Castle Hoppin' in Bavaria

What do you do with an open weekend in Germany? Well, we were going to head to Paris but then decided that the three little kiddos wouldn't think it'd be much fun walking the streets of yet another odd city in the freezing cold. So we decided on a "day trip" to see some castles. Our goal was to leave at 10am.

Hmmm, funny thing about this relocation, I have absolutely no concept of what time it is here. It is not helped by the fact that the only clock in our hotel room is on the room phone and is TINY and on what I call military time. I'm still trying to get the hang of what time it is when the clock goes past 12pm. That's serious thinking for this gal right now!

I can't stand not knowing what time it is. When Morgan wakes up to eat in the middle of the night, it kills me to not know what time it is and how many more feedings I may have to wake up for. Ryan finally went and bought a clock for us last week, but the boys keep resetting it. You'd think I'd wear a watch and I would if I could find one that didn't give me a rash with the metal touching my wrist. I should look into the cause of that sometime.

Anyhow, back to trying to leave at 10am. The castles we were going to see where 2 hours away and closed at 4pm. We ended up leaving at noon and hit traffic. I'll interject here that I had no idea where we were going or what the weather was like. That would have been helpful info given that we were headed for the Alps! My poor family and I had our coats, but left the scarves, mittens, and hats at home. Brrrrr! Click on the picture below to see all the pictures.

Hohenschwangau Castles

We were headed for Hohenschwangau. I have a love/hate relationship with our new GPS. Love not having to be Ryan's navigator while kids are screaming, but I love looking at maps while we drive places because I really like to have a feel for where we are in relation to other places. I still haven't google mapped Hohenschwangau yet, so I can't even tell ya where it is except that it's at the beginning of the Alps. Kills me to say that!

We got there an hour before everything closed up for the day but missed the chance to catch any of the tours inside either castle. Finally we decided to stay the night and try to do both castles on Saturday which turned out really well! Note that we hadn't planned to stay the night and the boys were rather confused that we were staying in our same clothes to sleep in and wear the next day. Ergh!

About the Castles: Hohenschwangau dates back to the 12th century and the Knights of Schwangau. After the 16th century it felt into ruin. In 1832, King Maximilian II of Bavaria bought and rebuilt the "jewel of German romanticism" for use as a summer hunting retreat. His son who became King Ludwig II loved its situation and built Neuschwantstein close by. King Ludwig absolutely loved Richard Wagner's operas and dedicated this new castle to him and his operas, particularly "Swan Lake." Neuschwantstein's architecture inspired Walt Disney's creation of his Disneyland trademark castle.

Our highlights: Loved the thick hot chocolate and the boys wearing it all over their faces! No love for the hotel's shower and refused to use it - the hotel was adequate but worse than a Motel 6. Loved seeing my boys devour watermelon for breakfast at the buffet and even push aside beloved cereal! Loved the new inch of snow on everything in the morning so the castles looked like you should stop and paint them, so we took pictures! No love for the sub-freezing weather and being ill-prepared. Loved our short uphill walks to the castles and Germans overestimating the time it'd take for these walks. Loved that Morgan had to take a gander during the tour but slept for all the time we needed to be outdoors. Loved that the boys behaved really quite well during the tours. Ryan and I still needed to buy the tourist booklets to understand what we saw but missed the tour guide sharing because the boys didn't understand that the ropes were meant to keep you from touching or sitting on treasured royal antiques. Loved all the murals Bavarians have painted on their homes, buildings and all over inside these castles! WOWEE! Wished we'd brought some Motrin for our aching bodies after carrying kids all day!

Christmas in Germany

I wrote the following Christmas afternoon, but since only one of us can be online at a time, I never got around to posting until now. Sorry!

Christmas 2008

(Click on the album above to view the pictures.)
We’ve just had a wonderful Christmas morning and we’re loving all the church bells ringing yesterday and today here in Vaihingen (area of Stuttgart)!

