Berlin excursion

The conference for my job took place last week in Berlin. So, of course we took advantage of the opportunity and traveled up a couple days early to tour the city. I can honestly say I learned so much during our time there. We always have said that Berlin is somewhere we definitely had to visit while living in Germany, but it never really pops up on our radar when we're looking for travel destinations on our leisure time. So this conference was a great chance to get part of the trip paid for and see the city with so much history.

We began our journey with a horrible experience on the train. Yes, you read that right, it was bad. We took the ICE train (super fast Inter-City Express) and were supposed to arrive in Berlin around 2:30 p.m. Welllllll, let's just say, at almost 7 p.m. we were finally checking into our hotel.

Our first train, a regional bahn, picked us up just fine and whisked us to our next train, which we soon found out was on a 60-minute delay. Ugh. No real problem there, except when the train showed up and sped away again without letting anyone get on! What? Luckily there was another train to Berlin right at that station at the same time, so we, along with everyone else who was supposed to be on our train (on which we of course had paid extra for reserved seats but didn't have that on this other train) got on this other train and stood the hour or so trip to Frankfurt. Not cool! We decided we were not going to stand the rest of the five hours to Berlin, so at the Frankfurt main station we got off and decided to try to get seats on a later train to Berlin. We did, and made it to Berlin, only to get very turned around with their metro system (They have a U-bahn, S-bahn, buses and trams). We finally found our hotel stop only to get turned around and walk about 30 minutes trying to find our hotel. We finally found our hotel, only to have them tell us they screwed up our reservation and put as at another hotel, lucky for us was only three blocks away and much nicer. Whew. So, it took about 10 hours total but we made it.

And in case you were wondering, apparently on our first train there had been some sort of "suspicious package" and the polizei weren't letting anyone on. It still went all the way to Berlin though. Figures, huh? Usually, the train system here is very reliable, but of course that one particular train wasn't! Oh well, at least we made it.

And then it was on to explore Berlin! What an amazing city! The first night we were too exhausted to do much, so we found a Hard Rock Cafe two doors down from the hotel and treated ourselves to lots of food.

The next day we went down the street to the Story of Berlin museum, which is pretty self-explanatory as to what it is. Very good museum, including a tour of a nuclear bunker from the Cold War era. I recommend that museum for a good overview, but be prepared to do a lot of reading. For the best overview of the city, I decided we should take one of those guided walking tours of the city. I had read about them in all the guidebooks and thought it would be a great way to really learn the ins and outs from someone who knows. We met up with Jen and Nate, who arrived that morning for the conference, and off we went on the walking tour with the Original Berlin walking tours company.

We were not disappointed! It was excellent. While it was long, and obviously included lots and lots of walking, we saw everything we wanted to see plus some things we really didn't even know about. Our tour guide was about Carl's age we guessed and grew up in the former East Berlin, so it was really neat to hear about life there from her perspective.

We saw the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, even the location of where Hitler's bunker was in which he committed suicide, the evil coward. I loved the tour and came away from it with a much greater understanding and broader knowledge of the history of that city and the way it impacted the world. We also visited an awesome chocolate store. Mmmm. :)

The following day, we visited the zoo and the aquarium. We love zoos, obviously, and I of course wanted to see the Berlin Zoo's most famous resident: anyone remember Knut the cuddly litte polar bear baby who became famous a few years ago? Well, I'm happy to report that Knut is still cute but he's huge now, and still very playful at his 3 years of age. He was playing in the water with a log. It was quite obvious he knows he's the star of the zoo :) The rest of the zoo was very nice as well. From there we went back to the famous Brandenburg gate and several other famous Berlin locations.

Then, it was time to start the conference. Lira made it with Leslie, and Nate had to leave, so that meant that while we girls were in the conference, Carl and Leslie ventured out into Berlin. They ended up going to the Checkpoint Charlie museum (they said it was overrated), up in a giant hot air balloon (it was tethered to the ground but still went really high) and to the aqua dome that was like an elevator through an aquarium or something like that. We also had time to make it to the DDR Museum (decent -- showing what life was like for East Germans in Berlin but it was a bit cheesy) and found several restaraunts we really enjoyed.

Oh yeah, and the conference was nice too -- good chance to network a little bit and learn some new stuff that's job related, but I'm not going to waste anyone's time by writing about that on here.

