to Alaska instead.  Now Alaska was a great place to live but I think the 'almost' move to Germany planted a seed in me that never went away.  So now, here I am, more than 20 years later, finally living in Germany.  It's a strange thing getting what you've always wanted or thought you always wanted. And, regarding my public affairs job with U.S. Africa Command ...that too is something I have wanted for a couple years now.  In 200...

A lot has happened in the weeks since I last posted a blog. On December 1st I received our household goods and got moved into our apartment here in Stuttgart.  Everything went smoothly although it did take almost two weeks before I found all the sofa pillows. Tom, who had been traveling for 9 weeks doing consulting work for a family friend, returned to Germany on the 13th.  He got back just in time to hardly see me for a whole week as last week was my busiest week since starting with U.S. Africa Command.  I definitely need to do a blog that covers some of the things I've been doing at work but for now I want to blog about our outing yesterday. The USO here in Stuttgart offers trips.  Last month I signed Tom and me up for our first USO outing, a day trip to Dresden. We caught the bus at 2 a.m. Saturday morning and we were back this morning around 12:30 a.m.  The main attraction was the Christmas market, which has been going on for more than 600 years. ...

Okay, I figured out the problem with my video. It has been at least two years since I last wore ice skates but I can't think of a more fun way to get back on the ice than at an outdoor ice rink here in downtown Stuttgart. The weather was just gorgeous and couldn't beat the ambiance. Doing the video work is Nicole, the wife of one of my co-workers. She is from Wisconsin if you are wondering about the accent.

Months before arriving in Germany I had tons of people, who had lived in Germany once themselves, preparing me for how much the Germans love Christmas.  Every city hosts its own Christmas market, which is a collection of vendors - gifts, clothes, food, etc.  I am quickly learning that the Germans love their festivals.  So, needless to say I was looking forward to my first experience at a German Christmas Market.    I had also been told about this stuff called Glühwein, which they also sell at the Christmas markets.  It is heated red wine, with cloves and cinnamon and usually lemon or orange juice.  The neat thing too about the Glühwein is that each town has its own glass that the wine is served in.  You can either return the glass and get your deposit back or you can keep them as a type of souvenir.  Last night I went to my very first Christmas Market in downtown Stuttgart.  It is definitely worth going at night when all the Christma...