History and plants

Bridge at Remagen! Yes is does exist and the movie did a pretty good job of getting the story right. This picture is from the allied side of the bridge and you can see the far side. What is not shown very clearly is that there is a railroad tunnel heading into the mountain. This was a totally unexpected side trip for us. We had gone to Cologne for a short stay and on the way up we say the sign for Remagen, so we decided to stop on the way back.

Cologne-the main thing there was the cathedral. It is absolutely incredible. I have seen York Minister, Westminster, Notre Dame and Reims but this was by far the most impressive one I have seen. It may have had something to do with the fact that there was a evening service being conducted. The organ music and the youth choir was very moving, even for a lapsed Southern Baptist.

I have a new addiction-Orchids. I have had plants in the past including Bonsai but nothing since Sterling was born. I now have collection of Phalaenopsis orchids in colors ranging from pure white to a deep red. I am thinking about ordering a species called Vanda which is actually grows on bark and air. I have to have one.

I have started knitting like crazy. So far I have completed 3 lap afghans for the wounded-they use them when they are transported back to the states. 2 baby sweaters with accompanying afghans for a couple of the surgeons that Robert works with.

I guess the most exciting thing that has happened is that I now have a car so I can zip around all I want. But I have to be sure that I don't use it as an excuse not to keep walking.

That's it for this post. Hopefully I can keep the information coming.

TTFN

Tour de France & F1

On the spur of the moment we decided to try for the Tour. On Saturday they were south of Strasbourg-so off we went. We found a small town to watch the race from versus a major town/city. We ended up between Lebetain and Saint-Dizier Leveque. It was a rainy day and we got to the area about 1 hour before the riders were to come through.

What we didn't know was there was a fatal accident 24miles into the race which brought everything to a halt. After 2.45hours the caravan of promo cars and official cars started coming through. We moved off the road up a small bank to get a better view of the road.

Even though I have been watching the tour for years and know about the police and motorcycles that lead the race, I almost missed the breakaway group. They went blasting by, sorting through their musette bags. Wouldn't you know it, right where we had been standing is where George Hincapie from Columbia threw his bag away. Damn I should have tackled that old lady who lunged for it. But ya know- she had that look that she would be able to kill anyone who tried!

The weekend before that we were heading into the Moselle region to check out the vineyards and wineries. As we were driving, all of a sudden the sign for the Nurburgring. Now we are MAJOR Formula 1 fans and had not planned on attending the German Gran Prix because we thought the rink was about 4.5 hours from us. NOT!!!! Try 1.25 hours. No shit!!! SO of COURSE the car headed in that direction, and we ended up watching the qualifying rounds. (Which has been better than the races lately). It was great to hear the sound of the cars again.

But you know, we never made it to the vineyards. lol

Okay day

Well since I have been back we have had 1, count them 1, nice day!! I had put the "Happy Lamp" away for the season, but if this keeps up, it will have to come back!

I started getting back into the grove yesterday. Damn I can't believe it took me that long to get over this trip. Oh well, at least the office is now sold and out of my life. YES!

The only things going on this week is the Tour de France and Sterling's birthday. So far the tour has had some exciting moments but after watching Versus' coverage for so long, it is hard to listen to Sean Kelly give the color commentary. Sterling will be celebrating his birthday like we have for several years-quietly. I know we are boring, but we gave up parties years ago.

I guess the other exciting thing is waiting for all the packages I sent back from the states. I cannot wait until I get the new pillows!!!!! Silly I know, but it doesn't take much to amuse me these days.

Am reading like crazy. On the paranormal front-Christine Feehan's Wild Fire was on of the best books she has done in her "cat" series. On the M/M front Peters Chair and Talons of the Condor by John Simpson have been very good.

Knitting: have pulled the yarn and pattern together for a cardigan and a cotton sweater. Also found a really neat sock pattern on Knitty that I want to try next.

No trips planned for ther near future. With all the changes is staff, Robert will be on call a lot for the next several weeks.

That's it for today.

Sad today,trip back stateside

It has been a hell of a long time since I have written anything. I had real intentions of letting this blog die but decided to give it one last shot. I will try for weekly posts for a while to see how it goes.

Today is the anniversary of my mothers death-so needles to say it is a very down day for me.There are some years that I can make it through the beginning of July without a problem and others it really hits hard. I can never tell which way it going to go. So I try to do upbeat things and keep myself busy otherwise I will start to brood and loose it. And there is nothing worse than a "after crying jag" headache.

I went back to the states last week of take care of the last business in Maryland. What a culture show that was. I think the main one was the traffic and drivers. You just don't see episodes of road rage or pissyness here. It is VERY rare to hear a horn being blown in Germany.

The second thing was the food. Honest! The portion sizes in the states are HUGE compared to Europe. Most of the servings here will fit on a nine inch plate versus the 10-13" we use. The most disappointing was the ice cream. Before moving here, Hagen Das was MY ice cream, but I have found the ice cream here is more flavorful, richer and creamier. I had a scoop of my all time favorite-Vanilla Swiss Almond.....and ended up throwing it away! It tasted gross.

I promised myself that I would hit the following stores when I got back-Office Depot(because finding copy paper and ink cartridges is a problem at the bx), Ichiban Sushi(because there is NO decently Chinese food or sushi here),Target/Walmart (needed pillows for the bed!!) and Borders for books (because I knew that finding a book fix here was impossible).
You'll be glad to know that I hit all of them with good results.

This is about all I have in me today. Will try to post again soon.

