Two More Things

Okay. I forget where I was at with the numbers, but I thought of two more things I miss from Germany. Heat and no clutter.

See, we were in an upstairs apartment. We barely had to even turn the heat on and it was cozy. I am freezing here. The thermostat is set at 70 degrees or so, but my feet are just not warming up. Even in bed at night, I'm cold.

The clutter thing we're working on. But we just plain didn't have much stuff in Germany, so none of it got in our way, ya know? Now we're trying to streamline things here. At least for me, it's easier to try and clean mercilessly and throw things away now, while I remember having next to nothing over there. Then why am I posting when I could be cleaning? Huh. Good question.

So Much Room!!

I figured out the fastest way to be happy with our house - after two months in a tiny German apartment, home sweet home feels like a PALACE!! With the way the real estate market is lately, we figure we won't be upgrading any time soon. But with the comparison we've got fresh in our minds now, we have plenty of room here! Hahahahaha...

This weekends projects (which could have run all last week, but we procrastinated) are a lot of clearing clutter, and organizing the space we do have. Fantastic hubby did the long counter in the kitchen last night (and now I have my own junk drawer - woo-hoo!!), and he said the bedroom is up for tomorrow.

The big problem in the bedroom? My clothes. In boxes. It's from the whole pregnancy thing. I have 'regular' clothes, maternity clothes and nursing clothes. And never the twain shall meet? Something like that.

My goal is to work on clearing some space in my office so Maggie can play in here while I work. It hasn't been cleaned in...oh...years, so I think my work is cut out for me.

Made It!!

It was a close call, getting home, that is. Who needs fitness equipment when you can just run through the Frankfort airport while carrying a 15 lb child? Arrghhh!!!

We arrived at the airport 2 1/2 hours before our flight. When we got to the check-in point for our 230 lbs of luggage, the nice guy said we needed a paper ticket for the little one. Yeah. About that. Someone who will remain nameless left this ticket at his office after submitting a copy of it for reimbursement. No biggie, right? She was still listed as a passenger, so what's the problem? He said we had to go down to ticketing to straighten it out.

I left hubby at that window with our bags and I ran down to ticketing with the baby/passport/etc. At ticketing, the (not-so) nice man said, "You need a paper ticket. They issued it on October 12." Then he slapped her passport on the counter in front of me and turned away. Huh? I (obviously) had to speak up. "EXCUSE ME. What do I do now. I'm not leaving my child in Germany." Duh. Should I really have needed to state this??

Finally, after we paid 80 Euro ($120), they outsourced the printing of the ticket to whatever country is furthest from Germany. I mean, they had to have. It took AN HOUR AND A HALF to complete the transaction. Seriously.

So we get the bags checked, and everyone tells us not to dawdle. Did they think we were completely stupid? I could hear the overhead announcement saying our flight had boarded. You know, boarded onto the plane that was two security check points away from us???

A nice guy from the airline showed up at everyone line we ran breathlessly to and put us in the front every time. At the last checkpoint, the chick from the plane said she needed our stroller. NOW. She got it from the security people before we were done with our checks. I believe we were the last ones seated on the plane. Scary.

But we made it, and brought Maggie with us, and we're smelling (as hubby likes to say) the 'sweet air of freedom.' and the first nice guy from the airline said if we call them in Detroit and tell them we purchsed a duplicate ticket, they should reimburse us. I hope so. We bought two tickets to hold a baby on our laps all day. What's up with that?

Wowza - Last Full Day in Germany

That's right, only one more wake-up, and that's at a hotel in Frankfort. We're practically on our way. Hubby is going in for the morning at work, then coming back to the apartment to help us round up everything that's ours. Once we're packed, we're going to dinner with a friend's family, then driving to Frankfort. Yikes. I've been so excited for so long, and now things are suddenly going to move. Yippee!! I've been like a kid-at-christmas - too excited to sleep!!