This week has been 100x better than last week’s relocation! We moved into a long stay hotel room with a kitchenette, made new friends at church and got invited over for meals, visited a medieval Christmas market in Esslingen, and found an apartment to move into in January! We’ve also started to get our bearings, thank goodness! Ryan is amazing when it comes to driving around the city. I’ve always been grateful for his fabulous ability to remember how to get places he’s been to only once before!

Sunday morning we went to our new ward, except it was a combined sacrament meeting with the German speaking ward here. Church was only 1 ½ hours for the program which was completely bilingual with translators. The program was primarily music which is always nice. My favorite was the trombone quartet that played a few selections! The first person I met invited us to lunch after church with another new couple to the ward. What fun! Darla and Dan Jones with their six children were great hosts feeding us a proper roast and mashed potatoes meal which was so delicious to us hotel dwellers!

To help us meet our encroaching housing deadline, our realtor wanted to show us a couple places that afternoon. The Jones offered to watch the boys while we went and looked at the places, isn’t that the best?! First we looked at an old 1899 home that was so interesting, but way to big for our needs. It had four levels, three with their own kitchens! The old cellar and attics were something to behold!

Next we looked at a 3 bdrm/2bath ground level apartment in a quiet cul de sac whose scenic backyard and view just couldn’t be beat! There is literally a big hill beyond our backyard where shepherds and their sheep wander! There isn’t much in the housing inventory right now because the US African Command moved to Stuttgart recently and of course, it’s the holidays. After seeing a great townhome style duplex, we decided the quiet apartment with the backyard/view was for us! I’ll totally have to switch décor styles from our dark wood colonial to light wood modern European. Wish me luck, this is not my forte!

We spent Christmas Eve with the Jones and their guests. The Birds with their teenage daughter and son are from the DC Maryland area and actually live in the village we’ll be moving to. Sister Bird shared lots of inside info on our village, but my favorite was that the village women hold a once a week free German conversation class where kids are welcome. You learn German, meet the ladies in the village and find out all sorts of important local stuff just by association. HURRAY!!!

Another couple, Kaarin and Karsten, moved here from Springfield VA a week before us and are a lot of fun! Kaarin had actually been the Jones’ girls YW president in VA before the family moved to Botswana. They love to play board games and even gave us the German anniversary edition of Settlers of Catan for Christmas! The board is actually a map of Germany with game pieces that are replicas of German monuments and structures! We may get together with them later today to try it out.

I can’t remember the name of the other gentleman we met. He’s got seven kids back home in Colorado and his 6 month assignment ends in late January. He was well loved by the Jones’ two younger kids that used him as their personal jungle gym. All the kids acted out the Nativity as Brother Jones narrated. It was a fun evening of good food and gracious new friends!

Once we got home, we got the kids ready for bed so Santa could come. I love reading well illustrated versions of Claude Moore’s “Twas the night before Christmas” poem. We also read a children’s illustrated nativity story. Easton helped Ryan put out cookies and milk for Santa and we waited for what seemed like forever for the boys to be snoring zzzz’s. Here’s some pictures from our morning’s festivities, complete with the tree we made as a family after searching in vain for a small real tree in town.

McKay has discovered he absolutely loves showers. Not for the getting clean part, but the lying down with hot water pouring down on him while he just chills out notoriously sucking his thumb. Out of the shower, McKay rarely takes his new headlamp off and is trying to patiently wait his turn for video games. Easton’s wish came true – he got the Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Star Wars Xbox games for Christmas. I’m not a gamer in any shape or form, but Easton is obsessed and seems to figure out the games pretty quickly. He even bypassed cinnamon rolls for breakfast but did take us up on the bacon and OJ.

Ryan and I are trying to pace ourselves on the See’s and Hawaiian chocolate macadamia nuts, but truth be told, I am missing Ryan’s choc/caramel/roasted almond turtles and apple pie!!!

We hope you enjoyed a peaceful Merry Christmas with those you love!

