We finally got our car!!!

Yesterday we took and passed the German driving test and got our new drivers license.  This allowed us to go pick up our car which has been sitting in the lot since we got here.  Tonight I drove around the surrounding area, through little towns and rural fields.  Its absolutely beautiful.  The following pictures don't do it justice.

Our Car!

There are corn fields everywhere.  This is about 5 min from the bases.

The countryside

If you look close there are doors built into the rock wall.

Little German house.

Some of the streets are very narrow.

Small town near Vilseck.

I was driving through this little town and came across a golf course.  Crazy!

Mural in a small town near Vilseck.

Today we looked at some housing and are realizing that there is a real shortage in the area.  We would love to live in one of these small towns, but are not sure if that will work.  That is our biggest prayer request at this time.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Nuremburg

Today we went to Nuremburg on the train.  I uploaded some pictures to show our trip.  The train ride was about an hour.  

Sign at Vilseck train station

Vilseck train station

View of Vilseck

Views of Nuremburg:

    St. Sebaldus/Lorenz Church, as early as 1225

*it looks like a smaller Notre Dame inside  

Side view of St. Sebaldus Church

    Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirch), 1352

* when we entered this church a service was in progress (catholic)

Fountain in Hauptmarkt

Shanan in old wall of city

Cigarette vending machine ... I kind of wanted

to buy some because of the fact they are from a vending 

machine on the street! 

Heiliggeistspital, 1833

Fat women eating cake

Where is that water coming from?

Virtues Fountain at St. Lorenz Church

St. Lorenz Church

We had a great time, this being our first city to visit.  It was a visual overload seeing all of the churches and buildings.  So much history.  We are still trying to get over the jet lag, its been getting better, but were still pretty tired by the end of the day.  Anyways, hope you'll (South Carolina still coming through) enjoy the pictures.

We Made It!!!!!!!!!

We have finally arrived in Germany!!!  We left Washington on the 18th of August and flew to Baltimore.  There we rented a car (which just happened to have Washington State plates) and drove to our hotel near Washington-Dulles airport (the airport we would leave from).  On the way we stopped for one last meal of Chick-Fil-A which we enjoyed immensely.  Our hotel was nice and we slept well.  The next morning we got up and drove into downtown Washington DC and saw the White House, the Washington and Lincoln memorials.  

The White House 

(If you look close you can see Bush in the window)

Washington Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

We were running short on time so were not able to get out of the car to see more.  We drove back to the airport and checked in with United Airlines.  Our flight was uneventful with the exception of the screaming baby a few rows over!  The flight was long (about 8 hours) and I don't think either of us got any sleep.  We arrived in Frankfort on time about 7am (11pm west coast time).

Our first view of Germany

  We made it through customs with absolutely no problems! After all the money and time that we spent to get BoJangles ready to travel with the physicals and proper paperwork, the customs people did not even ask to see one form.  We made it to the baggage claim and all of our bags made it!!!!  By far this was the easiest international travel I have ever had.  We then found our sponsor, Jay, waiting for us outside of the baggage claim.  He took us to a van for our trip back to Vilseck.  It was about a three and a half hour drive.  The drive was beautiful, we passed alot of little towns and everything is so green.  Vilseck seems to be in a very rural area, very nice after living in So. Cal and Columbia.  We arrived and checked into our hotel, the Krystal Inn and than went to have our first meal in Germany: Subway.  It was right across the street and the easiest thing at the time.  At this point we had been up over 24 hours and were past the point of tired.  We went back to our hotel room and crashed at about 2pm local time.  We ended up sleeping until about 11pm when we woke wide awake.  We were up for about an hour before we went back to bed until about 6 this morning.  We got up and had a nice continental breakfast at the hotel and have spent the day getting unpacked and buying food.  The base is on holiday for the next two days so I am unable to start in-processing.  We found out that our car is here, but it looks like we will not be able to pick it up until after we take the Germany drivers test.  This may not be until next Thursday.  We also found out that housing is really backed up and it may take up to a couple of months to get into housing.  At this point we want to try to find a place in private rentals off post.  

Shanan and BoJangles are very tired!

It is so nice to finally be here.  We are still in a daze and I don't think that it has completely hit us.  It will be nice to have a couple of days to get adjusted and catch up on some of our sleep.  Thanks for all your prayers during our time of transition.  We will try to keep this blog updated as our adventures continue.