Something else I'll miss from Germany:
6) The baby bath tub! The showers and tubs in Germany have this funny little plug that let you fill the shower with a few inches of water, but then it won't overflow. It's intended for a foot bath or baby bath. Maggie loves it! To fill up the tub at home with just a few inches of water seems wasteful, but a small shower is perfect!

Only THREE more wake-ups!!

It's getting close now.

We're currently operating without a swing (which has been without batteries for a week anyway) and a changing table (so I'm using the coffee table, since I don't drink coffee anyway..hahaha). They're both boxed up in the corner of the room, ready to ship home. Tonight the man has to go through his clothes and decide exactly what he's wearing til we get home, so I can stop doing laundry.

I didn't work over the weekend, and I really should have. So today, I got up when the man went to work, and I'm already working. Well, in between wearing out the carpet walking up and down the hall to check on the baby, who is sleeping in our bed surrounded by pillows and blankets. The (possibly unrealistic) goal is to do seven hours today and seven hours tomorrow, then a lazy six hours on Wednesday. I'm supposed to finish between 25 - 30 hours this week, so that would leave me Thursday afternoon (IN THE USA) and Friday to do 5 - 10 hours. We'll see.

Guess what I have that you (probably) don't??? REINDEER TOILET PAPER!!! When we went to the market on Saturday, we were trying to just get those last couple of things we need to keep us alive and somewhat comfortable in the apartment through Wednesday. We were looking for the cheapest toilet paper possible, but then this awesome stuff caught my eye. It has brown reindeer, along with 'Happy New Year,' and 'Merry Christmas,' - that's right - IN ENGLISH - printed on it. Although the German toilet still stinks, the reindeer give me a bit of a smile while I suffer.

SIX More Wake-Ups!

That's right, folks. This is my last Friday in Germany (at least this year, or something...)

I thought of a couple more things I'll miss:
4) The windows 'venting.' Yeah, the windows here? They're odd compared to what we see in the States. See, if you turn the handle 180 degrees, the window just vents at the top, but if you only turn it 90 degrees, it opens like a door. The venting thing is kinda cool.
5) WAFFLES! The waffles you buy in the store here are not like breakfast waffles, they're like dessert waffles! I love me a good waffle with Nutella and marmalade (which is the same thing as jam).

Send a good thought our way for Maggie's pitiful little cough to go away quickly! And definitely not to get any worse :( Poor kiddo.

and...Eight More Wake-Ups!!

It occurred to me earlier that my number of wake-ups is actually one less in this apartment than the total. Which is to say, the night before we fly out we're getting a hotel in Frankfort. So I only have seven more wake-ups in the bed I'm sleeping in currently, and one wake-up at a hotel in Frankfort. THEN I get to go home :)

But - here are some things I'll MISS about Germany:
1) Unlimited hot water. I <3 me a long, hot shower! I've yet to actually run out of hot water here - the shower can always be as long and as hot as I want it!
2) Natalie, Claus and Claudia. The great friends and neighbors we've made in Germany.
3) Being able to walk to the store. I probably could walk to the store at home, but I'd be dodging cars without the nice sidewalk I have on my short walk here.

Oops! That's a start, but I've got a squirmy baby on my lap - more later!

Happy St Nicholas Day!!

We found a stuffed stocking outside our door early this morning! St Nick said he had to borrow it from our downstairs neighbor since we didn't leave any shoes or stockings out like we were supposed to :) We got some gummy bears, nougat candies, clementines, chocolates and a box of Advent Teas - 24 different teas for the month of December!

Our neighbors rock :D

On a not-as-happy note - I'm missing the annual ornament exchange back home tonight :( There are usually around 30 ladies that bring an ornament, and then you get a number. The hostess draws a number to decide who goes first. Then, when it's your turn, you can either open a wrapped ornament from under the tree (which I usually do, cuz I like to unwrap), or steal one you really like that someone has already opened (which I do if there are any penguin ornaments already revealed!). I think the same group (more or less) has been doing it for like seven or eight years....

Strange Dream

So two nights ago I had another very odd dream. I was back in the States, and driving a station wagon. In the middle row of seats behind me was a small horse (yeah, I thought it was a pony, but I wasn't allowed to call it a pony. I don't know why). In the way back of the wagon was a large dog. I think I knew what breed when I first woke up, but I don't know now.

