Week 27 Germany Wiesbaden and "The Europeans"

Week 27  Germany- Wiesbaden and Europeans

Dear all,

First thing I thought I would add a picture from last week at Budapest of the clothing worn by the girl standing by Gregg thought it was kind of interesting.

No rest for the weary.  We started off Tuesday to Wiesbaden Germany.  It is about 10 miles from Frankfurt but a town honestly that I had never heard of, but it was spectacular.  We checked into the hotel with was an ETAP.  A clean hotel and the rooms are cheap but they are about the size of a cruise ship room and I mean the bottom level rooms not the suites.  There was a toilet in a closet and no closet for clothes or bureaus and the shower was in the room and it lit up kind of in psychedelic lights for your shower.  I couldn’t decide it I should be singing while taking a shower.  The beds were bunk beds. Gregg said it would have been more comfortable to have slept on railroad cross ties.   It would have been fine for a one night stay but for four nights –well let’s just say it’s a good thing Gregg and I like each other so much. Lol

We went to Europeans which consisted on cheering for two games one day and one game the next two and lot of practice for the girls in between. The boys and girls basketball teams played their hearts out and lost some really close games that put them out of it.  Our big competition was Saturday and they showed the whole thing live on the AFN channel.  The girls did not mess up at all but of course I think the judging was wrong because they did not place.  If I was scoring I would have given them the third place.  I could be a bit biased though.  There was a lot of gymnastic talent  on the mats. But on the bright side we had one girl make All-European so we weren’t shut out completely.

We were able because of all of the chaperones and Gregg had to come in our car to steal away a little tourist time on two different days.  We visited Wiesbaden one day.  We went to the casino.  It is the second oldest casino in Europe.  The men had to wear ties and jackets.  They had roulette and blackjack and slots for roulette.  We played blackjack and won.  A nice little surprise.  Of course the Garmin took baby car right up to the casino which we realized after the fact that it had taken us right up on the porch and because baby car is so small it had no problems maneuvering around the porch area. Gregg thought that the last thing that went up on that veranda was King Ludwig’s horse drawn carriage and now of course baby car.  That Garmin has such a sense of humor. Lol  They deal differently than in America --the dealer does not take his last card until all hands have been dealt so if he gets an ace we can get insurance but we don’t know if he gets blackjack until all hands are played.  It was a little different but hey we both won so who’s to say?

Below are pictures of the town.  It is a gorgeous town with lots of beautiful architecture.  The next day we drove to the Rhine River.  We came to one of the stops for the Rhine River Cruise in front of a palace and actually walked to the river and put our hands in it.  We didn’t have time to cruise the river but it was a bit cold anyway.  It was only 5 minutes from our hotel. See pictures below.

On our way home there were traffic jams on the autobahn and the Garmin would have us detour to miss them so we drove though some beautiful towns on the way back and I snapped a few pictures of those too.

So with that I will close.

Hugs from Germany

Susan

Germany week 26 Budapest, Hungary and a snowman

Germany  week 26   Budapest, Hungary and a snowman

Hello all,

  I am writing this as I sit at a hotel in Budapest Hungary, not a place that was on my list but the military had a trip so I said why not. I will send it when I get back to the house as I was not successful in accessing their free wifi in the hotel room- sometimes my virus protector just says no.  lol  Mindy and Crystal notice the picture of the hotel it is a Novetel but it was called The Palace—not like Biloxi but I still thought it was cool it was named the same. I have off tomorrow since it is a federal holiday-Presidents day.

The first of the week we had an early leaving which meant no cheer practice that day and we came in late which meant I got to sleep in. Gregg subbed both of those days so he liked it too.  Driving to work that late morning was a bit hairy and a couple of people did not make it because the roads were not plowed yet.  We are still coming on the autobahn so that hasn’t been a problem for us although there were two trucks that had to stop to put chains on their tires so we had to go to the side and climb by them but baby car made it yea!!

