Daily Life

I love it here in Germany. Life is certainly very different than in the US. For one, Germans know the value of downtime and relaxation. Every day between 1-3pm is quiet time. That means no loud noises such as lawn mowers! And on Sunday, no shops are open, only restaurants. Quiet time is all day. That means you relax...play a game, sit on your deck, read, go to a fest, enjoy some wine and beer, etc. No washing your car, mowing your lawn or trimming the bushes. In fact, if you do it anyway, you will probably get reprimanded by a local. One Sunday I was hand-trimming bushes and weeding, and my neighbor came over with a beer and said I needed to sit down and drink instead. I'm not kidding!

Speaking of beers, the beer is fantastic! I've tried many kinds...pils are my favorite but I'm really liking the dark (dunkel) beers too. I'm not a big fan of the weiss beer. It's looks cloudy and has a very distinctive taste. Edgar likes Radlers, which are a mix of beer and lemon soda. The most popular soda is called a Spetzi, which is a blend of coke and orange soda, or coke and lemon-lime soda. It's actually really good!

Since we are smack dab in the middle of the Rhein Valley, the wine here is abundant and wonderful. I've acquired a taste for Reislings, which is a huge step for this Chardonnay girl. I also really like secco (or prosecco in Italian), which are white wines that are lightly carbonated. Not as bubbly as champagne and not ultra dry, they are perfect for a hot summer evening! Edgar is a sweet wine drinker and he's fallen in love with Auslese (too sweet for me) and ice wines (made after the first frost hits the grapes). From the guy who rarely drank in the US, he now makes it a habit to pick up wines during our travels. Who knew??

Shopping is done daily or every other day. Here is a picture of the small grocery store in Erbach. Next door is one of three bakeries. It's kind of ironic that a town as small as Erbach would have three bakeries, but then again, we probably have 10-15 vintners! Bread and wine...who can complain?


Walking is a daily activity. Whether it's to the Rewe for groceries, the bakery for fresh bread and rolls, or taking Schotzie for her constitutionals. My favorite route takes me past many gardens, the local soccer field, various vineyards and winestubes (vintners).

Recycling is big here. We have four separate trashcans in our kitchen. One for paper and cardboard, one for plastic, one for glass and one for all the other trash. And under the sink, a small container for food waste. Regular trash is only collected once every two weeks, which would definitely be a problem back home. But since so much trash is recycled, we actually don't have a problem with trash piling up. Glass is recycled based on color and every few streets have containers for collection. I guess this picture tells all. The Germans' love their wine!!

The streets are narrow in most towns. There are a lot of directional signs that regulate the flow of traffic when only one lane can pass at a time. On the street leading to our house, it's a fairly long hill. Custom is to let those driving up the hill go first. So when you are driving down, you are constantly pulling over between parked cars to let cars going uphill pass.

Speaking of driving....yep, we drive fast over here. On the slowest Autoban, the speed limit is 100 km, which is 60 mph. A typical two lane autoban will usually post a 120 km speed limit (72 mph). But when you see the sign with three diagonal slashes? Go as fast as you want. No kidding! Edgar has had the Porsche up to 125mph. Everyone else is going fast too, so you don't even realize you fast you are going!!

Tschuss!!

(Informal Goodbye in German)

Summer 2007

Edgar and I moved to Germany on June 7th, 2007 for a three year tour. Leaving the U.S. was a huge move for me, Baltimore-Bred-Never-Left girl!! But as they say, you don't want to lie on your deathbed with a list of "I wish I's..."!!!

My Mom, sister and assorted friends (a special thanks to Sheila, Jack and Jane) gave Edgar and I a surprise going-away party on May 5th at a State Park near our home in Ellicott City. Check out the invites that looked JUST LIKE a real passport. Each guest turned them back in at the party with some heart-felt comments. What a great turnout of friends and family. I even managed to stay tear-free, in spite of my friend Cassie!

It seemed like months of preparation of what to take, what to store, what to sell, what to do with the house (it's rented, for now), what to do with our Dog, Schotzie (she's here with us), what to do with the cats (one is with my Mom and Dad, one is with my friend Sandy Peterson's daughter, Abbie), etc. But we finally boarded an evening flight from Dulles and headed to our new home outside of Frankfurt. Actually, our first home was a temporary apartment in Schierstein, a "suburb" of Wiesbaden.

