Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Thanksgiving in France

This year for Thanksgiving 11 of us drove to France where we had rented Chateau Canaples for the long weekend. Wednesday night we drove to Ramstein (major air force base) and lived the life of American luxury. Ramstein is like a mini America- in fact, the town it is located in has the largest population of Americans living outside of America. Needless to say, it was amazing to have street lights, American style hotel, and the largest PX (kinda like a Target) I've been to. Oh yeah, and the PX was open on Thursday so we got to shop around and marvel in the American-ness.... and eat at Cinnabon....
After leaving Ramstein, we stopped in Reims, France for a look around at the Cathedral there and for some lunch. Fun fact- champagne is not actually champagne unless it is made from grapes in the Champagne region of France (I'm guessing $4 Andre isn't really champagne). Unfortunately it was raining and didn't get any good pictures.
After leaving Reims we finished the road trip to a sleep French town called Canaples and pulled up to our cottage.
Actually we couldn't really "pull up" as it was gated and had to be buzzed in. This is the back of the house and the "grounds" which included a hen house and barn area (deserted, but authentic to the chateau) and these lovely statues of deer.
This is the buck standing guard, and the doe on the other side. I think the doe was once a buck but her antlers have fallen off at some point. The boys used this backyard area to have a game of not-so-touch football on Thanksgiving, while the ladies of the house cooked and sat by the fireplaces.
This is a side view, our room was at the very top right. The windows on the ground level are a garden room that would have been very nice if it were warmer! There was also a large dining room, office, living area, billiards room, kitchen, and HUGE foyer on the ground level, five bedrooms on the second, and four bedrooms and a large playroom on the third level. The basement had a laundry room, bathroom, table tennis room, and storage rooms.
After having Thanksgiving a day late, we went to Amiens, a nearby city with an amazing Cathedral. It is sometimes called Little Venice because it has a canal system running though the city with cottages perched on the banks. Sunday we packed up and made the trek back to Amberg- stopping at Ramstein for a little bit more Americana-eating at Macaroni Grill.
And of course, our friend's son Cian- I'm perfecting my Auntie duties on this little guy!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Craft Corner

Just call me Martha (without the jail time).
I've been looking for things for our front door, but most of the German decorations just don't appeal to me. So I decided that I should make a wreath out of ball ornaments. I've seen these around in stores, but being unemployed, it seemed like a good idea to use my time to make one (only cost 15 Euro to make, including glue gun and glue sticks).
I purchased a straw wreath form (online sources used styrafoam, but we've got a lot of hay here) and wrapped it in a pretty ribbon. Then I gathered different size and color balls into groups of 3 and tied together with florist wire, then glued the wire to the wreath, filling in open spots with the sparkly ornaments. I used shatter-proof ornaments, whereas Martha probably used glass ones, but I read that the glue may shrink when it gets cold, causing the balls to fall off and shatter if you hang it outside (and I'm clumsy).
The pictures are a little shabby because a) its dark and b) its too early to take down our fall wreath!

Flat Stanley Does London

London may now be at the top of my favorite cities. Cameron and I had both been before, so on this trip we were able to skip a few of the tourist attractions and do some things off the beaten path. Friday we took a bike tour (we got free t shirts for doing one in each city Fat Tire operates!) and got a refresher overview of the layout of the city. We quickly realized that London has a lot of traditional quirks. One being their "guards"...
These men are the Royal Horse Guards. They are a group of prestigious cavalry Soldiers whose duty, it appears, is to appear in parades/ royal events, and occasionally trot around the city streets in ridiculous hats.
Introducing... Flat Stanley! (or Stanrietta as we decided her long, luscious red hair makes her a she) My cousin Alex's class mailed these cutouts to friends and family to see where they could take Stan/Stanrietta on vacation. Stanrietta visited Buckingham Palace and several other London landmarks while we looked silly taking photos of a paper doll.
Me, mid-bike tour with a view of the London Eye over my shoulder.
This is another example of London's traditional quirks- the walk request signal for pedestrians... and the walk request signal for equestrians. I've never seen so much horse poop in the middle of a metropolitan city before.
Cameron was feeling regal after spending some time on the look- out for the Queen, so we treated ourselves to a delicious traditional tea and quiet reading time with his pet sheep. Our ritzy hotel had this sheep in our room, and we never figured out what was the point/ story behind it. The housekeepers even repositioned him when they cleaned the room, so it was like he moved... a nice little pet to make it feel like home...
It just so happened that we were in London on their "Remembrance Day", like our Veteran's Day. As you may have seen on CNN or BBC, there was a very long parade of veterans and soldiers, and then each member of the royal family laid a wreath of poppies at a monument. We happened to be walking down a street near Buckingham Palace, wondering why the roads were blocked and people waiting, when brown Bentleys with police escorts began driving past (the Queen always rides in a brown Bentley apparently). So, we waited and watched as various members of the royal family drove past us.. hard to say who it is in the picture above... I like to think it was the Princes.
If you really zoom in on the picture below, and get some good clarifying software, you will see that its THE QUEEN! This was when she was on her way to the wreath laying while we were standing at a different location. She really does wave to her public like Miss America (more likely Miss America really does wave like her). It was an exciting day for me, I never expected to see the Queen and her family on our trip!
Another picture of a Royal Horse Guard... not really sure what he's carrying to protect the building with under that robe! The sign says "Caution- Horses will bite". Maybe thats his secret weapon?
Stanrietta and Big Ben
And I leave you with a final picture of London's deep seeded traditionalism- this is a band that just marched along the road while we were waiting for the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace... in the road, playing their music for no apparent reason, while holding up traffic. You gotta love their determination.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Neuschwanstein