I had to call Girl about the horse and/or the dog. I don't remember what she said.

More importantly, I hadn't pumped any bottles before I left Germany, since it was just supposed to be short trip. I was trying to make it back to Maggie (in Germany)before I missed a feeding. Never mind that she's eating like every two hours lately, and the flight alone is more than six hours each way.

Weird.

Rhine Wine Weekend!

We took a few road trips over this past extended holiday weekend. My fabulous husband decided to give the family an opportunity to see whatever they wanted to see in Europe. My mother-in-law and I wanted to visit a good old fashioned castle, akin to what we would see in classic Disney films. Hubby's brother, however, had a different agenda. At the tender age of 15 years old, he had ‘Amsterdam’ on his mind.

Leaving me, Maggie and my mother-in-law at the apartment, hubby and his brother gassed up the rental car and headed west for the Netherlands. They got back that night by around 9pm, bringing McDonalds! Yum 

The next day (almost when it was still morning!), we headed for the Rhine!

Using some jankety web site, my darling husband was able to get two rooms in the city of Bacharach Germany, which earned a half star rating from a single previous review. The hotel earned this one star status based on its supposed lack of cleanliness, wood paneling, and proximity to train tracks (approximately 10 feet). Needless to say, we weren’t expecting much for €58 a night.

However, after arriving at the hotel on Friday evening, we were delightfully surprised. We were upgraded to the larger triple room at no cost, both rooms were surprisingly clean, and the train tracks were probably more like 12 feet away rather than 10. It was quite the score.

The town of Bacharach is a neat little town. Everything is built on the old city layout from a thousand years ago. The hotel itself is situated in one of the nine original guard towers. The four foot thick stone walls made the trains (which passed by every 3 minutes or so) virtually unnoticeable. Inside the city walls, all of the streets were old cobblestone and just a little bit wider than the width of one rental car. The town had one old church and one new one. The “new” church was built in the 1600’s some time. Finally, the town is over looked by the Castle Stahleck or ‘Burg Stahleck’ as the Germans say.

After checking into our rooms and parking the rental car, we quickly walked through the little village and grabbed dinner at a local restaurant. My mother-in-law sampled some of the famous Rhine area whines while hubby stuck with his favorite Alte (old style) Bier (beer). I tried a Dunkelweizen (dark wheat) which was also quite tasty.

The next morning after breakfast, we headed off on our castle hunting expedition. Our main goal was to tour the famous Rhine castle “Marksburg.” All of the Rhine castles had originally been destroyed (typically by the French) and rebuilt from the rubble at one time in their thousand year(s) existence. The only exception to this is the Castle Marksburg. Not only has it been mostly restored, but all of the structure and foundations are as true today as they were when originally build back in 1100 AD.

The drive down to Marksburg was nothing short of spectacular. The scenery along the Rhine River is straight out of a fairy tale. All the little villages look like something in a childrens’ book. Each little village seemed to have some sort of castle or remains perched above on a hill side. Half way to Marksburg, we had to take a ferry boat across the river since there are no bridges across the Rhine between the cities of Koblenz (50 km away) and Mainz (75 km away). Besides, what trip to the Rhine would be complete without a river cruise of some sort?

Abandoning the navigation system’s crappy advice and instead going by instinct (i.e. following the damn signs) we eventually found the visitors parking lot for Castle Marksburg. We each pony’d up the five Euros for the guided tour since this is the only way you are allowed to walk inside the castle. On the (German spoken) tour, we able to see the batteries, kitchen, guard towers, ye’ old toilet, stables, and chapel with its original paintings from year 1100AD. The castle was pretty incredible and well worth the money. The tour guide even stopped and repeated some of the REALLY cool stuff in English, even though we already had an English written handout that explained each room.

