The Lovely Little Village of Kallmünz

We are fortunate to live in an area with castle ruins all around.  All those ruins require a nice hike up to them that's an added bonus!  We decided to take an afternoon and venture to one of these ruins in  the village of Kallmünz.  One of the things I absolutely love about living here is driving from point A to point B because every drive is beautiful.  When we arrived in Kallmünz I was struck by it's quiet beauty, colorful buildings, and I was overcome by a sense of peace.  We walked down by the water and saw a water wheel, ducks swimming in the river, people fishing, and people kayaking (which I will have to do next summer).  It looked like what I imagine Holland would look like (I've never been, but it's definitely on my list).  We made our way up to the trail, stopping periodically to take pictures of the village below and our offspring when they'd allow.  Finally we made it up to the castle ruins.  We walked around all the parts of the castle, reading the plaques ( having to use our Google Translate app to do so) and then we climbed to the top of the tower which was a pretty cool thing to get to do.  Someone has built a pretty unique statue on the property, my offspring enjoyed that.  My favorite party was the archway (not sure if that's what it's called..)  When we had seen and photographed everything from every angle we made our way back down to the lovely village of Kallmünz.  We walked over the bridge and around the village looking at the shops and houses.  We stopped to get gelato, but didn't have any euros so we had to save that treat for a different day!  All in all, we had a wonderful day in a lovely village and I am sure we will visit again!

An Introduction to Volksfest

  I honestly don't understand why the military doesn't provide a rental car when they move you overseas until A) you buy a car or B) your car arrives! After a few days of being here we made the decision to rent a car because A) three kids, small hotel B)everybody was getting stir crazy C) it was a hike to the commissary. I was most excited because it meant we could start exploring our new home!

Our first excursions took us to the bigger base about an hour away and Straubing Gäubodenvolksfest.  A volksfest or peoples fest is a big festival here with lots of beer, wine, food, games, and rides.  We saw so many people in lederhosen and durndles that we have to buy our own so we fit in when we go to these fests.  My daredevil offspring decided that she and her dad needed to ride the tilt-a-whirl on steroids.  She is crazy, I mean brave.  She definitely gets it from her dad though, I like my feet planted firmly on the ground!  Her sisters and I watched them get tossed around and turned upside down, but when the exited they were all smiles and giggles!  We all rode the ferris wheel and were amazed by the views of the city from the top.  The daredevil rode some crazy  ride that turned her upside down then spun her around and then turned her sideways and did the same thing! We enjoyed some yummy German food and had a fun time enjoying all that our first Volksfest had to offer!  We are looking forward to the next one we get to attend and it won't be long since they are in a different location about every week!

Welcome to Germany

      "We have orders."  Those words bring up a whole lot of emotions: anxiety, fear, anticipation.   Sometimes where the Army is sending you is beautiful and exciting and other times it makes you want to stay where you are and just let the hubs go!  I have been on both ends of that.  Excitement over moving to Alaska, disappointment when the Army decided we need to live in South Alabama.  So, when my hubs spoke those words a few months ago I went through all the emotions.  Then, I let him finish his sentence..."to Germany!"  Oh my goodness I have been praying for this since my hubs re-joined the military years ago and it is finally happened!  It seemed like it took forever for our PCS date to roll around and we all went through a variety of emotions leading up to the day we finally left!
      We drove to Atlanta, shipped my Jeep, and the next day you could find the five of us making our way through the airport carrying an obscene amount of luggage, and finally catching a flight to Baltimore.  Two of my three offspring had never stepped foot on a plane and were nervous, but we talked up travel by plane in the hopes of calming their fears!  I laughed as the plane took off down the runway and my middle offspring said, "Well, that got real real quick" as she looked out the window.  It didn't take long for her to fall in love with air travel! We landed in Baltimore and hung out for 10 hours until we boarded our overseas flight.  8 hours, a few movies, a couple of naps, and a few beverage services later, we landed at the air force base.  We were all exhausted since we had been up since 430 am the day before.  We finally got our luggage, made it through customs, and found our ride to our new base.  The ride took forever!  We stopped at McDonald's for a bite to eat and continued on our way.  We tried to stay awake and engage in conversation, but the exhaustion won out. 
     Finally, we made it to our new base, got our hotel room, and got all our luggage into the room.  We were tired, hungry, and without a car, so we did the only logical thing...ordered pizza!  We ate, showered, and hit the hay.  It was then we discovered that jet lag is a very real thing and it sucked! 
     We have been in Germany about three weeks now.  Everybody is on a schedule and no longer suffering with jet lag, the girls have started school, the hubs is starting his new job, and we've been busy exploring our new home!