USO Tour Part 2: Lichtenstein Castle

Part 2 of our USO tour was a visit to the Lichtenstein Castle. The ropes course is located in the forest next to the castle, so it was a short walk, uphill, to get to the castle. We had some time before our tour of the castle started so we enjoyed the gorgeous view from the castle grounds:

And hung out in the sunshine:



The castle that we toured was constructed in the 19th century, which by castle standards, is not very old. Apparently though there has been a castle on those grounds from as early as 1200, but they've been destroyed and rebuilt a few times over. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but we did get a few shots of the exterior:



Walking across the old drawbridge was really neat! The tour itself was pretty brief and I can't say we learned too much, but we did get to see some really cool armor. The tour guide said that a knight would wear around 50 kilos (110 lbs!) of armor. Yikes!

After the tour ended we boarded the bus to head home; we were wiped out from the ropes course and the castle tour. We had a fun-filled day and can't wait to go on our next USO tour.

If you'd like to view the rest of our photos from the USO tour, please click on this link:
USO Tour Photos

USO Tour Part 1: AbenteuerPark

On Sunday morning at 0830 we boarded the USO bus. We were headed to AbenteuerPark for a ropes course adventure! Neither of us had ever tried a ropes course before, but we were very excited. We pulled up to AbenteuerPark after a comfortable hour ride on the bus. This is what we saw:

After we stowed our belongings in a locker and donned our helmets, we were ready to go!

At AbenteuerPark we received a 30 minute briefing on how to safely snap our carabiners onto the different cables, ropes, and lines. Once we were brief complete they cut us loose to do whatever courses we chose! During the brief we were told that it takes approximately 30-40 minutes to get through each course. AbenteuerPark offers Courses 1-9, the number corresponding to the difficulty level. Course 1 is the easiest and Course 9 is the hardest. Since we were feeling fairly confidant, we started out on Course 6. Course 6 was a great one to start on. There was a little tight-rope walking:



A little zip-lining:



And lots of fun obstacles. After about 35 minutes we were done and ready for our next challenge! We decided to step it up a notch and go for Course 8. Course 8 proved to be a bit more difficult (Course 8 almost bested me on what I like to call "The Rings of Death"), but there was also considerably more zip-lining which was my favorite part. Once Course 8 was under our belts I was ready for a rest, but Brian was itching to try Course 9 (which, incidentally, required another 15 minute briefing prior to attempting). As Brian got his extra briefing I got the camera all ready to capture his maneuvers.

Course 9 started out with a long rope climb (which Brian breezed through like some sort of jungle cat):



Next up was the Double Pendulum. The Double Pendulum was the reason for the supplemental briefing prior to Course 9 (also the main reason I chose to take pictures instead of partake). Please enjoy my Ode to the Double Pendulum:







Success! After the Double Pendulum there were some more fun obstacles. For example, walking across teeny tiny wooden swings:



And skateboarding:



And then finally, zip-lining down:



We lucked out with absolutely gorgeous weather on Sunday and had a blast on the ropes course! After Brian finished Course 9, we grabbed some lunch at the biergarten and waited for Part 2 of our USO tour to begin.

To be continued...

Game Night

This Saturday we went to our friend's, Jeff and Marissa, house for Game Night. Each couple was responsible for serving some tasty snacks and drinks. The spread turned out pretty awesome:

Once the food was ready, Game Night started. Scrabble, Taboo, and a lot of wine filled the rest of the evening. After lots of fun and many laughs we hopped on a train for home around midnight. We can't wait for another Game Night at Jeff and Marissa's!

Small Town Tapas

A few weeks ago we drove up to Hannover to see the Gordon Setters on our way to Amsterdam. Since the Gordon Setters took us a teeny bit out of the way to Amsterdam we decided to spend the night after visiting the dogs. We stayed in a small town outside of Hannover called Grossburgwedel. After checking-in to our hotel we walked in to town to scout out a restaurant for dinner. As we walked we saw all of these cool old buildings/homes. They all had writing on then and we wondered if it listed the original owners of the home. We're not sure, but they sure were cool:

Once we reached the heart of town we found a few restaurants that look like good choices, we decided on:

We hadn't had tapas since leaving San Diego and were excited for some tasty treats! We started off with some refreshing sangria:

It was delicious! Not too sweet with a good amount of booze in it.

Next they brought out their Garlic Aioli. SWOON. (For you Naperville-ians out there, this reminded me a lot of the Garlic Potato Salad from Meson Sabika, not quite so hot with garlic, but close!) They served the Garlic Aioli with some awesome bread and as we munched, we perused the menu. We ended up choosing some real winners: the Manchego Cheese Plate, Garlic Mushrooms, Pan Fried Chorizo, and an order of Patatas Fritas. Unfortunately I didn't get photos of any of our other dishes...our hands were too busy jamming our faces with yummy food!

Truth be told, we liked this place SO much that we had a snack there when we first found it and then came back later that night for dinner. We were definitely their best customers that day!

A Happy Day Indeed

Happy Earth Day!

Also...a BIG Happy Birthday to my mom, Cris!!

This earth mama's birthday is today, April 22nd!
We hope your day is full of laughter and love. Wish we could be there!
Love - C & B

True Life: Mail

It being the 21st century and all, we did not foresee any major problems with sending and receiving mail while we are living in Germany. Oh how naïve of us!

I think the most frustrating part about the whole system is the inconsistency. At least if we knew it would take two weeks to send and receive a piece of mail or package well then we'd know how long it will take. So far though, we've seen it's quite the opposite. For example, the fastest we've ever received something was in four days. FOUR days from Birmingham, AL to our little mailbox on Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. Now that's pretty dang quick! The slowest something has taken (so far, since I know a post card we sent in early March has still yet to reach its recipient) has been four months. FOUR months from Georgetown, TX to our little mailbox on Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. Now that's pretty dang silly!

After the one and half month time period a tracking request was put out on the package. After a week or two of searching, the final response was that the package reached the military facility, but after that was considered MIA. And most likely WIA, since the reason for it not being delivered was that "the label is probably damaged or destroyed". Low and behold last week we received our MIA/WIA package:

From first glance it looks pretty well in tact...and wait, what is that?

It's legible writing! Turns out our little package wasn't so much WIA as it was maybe SIA (Soaked in Action). The box and paper contents appeared to have gotten wet, probably months ago. Who knows where this little guy was waiting ever-so-patiently for us, but I'm just glad we finally got him!

Side note: this story doesn't even come close to the time it took 11 months (almost a year!) for a package I sent from Illinois to reach my mom in Texas. I wonder if when these packages go missing they're really just at some big party with all of the missing other socks of the world....?

On the whole, we can't complain too much since we have yet to actually lose (at least to our knowledge) a package or piece of mail completely. Drastic examples aside, we've found that it can take about one to two weeks for mail to reach its final destination. Not so bad in the long run!

I'm Sew Excited

This Thursday my friend, Marissa, and I are taking a "Bring Your Own Pattern" sewing class on base. Woo hoo!

I'll be making this sweet little number:



In this summery fabric:



Finished product pictures to follow!

Photo Essay: Frühlingsfest 2010