On the way back to Bacharach, we made a pit stop and explored the “Loreley Rock.” The Loreley Rock is a famous section of the Rhine River. Since this is the narrowest portion of the (navigatable) Rhine River, the current at Loreley is pretty fierce. The legend is that the devil himself tried to slam shut the river valley, but the power of the Rhine was too strong and eventually prevailed. However, the Loreley Rock was the devil’s final strong hold and some say he is still trying to close off the valley to this day. Because of this, many sailing ships have crashed on the shoals surrounding the Loreley. Whatever the legend is, this was a really great vantage point to take many pictures of the Rhine River below.

Returning back to our hotel in the town of Bacharach, we ventured out in the evening to take a closer look at one of the other old city gates on the far end of town. This one particular gate is still being used as the main entrance into town from the west. It is only one car width wide and serves as a reminder that this village is much older than anything which passes through this gate. The light from the full moon above helped add to a certain ominous quality that was already in the air.

On Sunday afternoon, we dropped off my mother-in-law and brother-in-law for their (hopefully) quick and peaceful return flight back to the states. It sure was nice having them around to help with the baby and everything else. After getting back to our apartment on Sunday evening, we commented on how quiet things suddenly were and how much larger the apartment felt.

Brrrr!!!

I do not want to go outside. Really. I'm having one of those days where my bones feel cold, ya know?
But I'm also hungry. The markets here are closed on Sundays, so we could't get any food when we got home last night. Today I've eaten one of my clementines, the rest of the cream cheese on some flatbread, a granola bar, a yogurt and a little candy bar. I'd really like to have some nutella and toast, but we're out of bread. And I'd love to have some of hubby's chinese chicken (no, that's not code, it's a recipe, ya perv!), but we don't have chicken yet. And the best dessert here is waffles with nutella and jelly on them, but we're just about out of jelly too.

So I'm trying to get moving. My project for this afternoon is to bundle myself up, then bundle the baby up, empty out some of our shopping bags, and head to the market. I can do this. I will do this...

But I sure don't want to do this :(

Home Again (more or less...)

We're back at apartment sweet apartment :)

MIL and BIL are on their way home. Parting is such sweet sorrow... We have such a small apartment to start with it was definitely crowded to double the adults here for a week, but it was a pleasure to have so much help with the baby - and grandmas certainly don't see it as work! Hahahaha...

Thursday my charming husband took his younger brother to Amsterdam (since his hope on the trip was to visit Berlin or Amsterdam, and Amsterdam is a bit closer to here). His mother and I walked around town here and through the park I remembered from my visit here a few years ago. It was a nice day. And we made a great find with the guy selling doner kebops outside the door of our neighborhood market. Yum!!

Friday we all headed to a small town called Bacharach on the Rhine. We were a little worried about the inn before we got there when we saw bad online reviews for it, but it was really nice. The bed (unfortunately?) was more comfortable than our bed here. What can you do?

When we all got up on Saturday, we went to Marksburg Castle and then to Loreley Rock. It was pleasant, and the baby behaved beautifully :) Unfortunately, we then pushed our luck by trying to go to Koblenz for dinner. Suffice it to say we ended up heading back to the hotel and eating pizza. Poor baby! When will we learn not to push it!

Anyway, I know my 'summary' isn't very entertaining, but hubby is sitting across from me writing his version, with pictures right this minute :) Once he's done, I'll scam it from where he posts it. Hahahahaha....
Stay tuned!

Party Time

So we're coming up on the stretch of days that prevented me from committing to NaBloPoMo. Tomorrow morning we're leaving to stay at a hotel on the Rhine River (that got a whole whopping half star rating..hahaha). The hotel will serve as our 'home base' while we go castle seeing on the river. Can't do that in the States! I'm also hoping to catch a Christmas market or two for my mother-in-law and brother-in-law before they fly out on Sunday. We'll see!

Whooping it up in Wuppertal :)

Okay, so the title was my husband's corny suggestion...and I liked it :)

Saturday, we decided to take a drive into the Rhineland and explore the city Zoo in "Wuppertal." The city of Wuppertal (translation: ‘River Valley’) was about an hour drive on the Autobahn to the west. The weather forecast was for on and off rain showers with temperatures hovering around 4˚C (40˚F). We made sure that Maggie was well bundled up.