We made our first snowman this week see pictures below.  He was fun to make but only last one day=-since when I came home the next day to look at him a large chow dog jumped on him and knocked him down.  I told Gregg that dog killed my snowman. We figured he had gone after the sticks that we had put for arms. Chow dog killed Frosty  L

Budapest is lovely.  We saw many beautiful buildings you can see a lot of them in the pixs below.  I put a picture of the woman who welcomes people to the town.  She is a symbol of peace and was put there in 1947 after the world war to symbolize peace in Budapest.  I found out some interesting things about Budapest.  First of all one fifth of the population of Hungary lives in Budapest.  Budapest is divided into two sections Buda and pest. The Danube divides the city.  This weekend ice chunks were going down the Danube.  Some other interesting things about Budapest is that there were lots of fabric stores they make a lot of their own very detailed clothing.  Also there were a lot of big pipes for smoking they were in the window.  It looked like the big basket that the snakes come out of and the pipe was long and curly.  Don’t know what they’re smoking though. Lol

We took a three hour city tour and had a great time.  I have to admit that Budapest was not on my radar to visit but I am glad that we went.  There are a lot of casinos in Europe just about every town we visit we find some.  We tried our hand at gambling with the forint money.  We did pretty good made enough to buy all of the silly tourist stuff that I love. lol We ate on the Danube, Hungarian goulash soup of course it was delicious  We had that and two cappuccinos.  It came to 19000 Forints which is about 8 dollars.  To say the least they do not have the Euros; not because they don’t want it but because they cannot afford it.  The tour guide said that the average person in Hungary makes about 600 dollars a month.  Kind of sad.

With that I will close.

Have a great week.

Hugs from Germany,

Susan

Germany week 25- Another 2 hour delay, snow, and more basketball

Germany week 25- Another 2 hour delay, snow, and more basketball

Dear all,

We did not get a chance to go anywhere this weekend as I had the marathon basketball again this weekend.

 We started off the week with a problem with the buses on Monday.  The bus diesel fuel froze because of the low temperatures and some would not start.  I had never heard of this , but of course I liam from Flordia. lol So classes were sparse, and then the next day they had a 2 hour delay to make sure the buses could start.  It was nice sleeping in.

On Saturday I looked up the temperature before I went to basketball.  The low was 9 degrees and it said it felt like - 7 below Fahrenheit whew you really have to bundle up for that kind of weather. Fortunately, our landlord had a new delivery of our heating oil  this week so we keep nice and warm in the house and also at school.

I attached a few snow pictures to the bottom so you could see how it was here.

We are definitely hibernating here in Germany.

I thought I'd share a story from the beginning of coming here.  The first week I was here I had gotten here so quickly that I did not have all of paperwork for me to get my ID.  You need an ID to do anything here.  Go to the commissary, get on base etc.  That was not a problem for me for the first couple of weeks as I did not leave base and was staying at the hotel.  But the Sunday afternoon the day before school started during planning I decided to go to the school to finish up.  I took my camera to take pictures of the school etc.  Unbeknownst to me taking pictures without permission is not allowed on a base.  So here I am after taking my pictures outside the school and then walking back to the hotel swinging my camera on my arm.  A security car pulled up beside me and me being so dumb I’m waving at them thhinking they are just being friendly.  lol They got out and wanted to look at my camera of pictures. Of course all that was on there was picture of my classroom and a couple of pictures outside the classroom but he made me delete them all.  Anyway the Military Police asked for my ID—I said well now that is another story.  I guess my story was so pathetic and I did have a passport that showed I had just gotten here and I was listed on the pass gate.  So the first week here I just about got thrown into the slammer.  But fortunately the crisis averted. Now that would have been a story. Lol

Another interesting fact is about getting a hunting and fishing license here in Germany.  First of all it is a long ordeal and you have to take classes and it takes about 6 months to get a hunting license.  There are of course many, many rules. You also are assigned a designated area for which you are responsible.  So if someone runs over a deer in your area, you have to go take care of it even if it is 3AM in the morning.  You are not allowed to run over animals here on the road without calling anyone unless it is a squirrel.  You have to call the authorities.  Needless to say it is just too hard to get the licenses so not many get them.  In addition in this extreme cold weather- it has been so cold over here—tragically we have read that 400 people have lost their lives  During this kind of cold, the hunter has to furnish bales of hay for the deer to eat.  So the hunter has a lot of responsibility. Neither Gregg or I will not be getting either of those licenses. Lol

With that I will close for this week. Have a great week.

Hugs from Germany!

Susan