Matt and Shanan

Mediterranean Cruise - June

2009-09-13T21:36:00.008+02:00

Here are the cruise pictures (finally). They are out of order and I am too lazy to fix them so just deal with it for now.

Hope you enjoy!

Santorini, Greece

Kusadasi, Turkey

Amphitheater found in Acts 19
Ancient Library facade in Ephesus, Turkey
Santorini, Greece

Kusadasi, Turkey

Ephesus, Turkey

The last remaining pillar of the Temple of Artemis

Turkey

Formal night on the ship

Dubrovnik, Croatia

First hour on the ship: muster drill

Madrid, Spain

2009-09-08T16:27:00.008+02:00

This is the center of Spain.

Spain is known for its delicious tapas and we ate as much as we could while we were there. At this particular tapas bar you would eat the shrimp and throw the excess on the floor. Pretty funny.

Bull heads on the wall.

Mystery meat - we found out later it was tripe.

On the way back to our hotel after dinner we stumbled across flying toilet paper in the street. A homeless lady had strung toilet paper to the vents in the street. After we had taken a picture she asked for money for her "art"!

Madrid, Spain - Bullfight

2009-09-08T15:32:00.012+02:00

While in Madrid we were lucky enough to see a bullfight. The Las Ventas arena in Madrid is the most famous in Spain and was built in 1929. The fight lasted a few hours and we saw six different bulls.

The six Matadors

Bavarian Fests

2009-09-08T13:59:00.011+02:00

Over the course of our time here we have gone to many fests so I thought I would just post some pictures of the more recent ones we have been to.

-Erlangen Fest-

It started pouring rain and these people continued to sit at their table

under a plastic bag.

-American Bavarian Fest-

The guys made a German friend (Chuck) during the fest and

he was a great addition to our table of friends.

During one of the songs everyone puts their benches on top

of the tables and sits on them while singing. It was crazy to watch (we did not participate!)

Germany in the Summer

2009-09-08T13:41:00.006+02:00

These are just a few pictures of the surrounding area ...

Black Forest

2009-08-06T16:24:00.007+02:00

So it has been a long time! We have been busy traveling and have slacked on the blog a bit. Now that I am gainfully unemployed I have taken over this beast and you will have to suffer through my commentary and inability to remember things correctly - oh and my nack for exaggeration. Buckle in - we have from April to September to cover ...

Our first camping trip in the van went off without a hitch in the Black Forest. We went in May and had great weather. Driving through Baden-Baden, German spa destination spot, with our ultimate goal being Triberg these are a few of our pictures ...

This is where we bought our cuckoo clock.

Baden-Baden

Hinterbrand Lodge

2009-04-27T20:33:00.010+02:00

Updating some more pictures. This past March we went down to Berchtesgaden and stayed in a history filled lodge. The current name is Hinterbrand Lodge. This lodge was used by many in the Nazi era. Dietrich Eckart was a German Nationalist writer and early member of the Nazi Party, who considered himself Hitler's mentor. He hid from the Weimar government and stayed in this cottage. It was captured by the US Army and has been used by the Army in many ways since then. They now allow people to rent the lodge out for special functions.

The front of the lodge. There was still a lot of snow in the area and we had quite the adventure making it up to the lodge the night before.

This is a pictures that I found after we got back and shows (left-right): Hermann Göring, Reichs War Minister Werner von Blomberg, and Hitler visiting the Hinterbrand Lodge in 1935. We were sledding in the exact location they are standing in the picture.

We went skiing at the local ski area. It may be hard to see, but on the left side of the picture right above the ski hut is the Hinterbrand Lodge and on the ridge in the background is Hitler's Eagles Nest.

Hitler's Eagles Nest in the upper right hand corner. You can also make out the road leading up to the Eagles Nest.

The skiing.

The friends.

Obertaurern, Austria

2009-04-17T08:07:00.006+02:00

Still getting caught up on sharing some of the pictures from past trips. We went to a ski resort in Obertauern Austria at the end of Feb. We stayed in the town you see below and could ski 360 degrees around the town. The weather was fantastic, nice and warm. Had a great time and enjoy the pictures.

Obertaurern, Austria

If you look close you can see the hotel we stayed in, its the green one. It was great because it had an indoor pool and hot tub.

Yes, that is a chair lift going to the top!

The views were incredible!!!!!!!

Shanan skiing

It was so nice that we took a break to enjoy the sun.

And did we mention the view!!!!

And more view!!!!

