My 'hood

Here are some pictures of my immediate neighborhood. As I had said earlier, our apartment is across the street from "the ring" (Kaiser Wilhelm Ring is the name of the surrounding circular road) which started as a moat, and is now a walking path/park surrounding the old part of Amberg. These are pictures of that area. More pictures to come of the old section of Amberg later.

This is one of the fountains in the parks between the street and the moat/walking path. There are flowers everywhere, even though it is in the 50's every day now.

Little old ladies walk and ride their bikes all over the place. Most people carry bags or baskets with them, a lot of the stores will charge extra for bags. This is the path on the outside of the moat closest to the street. The trees are mostly still green, not many reds and oranges yet.

This is the bridge over the moat that I cross to get into the old town- there are sets of stone stairs periodically to get in and out of the moat. Mostly all of the roofs here are made out of that red stucco (but I think ours is actually brown).

This is a picture of the walking path in the moat taken from the bridge in the previous picture. It is about 2 miles around and good for running, very popular with dogs. It is hard to imagine it filled with water and sharks and piranas or whatever they used for protection.

This is a park inside the moat that you walk through to old Amberg. To the left is an open area and a fountain, and to the right is this: 

I think in warmer weather there might be a biergarten, but now it is just a pretty garden that I like to walk through when going to the farmers market or shopping.

And this is the path heading away from the old part of town and back to our apartment.  Sorry the pictures are somewhat dull, it has been overcast most of the week. Thankfully, showers come in the form of black clouds and you can always seem them moving in! 

Welcome!

Hi everyone-

I thought it would be easier to keep my pictures and stories all in one place. This way, I'm not sending emails all over the place, and if you are interested you can keep coming back, if you aren't, then don't!

Things are going well, Cameron and I are moved into our new apartment (pictures to come later, when its organized better!) and we are working on making it our home. Right now, we have army issue furniture, so we are working on buying things that fit our style better, and most importantly match. Its a slow process because we are learning our way around and the stores here aren't open on Sundays.

Amberg is set up so that everything is situated along a ring, and inside that ring is cobblestone streets with shops, beer gardens, and cafes. Our apartment is across the street from the ring, so there are parks and gardens to walk through to get to the center with the shops, cafes, and bars. I think my favorite thing about Germany is their attitude towards dogs. People bring their K-9 friends everywhere with them- bars, restaurants, shopping, hotels. Its great, they are so well behaved I can pet a dog while in a bar. I can't wait to get one, but I also do not want it to impinge on our travels. I guess I will have to wait. 

Speaking of traveling, we have plans to go to London in October, and hopefully Oktoberfest this weekend (I watched the Oktoberfest parade on tv, you wouldn't believe how many people own leiderhosen and can carry 4+ beer steins in one hand. Of course, I have no idea what they were saying about them...). 

Stay tuned for pictures of these trips, as well as pictures of Amberg and the apartment!