Susan Womble's Adventures

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Germany -week 44 Final Blog Looking Back

Germany week 44 --Final Blog Looking Back

Dear all:

Well this is my last entry. It has been 44 weeks and I was in Europe for 302 days, Or 9 months, 28 days --26,092,800 seconds--434,880 minutes --7248 hours --43 weeks (rounded down). I found a neat website that figured all of that out for me. LOL

My lists

Favorite places: Barcelona, Spain--Garmisch, Germany (the German ALPS), Venice, Italy, Rothenberg, Germany, Prague, Czech, Salzburg, Austria, Regensburg, Germany
Least favorite: Zurich, Switzerland--(expensive and not enough historical significance)

Most beautiful sites: Zugspitze The German Alps--All of Bavaria, Germany

Biggest surprise: Budapest, Hungary

Best local food: Paella in Spain, Lasagna in Venice and goulash in Hungary

Coolest place of all: Stonehenge

Coolest travel thing we did: rode on the night train

Travel tips: Use Ryan Air and booking .com when you travel around Europe--map to choose your hotel to be walking distance to a stop on the hop on hop off bus and use that as a cab-Hop on hop offs are a great way to see all the city has to offer along with hearing about the history of the place. Booking.com flash deals are the best value-change money at an airport or use ATM better exchange rate. Plan ahead but be flexible you never know what might crop up.

What I will miss: My new found friends, my students, Countryside in Bavaria, snow, commissary, the patriotism experienced every day, travelling Europe, our Bavarian house, my baby car.

What I won't miss: Being away from my family, friends and my dog, All of the Rules, the "not like our free" freedom, not being able to tell others where I work when traveling, etc, being a foreigner, having to ask who speaks English, being IDed everywhere, having to carry two types of money.

All in all, we figured that we had travelled to 14 countries and over 65 cities. Gregg and I had a great time --a bit of an understatement. We will talk about this year forever. I wish to thank those who took this journey with me through my blog and I appreciate all of the positive remarks about my blog. Thanks for sharing my 302 days in Europe.

Now I go back to my real life. I will be seeing my family often and will be checking in on my Dad daily. I plan to go full force into my writing as I was too busy travelling and working this past year to devote much time to it. I am still editing the book- Blood Stone Legacy -as I was not completely happy with it so back to the editing board it went-I am hoping it will be coming out at the end of this year or first of next year. I plan to complete the third in my Newt's World Series to finish that series up and I am in draft status of a yet to be named book that will be set in Germany and the USA.

I have met with my writing group and am resuming my school visits.

If you want to contact me about any of my books or about my blog or my visit to Europe. Feel free to email. susan.womble@gmail.com or check out my websites, www.susanwomble.com or www.newtsworldbeginnings.com

Below I put in a few pictures of just a few of the places we visited. It really was a great year and a dream come true.

So for the last time,

Hugs from Germany (via Tallahassee)

Susan

London

Nuremberg

Dresden

Snow

Luxembourg

Stonehenge

Alps

Venice

Paris

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Germany week 43 part 2 Munich

Germany week 43 part 2 Munich
Dear all,
Our last weekend in Germany was spent at Munich. We stayed at the airport and went everyday into the city to visit.
The first night we took the hotel shuttle to the train and met up with a group of soldiers from different parts of the USA who had been at a two week military convention in Germany. We went with them to the Hofbräuhaus one of the most famous bars in Munich. It was right across form the Hard rock Cafe which from the long lines of people buying merchandise showed Hard Rock is doing very well in all of the foreign countries. We bought Thomas shirts form the Hard Rocks all over. Anyway we ate a fabulous meal I had roasted chicken and finally German potato salad, first I had had. LOL We spent the evening with the soldiers and Gregg paid for one of their meals and all of our taxi rides home. For any of you who know Gregg you know this is not like him, but he had drank 32 ounces of the Hofbräuhaus own brewery beer. He was feeling no pain and became very free with his money. LOL
Saturday we went back to Munich and went all over on the hop on hop off bus. We bought some souvenirs and ate the Italian ice cream and took lots of pictures. We also took a horse and carriage ride around the city. Of course the weekend we were there Munich had a big festival. I know you thought the Germans might rest --Oh no not a chance- We took it all in.
We got back to the hotel exhausted.
The next day we went back to the Hofbräuhaus and ate and went to the Olympic park in Munich and to the BMW museum.
Munich was a great way to end our trip to Bavaria. I was sad to go but more excited to be coming back to the USA.
We had 200 lbs total allowed on the plane to check (4 bags) and two carry ons besides our personal carry on- mine was a huge bag and Gregg's was the computer bag. Luckily we got the airport early as our large bag was was over weight and we spent about half an hour repacking and shifting weight until we got all of the bags under 50 lbs but just barely. :)
We changed the last of our Euros into dollars and got on the plane. The plane got in an hour early as the pilot had the pedal to the meal. I watched 4 and half movies in the 8 hours and the flight was not too bad. We went through the customs and the whole ordeal again at Atlanta before our flight home.
When we got home we went out to eat a late father's day dinner at Red Lobster --boy seafood never tasted so good. :)
I am happy to be home. I plan on two more closing blogs to my trip. One that lists what I like about Germany and one that lists what I missed about the USA.
I hope to get them out sometime tomorrow.
With that I will close,
Hugs from the USA about Germany
Susan

Munich

Gregg and his beer

Lady at Hofbrauhaus

See I told you he was drunk :)

Munich

Castle in Munich

Munich

Another fest :)