All in all, we would highly recommend anyone to visit Berlin. I'll try to post some pictures soon!

New Job!

Well I am a little slow in updating again because I've had a lot going on! Last Monday, exactly a week ago today, I started my new job! So far, it's been great. I have had a lot of learning and adjusting to do, but I feel like it was definitely the right move.

The first few days were all spent inprocessing (translation: walking all over the place trying to find different offices to have them tell me what they do or make me take a test or something and then sign my paperwork). I couldn't get on the computers till Wednesday but finally got that squared away only to find 16 emails waiting for me from that morning!

The worst part was that due to the job, I had to get immunizations, too! Excuse me? I don't have a clue what shots I've had or haven't had, but if you ask me I'll tell you I had them all and last week at that, I'm upated, nothing to see here, move along please, thank you! I called my mom and begged her to fake my shot record but she, being the wonderful mom she is, recommended if I can get the immunizations, and for free, I really should do it -- it's for my own good -- yeah, I guess she was right. I made it through (on the last possible day I could get shots) with no troubles at all! Even got a Spongebob band-aid and they drew a smiley face around my TB test.

The rest of the week was spent simply learning who's who and what's what and of course, going to meetings. I have a feeling I am going to be busier than I've ever been, but that's good! I love being busy and feeling important in my job. In this job I feel like I will come home exhausted every day but feel like I've actually accomplished something and made a difference. The people I work with have reminded me many times what big shoes I have to fill (Jen really did a great job here) but have also been super supportive and offering to help with whatever I need help with. Bonus, I even have my own office again. Yayyyy!!!!!

Last weekend we traveled to the Bodensee, a.k.a Lake Constance, with the doggies. We met with Dan and Kelli and Bryce (Sonia was on vacation with her sister). It was really fun. The hotel we stayed at backed up to miles upon miles it seemed of vineyards stretching up the hillsides. if you walked to the top you could look down all over the valley and the lake below. Across the lake you could see the Alps. We were looking at Switzerland!! On Saturday we took the ferry to the island of Mainau, the flower island, and wandered around. It was basically a giant botanical garden with a butterfly house. Then later we all rented a paddle boat (5-seater) and paddled on the lake a little bit. We really wanted to go to Switzerland but the ferry ride would have taken a while and we figured this time, looking at it was just as nice. Saturday evening turned out to be a specatular scene as the Swisss were celebrating some sort of national holiday and shooting fireworks from all across the lakeshore. Beautiful. The city we stayed in was so cute and small. Bikers and walkers everywhere you could look. Some day we hope to maybe go back and rent one of the houses on the lake front with all of our friends here and just chill out for a week!

In the coming weeks we will hopefully be traveling to Berlin for a conference I get to go to for work. I am very excited and am trying to get the paperwork squared away this week so we can go. It would be us, Jen, Nate, Lira and the kids. How fun would that be, and in Berlin, too! I can't wait!

All in all, some good things happening here now but I still have a long way to go before I feel settled and fully comfortable with my new job duties. I'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Carl and Grandma!

We've had a lot going on since the last post about the cruise. First and foremost, I'll be starting a new job one week from tomorrow (on the 3rd)!! I am very excited. It's a promotion, and we'll still be able to stay here -- I'll just be working for a different command and on a different kaserne here in town. It all came about because my best friend here, Jen, left the job to take a promotion somewhere else, so they upgraded the position and decided to slide me into it. It is a true and huge blessing, because it should turn out to be fantastic for my career.

Because of that, we were not able to go home to Minnesota this week as we had originally been planning (since December!). I've been very bummed about it but have been trying to push on and know that me being able to get this promotion, in the long run, may even allow for better chances to go home in the future. Today is Grandma Ger's 85th birthday, and yesterday was her big party. Everyone was there (except us) and it sounds like they had a really fun time celebrating her as the "Queen for the Century." Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Yesterday was also Carl's birthday (Happy Birthday Carl!), but he unfortunately had to work. I surprised him with a cake that tasted much better than it looked when he got home in the evening. Yesterday evening for work we went on a cruise down the Rhine River to see the famous four-castle illuminations with fireworks in a city just up the river. It was fun, but not enough to keep my mind off of the fact that I wasn't back in the States with everyone else. I have posted a bunch of pictures from the river cruise on the Flickr site. Please check them out! It was a fundraiser for the local Warrant Officer's Association and they hosted a bunch of wounded warriors from Landstuhl.