London, England

2009-03-08T21:28:00.018+01:00

We are finally posting our pics from our trip to London. We went to London back in February and had a great time. We went with the same group that we went to Paris with. Hope you all enjoy the pics.

We flew from Munich to Stansted airport and than took the train into the city. This is Shanan at Liverpool Street Station.

We checked into our hotel and than went to a local pub for our first english breakfast.

Our main mode of transportation was the underground tube.

Our first stop was Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

Double decker and Big Ben

Our favorite tour guide is Rick Steves

Westminster Abbey. This church was first founded 616 on the present site. This is the site of the coronation of the English and British monarchs. The Abbey is full of tombs of previous monarchs and notable people. Some of the tombs we saw were Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Wilber Wilberforce, Charles Dickens, and George Hendrick Handel.

The back side of the Westminster.

Shanan and a double decker bus.

Big Ben at night.

Out in front of 10 Downing Street.

We went to the British museum. It had a huge collection of world civilization artifacts. It was incredible to see all of the history in one building.

This is the Rosetta stone created in 196 BC and discovered by the French in Egypt in 1799. It was instrumental in decoding the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.

Bust of Rameses II at the British Museum.

These sculptors were taken from the Parthenon in Athens.

Aztec skull.

This is from the great State of Washington all the way in London!

This is the Hoa Hakananai'a from the Easter Island's.

We had our first Starbucks since we left the States.

Big Ben at dusk.

The London Eye.

Our hotel was right next to St Paul's Cathedral. This is where Princess Diana was married.

Shanan pretending to be Princess Diana.

St. Paul's Bells

View of St. Paul's from across the Thames River.

Shanan in front of London Tower.

Font of London Tower.

"Beefeater" at the Tower of London.

Tower Bridge seen from the Tower of London.

Tower Bridge.

We rode the London Eye. That is Big Ben and the Parliament in the background.

Shanan in front of Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace.

Palace Horsemen.

Lion at Trafalger Square.

Yes it does!!!!

London specialty desert.

Yum!!!!!

Flachau, Austria

2009-01-19T19:02:00.006+01:00

This past weekend Matt went skiing in Austria. The skiing was great and the views incredible. Here are some of the pictures.

The town we stayed in.

Paris, France

2009-01-11T14:58:00.022+01:00

Early on the morning of the 1st we got up and drove to Munich to catch our hour and a half flight to Paris. We spent the next several days visiting all the sites. Paris is a very neat city and so much to do and see. We have already decided that we are going to try to make it back in the summer when its a little warmer. So far in our travels Paris has been our favorite destination. Below are some of the pictures we took on our trip.

It snowed in Munich the morning of our flight, but we didn't have any problems flying out.

The metro is how we traveled around the city. Very convenient.

This is the group of friends that we went with.

The day we got there we saw the Notre Dame Cathedral.

This was on the outside of the cathedral.

Inside Notre Dame

Inside

Outside the cathedral was this marker signifying the center of Paris, or where all other directions are measured.

The following day we went to royal palace at Versailles, about a 45 min train ride out side of the city. It was built by King Louis XIV and cost half of Frances yearly gross income. King Louis XIV moved here from his previous residence the Louvre (which is now the famous art gallery). This is also the location that the official treaty that ended World War One was signed.

The front of the palace.

The gate in front of the palace.

Inside the palace.

This is the Hall of Mirrors and the room that the treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War One

A lot of the rooms were still intricately decorated.

One of the ceilings at the palace.

The palace grounds were impressive even in the winter. Can't imagine them in the spring with the flowers in full bloom.

That night we went over to the former royal palace, the Louvre. This is one of the entrances.

Inside the Louvre and one of the inverted glass pyramids.

And of course the Louvres most famous painting, The Mona Lisa.

The crowds around her were crazy. If you look close you can see the painting on the back wall.

The famous Venus de Milo is an ancient greek statue believed to have been created between 130 and 100 BC.

This crown contains a 140 K diamond on the front.

Picture depicting David and Goliath. We liked how the picture seemed to capture the appearance of David (with exception to the hat)

Arc de Triomphe

It was commissioned to be built by Napoleon in 1806

At night Paris seemed to be covered with lights

Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral

This was the Orsay Museum. We enjoyed this one much more than the Louvre. It was a lot less crowded.

Van Gogh

Monet

No shopping for Shanan

The food was outstanding.

And so was the coffee.

What would Paris be with out the Eiffel Tower.