The Sweet & Salty

I'm so tired. My brain is fried. These past couple months have done a number on me - new baby, work on elections immediately following giving birth, family visiting, Ryan's Thanksgiving baking operations, and moving to Germany! Thanksgiving weekend we were told Ryan's new job needed him in Germany December 15. I had two weeks to inventory and pack everything we'd bring here. I had so much help from so many good friends and volunteers that I tear up just thinking of all of them. I really had a great thing going in Leesburg and I am very sad I didn't get to soak up as many parting hangouts as I would have liked. My kids were watched, meals were brought in daily, laundry was folded and inventoried, walls were washed, kitchen was deep cleaned, my baby was held, floors were vacuumed, giveaways were freecycled and/or picked up . . . no one felt as loved as I have during this whirlwind! Boy do I miss those wonderful friends!!!

We got on the plane Monday at 5:30pm and arrived around 10am Tuesday. The kids did fabulous! PHEW! To our surprise, one of Ryan's new coworkers met us at the gate in Stuttgart airport! He was invaluable w/ local knowledge of how things worked and also stole Ryan away as soon as we arrived at our hotel to go meet the bosses. SURPRISE!!! My super deed for the week - knowing where I'd packed the travel iron among our ten huge suitcases and getting Ryan's shirt pressed in a flash. This quick parting, however, this did leave me and the kids in the hotel with no food, euros or nearby restaurants that I dared to venture out to with our bedraggled little crew - all of us on verges of meltdown. Luckily I'd packed some chocolate Ensure shakes, peanut butter, and my favorite Costco almonds which the boys thoroughly enjoyed oddly enough.

After one night, we traded in our fabulous spacious first hotel suite that had it's own kids' bunk room because Ryan's company told him it was over the allotted amount - even though it was booked by their travel agent. Wednesday morning was an adventure (Stuttgart is six hours ahead of East coast time) as our jet-lagged bodies tried to check out real fast before 11am, load ALL our baggage and kids into the rented minivan, and try to find two acceptable hotels we had the addresses for but no directions. Can you say FUN on an empty stomach since we'd missed the breakfast buffet by mere minutes? As we did our driving search, I had a 50 lb duffel bag in my lap so I couldn't quite see but was good checking the right hand lane for Ryan. We ended up finding a decent hotel whose location is perfect. We're two blocks from the train station and our hotel is attached to a small mall with a huge grocery store in it among eateries, shops, and a huge electronics emporium.

Since then, I try to keep telling myself location is important but the confines of our room vs taking the boys out where I'll have to remind them incessantly to stay close to me and not touch things in the mall or outside in the 30 degree weather has worn me thin. It wouldn't be so bad if I could have contact with the outside world from said hotel room, but internet is a whole other beast here. I can only access it from one of our hotel's lobbies which is not kid-friendly. The kids are in their own states of chaos with all this upheaval and I just hope we all survive the interim in one piece still liking one another!

I'm trying to write to catch you all up on our past week and there's just too much! It seems my attempts at independence and proficiency are woefully lacking! I can't even figure out how to tell the maid to come back in an hour to clean our room. My money wasn't accepted at the grocery store yesterday when we were trying to purchase breakfast as McKay dumped out half my liter of water. The man standing behind us thought we'd knocked over and broken a bunch of the little vodka bottles and was tattling on us while I tried to explain in English that no one understood that it was my water, not vodka, all over the floor. I went back this morning by myself quick and as I approached the register, I dropped one of my yogurts which spewed open. It was still good, but the cashier didn't see the goop on the side and was disgusted with me and my lack of German as it got all over her hands. I just can't win!

The food issue plagues me. Hotels here don't do ice buckets in your room or ice machines on your floor. I've got this great grocery store right here, but can't heat stuff up or keep anything cold. I've resolved to get a hot plate for our room so I can at least make hot breakfasts, mac'n'cheese and such. At restaurants, I often can't tell what's on the menu so there's a lot of pointing going on when the waitress or cashier doesn't speak English.