We were very fortunate to rent from a nice German man who owned a 2-bedroom penthouse apartment overlooking the Rhine river. Here's the view from our bedroom:

Even though we knew our permanent housing was going to be wonderful, it sure was hard to leave the waterview! We stayed in the apartment for nearly a month. Unfortunately, there was a really good ice cream vendor on the path we took to walk Schotzie, and we had one nearly every night. The good thing is that servings aren't huge here, and a small scoop of ice cream was only 50 cent Euro!!

Edgar and I spent every free moment exploring around us. We took in castles (schloss), ruins (berg), restaurants, hiking paths, tourist traps. Here are a few scenary pics from some of our trips.

My sons, Andrew and Jake, came for their six week visit on June 25th. That's also the day we had our first guests...Barb Biebl and her husband, John, and their children, Risa and Alex. The boys came off the plane totally exhausted (who can sleep on planes anyway?), so after a three hour nap, they were up and ready to start exploring. We met Barb and her family and headed off to Rudesheim, which is a town about 30 minutes away from the apartment. Here we are having lunch.

On July 2nd, we moved into our permanent home in Erbach. Erbach is a very small town which has the distinction of having a strawberry (erdbeeren) fest every summer that draws people from miles around. Kind of ironic to be known for a strawberry fest when you are surrounded by vineyards everywhere you look!! Erbach is located in the Rheingau area of Germany, where the best Riesling wines are made [http://www.germanwine.de/english/d_reg/r_rhein.htm]. It's a terrible place to have to live...with all that wine that must be tasted!! The front of our house is shaded by trees and you can't really get a good picture, but here's a picture of the back of the house.







We have six bedrooms (and you thought I was kidding when I said to come visit) and 2.5 baths. The kitchen is a very good size and although the German fridge is way too small, the Army was kind enough to give us an extra one. How convenient...one fridge for wine and beer, the other for food!

We have awesome neighbors! Most of them speak very good English and we have already spent many evenings sharing a bottle of wine on someone's patio or deck. Here are a few pics of our neighbors at the wine fest in Wiesbaden. The first pic is of Gabby and Peter. They have two children, Johannes (10) and Paulina (6). Gabby and Peter live right next door. The second picture is of Sandra and Frank. They live behind Gabby and Peter.



For the next few weeks, the boys and I spent our days going to the Army base library (to check and send emails...our only method of communication at the time), checking out local attractions and taking walks and bike rides. On the weekends, when Edgar was home, we took day trips and explored castles and ruins.

On July 4th, we went to the Army Airfield and spent the afternoon checking out the activitites (bullrides, gravity spins, bungee jumping, paintball) and then watched some amazing fireworks at 10pm.

I let the boys choose where they would like to go for a 3 day trip and they chose Paris. So, off we went on July 17th. This trip was very intimidating for me, as I was the only adult, I was taking a four hour train trip from Wiesbaden to Paris (having never taken a train before) and had to find the hotel once I got to the city. We purchased a lot of metro tickets and rode the metro every day to get to where we wanted to go. And, as luck would have it, I found the hotel with no problem!!

Andrew has always been a brave guy, and decided to let a Paris hairstylist cut his hair. It turned out really great. A little short, but it grew out quickly and he had a very cool reminder of our trip to Paris. Jake wasn't quite so keen, so we got his cut on base by a barber after we got back!

Rose and Connie (Edgar's girls) arrived on July 21st. This was also the first day of a weeklong vacation through Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. By Car. With Kids. Yikes! We saw SO MUCH it was incredible. These few pictures can't even begin to tell the story. Unfortunately, that will be the first and last time we take a week long car tour...too hard on the big people!! Maybe next year a cruise through the Greek islands??

The boys and I headed off to the States for the week of August 4th-12th. The boys headed home to their Dad and I headed off to a Melaleuca conference in Atlanta. Check out how well we clean up!

Luckily, my sister Laura now lives in Atlanta with her very wonderful man Jack, so we spent some time together. The first pic below is what I saw when I got off the plane in Atlanta. The second picture is one of the Pandas at the Atlanta Zoo. I came back to Germany on the 13th.

On the weekend of August 18th, we headed out to Verdun, France and Luxembourg. Verdun is an area preserved from the effects of World War I. Edgar loves all things history, particularly when it has to do with war. I can't say I share the same enthusiasm, but going to Ft. Douaumont and touring a very famous underground fort was definitely worthwhile.

On the weekend of the 25th, we headed back to France to visit yet another fort (or two). I will bite my tongue because our third anniversary is coming up and Edgar surprised me with a long weekend in Rome!