Because of the cool(er) temperatures, we virtually had the zoo to ourselves. We saw maybe a dozen other people the entire time we were there. It was a fairly nice zoo too! They had a large tiger and lion display. Unfortunately, the lions were inside their warm dens avoiding the cold outside. I wish we would have known this before walking up the large hill to the lion den. The “Wupper” in Wuppertal is a very steep valley, meaning lots of hills to walk up and down. Hubby and I were pretty worn out by the time we reached the end of the zoo trail.

After the zoo, we took the Schwebebahn to the city center (Zentrum). The Schwebebahn is the local mass transit system (train) that has been in use for the past 80 – 90 years. The Schwebebahn is a suspended train that hangs directly over the center of the river. I guess real estate was at such a premium 90 years ago that the only place they had left for a public transit train was directly over the river. It made for a unique and exciting ride.

We eventually found a nice local tavern in the large and busy city center of Wuppertal to enjoy a late lunch (~4PM). Maggie was on her best behavior the entire time. All of the waitresses had to stop by so they could “ooh and ahh” over our well behaved baby. We felt a little strange taking Maggie into an otherwise non-family style restaurant, but there were a couple other parties with strollers (Kinderwagon) so we weren’t the only ones with such a small child there.

After dinner, we hurried back to Lippstadt so we could get some groceries before the stores closed at 8PM. If we didn’t get any groceries by Saturday night, we would have to wait until Monday since none of the markets are open on Sunday. Silly German laws. Anyway, the shopping carts aren’t setup the same way as they are in America. The baby seats don’t fit in the front child seat area and they have to be placed in the main basket. Maggie didn’t mind, but I could only imagine what people were thinking as we walked by… “I didn’t know they sold BABIES in this store!!!”

On Sunday, we tried our luck with the German train system. We started the day off by walking the ~1 mile to the Lippstadt train station and purchased two round trip tickets to the neighboring city of Soest. Since the city of Soest was having a large festival (supposedly the largest inner city festival in all of Germany) we decided to leave the baby stroller at home and I Moby-ed Maggie to me for the day. Once Maggie was wrapped up, I put my coat on over the baby leaving only Maggie’s head exposed to the outside world. This commanded all sorts of strange looks from ever single passer-by.

The Soest festival was indeed huge. We suppressed our initial appetite with a HUGE salted pretzel that was big enough for us to share. The city was set up with lots and lots of carnival rides. However, German carnival rides are a lot larger and more extreme that those back home in America. Apparently personal liability suits aren’t a big problem in Europe. Some of the rides we saw over here would NEVER fly in America. There was a large swing ride that not only spun passengers around in their swings, but also shot them up at least 100 feet in the air while doing so. We both decided that Maggie should probably wait at least another year before trying this ride out.

Instead, we paid the €8 for all three of us to ride the giant Ferris Wheel in the center of town. The view from the top was pretty awesome… but also very brisk. This entire weekend has been very windy and the wind chill was rather bitter once the wheel reached the upper half of its circle.

After chilling ourselves on the wheel, we walked into the main beer tent. There was enough room for us to get our own table upstairs. We ordered two large beers and the local special plate for lunch. The special plate was essentially two giant pieces of (mystery) meat, a healthy portion of sauerkraut, a slice of rye bread and little serving of mustard. After walking around the festival all day, neither one of us had any difficulty finishing our turkey / beef / pork / horse or whatever meat.

It drizzled on us a little bit while walking back to the train station (bahnhof), but Maggie was well covered up inside my ski jacket. Once we made it back to the apartment, hubby and I about fell to the ground from exhaustion. Maggie, however, had (still has) different plans. Since she was sleeping during most of the excursion into Soest, therefore she is now well rested and wants to play with Mom or Dad.

We can’t wait until Grandma Sue comes next weekend!

The Zoo!