Verdun,Meanderings

Last weekend we went to Verdun. WWI is not my strong point in land warfare-my specialty is WW2 US forces in both theaters. But on the spur of the moment we decided to go. I am including a link that will show the sites of the battlefields. The nice thing is that the weather was sunny (as shown in the photos) so you get a real sense of what we saw.
http://www.werkost.com/Verdunpix.htm

We toured the museum before moving onto the battlefield. It was a well maintained museum with some really impressive displays. The most prominent is a reconstruction of the trenches. The battlefield (or more accurately battlefields) were an impressive site. The area has reforested itself but even with that,you can see the devastation. A very somber visit.

Last week was nothing special, most of the week was cloudy so my happy lamp got a lot of action. Yesterday we decided to go out driving to find and follow the "Wine Road" which is a stretch of highway that passes through one of the major wine growing areas. Wine sampling, here I come. NOT! The route we planned lead us through Kaiserlaurtern and onto Rt 65. Following the signs to Bad Durkeim we headed out. Only to find that the original route was closed for construction. Sooo we backtracked and followed a secondary route. You know whats coming right? Yup totally lost- and that was WITH a map. We eventually found our way to Annweiler-a mill town near the Wine Road, by way of some truely impressive mountain roads. We had a pleasant lunch and stroll through ancient city. Once back on the road we headed for Mannheim and IKEA. One must have SOME treat after a major adventure. lol

I must confess to a new major addiction. My ebooks. Not just the ones I purchase, but the ones that are free sites. I have spent hours and hours reading stories instead of cleaning. I start at round 10am and in between classes, walking, spending time with Robert, I'm back on the laptop until the wee hours of the morning. I have gotten REALLY bad. I will have to limit myself to just 4 hours a day. Maybe,really I will.

Not much else to add for this week. Til later.

Count Mommy

Castles,Tulips,TV and me

It has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for us. Robert & I took a cruise of the Rhine River. The picture above shows one of the beautiful castles along the way. Fortunately for us, it was a gorgeous day and we sat at the bow of the cruise boat.

Last weekend I went on a trip to the Netherlands to see the Tulip Festival Parade and the gardens. NOT a good move on my part! We left here at 1am(yes 1am!) and arrived at the first stop at 6:30am. After seeing a demonstration of making wooden shoes and an explanation of cheese making we had breakfast. Yes, AFTER the demos. I can't believe there is live before caffeine! Then it was onto the parade. Because of the traffic, we ended up detouring what seem liked all of Haarlam, we arrived at the parade route. There were 18 floats with about 4 bands and vehicles decorated with flowers. The floats were beautiful and bands were ok. From there it was onto the gardens. With all the traffic it took us 45 minutes to go 4 miles. Which gave us 1.5 hours in the gardens. BAD MOVE! There were so many people there you could not move. Picture the stands of a NASCAR race and put those people in the gardens. Madhouse central. All of the delays left us with 1 hour in Amsterdam. The down side of it all was the delays and crowds. The upside was the surprisingly beautiful architecture throughout the country. That will be the last bus trip for me!

We have TV and I am enjoying the hell out of it. I am able to watch all of my favorite military history channels. The best thing is that a vast majority of the shows are shown from the European point of view. Very nice. The best thing is we are able to watch the Stanley Cup finals. Go CAPS-they made it out of the first round. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

The next major trip will be to Normandy in late May. I will be acting as tour guide for Robert as we follow the invasion route from Omaha Beach to the Falaise Gap. I can't wait. It will be before the 65th anniversary of the landings, so I am not expecting a lot of veterans to be there. But one can hope. I really would like to have Robert meet some of the vets.

Right now I am listening to fireworks from downtown. Yup, fireworks. Today is a major German holiday. It is called Witches Day and dates back to pre-Christian Germany. Apparently, "witches"-herb women, midwives and the like would gather once a year to exchange receipts,stories and the like. The locals would play pranks throughout the neighborhoods and it would be blamed on the "witches". So it not unusual to find your house toilet papered, trash cans and flower pots moved, lipstick messages on your car.

It's Been a While-Damn!

I know that I should have written several times since March, but life interferes. Since I was thinking about closing the blog, I just didn't bother. But I am now in a mental place to enjoy writing again. Sooo, I present a new format and an avatar!

Since I last wrote several things have happened. We now have satellite tv!!! Honest. After a long search, finally stumbled on a British Pub called the Red Lion an discovered that they had Formula 1 coverage. Hot Damn! there is life after all. We now have approx. 200 channels on Sky TV. Most importantly I have the History Channel, Military History, Crime and ID. Life is GOOD. For example tonight we are watching(before hockey & The Masters) The Complete History of WW2. I know, I know, how many times can I watch the Battle of Britain. The difference is that is is from the British and German points of view. AWESOME!!!!

Let's see, since the last post we have been to Heidelberg and Trier, gone to a German ice hockey game and started German classes.

First the travel. Heidelberg was a disappointment unless you were into major high end shopping. Since it is a college town(in which the university is the major site) there were a lot of pubs and shops geared to teens and young adults. Trier was much better. A true history city boasting Roman ruins all over the place. The ice hockey game was interesting in that they play a no checking(hitting) game.The guy could be making a run down the ice and the defender could do nothing to stop him. Whereas in US hockey, a good hip check into the boards would have cleared him off the puck.

German class is interesting on a couple of levels. The instructor is ex-German Military and has a PHD in Military History. Yup, we definitely have interesting discussions about WW2! The second good thing is that he is laid back and can be sarcastic. There is nothing worse than a boring teacher!

On a personal level-I am walking 3-4 times a week. This area is extremely hilly so several of the walks have a change in elevation of 350 feet. It is definitely a workout. Since we now have a tv and dvd player, I can start with Pilates again.

The happiest news of the week came from the son. He called to let us know that he has been selected for the College of Business' version of Phi Beta Kappa called Beta Gamma Sigma. We are thrilled for him! If he maintains his GPA for the next quarter, he would also be eligible for PBK.