German Adventures with the Moore Sisters...

Wow! I'm finally finding the time to actually sit down and blog again... It's been a while! :) The past couple of weeks have been quite busy for us (or I should actually say that the past couple of months have been pretty chaotic! :)). I'm honestly in shock when I think about how fast the summer is flying by... Can you believe it's already the middle of July?? It seems like summer just started... Crazy!! We can only hope that the rest of the summer doesn't go by so quickly. :)

Stacy's time in Germany was yet another example of how quickly the time is flying by this summer... I still can't believe that she's already back in the U.S... Her time here went by way too fast! :( However, we managed to have ALOT of fun in the short time that she was here!! We had the opportunity to go to so many different places and to see such a variety of amazing things while she was here... From Munich to Heidelburg to France to Dachau, and everything in between. Needless to say, we definitely kept ourselves busy! :) Plus, we had a great time just being able to spend time together... The two of us have a way of making an adventure out of everything we do, and while she was here, we did just that! :) We enjoyed the fact that we had the opportunity for some long overdue "sister bonding" time... The two of us haven't really been able to spend that much time together since we lived together in Lansing about 5 years ago... Yikes!

During Stacy's stay in Germany, we went to Neuschwanstein Castle, Munich, Freiburg, Strasbourg (France), Heidelburg, Karlsruhe, Speyer, Dachau, and Ravensburg... Not bad for her only being here 8 whole days! :) There was ALOT of driving involved, and there were many times where we were just a little bit slap happy while sitting in the car (remember the marshmallow mice, Stacy? :)), but it was definitely worth it! I would love to be able to fill you in on all of the details of the places we visited, but I'm afraid that might take all day! So, I figured that the best way to share all of the places we visited is through pictures (and believe me, we took enough of those... 453 to be precise! :))... So, on that note, here's a short recap of our adventures in Germany... Enjoy!!

A view of the river in Strasbourg, France... So pretty! :)

Stacy and I pointing out Strasbourg, France on the map... :)

A memorial dedicated to the American Army... This is located in the Cathedral de Notre Dame in Strasbourg, France...

The view of Heidelburg, Germany...

Inside the Heidelburg Castle...

Eva, Stacy, and I at the top of the castle, with the view of Heidelburg in the distance...

Another view of the castle...

Look at the thickness of those walls! :)

Downtown Heidelburg... You can see the castle at the top of the hill...

A little house in downtown Speyer... This is such a cute city... It's over 2,000 years old!!

The Speyer Cathedral... Over 1,000 years old!

Downtown Speyer... We loved the half-timbered houses... Very Bavarian looking! :)

Stacy and Eva advertising the Brezelfest! :)

Standing at the entrance of Brezelfest in Speyer...

This was our first taste of a "Chocolate Kiss"... A German snack that is ABSOLUTELY delicious!! :)

We stopped to check out the Birnau Church...

This was the view from the church at sunset... Gorgeous!

A monument standing at the entrance of Dachau Concentration Camp...

The entrance into the camp...

The sign on the gate as you enter the camp... It says "Work is Freedom"...

In my opinion, this is a very powerful picture... It accurately depicts the horror of the concentration camps...

The main building at the camp... This is where the prisoners would have to report to when entering the camp... It also hosted the prison. The open area in the front is where roll call would be taken in the morning and at night. This was also used as a form of punishment at times... They would keep the prisoners standing out there, in all types of weather conditions, for hours or even days on end. Most of the prisoners wore very thin clothing and oftentimes no shoes.

A guard tower with part of the original fence...

The sleeping rooms... Can you imagine having to sleep here, amongst all of the other prisoners?? So sad... :(

The original fence and barbed wire that still surrounds the perimeter...

The infamous shower room...

A hallway in the prison area of the camp...

The crematorium...

The old crematorium... This one was built when the camp originally opened. The second one was built a few years after the camp opened... When the number of prisoners multiplied.

The path leading up to the Gehrenberg Tower, which provides magnificent views of the surrounding areas! :)

Stacy and I on the top of the Gehrenberg Tower... The view of the Lake Bodensee and the Alps are behind us...

Exploring Germany with the Moore Sisters...

Hey all! Well, the past few days have been VERY busy! Stacy flew into Germany on Thursday, and since then we've been busy sightseeing and enjoying the many sights and sounds of Germany! :) Over the past few days we've explored castles and churches, gone on a pedal boat ride on Lake Bodensee, experienced a Friday Farmer's Market, and wandered through the streets of Munich, Strasbourg (France), and Freiburg... All in all, we're having a fabulous time!