New Years Eve

2009-01-11T14:33:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone. I know its been a while since we've posted. We've been pretty busy over the past month or so. We had a great Christmas and New Years. New Years Eve we went to some friends home for a 80's themed party and had a great time. The following morning we got up real early and flew to Paris to bring in the new year. Those pictures will be soon coming. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years. Here are some pictures from our New Years party.

The 80's couple

Crazy mullet!!!!

Were so cool!!!

Mullet boys.

Happy New Years

Stubai, Austria

2008-12-01T18:31:00.007+01:00

This past weekend we went to Austria to get some early season skiing. It was about a 4 hour drive into the Alps. The views were incredible.

This was the town that we stayed in. Our room was right next to the church.

This was the view from our hotel. No we did not go swimming.

The first afternoon the ski area was closed so we went to check out the local village. As we were walking down the street we noticed this little kid all by himself. His mom left him on the street as she went into the store to shop. He was perfectly content and singing to himself.

A few minutes later we saw these three guys walking down the street dressed like bigfoot. We had no idea what they were doing.

This is the Stubai Glacier ski resort. We skied here the first day.

T-Bars at Stubai.

The second day we skied at a small ski resort near our hotel. The snow was great.

If you look close you can see Shanan.

FC Nuremberg

2008-11-23T19:18:00.004+01:00

Today I went to a football (no not American football) in Nuremberg. It was freezing, but had a great time. The fans were crazy and yelling the whole time.

Before the game, sporting the team colors.

You can see all the signs these fans were holding to taunt the opposing team.

You can hear the fans yelling.

The final score was 2-1 Nuremberg. It was a great game.

First Snow!!!!

2008-11-22T09:34:00.004+01:00

We got our first snow in Germany! It started snowing last night and we woke up to alot of white. It has been several years since we've lived were it snows so we are excited about it. It will hopefully make for some great skiing!!!!

BoJangles was not sure about all the snow. It did not take long for him to high tail it back inside.

He didn't want to touch the snow with his feet.

We heard some noise out the front and saw these kids shoveling our driveway, or should I just say pushing the snow around.

See the kid making a snow angle in the back.

Busy at work.

Had to get a picture of the crew!

Venice, Italy

2008-11-18T20:21:00.021+01:00

Two weekends ago we went to visit Venice, Italy, the city of canals. We had a great time seeing the city. Here are some of the pictures we took.

On the way down we drove through the Dolomites, or Italian Alps.

Incredible views!

When we got to the city we took a "water bus" to our hotel.

Our hotel sign pointed us down this vary narrow alley.

This was the alley and the door to our hotel on the right.

This was another way into our hotel, over this small canal.

Shanan enjoying breakfast in the courtyard.

Gondolas were all over the city.

This is Rialto bridge, the first one built over the Grand Canal. It was built in 1255.

View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge.

St Mark's Square with St Mark's Basilica in the background.

These are the famous Venice pigeons. Fortunately we did not get pooed on!

The front of St Marks Basilica. It was first built in 832. We weren't able to take pictures of the inside, but it was amazing with millions of mosaic tiles on all the walls and ceilings.

Part of St Mark's Basilica.

This is Doge's Palace the home of the rulers of Venice. It was the most powerful half-acre in Europe for over 400 years.

Inside of Doge's Palace. Every visitor whether king or pope would walk up these stairs to meet the Doge at the top. We read that the Doge never came down to great his guest.

Statute at the top of the stairs.

This was a ceiling inside of the Doge's Palace.

Inside the Palace was this letter drop (into the mouth). It was a way that people could anonymously accuse someone of a crime or injustice despite the fact that it was true or not.

View of St Marks Basilica from the back and inside Doge's Palace.

Gondolas everywhere.

Venice misty sunset.

These were all over the city in just about every court yard. This was Venice's solution to clean water. Whenever it rained the water would drain into these collection wells providing the city with rain water. They are now not in use, but still remain all over the city.

The Carnival of Venice is a celebration that occurs ever year. One of the unique parts of this carnival are the masks that people wear. There were mask shops everywhere.

Mask's everywhere!!!!

We ended up buying some masks from this mask maker in his little shop. We loved his beret and paint covered jacket.

Venice at night.

On our second day in Venice we decided to go out to a small island called Murano. It is famous for the glass that is produced there. Back in the day all of the glass makers from Venice were required to move their glass making shops to this island due to the fear that they would burn Venice down should a fire break out. Notice the large blue glass sculpture in the background.

Mr. Glass Man making a glass vase.

