London, England

Well friends, we apologize for the lack of postings. Homework is a drag and I am now starting on my finals. However in two weeks we will be home from Germany to visit with our family and friends for the Christmas holiday and look forward to a much needed break in our lives. of course I was thinkiing we would get a little rest, but it never works out that way.

So, even though I have yet to post pictures from our trip to Amsterdam and Rothenberg, I did want to post a few of London. Wow, what a wonderful place that was.

We started off our trip with a Broadway Play. For those of you who know me, know how much I love New York City. One of my favorite places is Times Square. Well, getting off the Tube in London and walking out onto the street in the Picidilly Circus area was like stepping onto the crowed streets of Times Square. It was fantastic. I love the energy, the tube-even as crammed in as sardines we all were, is one of the best things about city life. London's tube system was so easy to getting around. We saw Spamalot...Alex loves Monty Python and this was the perfect way to start our time here. If you ever get the opportunity to see this play-it is well worth the price and the pain of too much belly laughs...beware it is a tad bit risque.

This is the statue of Prince Albert which sits in the corner of I think Kensington Park near Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived after the divorce. Prince Albert was the love of Queen Victoria's life.

One of the famous guards at Whitehall. We were able to watch the beginning of the changing of the guards. It is everyday at 11:00 am and the guards pull 24 hour duty.

Buckingham Palace where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip eat there cereal from tupperware containers. No lie.

The Tower Bridge which is absoulutely beautiful all lit up at night. Unfortuately, our camera takes BAD night pictures.

The Tower of London.




The area in where Queen Anne Boelyn was beheaded...as the rhyme all British children learn in grammer school...divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boelyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleaves, Katherine Howard, and Katherine Parr). Henry VIII fasinates me.
Well friends, we will see most of you in a few weeks. For the rest we wish you a very happy holiday season.

Bernkastel

Hi Everyone! Sorry we haven't posted in a while, school work is keeping us busy. This weekend we went to the village of Bernkastel. Most people call it Bernkastel-Kues (the village across the river) for a tour and wine tasting.
It was very foggy that morning. The fog actually hung around all day. It was like a shroud and gave the village this magical quality.

Autumn has arrived in Germany. The trees are so beautiful and the villages are very quaint.

Although you can not see it, atop the hill is the castle ruins of Landshut

A view of Bernkastel village center.When you think of Germany, you think of timbered houses. Bernkastel is the model for many postcards and little clay houses you find as souveiners. The reason the homes look small at the bottom and large at the top is because people were taxed on how big their houses were and they were measured around the bottom. So they made them smaller on the bottom to avoid large taxes.

A view across the river to Kues.

As the fog lightened, we were finally able to see Schloss Landshut.

Let the winetasting begin. A very lovely vineyard and winery, we partciapted in sampling 14 bottles of wine, a liquor made of peaches, a Rothenburg cream that puts Bailey's to shame and some moonshine. Alex looks like he was into his cups.

A view of the vineyard. They handpick all the grapes. And Arnold has thousands of acres.

A German Kitchen

A German kitchen. What does that mean actually? Well, when Alex and I made this huge decision to move across the big blue ocean, we started researching about the culture and living in Europe. One of the things we ran across was that German homes and apartments do not come with a kitchen when you move in and you have to buy one. Who ever heard of such a thing. Maybe an appliance here or there, but an entire kitchen. In the states, kitchens and bathrooms are two of the most expensive rooms to remodel.

But here in Germany we have...IKEA, Mobel Martin, Mobel Fruber, etc. You get my picture. Kitchens are uninstalled in one day and reinstalled in another... so, our landlord promised us a new kitchen. So on the same day the British brought our belongings home, the Germans gave us a new kitchen.

Lucky for us, we live in an German society indoctorined in American culture...American's rent apartments and homes with kitchens (PS...we don't have closets either).

Demolition day...they tore out the entire kitchen in 3 hours.

Midway through the installation process, we had the electrician there at 8, the kitchen guys at 10 and the moving company with our household goods in at 11. Everyone was gone by 3.

The finished kitchen. To the right is the fridge. It is exactly the size of a dorm fridge complete with teenie, tiny freezer. We now have a dishwasher, too. Yeah. The painters came today to finish up. We love it.