We just wanted to share a few pictures of our recent travels with you... Next up on our list of upcoming travels is Heidelburg, Speyer, and Karlsruhe, with a quick side trip to the castle in Singen and the cathedral in Birnau... Can't wait! :) We look forward to sharing more pictures of our adventures with you, so stay tuned for additional updates. We miss you much!

Taking a break from pedaling through the "treacherous" waves we experienced on the Lake Bodensee! :)

The Castle Church...

The inside of Castle Church which is located here in Friedrichshafen...

Stacy's first trip to the "Drink Market"... Fun times! :)

Stacy and I standing by Alp Lake in Fussen...

The view from the King's Castle...

Standing in front of the King's castle in Fussen...

A hilltop view of Neushwanstein Castle... This is the castle which they modeled Cinerella's Castle at DisneyWorld after... :)

The opera room inside Neuschwanstein Castle...

The opera room inside Neushwanstein Castle...

Getting ready for our tour of the castle...

Neushwanstein Castle...

The view of the area from Neushwanstein Castle...

Stacy and I in Fussen, after our tour of Neushwanstein... Next stop Munich! :)

A small church nestled in the mountains outside of Fussen... Adorable!

The Glockenspiel in downtown Munich... This is actually one of the government buildings...

The old Department Store in Freiburg...

A small square in downtown Strasbourg... It's such a picturesque city! :)

Stacy and I in front of the Cathedral de Notre Dame...

Inside the Cathedral de Notre Dame... Gorgeous!!

Our Strasbourg crew...

The river flowing through Strasbourg...

A side street in Strasbourg, France... So quaint! :)

Dude... Where's My Car?!?!

Well, it's been rather interesting around here lately. In addition to Brian being laid up with a broken leg and me trying to get things ready for my sister's upcoming visit, we've also had car problems and kitchen problems to add to the excitement around here.... Good times!

Since we returned from our vacation in Italy, the car has been acting rather funny. Between the strong metallic smell that was emanating from the car while driving, and the large puffs of smoke that came from the exhaust pipe, I knew something was not "quite right". So, I informed Brian of the situation and I asked that he try to set up an appointment to get the car looked at before my sister arrived in Germany... (I didn't want to drive the car in that condition while Stacy was here... Knowing our luck, it would have broken down somewhere in the middle of Germany! Can you imagine the two of us, neither of us able to speak the language, and trying to figure out what's wrong with the car?? :))

Brian was able to set up an appointment for this past Monday. The dealer actually sent someone out to pick up the car, and we were informed that the car would be returned to us that evening. Well, Brian received a call that afternoon, and they told him that it was taking longer than they expected, but we would have the car back by the following evening. Ok, no problem... So, the following day we waited, and waited, and waited for them to return our car... And the car never showed up... Hmmmm... (In the meantime, we found that we had a problem with the pipes in our kitchen, resulting in water leaking onto the floor from behind the cabinets and our sink being backed up... So, at that point, we were without water and waiting for the problem to be fixed... Lovely!)

Around 7:30, Brian and I started to get quite concerned about the fact that we still didn't have a car. We got in touch with our landlady (Gabi) and explained the situation to her... After hearing our plight, she offered to help us. :) She called the dealership that had picked up the car, and asked about its progress... Their response to that question was classic. They told her that they didn't have the car there... WHAT?!?! They told her that the car had not been taken to that dealership and that she should try to call the other auto shop in the area. So, Gabi called the other auto shop, and they informed her that since it was "after hours" they couldn't help her... Seriously?!?! They did tell her that they didn't have record of our car being serviced there, but that we should try calling back in the morning... Just great! And, being that the shop was closed, there was nothing that we could do, so we literally had to wait until the following morning... Not a good feeling! Gabi was just as concerned about our lack of a car as we were, so she offered to come over early the next morning to help us call the shops and try to locate our missing vehicle. Let's just say that it was a very long night!

Like she promised, Gabi arrived at our apartment bright and early this morning. We immediately began calling everyone that we could think of that might have an idea as to where our car was. At that point, we were frantically trying to locate the car being that Brian had a doctor's appointment at 10:30, and since his leg is broken, it's rather difficult to make him walk there! :) After about an hour of Gabi getting the run around from every person she contacted, she finally hit the jackpot! Someone at Brian's company was able to locate our missing car... And, guess where it was... At the same dealership that had told Gabi the previous night that the car wasn't there... Nice! Gabi immediately called them back and after calling them out on their mistake, they conveniently "remembered" working on the car. It was then that they told us that it was taking longer to fix the car than they originally anticipated... No kidding... :) They explained that there was a problem with the catalytic converter, and parts had to be sent to them from the dealership in Stuttgart... They informed us that they would try to fix it as quickly as possible, but they weren't exactly sure of a timeline. After hearing this, Gabi phoned Brian's company and requested another car for our use... And thankfully they agreed to it! :) So, Gabi and I drove down to Brian's company and picked up the rental car so that I could take Brian to his doctor's appointment.