We did take in a large Christmas market Wednesday night in downtown Stuttgart. Ryan and I had a good laugh over trying to figure out the train system here where tickets are on an honor system. Highpoints of the market - crepes were FABULOUS, Ryan has connected in a huge way with his love of marzipan (almond paste), hot chocolate mugs with free refills all over the market til you return the mug and get back money, the aroma of good eats on the grills, and a small toy train ride for the boys. I was amazed at the drinking crowds! We plan to hit at least two more Christmas markets before they end on Monday.



Ryan is taking this all very well in stride. He has so much on his plate with a new job and tying up loose ends back home. I'm amazed he's still functioning! I think his love and discovery of such plentiful marzipan treats and baked goods keeps him fueled. I love how he takes such great joy in trying new things and gets us out the door!

Today we took care of business by getting my access card for the bases. We took in the PX (like a KMart) and lunch at Panzer and then a driving tour of Patch where Ryan works. We'll have access to stuff on the bases which I hear is wonderful. All I can say is HALLELUJAH for the indoor jungle gym today! My little guys were in serious need of some all out romping fun. I've got to figure out how to make this time of close quarters more enjoyable for all - hence my craving for online search time that hasn't been able to happen.

It's likely we'll be in a hotel for a whole month at the least and our belongings will not arrive for two months (that was fun to pack for by the way!). We'll begin our house hunt tomorrow morning but we're told the rental market is pretty sparse right now. Pray we find a place as soon as possible for my sanity! I anticipated this being a trying experience getting settled and have resolved that praying for patience and courage really means I'll be tested. Some days I'm up for such opportunities for growth, I just wish they weren't happening moment to moment right now. Ahhh, thank you quiet lobby with Ryan putting the boys to bed. Thank you blogging reprieve and yummy sweet and salty peanut M&Ms! Sometimes it's really the small simple things that get us through!

Email change

My old nrlc.org email has been discontinued. You can email me from now on at traciedcarter@gmail.com.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Ryan says:
So, does anyone out there speak German? We don't -- and yet we're going to be calling Germany our new home for the next 3 years!!!

Yep, I've accepted a new job with General Dynamics and will be working / living in Stuttgart, Germany while completing a 36 month assignment. We're, of course, thrilled by the opportunity but still trying to wrap our heads around it all. The company will be relocating us in the next two weeks (including packing and shipping our belongings / car).

We will be flying to Germany on December 15th and will be living (temporarily, we hope) in a Stuttgart hotel until we find the right rental property. As we search for a home, we'll of course keep in mind the need for a guest bedroom -- hint, hint! And yes, for those who are interested, Stuttgart is located in South Western Germany and almost everything in Europe is accessible within 1 days drive.

My new job will be supporting the Dept of Defense's European Command with IT system development work. Should be fun!

Tracie says:
HOLY COW! I've been in denial that this was happening because my post-partum brain couldn't handle all the ramifications. Don't get me wrong, we are totally thrilled and have always hoped to get an international opportunity, but getting our family out the door, on the plane, and resettled was just more than I could/can comprehend since having Morgan.

His new company wanted him as early as November 15th but it's taken awhile to get everything on their end finalized. We didn't have a departure date until Thanksgiving weekend and until we had that date, it really wasn't real to me although Ryan kept telling me it was a done deal. I told you, I was in complete, blissful denial! We had a lot of family in town over the month of November, I'd just had Morgan, and with Ryan's pie baking operation and Thanksgiving we just had enough to keep my sleep-deprived mind full to the brim.

So you probably won't hear much from us until I'm bored to death in a German hotel later this month. Ahhh, but those will be happy times when I don't have to worry about what to do with all our American appliances - to pack, store, or give away? Boy do I have much, much precious trash here I've discovered. Luckily I'd done an initial clean sweep of all our junk a couple weeks ago and we carted off a lot but I'm starting over again to simplify. It's a great feeling to let go of so much!

Both the boys are excited for the trip on an airplane - I have much different feelings on that end for sure! Easton will turn 5 shortly after we arrive but he's more excited about Christmas and his list for Santa. We plan to take in the big Christmas bazaar in Stuttgart with all the crafts and FOOD in front of a big old cathedral. Fun times ahead! Please pray for my sanity in the interim!