2008 - May thru June

May 1st is a German Holiday...May Day. We were invited to go hiking (and eating and drinking) with our German friends/neighbors. We started out at 10am in the morning. I believe we finally got home around 8pm. I also believe there was more drinking than hiking!!




There are fields upon fields of this yellow flowering plant, which Sandra told us is used to make cooking oil as well as bio gas. The English name is Rape Seed. It smells like a stinky cheese but it sure looks beautiful.




We had to change our original plans because of a rain shower. We detoured to a small winestube to wait it out. Here's a picture of our "English Speaking" contingent....Edgar with 3 Brits. Andrew (next to Edgar) is married to a German woman, as is Steven (next to Andrew). Andrew's brother is on the far left...and I confess that I have forgotten his name. We enjoyed bantering about American politics and learning more about England. Note the ominous clouds in the background....we walked into the winestube just as it started to pour!




While the adults enjoyed their wine and had lively discussions, the kids played in nearby fields and of course, Schotzie played along. Here's a pic of the spoiled dog with Paulina, Anna and Tim.



Because we got a little turned around, we opted to take a bus into the next town. The bus we caught wasn't the right one so the bus driver dropped us off at a place where we could catch the right bus. We opted to walk into the town (Oestrich) and get ice cream for the kids and then catch the bus. We hung out in a large public area and enjoyed relaxing in the sun. Here's Christian and Moni enjoying their treat...



As luck would have it, we had more time to kill before we could catch the bus, so of course we went to another winestube (are you seeing the pattern here??). This one was really big, and crowded, but Peter and Gabi knew some people and a new table appeared. Each table had a number, and here's Peter displaying ours!




We eventually caught the bus but it was still not the right one (I'm sure our consumption of wine had nothing to do with this) so we had the driver drop us off at...yes, you guessed it...another winestube. At this point, Edgar had had enough, so he opted to walk home (it took him about 45 minutes). A few of the gang took the bus a bit further to where they had left a car and eventually a few nice souls came back to pick the rest of us up and we made it back to Erbach.

On the way out of the last winestube, I noticed a parked car with an Obama '08 sticker on it...and it appeared to belong to a German resident, not a transplanted American. You gotta love worldwide support!!

On May 3rd, we had an impromtu dinner at our house. Here's three ladies after a few glasses of wine (Edna, Pam, Gabi):



On May 7th, the WCSC (Wiesbaden Community Spouses Club) hosted a Spargel (white asparagus) picking trip. Edna and I decided that this would be fun. Having never picked asparagus (green OR white) before, we figured it couldn't be too hard. It's actually back breaking work and after an hour in the field, you can see here my meager reward. What's worse, I got more than most of the women, so there weren't going to be many spargel dinners that night!! Here's a pic of Edna and Alyce, before we were bent over for an hour!




Here's what the spargel looks like right before you cut it out of the ground:




Here's the result of all my work:



On May 9th-11th, Edgar took me on my birthday present trip...to Kuekenhof Holland to see the tulips and Brugges Belgium to check out the town. It was a great weekend. Here's a few pics of Kuekenhof Gardens (http://www.kuekenhof.nl/). These few pictures don't do the place justice. There were also greenhouses with orchids and lilies. Absolutely amazing.









We spent the night in a very cool town called Stompcik in a bed and breakfast at a working farm (Boerderij Akkerlust...www.hotelboerderij.nl). The room was very spacious, the host and hostess very friendly (and spoke English) and the breakfast was to die for. The next morning, we asked our hostess to recommend a place to buy cheese, and she sent us down the road a bit to another farm. We were very early, but the couple was very accomodating. Here she is cutting some of our cheese:



We then headed to Brugges, in Belgium. A very cool town with canals, lots of history and great shopping (think lace and chocolate).




This is a view of the town from the top of a bell tower:



That night, we spent the night in a castle! Even though it was built in the 1900's, it was still very cool to spend the night there. The owner was French, and again, we had a wonderful breakfast. Here are two views of the castle, one during the day, one in the evening.








On my birthday (May 13th), Edna and Chuck had us over for dinner, along with Becky and John and Mayda and her three boys (Ray was TDY). How nice to have such great friends!!






{Edgar heads to the US for ten days, but when he returns, we have a Memorial Day cookout and then we head south to Garmisch to camp with Edna and Chuck on the following weekend. Since I haven't camped since I was about 14 or so, it ought to be an interesting experience. Edna swears they do "cadillac camping"...and it's not roughing it at all. We'll see.}

Here's a group shot of some of the Memorial Day "picnic'rs" who took a stroll along the Mainz river after we ate:




Edna was right! It was a blast! They had all the necessities and the campground at Edelweiss was perfect...not to mention that the shower facility was spotless and the water was hot!! We did quite a bit of hiking and even managed to fit in some shopping in Garmisch. On Saturday evening, our friends Becky and John showed up, on their way back from a week in Italy. Even though it did pour that night, we were well protected under the tarp. We had a few bottles of wine, and sang along to the songs on my iPod.