After all of that work to get a car so that Brian could get to the doctor, Brian's appointment turned out to be a complete waste of time... Go figure! We literally walked into the office, they took off his cast, the doctor looked at his wounds and said they looked like they were healing up nicely, the nurse put the cast back on and rewrapped it, the doctor told us that he would like Brian to come back next Thursday, and then after telling us to have a good week, the doctor walked out of the room... I think it lasted, in it's entirety, about 5 minutes... Nice!

We did receive some good news once we returned to our apartment though... The dealership called us and informed us that our car was ready... yay! After all of that chaos, we now have our car back... And the best part being that it doesn't smell anymore when I drive it.... Hooray! :) I now feel much more comfortable driving it to Stuttgart to pick up Stacy at the airport tomorrow morning! :)

Needless to say, it's definitely been a chaotic few days... I'm hoping that things will calm down a bit now so that we can enjoy spending time with Stacy during her visit. I can't tell you how excited I am about her visit!! :) I look forward to showing her as much of Germany as possible... Let's just say that we've got alot of places to go and people to see while she's here... We may just have to cut out sleeping for the next week in order to fit everything in! :) So, stay tuned... With the two of us in Germany together, I'm sure we'll have quite a few "adventures" to share! :) The question that remains to be answered... We're ready to take on Germany, but is Germany ready for the Moore sisters?? :)

Happy 4th of July!!

Brian and I would like to wish everyone a very happy 4th of July! Enjoy spending time with family and friends! Soak up some sun, grill out, have a few drinks, and enjoy the fireworks...

Even though we're far from home, we'll still be celebrating over here... We've been invited to some 4th of July parties by some fellow Americans, so that should be fun. If Brian's up for it, we'll probably head to those, but if he's not, we'll probably just end up grilling out here. Either way, we'll take part in some type of 4th of July activity... Even if it's simply drinking a hefeweizen in honor of the holiday! :)

Happy 233rd Birthday, America! Have a safe and happy holiday! We miss you much!

Fruits, Veggies, and Flowers... Oh My!!

Oh, how I love the Friday Farmer's Market!! It was quite a bustling little place today, as everyone was taking advantage of the gorgeous weather. Also, this is the season for many popular fruits and veggies, so everyone was making sure they stocked up on all of the delicious German strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and cherries... Yum!!

Today was the first time in months that I was able to go to the Farmer's Market... and did I ever make up for lost time! :) I took my backpack to the market with me, and within 10 minutes it was jam packed full of produce (carrots, peppers, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, melon, seele bread, laugenstenge, and flowers, of course! :))... Oops! :) There was still so much more that I wanted to get, but I was afraid that the bike ride home would be rather challenging if I ended up getting anything else... Oh well, I'll make up for it next Friday. :)

And now I'm off to go get some cherries... We've heard that the farmer down the road from us is selling some delicious cherries, so Brian and I thought we'd give those a try... Can I just say that I absolutely love this time of year! :) Have a great Friday! Miss you much

Road to Recovery: Update on Brian...

Hey all! Just wanted to give you a quick update on Brian... We went to the Dr. again today and they checked his leg. They were quite happy with how everything looks. Of course, his foot and leg are still pretty swollen (especially when he's up and moving around... It's fine if he keeps it elevated). His wounds are healing up nicely and the bruising on his leg has really decreased. They informed him today that he can start putting light weight on the foot/leg. He was also told that he should begin physical therapy... The funny thing was that when the Dr. told him that he would need physical therapy, we immediately asked if he could recommend someone. His response was that he couldn't recommend anyone, but he could tell us the names of people that he would NOT recommend! :) Interesting... We ended up finding out later that it's illegal for the doctors here to recommend other doctors.

Brian is improving on a daily basis. He's getting around on the crutches quite well now. He actually went into work yesterday for a couple of hours (his boss just had a baby, so they had a party in the office for him... He came to the apartment, picked Brian up and brought him to the office so that he could join in the festivities... Very nice!) so he was quite happy about that! He was definitely excited to just get out of the house, and I know that he's looking forward to being able to get outside on a more regular basis. :)

We'll continue to keep you posted on his recovery... Miss you much!

