Susan Womble's Adventures: May 2012

Germany week 40 Memorial Day, Salzburg Salt Mine, Pacific Asian Heritage Celebration and a couple of European Castles

Dear all:
Just the title of this blog makes me tired. LOL
This week really has been busy. I started out Monday trying to get baby car to pass the German car inspection since I had two or three people who wanted to buy the car, but alas it didn't pass. The inspection that was done on it originally was good until September but if you want to sell a car you have to get a new inspection. From what I understand I got the German guy who doesn't pass anything. It is hit and miss. I know I don't understand the German system but decided it just wasn't worth the fuss. So baby car will be just junked. Sad to think about but what can you do. She was a great car that gave us not a minute of trouble and got 47 miles to the gallon and only cost 1500 dollars so I can't complain.
Thursday we went to the Asian Pacific Celebration at post. It was fabulous with lots of food and entertainment. Lots of Hawaiian dancing. :)Enjoy the pictures below.
I finally got my orders. You have to wait on those to make packing and other arrangements. So I made my packing date for June 13. That was a big relief. And I made sure they had a real email and not needanemail@yahoo.com LOL
The Avengers came to post Friday so we went with pretty much the whole school --really the whole Post. I love going to the movies there as they all stand for the national Anthem before the movie. It was packed with everybody coming early to get a good seat, but what was funny that after the movie had run about 5 minutes other people started coming in and I guess they went and told the guy selling the tickets that there were no more seats so he saw fit to shut off the movie not once but twice to say we couldn't hold seats. Now all of you know what happens when you come to a movie with 4 people after it has started you have to seat one here --one there-- etc. Of course I am not sure he realized he was dealing with Officers in the military and a few told him about it. Anyway before a fist fight happened he quit shutting off the movie. It was just kind of humorous.Speaking of which if anybody remembers the fat kid in the movie "Goonies"--yes we had a first hand demo of the puking in a popcorn bag down the aisle. "It was Horrible." LOL But the Movie was GREAT!!!
We got up early Saturday and went to Salzburg on the train. We went on the Salt mine tour. It was so much fun with a tram ride straddled into the salt mine in miner's outfits and then a complete tour with two big slides down into the mines. See pictures. At the end we rode a ferry across the salt river and then rode a pulley car back up before we took the miner tram back. We were almost 2000 feet underground. I recommend this to anyone. We also saw Hitler's Eagles Nest (see pics) and visited the town of Berchtesgaden , Germany. Great fun and we said good bye to the Alps but it was nice to see them not full of snow. On the way back there was actually an argument on the train-- first I had seen. And the last train was full of bachelorette and bachelor parties. The Bride-to-be or groom-to-be dresses in a weird outfit like a pink furry rabbit or something and I guess they just drink heavily --anyway the last train was quite entertaining with all of the singing and such.
Today we went to church as we are not always here during the weekend. It was especially poignant since it was Memorial Day. The Armed Forces Network also has lots on for Memorial Day. This day has so much more meaning to me being over here and associated with the Post.
After church we "stormed " two more castles within ten miles of us in the town of Hohenfels Schloss Hohenfels and another town close to Hohenfels Rosenauer Burg. We are getting quite good at this and we stopped by a quaint little outside cafe and had lunch on the river.
The rest of the day we have been lazy.
Hope all have a restful Memorial Day with your loved ones as you remember the soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
With that I will close, till next week.
Hugs from Germany,
Susan

Pictures 1 restaurant
2- Hohenfels castle
3- Salt Mines
4-8 Pacific Asian Celebration
9-10 Eagles Nest town
11-16 Eagles nest Town and fashion statement
17 through end Castles

week 39 Germany Nuremberg room 600 and Neumarkt Castle

Dear all:

Great news. We got our tickets changed to June 18th so even though we wont be home for Father's Day we will be home the day after. So at this point we are planning on moving out of our rental on the last day of school and spend three nights in Munich before we fly out.
But for now we are doing those last minute close to home travel activities. Saturday we took the train to Nuremberg where Gregg had wanted to go to the place where the Nuremberg trials were held. The trip from the center of Nuremberg was an experience in itself. It seemed that none of the taxi drivers knew where the courthouse was. Not sure about that--maybe they were just playing with us. We went to the information area and got the lady to circle where we wanted to go and I also had an address but to make a long story short the taxi driver took us to the wrong place. And we even gave her a tip. LOL And if you know GREGG that was something.We went into the building and asked where the courthouse room was and the lady showed us how far away from it we were. It turned out we were at Hitlers place where he had his parades and where he was making his auditorium and they had a big exhibit and we took all that in. It was pretty cool A definite Forest Gump time. The lady at the desk helped us by giving us a cut rate deal on the museums and told us how to use the tram and underground to get to the courthouse. We found it and had a great time. I bout couldn't get Gregg to leave. LOL

Today we ended up going to the Wolf stein Neumarkt Castle which as it turned out was only about 10 minutes from us. We are trying to take on a castle a weekend until we leave. It was nice. See pictures below the view was awesome.
There is also a picture of Gregg at the golf tournament he played at this past Friday.
It is fun to visit around our German home.
Have a great week. It was Armed Forces Day yesterday and it was cool to be associated with the armed forces for that day.
With that I will close. Until next week.
Hugs from Germany
Susan

Nuremberg