When Katy came to visit we took an overnight trip down to Fussen to see Neuschwanstein, then spent her last night/day in Germany seeing Munich. Quick recap from earlier posts- Neuschwanstein is the castle built by the crazy King Ludwig and is supposedly the basis for Walt Disney's Cinderella castle.
So this picture isn't from Neuschwanstein, but I liked how the Munich Glockenspiel (town hall clock with figurines that dance around at certain times) looked in the chilly weather with the red flowers.
As we drove south it started snowing flurries, and then even farther south the snow had been collecting on the ground in places, especially the mountains. It was such a surprise to see all the snow since it hadn't snowed in Amberg yet, and it was only early October! The cloudy mountains and the green fields made a beautiful contrast as we drove the back roads.
This is the view out of one of the castle windows- so cool to be up in the snow and look across a green valley to more snow!
This is one of the towers of Neuschwanstein- the part that I think looks the most like Cinderella's castle.
And here are me and Katy, all bundled up and not really prepared for the snow!! I had a great visit with Katy, and I hope she had fun too!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Amberg in the Fall

Here are some new pictures of Amberg in the fall I took while showing Katy around. Since then, the weather has turned frigid, it has snowed for two days, and the sun hasn't come out for more than 30 minutes at a time. I think it is officially winter here, and I'm not too excited about that!
The flowers are somehow still going strong despite the chilly weather and frost...
This picture shows how cloudy it usually is here, with the church on the hill in the background. A lot of the stores have their Christmas decorations out... I guess I should get my Halloween decorations ready!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Autumnal Fest

Today some friends and I went to Nuremberg for the Autumnal Fest, which I suppose is to celebrate the beginning of Autumn. The Germans don't really need reasons for festivals, there is always one going on somewhere. This one was being held in the marktplatz (market place) where the Christkindlemarkt is held in the winter. There were vendors selling everything from lamb's wool booties and rugs to what I think were dentist tools, handmade wooden toys to kitchen supplies (dishes, pots & pans, cookie cutters, you name it). And of course, fest food! I got some chocolate covered strawberries, and there were the staples of German food- pretzels and bratwurst sandwiches.
This is my friend Cian, little boy with a biiiig pretzel!
These fruit and vegetable vendors aren't exclusive to the festivals, there are two every morning in Amberg's marktplatz. They have some stuff that I don't know what it is, so I stick to the basics when I shop at them. You know its fresh because the lettuce is always super dirty!
This is just a pretty building on the river in Nuremberg...
This is the bridge from the other direction. The striped awnings are all vendors selling fruits, veggies, flowers, spices, etc.
This is the main marktplatz where the Autumnal Fest is, you may recognize it from my post about the Christkindlemarkt. I'd guess it is about 5 or 6 rows of 10 vendors.
There is also a fest going on in Amberg this week, but it's more of a carnival with lots of rides, beer tents, and more food. We went Friday evening to watch some fireworks and eat the food-yum! The rides are obviously American made, with American flags, the Statue of Liberty, and cars painted like American Jeeps, police cars, and ambulances. Needless to say, I stay away from the rides; I can't imagine that beer tents and carnival rides mix well.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Canyoning