This weekend we're headed to the Bodensee -- also known as Lake Constance, which is a lake that sits in the borders of Switzerland, Austria and Germany. We'll be going with Dan and Kelli and Bryce and the dogs, of course. It should be a good time.

That's about all for now!

Cruise picture preview

As promised, pictures from our Baltic birthday cruise have now been uploaded to our Flickr site.
Here's a preview!


midnight in the Baltic Sea

St. Petersburg, Russia

Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg, Russia

yes, that clock is right: midnight in the Baltic Sea, and such a pretty sky!

Birthday Cruise

We just got back late Sunday night from our most recent trip -- this time, we took a cruise to the Baltic Sea. This turned out to be a last-minute trip, but it was awesome!

We had been planning for a while to try to take a trip somewhere around my birthday weekend. We had been looking into several trip packages similar to the one we took to Madrid, to all sorts of random places. We are completely open about where to go on vacation -- if it's a good deal, we're there, whether or not we've ever thought about that place before!

So, this time it turned out that we were eyeing a cruise out of Stockholm, our new favorite city. The cruise was on Royal Caribbean, and went to Tallinn, Estonia, and St. Petersburg, Russia. The price was mega-cheap and kept dropping lower so finally we decided to go for it! Carl turned in his leave and I had enough comp time to take 4 days off. (with still more than a week's worth of comp time left - yes, this is different from regular vacation time. Did I mention I have worked a lot of hours outside of work??)

The cruise was fantastic!! Neither of us had ever really thought about going to Russia, and Carl had never even heard of Estonia before, but this gave us a nice opportunity to see Gabriella and Simon again if even for a lunchtime, and have a relaxing trip this time. We love going to new cities and places and have become sort-of experts at navigating metro's and airports, but a cruise allows the opportunity to get there and not have to worry about anything.

The cruise was a 4-night cruise with one day in each Estonia and Russia and one day at sea. Here's a little breakdown of the port cities and the ship experience:

Tallinn, Estonia -- A very nice town. It is a mideival walled city, very similar to Rothenberg that is near us in Germany. There wasn't much that we found to do though, except wander around and shop and look at the old buildings, which we did. We enjoyed it nonetheless. We decided that Estonia is definitely the best place we have come across --ever-- for people-watching. The women were probably the most beautiful we've ever seen, which surprised us both. We also found a neat maritime museum on our way out of town that offered a secret little gem -- you could go to the top of the building and look out over the port. Very nice views!

St. Petersburg, Russia -- It was amazing to think we could go to Russia. We didn't have to get visa's beforehand to enter the country (probably wouldn't have had time anyway since we booked the cruise only a week before going) because we could take an excursion with the ship and they give you a one-day visa. We took walking tour, which was nice, except for the stupid girl on our tour who made everyone wait about 30 minutes because she needed to use the bathroom. Ugh... anyway. St. Petersburg was actually a very beautiful city, once you got inside of it. Lots of waterways and shiny buildings. The day we were there was also the day of their University graduations, so there were young people out all over the city celebrating. We also saw no less than 20 brides walking around in their dresses -- that was odd. Traffic patterns were the worst I have ever seen. It seemed like they had no laws or rules on driving the way some of these people drove! (We were in a bus from the ship to the downtown, and then back again after walking around the city). The only bad thing was that they were having a heat wave, and it was very, very hot, especially for me because I wore my trusty jeans because I wasn't thinking clearly.

