Ulm

One of my New Year's resolutions was to see a new city - one I've never been to before - every month. Since January was rapidly drawing to a close, I picked one that was fairly close - Ulm, Germany - about an hour drive away.

We drove up, parked, and then found a place to have lunch. I had kasespatzle (cheesy noodles) and brad had pork, potatoes & sauerkraut. Both meals were really good. We then walked over to the Minster.

Ulm is known for their cathedral - Ulm Minster. Since it's Lutheran and was never the home of a catholic bishop it can't be called a cathedral though. It was paid for by the people of Ulm, starting construction in the 1300's with final work in the 1800's. It has the tallest church spire in the world. It was HIGH! We went to walk up to the top, which involves small stone steps in circular stairways - 768 of them. Since it's winter we were only allowed to go up half way, so we didn't have the sweeping view we hoped for, but it was well worth it.

After walking around inside and seeing the huge stained glass windows, carved wood & stone, and the wall paintings in this church that can seat 20,000 (including one painting of Christ on the ground with his intestines being wrapped around a stick by two men standing over him - ewww!). We then walked over the the Ulm Bread Museum, which has several paintings and displays about the history of bread making.

Altogether a good day :-)

Boxers Day in London

As part of our flight to the states we stopped over in London for 17 hours. Brad and I lived it up, while nothing was open we did walk around and see all the sites. I was able to use my Hilton Honors points I've stacked up during all my trips to get a free hotel room at the Trafalgar Hotel on Trafalgar Square.

We walked from Trafalgar square past the old Admiralty (Navy) building, past 10 Downing Street (the Prime Minister's place), up to Big Ben, saw Westminster Abbey, walked around St James Park to Buckingham Palace, then through Piccadilly Circus where we had supper. We then took the train to the Tower of London and the Tower bridge.

It was a beautiful night, while the roads were wet we were never rained on and it was in the upper 30's/lower 40's. A well spent free stopover.

While it was nice to be in a city where everyone spoke English, neither of us feels a need to go back. For breakfast we had a traditional English Breakfast at the airport. The food is also not going to bring us back!!

From there we continued on our flight to the states where we landed at Dallas. Because of the terrorist attempt on Christmas day, we were required to be frisked with our bags searched before boarding the plane. Most stupid of all we had to put everything up and away in the overheads for the last hour of flight, not even a paperback allowed on our laps. What this accomplished, I have not idea, besides creating a lot of chaos on the plane that any terrorist could take advantage of, and making for a miserable final hour of travel!

When we landed in Dallas we went to Brad's mom's house and then went and picked up the girls. After a day with Brad's mom and stepdad, we drove to Minnesota to spend New Year's with my family, drove back and spent a couple more days with Brad's family, including watching two of the girls' basketball games, and headed back to Stuttgart on the 6th.

New Year's Eve Party

We lived it up on New Year's eve at my Mom's house. Our festivities included: fondue, with crescent roll wrapped little weenies, jalapeno poppers, mini corn dogs, meat - chicken & beef, mushrooms dipped in batter, cheese sticks, buffalo chicken bites. On the side we had a vegetable platter and cheese.

This gorging was followed with Christmas present opening, since it was the first time we were all together.

After this I watch my nephew embarras himself for $10 by allowing the girls to put makeup on him (when is $10 ever worth this for a 13 year old???).

As the night continued we watched Star Trek (the new one). We had our New Year's bags - these were a substitue for xmas stockings, which my family embraces as a chance to give a bunch of little gifts.

By this point we were all dragging, so we had our Energy Drink tasting - boy those drinks are all pretty nasty, only one that was okay was NOS. We tried Red Bull, Rockstar, NOS, Monster (blue), and two others who's names escape me.

With our revived energy we then had a chocolate tasting, including much chocolate we had brought back with us from Germany - the hand's down winner was Milka, though Cadbury milk chocolate is my personal favorite.

Before we knew it, it was midnight, which we welcomed in with toast of Mostcato d'Asti or Sparkling Cider.

It was altogether a great night, Hello 2010!!

Stuttgart Christmas Market

In addition to the Esslingen Christmas Market, Brad and I went to the Stuttgart Christmas Market. We also wanted to go to the Ludwigsburg market, which is Baroque, but never got there.

I took off from work on a beautiful day the week of Christmas, I think it was in the upper 40's - very nice out. We also went early and got luck and avoided most of the crowds. We drank gluwein (mulled cider) and shopped. We also ate lunch - rotewurst in brot (beef hot dogs in bread), french fries, and wine. Brad did see this fish vendor, and smelled him from afar, but we did not purchase any fish!

What we did get was some Christmas presents - a smoker and Nutcracker for Brad's mom, a scarf for my niece, a couple more cookie cutters for me (I love cookie cutters, especially the little ones when I make shortbread cookies), some socks for Brad, a scarf for Brad, some Christmas ornaments for our tree. It was a beautiful and productive day.

The first photo, of Brad walking up the cobblestone street is cool because of the angled windows on the building ahead of him.

The other pictures are of us enjoying the market.

Esslingen Christmas Market

This year we went to the Esslingen Christmas Market, which is a medieval Christmas Market. Not only do they sell several medieval type of items, but there are craftsmen with booths set up making things during the market. There is also some man-powered rides for the kids - like a mini-ferris wheel.

These three pictures are of Esslingen. The buildings in this town are a traditional German style with stucco inside of heavy wood beams. You can see one of the clocks in the upper level of the first picture.

This second photo was taken at the entrance to the Christmas market. We looked around, drank some good hot gluwein (mulled punch), in order to get some Esslingen Christmas Market cups, shopped and battled the crowds. It was BUSY! Only purchases we made were some cookie cutters for me.

Facebook

Mom and Shelly convinced me to give facebook a try and I find I'm addicted to the games! It's crazy! My favorites are Vampire Wars and Farmville. Plus it's nice to be able to use facebook to catch up with old friends - you search for a name and if they're in facebook, they normally have a picture posted and you can immediately see it's the right person.

I spent the last two weeks in the states, first in Norfolk at a JFCOM conference and then in Tampa at a SOCOM conference. While it was handy to catch up on my shopping, two weeks gone, with days in the middle doing nothing, was just far too long! The weather in Tampa was HOT (lower 90's daily) with thunderstorms almost every day. You'd go into a restaurant or a store and come out to the sky opened up downpouring every where. It wasn't gentle drizzling rain like in Washington state, where an unbrella is almost optional (depending on how long you're outside), it was soaking downpours where you're dripping wet from just going to your car.

Both of my conferences went well. I went to the same conferences last year, where my lack of knowledge about my job had me fumbling along. This time I was in an entire different position and could argue the requirements from the get-go. Especially good since a couple of my support people met transportation problems and showed up hours late!

Brad is passionate about short wave radio and is listening to Radio Beijing, Radio Netherlands, etc., whatever he can pick up. We'll definitely be prepared in the event of any disasters!

Mom's Summer Visit

Looking back at the summer, I think the busiest and most active time we had was when my Mom visited us. We went to Heidelberg and took the tram all the way to the the top of the town, as well as touring the castle. We drove around the Black Forest, as well as walking around the oldest Monestary in Europe. We watched a thunderstorm from the top of the Radio Tower and wandered toured the palace of Ludwigsburg.