Of course we had to get a vase for our own. We bought one from this guy!

Shanan enjoying a Gelato!

We had a great time in Venice!

BoJangles the Escapee

2008-11-15T12:07:00.011+01:00

I have to tell you a funny story ... On Thursday when I came home from work I accidentally left the door open a crack and didn't know it. So I sat on the couch for probably an hour and a half checking my email and reading the news. And Matt was upstairs working on some paperwork. This whole time I am thinking " where is the cat?" because he normally wants to cuddle and get some love. So I get up to make dinner and then I notice that there is cold air coming from the front door - I go look and IT'S OPEN! So I yell at Matt to go look for Bojangles and after 10 minutes he comes back in and says that he can't find him - also it is like 20 degrees outside. So I put on my new rain boots and my coat and I go searching for him. I was walking around the whole neighborhood and I couldn't find him. In the process I walk over to where the woods begin at the end of the street and I see something that is orange so I go running to it and calling his name. When I get closer I notice that it is a lot bigger than my cat and it stops to look at me and it is A FOX! Now at this point I really wished I had a gun because I would like a fur scarf at some point but none the less the fox is kind of looking at me like "What? I am a fox, big deal. I dare you to try to catch me crazy lady." and turns and walks away slowly. Now I am like starting to freak out - what if the fox ate my cat? I run back to the house screaming at Matt there is a fox outside and that the cat is probably dead by now. So he comes running down stairs and we get flashlights and go look for him again. Matt starts going down the side of the street that I hadn't checked out yet and I go in to the backyard to see if the cat is in the park behind our house. When I go in the back yard and I am like calling him in a whisper because everything echoes in the neighborhood and I notice out of the corner of my eye that there is something sitting at the sliding glass door of the neighbor's house. I look closer and it is our stupid cat looking in to the neighbors house through their window - just sitting there like he wants to go in. They had to have seen him at some point (even though it is dark). So we try to trap him and what does he do? He runs under the fence to the other yard. So we try to trap him again and he goes back under the other fence. This goes on for a few minutes - the whole time Matt and I are in two of our neighbor's yards trying to stay away from the windows so they don't know we are standing on their property. Anyways, we finally catch him and throw him inside. He is very naughty. But the good news is that there is a fox that lives in our neighborhood and next time we meet I will have my crossbow ready because momma needs a new fur coat.

Hallstatt

2008-11-02T19:25:00.016+01:00

This is the final part of the trip that we took a few weeks ago and now I am finally posting the pictures. We went to a small town in Austria called Hallstatt. Some of Hallstatt's oldest archaeological finds date back to 5000 BC. The area was initially developed around a salt mine.

This tree grew right up the side of this house.

We saw this inscription at the top of this door 20+C+M+B+08. The letters have two meanings. They are the initials of the traditional names of the Three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They also abbreviate the Latin words “Christus mansionem benedicat.” “May Christ bless the house.” The letters recall the day on which the inscription is made, as well as the purpose of blessing.The crosses represent the protection of the Precious Blood of Christ, whom we invoke, and the holiness of the Three Magi sanctified by their adoration of the Infant Christ. The inscription is made above the front door, so that all who enter and depart this year may enjoy God’s blessing.

At one of the churches there was a small side building full of hundreds of skulls. There was so little room in the cemeteries that every ten years the bodies were dug up and placed in this room with the owners name on it. Since the Catholic church has now ok'd cremation they no longer do this.

Yes, these are really mounted fish heads!

Enjoying lunch by the lake.

View of Hallstatt from above.

Earlier in the day we took a cable car up the side of one of the mountains near Hallstatt. We toured some ice caves. The tour was all in Austrian so we really had no idea what the guide was saying, but we still had a great time.

Tomorrow we are going to Venice, Italy for the weekend so more pictures are soon to follow.

Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest)

2008-10-31T20:42:00.019+01:00

This is very delayed, but none the less we wanted to share with you some more of our trip that we took several weeks ago. We left the castles and drove to a Hitler's Eagles Nest. The views were incredible. From there we drove into Austria and a small campground for the night.

The Eagles Nest was given to Hitler on his 50th birthday in 1939. It was incredibly constructed in 13 months. It was meant as a retreat for Hitler which he only visited the area about 10 times.

The view of Hitler's retreat from above.

Enjoying something to drink and the view at a small cafe at Eagle's Nest.

Great views.

This fire place was inside Hitler's retreat and was a present from Benito Mussolini. If you look close you can see that it is chipped (in 1945) when the US troops captured the retreat.