The ship -- Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas. Very nice! It was exactly, I mean exactly, like the ship we were on for our last cruise a few years ago in the Caribbean, so that was actually nice because we already knew our way around.
Not only did we get a super-cheap last minute deal on the price of the cruise, but we also got upgraded to a larger room, so that was pretty cool, too.
Last time we took a cruise, we were duped by the art auction. Granted, we got some very nice art work out of it, but this time we knew to stay away. However, we weren't prepared for the spa people to find us! I planned to get my hair done anyway, and Carl was going to try something for his aching back. Well, I ended up getting my hair cut and colored, along with a facial, neck and shoulder massage and deep conditioning hair treatment, while Carl tried accupuncture. Then in a raffle I won a free body content analysis thing (where they tell you how fat you are -- perfect to learn while on a cruise...) so we also just paid for Carl to get the same thing done. The only bad thing we found was that we felt like everything was one giant sales pitch. They wanted us to buy every single product they used on us, and believe me, they were not cheap. ($300 for a 3-month detox system? $300 worth of facial products? $200 for chinese herbs? $85 for a nutrition analysis? What?!) Luckily we held our ground and didn't buy anything beyond the initial treatments. The best news is that Carl had a blast playing Blackjack in the ship's casino, and pretty much won enough to cover the treatments we had originally budgeted for in the spa!
The rest of the time, I mostly enjoyed relaxing and reading. There were 1,900 people on the ship, and 1,200 were from Sweden! They had lots of activities for everyone while on board, including bingo, trivia games, raffles, sing-alongs, demonstrations on things like cooking, ice sculptures and folding towel animals, along with nightly entertainment including an illusionist, a Beatles band and a juggler and variety show.

The whole time I kept thinking, I can not wait for our cruise in October!! Wait, what cruise? Oh, did I forget to blog about that one?? Hmm... well, yes, that is the big trip I had hinted at a while ago (before Madrid and this trip). My parents are coming here again in October and we're all going on a Mediterranean cruise to Turkey, Crotia and two islands of Greece! Yayyy!!! I CAN'T WAIT!! This trip was fun, but having them there will be so much better.

In other news, Jen moved away this week. :( I am super happy for her but I will miss her. She's headed to a new job here in Germany where her boyfriend lives. They'll be about 2.5 hours form us. Also, Carl's best work friend here, Shane, moved to England today. So, we're both sad about losing our friends but we still have some good ones here and it is PCS season now, so who knows who else might show up and move here now, too!

I'll try to post some pictures from the cruise tonight!

Memorial Day in Madrid

Hola!

In my last blog, I mentioned at the end something about booking our next adventure. Well, I'm still not going to write about that one. :)

Instead, I'm going to tell you about a little weekend jaunt we took to Madrid, Spain, over the Memorial Day three-day weekend holiday.

It was fun. The end.

Just kidding. :) It really was fun! We realized quickly how little Spanish we actually do know, and it was quite odd to find ourselves honestly thinking and trying to answer in German when people would talk to us. Guess our Deutch is going much better than we thought, even though it still doesn't seem like it!

Madrid is a beautiful city. I did tons of research beforehand by internet and guidebooks from the library to make sure our hotel was in a good location, and it was, right by a metro stop. From there we were able to get pretty much anywhere we wanted to go in the city. It is a huge city and we walked a lot!! Our hotel was nice -- the room was small, as most European hotel rooms are, and the toilet and sink were square! Yeah, imagine that one... haha!

My favorite part was the fact that they serve churros for breakfast - all you can eat! Can you imagine?! I was in heaven. Their sweets and pastries are delicious too, and I must admit I liked them more than the German bakeries. Probably because they are much sweeter and I do have a bit of a wicked sweet tooth.

Before we arrived, we both picked one thing we wanted to do for sure, and then from there after that I picked lots of random things near each other to try to make it to.

My pick was the Royal Palace.

I'm trying to upload a picture here but it doesn't seem to be working. Hmm. Anyway, the palace was amazing! I mean, simply stunning. I think my jaw was on the floor every time we turned a corner and went into another room! We waited in line for about an hour to get inside, in the rain of course, but it was completely worth it. No pictures were allowed inside, of course, but we took a few on the outside.

After that, we went to Carl's pick, the Zoo and Aquarium. It was a phenomenal zoo. The animals were unbelievable friendly, reaching through the fencing and such. Lots of people were feeding them, which is not actually allowed but they were doing it anyway. I'm sure that's part of the reason why they are so friendly toward humans! We got slightly lost on our way to the zoo as coming out of the metro you are in a big open parkland with no signs. But, we found it eventually. (We spent lots of extra time on this trip wandering around. Despite all the research we did beforehand and having our handy-dandy Frommer's travel guide book along with us, for some reason the exact locations of places kept finding a way to deceive us. It's okay though, the more walking we did throughout the city and the parks, the more of the city we got to experience!)