On June 5th-8th, the same crew of four headed to Czech Republic (CZ). We spent two nights in Prague and one night in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad). CZ uses the koruna, which seemed to be a little better than the Euro, and we picked up a few bargains. We also purchased quite a bit of beer, since CZ is a beer mecca!! Prague is a beautiful city, and the castle there is huge. The Charles Bridge was full of vendors, mostly artistans, peddling their wares. We did buy a watercolor of the city, to add to our European collection of city art. We visited the Jewish cemetary where they buried people in layers, as they had little space and too many people. That was sobering!










Carlsbad is a spa town. They even have a special cup to use to drink the water from the hot springs. The water is slightly salty, and warm. I couldn't acquire a taste for it. On the other hand, the local alcohol was pretty good, so we purchased a small bottle.










On Monday, the 9th, Becky took a few of us on a walking shopping tour of Wiesbaden. We found some great stores, shopped for a few hours, then had lunch. It was a nice day out with the "gals".



My sister, Laura and Jack are headed here this weekend, just in time for the Erdbeer (Strawberry) Fest in our town....then we head to Spain for a week. Can't wait!!

We survived our first Strawberry Fest....barely. The main drink is called a Boule, which is wine and water with whole strawberries. You can drink them fast, as they don't taste too strong, but if you drink too many, you definitely feel it when you stand up! And word to the wise....if you go on the bumper cars after a few of them, WATCH OUT (see picture below of Becky and Edna).

On the first evening of the fest, a group of us met at our house and walked down to the town. We enjoyed quite a few Boule's and some wurst. Later, I ended up walking around with Gabi and Peter and enjoying various kinds of music. It got to be a really young crowd but we still hung in there until about 1am.








































Laura and Jack arrived the next day. We had dinner at (a local restaurant in our town called)Weinhaus Schuster with Gabi, Peter, Sandra and Frank. It was a bit chilly out and by the time dinner was over, it had started to rain, so no Strawberry Fest for us!

The next day, Sunday, was also a fest day (are you seeing any type of pattern here???). We met up with a few friends and spent the afternoon walking the fest. We ended up back at our place, ordering pizza and playing dominos.

Monday was the last day of the fest. We stopped in for one drink, but basically laid low in preparation for our weeklong Spain trip. Jack took it upon himself to fix up our very unattractive pond, and actually did a most excellent job. We can now see the bottom of the pond and there are way more fish swiming in there than I thought possible. I can't imagine where they've been hiding for the past year....somewhere in the murky depths?

Spain was awesome. Our trip started by flying into Sevilla. It's quite a large city. While the cathedral is impressive and Europe's third largest church (particularly the gilded altar dipicting the life of Jesus Christ), our favorite destination was Alcazar, a 10th century palace built for the governors of the then Moorish state. It was rebuilt in the 14th century by Moorish workmen for the Christian King Pedro I.









We then headed to the west coast via Arcos, to Cadiz. In Arcos, we took in wonderful views from the cliffs of the old town. In Cadiz, we walked to the beach and then spent the evening people watching.






From there, we headed south to Algeciras, where we caught a ferry and spent the day in Morocco (Africa). We made the mistake (even against Rick Steves advice, to pay for a tour of the city. We won't make that mistake again. Our guide basically took us to pre-arranged tourist traps, where we were forced to sit and listen to a sales pitch. It did work....we purchased a silk rug. But we ended up with no time to shop in the bazaars, which is where all the deals were. The tour included a lunch that Laura said wasn't even authentic. The street sellers were extremely pushy, and would not take no for an answer. The Arabic word for no is lah, so we were constantly saying "la la la". We sounded silly, but it did the job. We would entertain a return trip, but this time we would fend for ourselves!








Back in Spain, we headed north to Ronda and spent two wonderful days there. This B&B and town ended up being the favorite for all of us. The town was quaint, with lots of scenery, a huge gorge, many bridges. We also visited the only original Spanish cave containing drawings from 20-30,000 years ago. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but trust me, it was really cool!










Then we headed to the East Coast to Alicante, followed by a final night in Valencia.






We ate tapas almost every night, although we were all disappointed about the calamari. It tastes better in the U.S.! We tasted a fair number of Spanish wines, our favorite being a Crianza Rioja. We also had a really awesome mojito one evening.

We found that English wasn't as common as some other countries, which sometimes proved difficult, as Jack was the only one of us with a little Spanish under his belt. One day we thought we ordered lunch, only to find out an hour later that the waitress thought we said forget it.

On Laura and Jack's last night in Germany, Laura prepared an awesome Thai Curry dish, which we enjoyed with our four neighbors. The dinner turned into a late evening of drinking various German wines. Gabi and Peter gave Laura and Jack five bottles to take home with them, which was very kind and much appreciated.


There's no more traveling until the boys get here in July, when we go to Italy for two weeks with the Gollas. In the meantime, this weekend we have a wine tasting/dinner and the airfield is open to the public for the first time in years, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Air Lift.

Here's our wine guide, known locally as Eric The Red (his hair was once Red) and so named by President JFK, because he couldn't pronounce Eric's last name. The final shot is the group shot after our first round of wine, a very tasty Burgundy Prosecco.