Yesterday we went to the Wuppertal Zoo and rode on the Schwebebahn (for those of you from the Detroit area, it's like the People Mover, but it actually serves its purpose). Hopefully the mister will get a chance to get the pictures off the camera tomorrow at the office. Dial-up internet isn't incredibly friendly to dealing with pictures :)

Maggie didn't seem super impressed by the animals. I think she may still be a bit too little yet. Mommy learned that 'wupper' (or something close to it) means 'valley.' What this should have meant to Mommy was that we spent the first half of the day walking uphill, and the second half of the day walking downhill. Who needs a thighmaster??

I'm a Bitch :(

The language barrier bit me in the ass today, or rather, caused me to bite someone else in the ass, I suppose. I went to the market on the corner for meat for dinner and a couple other small things. I had baby Maggie strapped to me with the Moby. Several people stopped to ooh and aah over her - usually in German, so I just nodded and smiled a lot, since I'm sure they were going on and on about how adorable she is. Duh.

When I got to the register, I realized I forgot my bag, so I needed to buy a new one. No biggie. The people leaving the register ahead of me and the cashier did the German ooh and aah thing, so I smiled and nodded some more. Once my stuff was rung up and the cashier had put it in the bag for me (which doesn't usually happen) while still ooh-ing and aah-ing, she said the total. I looked at the screen and swore it said 12,02 (Germans use commas instead of decimals. No idea why.). I gave her 15 euros. Now here's where it gets dicey. She kept talking. In German, of course. I thought she wanted the two euro-cent, which I didn't have. I tried to tell her I had only one euro-cent. Finally, she just sort of shook her head and waved me off and put the money away. But she didn't give me any change. I didn't feel comfortable trying to argue with her, since I still knew no German.

On the way home, I was kind of annoyed that she had ripped me off. I felt like a dumb American who couldn't do anything to defend myself. Whatever.

When I got home and unpacked everything, I saw my receipt. The total was actually 15,02. I stole 2 euro-cent from the nice cashier. I'm the bitch :(

I'm Back!

Woo-hoo!! I'm online still/again/more-or-less. It's been a long time since I've tried to surf at 50K dial-up. Yeah. Oh well. At least I'm online!
Yesterday we went out with the nice neighbors from downstairs. She's from Kentucky! Yeah - she even speaks English really fast like I do :) We went out for brunch, then to a kid flea market...like a whole bunch of kid stuff garage sales crammed together. I was a little jealous, though. Her daughter is 19 months old, and she said she's going to have to decide whether to go back to her German job after her maternity leave is up. Yeah. It's already been almost two years. I'm already done with my maternity and on to a new job since then. U.S. sucks when it comes to family stuff, eh?
But at least I have a dryer for my clothes and a freezer with my fridge there!

Home Sweet Home?

This should be my last day of posting from someone else's apartment. We're supposed to have our phone turned on on Monday, so then I'll be able to stay 'home' and use the dial-up internet instead of mooching off someone else's wireless while he's at work. See, we thought it would be easier - in the U.S., you can usually pick up some drive by wi-fi and just use your neighbor's network. And no one really cares. Here, they turn it off when they're not using it, or do whatever sneaky tricks there are to secure it. So we have to figure out how to legitimately have our own. Hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later on Monday...I sure do appreciate the hospitality we've been shown so far, but I'm beginning to feel like dead weight...Fish and visitors start to smell bad after three days...

We Made It!!!

Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers...

HUGE shout-out to John (who says he only comes to the internet to check his Yahoo! and MySpace), for handling our luggage in Germany, the baby on the plane (even mommies have to pee sometime!), and waiting while worried but wonderful husband was stuck in traffic...for over an hour after we landed!

Still pretty jet-lagged and sore. Luckily hubby figured out how to get on the internet today, so I'm here. Otherwise wouldn't have been until at least when we move apartments - which has now been moved up to tomorrow. And do you think my packing was organized enough that I can just get out what I need and leave most of my bags packed? Impossible. This place is already strewn (is that a word?) with stuff from all three suitcases the baby and I brought, and we've only been here and awake for a few hours! Yikes!