The van has been named the mystery machine (from Scooby Doo) by some people in my unit. This was our camp site just over the border in Austria.

This was the view from our campground.

That night we drove into the small town that was near our camp spot. We ended up eating dinner in a small restaurant that was packed with people. Soon after we started eating a yodeling accordion player started performing as the people sang. It was quite an experience.

The following morning we went back to the same restaurant for breakfast. It was a neat little town.

Shanan enjoying a coffee.

Neuschwanstein

2008-10-23T20:29:00.015+02:00

At the end of the conference we traveled over to Fussen, Germany and the Neuschwanstein and Hohenshwangau castles. Neuschwanstein is the fairy tale castle that the Disneyland castle was modeled after. It was built in 1869 and commissioned by King Ludwig II. Hohenshwangau was the childhood home of Ludwig II. We left Garmisch with clear blue sky, but unfortunately by the time we made it to the castle it was foggy. Regardless, it was a great visit.

The gate into Neuschwanstein.

Shanan's new home.

This castle was less impressive from the outside, but alot of the interior was decorated.

We noticed that the crown in this stain glass was the same crown that we saw on display in Vienna.

This was our campsite for the night, that is a styling campervan!

We had a great view right behind our site.

Garmisch Dental Conference

2008-10-18T22:54:00.019+02:00

A couple of weekends ago I (Matt) got the chance to go to the local army dental conference in Garmisch. It is located in the German Alps. The weather ended up being perfect. I guess I can't complain about getting CE in a place like this.

This is the hotel that the conference was at.

A view of Garmisch from above town.

The view of the Alps out in front of the hotel.

I went on a bike ride above Garmisch and came across this picturesque lake.

I also went golfing with some guys from my unit. It had the best views of any golf course I have ever played.

We had a Bavarian dinner with accordion player and cow bell ringer.

I finally figured out how to put video into this this blog. This was at the bavarian night dinner and these guys were using there whips in tune to the accordion music.

The food was great.

The last night Shanan made it down so that we could spend the following weekend traveling. Those pictures will be soon to follow.

Oktoberfest - Munich

2008-10-16T18:47:00.020+02:00

Hello everyone. Two weekends ago we got the chance to catch the last day of Oktoberfest in Munich. We have been traveling alot and we will post those pictures soon, but in the mean time here are some pictures from Oktoberfest.

But first, for those of you who don't know some of the history of Oktoberfest here is a little background . . .

The first Oktoberfest was held on Oktober 12th, 1810 in the very same place that it is held today. Originally, Oktoberfest was held as a celebration for King Ludwig I and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen's wedding. It is the largest festival in Germany and 30% of the beer produced in Munich every year is consumed during the 16 days of Oktoberfest. Now it is a huge carnival with rides and tons of food and beer where everyone wears their dirndls and lederhosen.

This is one of the 6 breweries found in Munich that serves beer at Oktoberfest.

Enjoying some Augustiner beer. This beer was first brewed in 1328.

These are some friends from Grafenwohr.

Matt and Brett.

The waitress carries the beer to the table stacked like this - it is really heavy!

Not only are the beers big at Oktoberfest, so are the pretzels.

Not only are the pretzels big, but some people wear them on their heads.

In Germany, instead of buying a corn dog on a stick you can get fish on a stick. (sick)

Inside the Augustiner beer tent. The tents were so full that we had to find a fest table right outside the tent which was great because the weather was so nice.

Inside the Hacker beer tent. If you look closely you can see people standing on the tables in their lederhosen.

Working

2008-10-04T12:01:00.003+02:00

Hey everyone! This is my first post so bear with me!!!! I started working on Monday and it is really nice to have something to do. I feel so blessed to have a job here because I guess it is really a huge issue here for all of the spouses. Some spouses even move back to the states to work so I am glad that I had a job waiting for me when we got here (not like I would move back or anything anyways!) I LOVE it here. Every time I am driving from Vilseck/work to our house (40 minute drive) I am just so overcome by the fact that we are here and that we aren't visiting - we live here now. It is so incredibly beautiful I don't know why more people live here. We are in the country and there are a ton of farms, tractors, fields and cows ... I feel like I am back in Ellensburg sometimes ha, ha.

The weather has been kind of rainy and I think it is going to snow soon. I can't wait to have all of the seasons again. We haven't lived in a place with all four seasons in so long and I am really excited to have a real Christmas.

