The Highs and Lows of Switzerland

The highs......

Every since I read about the scenic snow trains, I have wanted to go on one. I went to Switzerland on a USO tour - but we were not near where the snow trains depart from. It is rather expensive for a roundtrip ticket, so I was thinking I would not get to go....but.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Since I will be traveling home on my birthday we celebrated it early. We took the Snow Train from Chur Switzerland to Tirano Italy and back again. It was AMAZING! I love the snow and I love trains - so Chris decided to humor me and pretend to be interested. He admitted that the first half hour of our 4+ hour journey to Italy, he was thinking it would be a long trip - but then as we climbed further in to the Alps - the beauty captivated him! Something I noticed on the trip is that the Swiss seem to like to add H's to their words. Now, wouldn't you think that Chur is pronouced similar to Chair - you know - the C + H together - make the ch sound? Well, nope, we quickly learned that it is pronounced Kerr (like the canning jars). I wondered why they added the H - but then I realized that many of the towns in Switzerland have the H added to T, C or S and it is just silent. Why on earth add the extra letter? I am guessing it is just to confuse the Americans... Anyway - once we arrived in Italy, we ate outside on the patio of a nice itallian restaurant, and then took the snow train back to Chur. I will say that the snow train was a marvelous experience and if you love snow and seeing pretty things - you would love to take a ride on the Snow Train! We saw skiers, snowboarders and snow kiters. It looked like so much fun! While on the train, I had a little bit of fun with a man that snored the entire time... not sure why he wasted his money to take a nap - but to each his own. I giggled so much at his loud snoring. There was a little french lady sitting near us - we could not understand much of what each other were saying - but we sure did have fun giggling at the snoring man! I decided to take a a little video of him, and before I knew it - the entire train was chuckling - lol. It was pretty funny, but sad about that man wasting his money.

The lows....

As I was in the hotel checking out and paying our bill, ready to leave Switzerland to go to Austria, Chris was out taking a few last minute pictures.... and getting his wallet stolen. Yep - thats right... we are thousands and thousands of miles from home - and someone steals Chris' wallet! When the police were called, they refused to come out. They said they do not come out for that. I guess thats why they claim not to have much reported crime - they do not allow you to report it! I guess it is true that they are still a neutral country - neutral with thieves too....

So, needless to say, we had lots of fun cancelling credit cards and all the fun that comes with a stolen wallet. And Chris will have even more fun when he returns home - standing in line to get a new license. Poor Chris..... but at least I had a good "early" birthday :)

Preparing to Return Home

As the day of our return gets closer and closer, we both continue to get more and more excited! Chris and I had an awesome date last night! We went to our favorite restaurant here, Mama Marias Italian Restaurant. We just love the guy that owns the place! While there, we played a little game we call "I am excited about". We take turns saying what we are excited about. Our game lasted a long time since they were so busy. As crazy as it sounds, our trip we are about to take was not even mentioned. We were more excited about things related to going home and things we will do when we get home. Oh - I am sure that we will have a great time - but the thoughts of returning home are just so more exciting! I am anxious to see my mom again - even though my time in WV will be very short. I am excited to see my sweet TaiChi dog again too. I am hoping that she will not be mad at us and that she will be happy to see us again. Just in case, we will stop and get her a nice bone to give her when we return.
Its hard to believe that a room in the Army Lodging Hotel has been "home" for 4 months. We are checking out of here today and when we return from our trip, we will be staying off base instead of on base. We have to turn our IDs in, so we would have to move off base any way for the last couple of days.
Shortly after we returned from Iraq, Chris received a nice bonus check for referring an employee to SAIC. When he got it, I decided to let him do whatever he wanted with it without complaining. Well, he decided he wanted a big screen TV. Now... let me just say that when we left to go to Iraq - I had a nice BIG craft room. When we returned, our house sitters had moved our couch in there and I decided I liked the way it looked, so I decided I wanted to leave it there. So now, I was sharing my craft room with the couch and a pretty small TV. Well, Chris decided the best place for the grandfather clock we purchased in Italy would be - where? The bonus room - which is supposed to be my craft room! So we removed the drawing board that had belonged to my daddy and put it in storage temporarily. So, now, he was saying he wanted to move a bigscreen TV in it. I told him that it was not the most responsible thing to do with the money but I would not complain - no matter what he decided to do with the money. But soon, he had me excited about it as well - so that is what he purchased. Luckily his brother (Steve) and Steve's wife (Dana) showed him on the internet a site that told you what size of TV is best for your size of room. Thanks to them, Chris agreed not to buy an oversized one. {{huge thank you to you Steve and Dana!}} Because of the other additions to MY craft room -my craft area was reduced and moved to the corner of the room... Anyway, we got the TV and Chris brought it home and set it up - added his gaming systems, a laptop computer and dvd player to it. He was like a kid in a candy store. HOWEVER, I deflated his enthusiam when I announced that he could have the bigscreen TV, but we would not be getting cable until he went back to work. So much for his summer of fun with the bigscreen - lol. Even though I informed him that he was not to get cable yet, I never complained - and luckily he abided by my wishes. We have not had cable for YEARS. So, yesterday guess what I did? I contacted the cable company and made an appointment for them to install cable. I have to admit, I am a little excited about the thoughts of curling up on the couch and watching TV and movies in High Definition. It doesn't always take much to make me happy.