While in Switzerland this past weekend, one of the activities that Cameron and I did was canyoning in a glacier. It was a couple hours of wandering through canyons dug out by years of glacial streams. We rappelled into the canyon from a mountain road and climbed, hiked, swam, and jumped our way down to the end of the gorge.
Cam had a blast rappelling, but he had done it before. It's a long way down!
I, on the other hand, was not so enthusiastic- it was the scariest thing I've ever done. The photographer and guide kept telling me to jump and let go of the harness to wave to the camera. A 30 second one-handed wave was all I could manage!
The best part was where the water had smoothed the rocks and created natural slides, although on most of the slides, the rock dropped off and became a free fall.
On this jump you could choose if you wanted to jump from a higher rock or lower. I obviously chose the lower, and Cameron obviously chose the higher. In this picture you can see Cameron jumping, and me below getting a pep talk from the guide (something along the lines of me being a scaredy-cat...) while gripping the rope.
...us at the bottom of one of the jumps
On the route they had two zip lines set up- one went down and was stopped by a guide, the other went halfway down and you had to let go of the rope holding your harness and fall into the water. This photo was taken as I was gathering up the courage to let go of the rope... below is after I finally did it.
Yes, I am holding my nose. Glacier water up the nose from a 50 ft. height is not pleasant. We wore long wetsuits with shorty long sleeve wetsuits on top and socks and booties, so the water didn't seem much colder than Birch Point.
We made it out alive!! AND I got to have delicious chocolate fondue for dessert as a reward for my bravery :)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Berlin, take two

If you remember, last time we went to Berlin it was freezing cold, and that put a damper on all the sightseeing and fun the city has to offer. We decided to give it a second chance and went to check it out last weekend. The weather was a million times better, but Berlin still ranks pretty low on my list.
We did a bike tour of the city- my favorite way to see the sights. Its a great way to get an overview of the city without getting tired, bored, grumpy, etc. The picture above is of a building near Checkpoint Charlie (the gate between East and West Germany). The window in the building was bricked up during the cold war because East Germans would try to escape by jumping out of windows or off of buildings near the border onto West German soil. Residents were relocated to apartments farther from the border to further prevent escaping. One family created a home made zip line to go from a window across the border, and successfully escaped.
This photo is of a long piece of the Berlin Wall that was not torn down. A fence was constructed AFTER the borders were opened, to prevent people from chipping pieces off and damaging the structure. To the right of the sidewalk you can see a line of bricks- that was where the other wall stood. There was not just one Berlin Wall, in many places there were two, with a no man's land in between.
This is the last standing sniper tower out of several around the wall. The tour guide said that typically young soldiers would be assigned to the towers- in theory they would have less connection with outsiders and be less hesitant to shoot escapees and their helpers.
Going back a bit further in history, this parking lot/ apartment complex is standing on top of where Hitler's bunker complex is/was. The bunker was completely sealed and covered shortly after WW2 to prevent it from becoming a shrine for extremists. The apartment buildings were built so that the West Berliners would have a good vantage point to see how nice they were, and be lured back to the East. I don't think it worked.
Lastly, we went to the Berlin Zoo on Sunday. This seal was posing for us... we also saw the famous polar bear Knut and a lot of other cool animals. The polar bears were very sleepy though, I think it is far too hot for them here.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Giddy Up Cavalry!

Giddy Up Cavalry!!
As Cameron's regiment is historically a cavalry unit, the soldiers have a tradition in which they go on a "Spur Ride" to "earn their spurs", which are then worn over their boots on certain days and at events. In typical Army fashion they dumb it down to get families involved at the "Spouse's Spur Ride". This Spur Ride was a test of physical and mental endurance in which the spouses proved they were worthy of being spur-holders through a series of grueling, near impossible tasks (just kidding, everyone who showed up got their spurs).
Here I am after completing the first task- camouflage. We had to paint our faces in the same technique the soldiers are instructed, with only one mirror between 8 of us on our team. Some got more carried away than others- I didn't do my neck or ears, knowing if I did I would be walking around Berlin with camo paint in crevices all weekend (more on that in later post).
The other events were a jog in a chemical suit/mask (NOT comfortable, very sweaty), a physical fitness test, medical litter carry/triage, and a low crawl obstacle course/grenade throw. The low crawl was the worst, I took the push ups as punishment because they were easier than crawling and getting grass stained. After the low crawl we had to cover each other to move our positions forward, which is what I am doing in this picture- running between sand bag "cover".
Don't worry, the gun is fake.
This after I got a "go" on grenade tossing (also fake) and successfully completed all the physical tasks and sweat off most of my camo paint.
The final task was going before the "Spur Board"- we were asked questions pertaining to the Regiment and Squadron. After answering all correctly we completed the arduous Spur Ride.
Our team earned the most points and won the Golden Spur, which will be displayed in the Squadron headquarters with a plaque with all of our names. Wohoo, I will be a part of SQDN history! As Cameron said, "well, at least one of us has made it into the display case". My certificate is hanging in a place of honor next to Cameron's Ranger School diploma.