Well, we are going to Oktoberfest tomorrow and I will post pictures of our experience this next week. love, shanan

Our New Home

2008-09-26T20:23:00.003+02:00

We have finally gotten into our new home!!! We moved in about two weeks ago and have been putting everything together since than. We are in a small community called Netzaburg. It is an American community off post. It is brand new and has alot of space. It is nice to finally get settled and to feel like we have a home again.

The front of our new home.

The backyard.

The view from the back of our house.

The other day there was a rainbow out the back of our house.

In addition to our new home we also got a new vehicle. I sold my truck that I had owned for the past ten years in South Carolina and we needed a new car. We decided to do something crazy and buy a VW campervan. Our goal is to travel Europe with the van. It has a fold down bed, stove, refrigerator, and sink. We had a really crazy experience buying it. I found the van on a German website and used an online translator to communicate with the owner. It ends up that the seller did not speak any English, and at this point we don't speak any German. When we got to the guys house we did our best to communicate with him by using the few words that we knew of each others language. Once we decided that we wanted to buy the van, he invited us into his house to go over the papers. His wife had set out coffee and bread for us and ended up giving Shanan some of the plum jam that she had made as well as some tomatoes from her garden, all with out being able to speak each others language. Its hard to fully explain how crazy the experience was, but it was alot of fun.

Is that BoJangles on top of the van?

Hope you all are doing well. Now that we have internet we will try to make more posts. We have some fun trips plan to Munich and Oktoberfest as well as Garmish which is in the middle of the Alps in southern Germany.

Vienna, Austria

2008-09-02T19:33:00.017+02:00

This past weekend we drove about 41/2 hours with a few other people in the 561st (the unit I'm attached to) to Vienna, Austria. We spent 2 nights there and got to see alot of the city. These are some of the pictures that we took.

The first day we found this outdoor market with all sorts of fresh food.

St. Stephan's cathedral built in 1147. The roof is all tile.

Inside of St. Stephans's cathedral.

One of the highlights of the trip was to visit the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg palace. We really had no clue what to expect, but were blown away at all of the Austrian Crown Jewels. The most amazing part were the Christian relics that were displayed.

This is the Imperial Crown worn by the King of the Romans, the rulers of the German Kingdom. Its dated around the 10th century.

This was originally the crown of Rudolf II and is now known as the Crown of the Austrian Empire. It was made in 1602 in Prague.

This is the Cradle of the King of Rome and was given as a gift from the city of Paris to Napoleon and his wife at the birth of their son. It was built in 1811.

According to the display, this was the tooth of the Apostle John. You can see it hanging inside of the glass casing.

According to the Catholic church this is a piece of the "True Cross" of Christ and has been viewed that way since about the 4th Century.

Again, according to the Catholic church, this is the nail used to crucify Christ's right hand. Whether or not this is true, it was still very fascinating to see these relics.

This is the Vienna State Opera and was finished in 1869. It was bombed during World War II.

The is the inside of the Vienna Opera.

This is a view from near the Opera house. If you look close you can see the Starbucks.

This is another church we went into. It was fairly small, but very intricate. This is the ceiling.

The same church.

I don't know how this car would hold up in a high speed chase.

This was a museum opened in 1891.

This is a wing of the Hofburg Imperial Palace. It has been the seat of government of various empires and republics since 1279. It is currenly the home of the Austrian president. It is also the birthplace of Marie Antionette in 1755.

This is the Rathaus, or city hall, of Vienna. We went there our first night in Vienna. There was a huge screen at the base of this building with a video feed of a classical music concert. It felt like we were back in the days of Mozart and Beethoven.

This is the Rathaus during the day.

We went to this famous cafe called Sachertorte and had its famous sponge cake that was created in 1832.

My new Ferrari.

We went to the Opera at the Schonbrunn Palace.

This piece of music was signed by Mozart himself.

We had a great time in Vienna, there was so much to do and see. By far its the best city we've been to. (ha, its really the only place we've been) The history and culture was great. Two days was not enough time to see everything, but enough to really enjoy our time.

On a side note, completely off the subject of Vienna, we have finally figured out our housing situation. We are going to be living in a new government owned house in a town called Netzaburg. Its brand new and looks really nice. The down side is that it about a 45 min drive to work. As I mentioned before there is a big housing shortage and this was the only thing available to us. It should work out fine. We will post some pictures as soon as we move in.

We finally got our car!!!

2008-08-27T21:04:00.007+02:00

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

2008-08-24T17:08:00.017+02:00

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!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-21T14:13:00.012+02:00

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.