Prague, Czec Repulic and Poland

Prague? Where the heck is Prague anyway? And why did I want to go? Quite honestly, I wanted to go because of the TV Show Alias. Did you ever see that show? Sidney Bristow ROCKED! She went to Prague many times on her spy missions. Well, Prague is in the Czech Republic. In February, we decided to drive up there and see where Sidney Bristow did all her spy stuff. It was not a bad drive from Stuttgart. We made reservations at a "Botel". It is a pretty much just a plain old boat turned in to a hotel. It was not fancy - but, since we are boat people, we LOVED it. The best part was the HUGE window in our room! The view was awesome. There are a few pictures in the slide show that show our view. Like any other city, there were sections where graffiti littered the beautiful buildings. We found the transportation system tricky there, mostly because of the language barrier. Since we were so close, I suggested we drive to Poland for a sausage. Well, we did not find any polish sausages there (maybe they are just called sausages there - not polish sausages). Polland is known for their beautiful pottery. Chris and I picked up a few pieces and sent home. We really enjoyed the drive through rhe countryside, but it was a little sad to see what the war had done to that country - they still have not recovered completely. It made me think about Iraq and how if we pull out too early, we will do to the Iraqis what the Russians did to the Polish. You have to admit, the US left Germany in a lot better condition than Russia left the territories they were responsible for. You can really tell the difference in that we helped rebuild Germany after the war. Anyway - enough war talk.... Our trip was - as they all are - wonderful. I can not say that the Czech Republic or Poland are places I have a desire to visit again. But I can check them off of my list of places to see.

Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart Germany

There is an awesome zoo here in Stuttgart. It is actually a zoo, aquarium and botanical gardens all in one. The layout is awesome, the landscape is terraced and you kind of walk up to different levels. We only spent a day there and there was a LOT we did not get a chance to see. It was a great zoo and we had an awesome time.

We got some cool video too.... the monkeys playing was the funniest. We also got a really cool video of the little piggies being fed. It was so cute to see them get all worked up when they saw them coming to "slop" them. And me. being me, had to take lots of unconventional pictures.... I got pictures of the animals bottoms and got video of some going potty - disgusting but humorous to my twisted mind....

Baltic Coast and Denmark

Chris had a few days off prior to New Years, so we took a drive up to the Baltic Coast. We stopped in Hamburg to meet Chris’ cousin (Earnest) who he had never met. We had a great time with Earnest and were happy to have been able to meet him. He is a fun guy and we hope to see him again sometime. We drove on up to the Baltic Coast – which is beautiful. We took a ferry to Denmark. Denmark was nice, but if you got off the main roads, you were pretty much lost. There were not many signs once you got off the main roads. Not that the signs would have done much good – because they were not in English. If you could find someone who spoke English, they were extremely nice and helpful. Of course we went to the Hard Rock Café in Copenhagen. The next day we drove back to the coast and crossed in the ferry again. We went lighthouse hunting, but could not find very many. It was a great trip and we made it back to Stuttgart on New Year’s Eve – just in time for the fireworks!