Street market Munich

Horse carriage

Menu at Hofbrauhaus

Luggage

Germany week 43 part 1 Goodbye to the house and baby car

Germany week 43 part 1 Goodbye to the house and baby car

Dear all:
Sorry this has taken me so long but I am going to write a series of concluding blogs to bring to conclusion my fantastic school year in Germany.
This first blog is part one the last week of school and the last week of finishing up everything.
First of all I started the week finishing all of the paperwork and sign out stuff needed to transition out of a school and out of a country. We had our schedule in place and crossed our fingers that all would go as planned. The timing had to be perfect and lo and behold it was.
Gregg helped a lot by going around and getting some of the necessary signatures required not only by the school but also by the Post. We had to turn back in our rations card, gas cards, set up for getting rid of furniture that we did not need, etc.
Two trips of baby car loaded to the brim took care of unwanted clothing and 220 appliances and shoes, etc that were given to the thrift store to be sold to soldier families. Believe me, we used the thrift store a lot as we transitioned to Germany.
We sold the bedroom furniture and a desk and TV stand and love seat and futon to families via the website bookoo which is basically a garage sale for the military to help them get rid of unwanted items. We also sold our AFN decoder which a soldier's wife gladly paid for a a reduced price. The AFN decoder was definitely a used item in our house.
On Wednesday we had the movers come in and take everything but our luggage packed which we had all ready set up in one room so we could get everything out of the house.
That night we began to come to our final clean out.
Germany was truly cold --not only did we have snow on May 16 but we had to wear jackets because you could see your breath on June 14--See pictures below. We did however have a rain storm and a beautiful fat rainbow--it was gorgeous-- the pictures do not do it justice. Kind of fitting for our last week there. :)
Thursday we donated baby car, a hard thing to do, she had given us 15000 miles and we did not once have to do any repairs to her so she was a great car and the 47 miles to the gallon didn't hurt either.
Thursday was a half day at school so we were able to get baby car, insurance and all taken care of that afternoon. Kristen, a teacher at school, loaned me her second car so we had a car to go home with. We stayed at base and ate at the dining hall for the last time. Turned out it was the 237th birthday bash for the army and the dining hall was loaded with soldiers and the selections were fantastic. Another Forest Gump moment. One of the soldiers at the dining hall asked Gregg if I knew a FSU player named Greg Reid and Gregg said yes and asked why--He said he was from Valdosta and went to school with Greg Reid- then another soldier overhearing the conversation piped in a said he was from Tallahassee on a two week training at Hohenfels. It is truly a small world.
Friday we spent finishing cleaning and packing and loading Kristien's car with all other refrigerator and pantry items and various paraphernalia that we did not get rid of.
True to the German form the housing guy showed up right on time and we ended up walking through the house saying our goodbyes, getting our deposit back and headed to the train.
The train ride with 9 bags was a trip as we stood the entire time since we did not have space enough for that much luggage near the seats. After we arrived at the station we had to take turns rolling the bags out of the train station using stairs, elevators and whatever else was available then we took a taxi to the Munich airport Holiday Inn for four last few days at in Germany
With that I will close as the next is a story for another blog.
Hugs from Germany- even though I sit in the USA typing this :)
Susan

Hohenfels, Deusmauer Velburg drive

Rainbow

Seeing your breath

our autobahn exit

Hohenfels, Deusmauer Velburg drive

Our house

Goodbye to baby car :(

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Germany Week 42 Rothenburg o der tauber, Germany

Germany Week 42 Rothenburg o der tauber, Germany

Dear all:

The wind down is in full force. It consists of turning items in and getting cleared on various perks that I have been given this year. We turned in our rations cards as we will not need those again. We were rationed on tobacco, liquor and coffee. The gas rationing card I will turn in this next week. I have cleaned out my school classroom of my personal stuff as we will be packed up this Wednesday. We either sold or gave away a lot of stuff so our pack out is only one sixth of the poundage of what we are allowed to pack out. Of course we did that when we came too. We tried to live minimalistically while here.

On Saturday, we decided to visit Rothenburg o der tauber, a two hour train ride. It was on everyone's lists so I figured there must be something there to see. We had to change train three times with 4 minute changes. We finally mastered the train system and now it is time to go. LOL Rothenburg was magical. I loved it!! It is the eternal Christmas town and if you know me you know how I love Christmas. So of course we bought lots of last minutes items, things I have wanted for a while. Gregg was great carrying stuff around. We went to a museum that had a dungeon. COOL!! We went down into the dungeon. I have seen lots of castles but this was our first dungeon. It was just as I had imagined--dark and ominous. See the pictures below where we tried to put ourselves in the torture chamber of the stretcher but of course we couldn't hook our head and feet in so it looks kind of funny, but maybe you can get the drift anyway. They also had a re-creation of the alchemist's laboratory where he used snakes, turtles and various other animals to make medicines and I am sure poisons. Remember Romeo and Juliet.

We walked the streets of this walled city -- see the pictures below and it was beautiful. We ate out on the street for breakfast and lunch and sitting on the street on this beautiful day was such a nice way to spend our next to last Saturday in Germany. Of course as you notice it is still jacket weather here. One day last week at 3pm it was 53 degrees and the sun was shining. I will be glad to return to warm weather. People are killing me with their beach pictures on face book. LOL

We met some people from New Zealand and had a great time talking to them. I find it interesting talking to various people from other countries and hear their take on America.

This week will be busy with all of the last minute stuff. With that I will close and get to some of it.
Till next week.

Hugs from Germany
Susan

welcome