The German Pedicure Experience...

Wow! It's already Thursday... I'm still shocked at how quickly this week went by! I guess it helps that I managed to keep myself pretty busy this week. Not only did I manage to get back into "teaching mode", but I also found time to get together with a few friends, get outside to enjoy the beautiful weather we're having, and take care of Brian while he's laid up. :)

In case you're wondering what I meant by "teaching mode"... I offered to help a friend out this week while she is on vacation. She tutors students in English, so while she was away, I volunteered to teach her students. I have to say that I was a little nervous at first, but once I got started, I fell right back into the swing of things. :) I worked with two students... One was a younger man from Hungary that is here in Germany for work. He's on a 5 year work contract, and he's been here for about a year. Working with him was a piece of cake! He studied English in elementary, high school, and college, so he was already pretty fluent. However, he signed up for additional classes with my friend so that he could practice his conversational English skills... I was informed that all I would have to do for the sessions was sit and talk with him for 90 minutes... Seriously?! :) Yes, folks, you read that correctly... I, the infamous chatterbox, was given the task of talking to someone for a whole 90 minutes... It was such a perfect job for me! (Hmmm... now if only I could find a job like that in the U.S.!! :))

The other student I worked with was a little boy (he's just finishing 1st grade) who's mom is American and his dad is a doctor here (he also studied in the U.S. for a few years). Needless to say, the little boy is already fluent in English. However, his parents just want to exposed him to extra English classes to ensure that his English skills continue to grow. I had alot of fun working with him! I definitely went back into "teaching mode" while working with that little guy... :) Overall, it was great to get back into teaching, if only for a few days... And, who knows, maybe I'll be able to help my friend out again sometime and work with some more of her students. :)

Yesterday, I met up with my friends, Val and Theresa, and we went out and got ourselves pedicures... How fun! (For those of you that know me, you probably realize just how much I love getting pedicures! In the U.S., I typically got one per month... Yikes! Now that I'm living in Germany, I'm not quite sure how to go about getting pedicures here, so I've gone without them recently. My last one was in December when I was in the U.S.... So, let's just say, I was LONG overdue for another one! :)) It was the first time that any of us had gotten a pedicure in Germany. And, it ended up being quite an interesting learning experience for all of us! :)

Upon arrival, we were informed that each one of us would take about 45 minutes, and the woman could only work on one person at a time... We immediately thought that that was a very long time for a pedicure! But, we were all feeling very optimistic so we opted to go along with that time frame. :) Val was the first to go in, and after about 40 minutes she called us into the room. This is where things got interesting! Now, in most places where pedicures are given, they have a wide variety of nail polish to select from. Well, in this case, there was no nail polish... Hmmmm... Apparently, when getting a pedicure in Germany, they don't include painting the nails. :)

When the woman noticed how puzzled the three of us looked, she called her daughter downstairs and told her to take us to the store so that we could pick out some nail polish. So, Theresa and I (and the daughter) drove downtown to pick out some nail polish. Once we picked out our prospective shades, we took them to the counter to pay. Now, being that the woman had told her daughter to come with us to get the nail polish, we were under the assumption that she would pay for it and it would be included in the pedicure... Wrong!! We ended up having to purchase our own nail polish... Very odd! After making our purchase, we headed back. After giving the woman our nail polish selections, Theresa and I went to go sit in the garden while the woman finished up Val's pedicure.

Shortly thereafter, Val walked out with her fresh pedicure... And, I have to say, Theresa and I both had to hold back giggles when she walked out (and, based on Val's expression, she was not overly impressed with the finished product either)! :) Apparently, the woman does not know how to paint toenails whatsoever! Val walked out with nail polish on her toe nails... However, the polish was simply in the middle of the toe nail... The woman didn't cover the entire nail with polish... It was simply a wide stripe of polish down the middle of each toe... Very, very strange!! Definitely can't say that I've ever seen anything like that before!! :)

Needless to say, the pedicure was quite an interesting experience! The pedicure itself was fabulous, but the nail polish aspect was definitely not up to par. :) I honestly don't remember ever having to repaint my toes after a pedicure... which is what I ended up doing yesterday! :) I do have to say, that as much as I miss getting pedicures on a regular basis, I think I'm just going to wait to get back to the U.S. before I get my next one. :)

On that note, I'd better get to bed. My goal is to get up early so that I can make it to the Friday Farmer's Market tomorrow... Fresh fruits and veggies... YUM!! Plus, I've got quite a few other errands to run as well... Fun, fun! Hope you're having a great Thursday! Miss you much!