OOH LALA ~ J'adore Paris!

We spent a glorious day in Paris in January. It was so incredible. We both honestly thought that Paris would be similar to Rome, in that we would see it once and not care to return. OH - how wrong we were! Paris is so full of beautiful things to see and lots of things to do. We arrived at sunrise and stayed until late that night. We went on a USO tour, so we were able to sleep on the way there and on the way back. Seeing the sunrise at the eifel towere was amazing. We saw the city at dawn, during the day, at dusk and at night. We loved Paris and can not wait until the day we are able to return. Around 5pm when everyone was getting off work, I was none too crazy about the wonderful city.... it was crazy! Worse than New York. I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack walking down the street. Everyone was pushing and shoving and I kept getting separated from Chris (who had my passport, the map and all our money and credit cards). The anxiety got pretty bad there for a while - but I survived, and once the "going home from work" crowd was gone - it was once again a wonderful city. I also suffered a little anxiety earlier in the day when our tour bus was driving us around the traffic circle at the Arche de Triumphe. That is a crazy traffice circle! There are a bunch of lanes - WITH NO LINES PAINTED on the street! There are 12 major roads going in and out of this traffice circle! I kept wondering how we were supposed to get to the arch in all that traffic, but then I later realized that you go UNDER the road to get to it. The climb up the arch was tiring after walking so much, but it was well worth it for the view up there! The Eifel tower was amazing. Of course we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and what is a visit to Paris without eating crepes? It was a wonderful trip and we both are very anxious to return to Paris some day!

Holidays in Germany

I joined Chris in Germany just in time for the Christmas Markets. We took our first train ride in Germany – the SU line to go to downtown Stuttgart for the Christmas Market. It was a pretty fun evening, although extremely cold. There were lots of little shops to buy Christmas gifts (all of which were a bit over priced); lots of decorations, lights, and nativities; but the best part was all the food! WOW! It was like a carnival or something! My favorites were the Belgium nuts coated with the crunchy cinnamon topping, the flammkuchen (similar to pizza) and the fruit dipped in chocolate. We did a lot of walking, but I am sure we did not do nearly enough walking to burn off all of the calories we consumed.
When I first arrived to Germany, I was told my many people of all the different places to go. There were lots of castles, a place called Garmisch where you could go and ski and be in the snow, Dusseldorf for shopping, Köln for the beautiful cathedral and lovely buildings, the zoo, as well as the many different countries you could drive to in a matter of hours. I admit, I found it a bit overwhelming. How was I to decide which place to go first? Christmas was approaching and we had a few days off, so Chris left me with the decision of where to go. I decided I wanted to see snow, mountains, and have a white Christmas. So, I decided to choose Dusseldorf. Now, if you are an observant person with a good memory – or if you know the area, you will say – huh? Dusseldorf? Yes – I got majorly confused. On the drive to Dusseldorf, I kept looking and waiting to see the mountains. Oh – we saw snow – but no mountains. When we arrived at our hotel, we found out that we were the ONLY guests registered for Christmas Eve. Huh? Why are there no other guests? Well, that is when I realized that I had chosen the perfect place for SHOPPING. And of course everything in town was closed! ARGH! I could not believe I had done that. I felt ridiculously stupid, but Chris was a good sport and assured me it was OK. We had a wonderful time enjoying the pool and spa area alone. I have to admit, that if I had not known we were alone in the hotel, I would not have enjoyed the spa area. Why? It was a NAKED zone! Yes – you read right, they do not wear swimsuits! At first I was appalled, thinking there was no way I was going to take a shower or get in the sauna or steam room in an area where bathing suits were prohibited and men and women shared the area! Then, as I looked longingly at the awesome shower – it was that kind that is a vertical spa…. I decided – what the heck – no one is here but me and Chris. So, I got brave and stripped naked right there in the coed area. That shower was heaven! I can’t wait to build our new house so I can install one of those! Needless to say, that is the only time I have been to a European spa –I will probably never have another chance to be alone with only my husband in one. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve night in our hotel room with a wonderful steak dinner from room service and unwrapped our presents. The next day we checked out of the hotel and drove to Kologn. It was BEAUTIFUL there and was really neat to see the cathedral on Christmas day. The snow was beautiful on the trees on the ride there and back.
New Years Eve we returned back from a trip to the Baltic Coast and Denmark just in time for the fireworks! Fireworks here are different than back home. Here, companies and cities do not do firework shows. I was disappointed when I heard this. But I was told by my German friend that here, EVERYONE puts off fireworks. I was thinking – sparklers, roman candles, bottle rockets…. But NO! They do the fancy kind! It was so amazing to see the fireworks here – in every direction we looked! Unfortunately, the pictures did not turn out good. As much as I loved my holidays here in Germany, I am looking forward to Christmas 2008 in the US!