We're Off to France-Strasbourg

HI!!! Everyone. Alex and I are doing great. The baby arrived today (our car) and it was wonderful to drive it again. However, we took one last little trip in the VW Golf before we returned it. We had that little rental for as long as we had our CR-V in the states. Off we went to STRASBOURG...only hour and 1/2 from Landstuhl but took us 2 hours to find our hotel.
The main reason to go to Strasbourg is to visit The Cathedral of Our Lady. The most beautiful church we have seen to date. It took 400 years to build and as you drive into Strasbourg, it rises beautifully over the city, defining the landscape.

Another view of the cathedral.

Alex...he is so silly. This man has more patience then anyone I have every known. What a great husband...even when I am OUT-OF-CONTROL, he remains calm. LOL

A view of the Ill River from the bridge. The next time we visit, we are taking a boat ride through the city.

An area of Strasbourg called Le Petite France...was at one time the part of the city that held the hospital. The houses are unique because they have cutaway roofs so the tanners could dry out their skins in the attics.

Another view of Le Petite France

The River Ill in Le Petite France

One of three remaining Medieval towers which made up a chain of fortifications.

My favorite...the Chocolate Museum or Les Secrets Du Chocolat (The Secret of Chocolate). The tour ends with a free bag of chocolate and a trip through the store. Yum Yum.

The Rhine River Cruise

These pictures are a little out of order but Alex and I went on the Rhine River Cruise with the USO and we participated in a wine tasting after we docked in Assmanshausen.

So we tried 4 types of wines...

But in this picture I am drinking a FIRST PRIZE Hans had poured for me because I answered a question correctly.

This was FIRST PRIZE...a full glass of wine.

This is Alex's face because he did not get to have a FIRST PRIZE.

Rheinstein Castle from the River Boat. We had toured the inside of this castle earlier that morning. It was beautiful. Rheinstein means Rhine Stone. We viewed a lot of castles on our two hour river cruise.

The Pfalz located in the middle of the Rhine River in the town of Kaub. This castle was once used as a prison. It is unique because it is the only castle that has a dungeon whose floor moves up and down when the water rises or falls. It also was built like the bow of a ship in the front so the water moves around it.

The famous Loreley Rock. The legend says sailors would lose their lives in the Rhine River because they would see a young mermaid sunbathing on the top of the rock and would be so memorized by the sight, their ships would crash into the rock and they would die. As the boat sails past, The Song of the Loreley is played.

Alex and I...cruising down the river. What a wonderful day this was.

A view of the Rhine River from Rheinstein Castle.

The Rhine River was and is a major transportation route and is considered one of the busiest waterways in the world.

Trier-Germany's Oldest City

Roman Days in Trier. The held a roman festival in the old baths in Trier. There is a claim made that Trier is actually older then Rome. They call this festival Bread and Games or the real name is Brot und Spiele. They would keep the citizens happy by giving them free bread and offering them entertainment.
The Electoral Palace. This was built in the 18th century and it is surrounded by gardens, fountains and sculptures. The Palace's front gable is decorated with mythological and classical gods. The Palace actually extends further beyond the trees and the story goes that when it was built, the bishop refused to live there because the building was asymmetrical.

One of the places we visited was the Ampihitheatre where the "free entertainment" was offered to the citizens to keep them happy. Often one of the entertainments were the Gladiator fights. Gladiators were actually slaves, usually from Greece who, in order to win their freedom, had to fight to the death against other slaves or wild animals. This is one of the rooms in which they kept the Gladiators before their match. Another special room, was called a Vomitorium, not making this up, this room the slaves were brought into before their match to be sick in.

Part of the Imperial Baths. Romans were maticulous about cleanliness and they often spent a lot of time in the Baths. This was a social area for them.

Aldstaut (the Oldtown)--There is actually a McDonalds in the beautiful building directly behind the man.

Me and Alex

Chateau de Vianden-Luxembourg

Our first glimpse of the Vianden Castle. The bus dropped us off

close to the Village of Vianden. But it was still quite a ways to walk to

the village.

Before our journey up the steep hill. Alex said after we climbed to the top,

"who wants to storm the castle after that climb"

The Castle Vianden
Constructed from the 11th to 14th century on the foundations of a Roman fort and a Carolingian refuge. In the 1800's, the castle was sold off piece by piece. In 1977 the Grand Duke of Luxembourg transferred ownership to the state and it was restored.The village of Vianden-a view from the tower.
The weekend we visited the castle, a medieval festival was occurring, although some of the costumes worn were questionable.

A last remnant of the walls surrounding the village and castle.

The end...for now. Thanks for viewing our blog page. We love visiting all these

beautiful and wonderful places and sharing them with you.