We also visited the museum of the Royal Navy, which could easily have been a top ten museum of all time probably for both of us, except it was all in Spanish! It was free so we couldn't complain. It even had a map drawn by the first mate of the Santa Maria, showing the route Columbus took, for Isabella and Ferdinand. Amazing.

We went to El Rastro on Sunday morning, which is the largest flea market in Spain. It was cool because it was all throughout some city streets. We didn't buy anything because it was mostly fabrics, clothing, leather goods, etc. We also visited the Parque del Retiro, which is the largest parkland in the city, and it was neat because there were lots of performers and vendors. The weather Sunday was beautiful so we stayed outside almost the whole time. We took the Teleferico cable car over the city too, which offered nice views of the Royal Palace and the skyline. That cable car provided us probably the longest and most confusing "where the heck is it?!" experience of the weekend... but, we found it finally.

There were so many parks, statues, fountains and buildings that we saw and admired but have no clue what they were! I know, that's kind of sad, but it was a beautiful city and it was so packed with stuff like that, that it was easier to admire and take some pics and keep moving.

As far as food, rest assured that Carl's taste for raw meat is still missing. Ha! No kidding, they like their meat almost like raw cold cuts, and even he was grossed out. (He hasn't been the same since the tar tar... hahaha!!) We found two yummy restaurants just by wandering the streets and looking at menus and also went to one vegetarian restaurant I had scouted out in the guidebook that was indescribably good. Even Carl loved that one, honestly!

Yep, we had a great time exploring Madrid and being able to experience a little of the Spanish culture. Would we go back? probably not. Did we need more time there to experience it all? definitely. Would we recommend it to others? Yes, but visit Stockholm first, that one still wins right now for coolest city. :)

All in all, a wonderful weekend. And let's not forget to stop and say thank you to all our service men and women, and remember the fallen, since it was Memorial Day weekend that we were traveling. God Bless America and our troops.

Don't forget to check out our Flickr page for more photos!!

Life in the 'hood... the 'parenthood'

Ok ok before anyone gets excited from the title of this blog posting, we are not going to be having a little one any time soon! Just had to say that right off the bat!!

We did, however, become 'parents' last week to a 10-year old and 13-year old as Lira, my boss, had to go to the States for a conference and left the kiddos with us! Yes, it was an experience to say the least. We get along great with them though, and they are so busy during the week with school and practices that it's not like we had to entertain them too much.

I did, however, learn how to brush someone else's hair, make fruit salad, make peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, do homework, pack lunches, study for spelling tests, sign parent permission slips, drop off at school and pick up at practices after school, and, of course, get the call from the school nurse saying "Leslie needs to go home because she's got a runny nose and due to the swine flu scare, I can't let her stay at school." Sheesh! Busy week!

We all ate dinner together every night and I was so surprised and pleased at how easy they were to feed - they ate whatever we offered, including asparagus, edamame beans, vegetarian corn dogs, spagetti, soy milk, etc. (not all at the same time though haha) They also loved Carl's new signature specialty - smoothies. Every night before bed we all got a smoothie made purely of frozen fruit and vanilla soy milk, nothing more, nothing less, and they were delicious!

It was really fun having the around though. They're very well-behaved and fun kids and are self-sufficient enough that they were not a burden in any way. We have two very lovely guest rooms now so they each got their own room, too. Thomas and Carl mostly played video games for a little while before bed while Leslie and I did homework or played online math trivia games. Good times. I know they were anxious for Lira to get home though, but I am pretty sure they'll be back again in the future, which is definitely fine with us.

Also, Saturday, May 2, Kelli and Dan had a Kentucky Derby party at their house. Now, if you've known me for any amount of years you know I love me some horses, and growing up I was plopped in front of the tv alllllll day on Derby day. The party was mostly for their German friends to learn about the Derby. We all got dressed up and the girls all even wore fancy hats in the tradition of the Derby. Because of the time change though, the race didn't run till 12:30 a.m. our time, and we had the kids coming over early the next morning, so we left about 11:30 p.m. and I watched the race half in and out of sleep on our couch at home. No, I will admit, I did not pick the winner. I was hoping for a little General Quarters or Dunkirk action myself. Maybe for the Preakness?

And, this evening we booked our next big adventure.... stay tuned to find out the details of that one in a later post!! ( I have to have something to keep you coming back!)