The Black Forest

On the day I arrived in Germany, Chris took me first to drop of my luggage at the army lodging on the base we were staying and then immediately took me to another base to obtain an ID card to gain access to the bases. When we arrived at the ID and Pass office, despite Chris' phone calls and visits with them to prepare, we were told that they needed a copy of our marriage certificate! OOPS! At least Chris had planned ahead and scanned all of our documents and put them on his laptop! We had to leave that base and return to the base we were staying (30 minutes away) to get the laptop. We rushed back and arrived at the gate with just a few minutes to spare. When the guard asked for my ID, Chris explained that he had just signed me in earlier and that is why I was there- and that we went back to get a copy of our marriage certificate. Well, they opened the gate and flagged Chris through (or so we thought). We got my ID and as we left the building, there were LOTS of MP cars in front of the building! Lots of MPs were standing around our rental car. Chris went to the car to put his laptop in the trunk and see what was going on. When he approached the trunk, he was told very sternly to back away from the vehicle. They asked him if it was his rental car and he said yes. Well, come to find out, the German guard at the gate was brand new (his first day) and evidently his English was not that good. He had wanted Chris to pull in and sign me in again. When we drove through - they went on alert and considered him a gate runner. The MPs were very nice once they realized it was a misunderstanding, but it was quite an adventure for my first day. Welcome to Germany, huh?

There is so much to see in Germany. Many things were within a short drive from where we were staying. Our first trip while in Germany was to the Black Forest. We took an additional trip later – yep, we liked it that much! It is beautiful there, although I about froze to death on both trips! The snow was beautiful, so I guess that was worth the cold temps. We are really close to the Black forest – and it stretches out for miles and miles. We went cuckoo clock shopping while there. I have always wanted a cuckoo clock. What I had in mind was not exactly what Chris had in mind. I was thinking one of the little ones – but we bought one of the biggest clocks and two little houses to adorn the sides of the clock. It is truly amazing the work that goes in to these clocks. We also saw the biggest cuckoo clock in the world (actually there are two clocks that claim to be the biggest – the other is in the US – not sure which is actually the biggest).

Another place we enjoyed on a day trip was the Bavarian Alps and visits to King Ludwigs Castles. Again, we saw snow... and I loved it! Actually - it is snowing right this minute as I type this!

Below are some pictures from the Black Forest and Bavarian Alps.

Giving in to pressure

OK - for months now, my darling husband has been pressuring me in to creating a blog. I reminded him that I have a webpage and that I also have a myspace page. Well, he was not happy with that reply. He said we needed a "family" blog page. I said, "fine, you do it". He, being the kind loving husband he is, reminded me that I am not working and that I have much more free time than he has. I tried to fake my way through it by creating a "Herwig happenings" page on my emailsfromiraq website. He was not too thrilled with that.

Well, tonight, he came home from work with the nicest little colorful box of Easter goodies for me. Geesh - does he have to be so stinking nice to me? He makes me feel guilty for not doing things he wants me to do. So, after getting the link to many other blogs of my friends (thanks a lot all of you for adding to my pressure - lol) I feel obligated to start our Family Blog as my sweet, loving husband has requested.

It is late here in Germany (about 2AM) - so I will keep this short for today. However, I will post more later. We are coming back home to the good ole U S of A in April. We are so excited. since I have not "blogged" during our winter here in Europe - I will try to blog every day about our experiences we have had - hopefully, I can fill you all in on all our fun before we get home and have more fun with all our friends and family! We love and miss you all and are SO excited about coming home for good!