What We Did Over Summer Vacation - Our Germany adventure

We are allowed to ship boxes from one APO to another free of charge, provided that it meets weight and size requirements, so we shipped quite a few things up there, including my bike. We were told that the weather at that time of the year is unpredictable, so we mailed warm clothes and rain gear. We also mailed health food for Elizabeth. As it turned out, we used most of it, including the bike. The first couple of weeks we were there it was around 90. The last two weeks it was in the high 60's.

Elizabeth also knew a foreign exchange student in high school who lived close by. But because her husband worked for Lufthansa and her kids just got out of school they were traveling and we couldn't arrange a time to meet. That was about the only sad part of the trip.

When we got to our hotel, we were fortunate enough to get a suite. Regular rooms are joined in the front where they share a refrigerator and in the back where they share a bathroom. A suite consists of both rooms so we didn't have to share a bathroom.

The American Arms hotel is on a two lane street that has lots of old houses and large trees that shade the street. Up the street past a large intersection are the American stores. There is a American style convenience store, a grocery store, and a strip mall containing, among other things, the K-mart-like PX and a food court. Inside is Popeye's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, and Baskin-Robbins, as well as a pizza place. It was great!

The food was so different in Israel because not only can you not have pork or shellfish, but you are not allowed to eat meat and cheese in the same meal. In fact, devout Jews have two ovens, two refrigerators, two sets of cookware, dishes, silverware, yadda, yadda. One for meat, and one for dairy products. A restaurant that even serves you milk in your after-dinner coffee following a meat dinner risks losing its Kosher license and a great deal of business. To get around this, Israelis have a cheese that is soy-based or petroleum-based or who-knows-what-based so you can have a cheeseburger or turkey pastrami on your pizza. Germany, in general, seems to be the exact opposite of Israel. Down here it's difficult to find pork, but in Wiesbaden it's difficult to find anything else!

On the subject of food, we got free breakfast at our hotel. I know what you're thinking, but pigging out lost its charm after a couple of days, especially since the cooks are ex-army. For example, sometimes their grits were great, but sometimes they came out like soup.

On our first day off, we drove to Bieberich castle and I got to see the room where Elizabeth stayed last time she was here. We ate at an outdoor cafe by the Reine River. Then we drove to Heidelburg and went to see Heidelburg Castle. Strangely enough, Harley-Davidson had a show there to present their new bikes, and there was a small rally toward the end of the day. I tried speaking German using all the linguistic skills I learned from watching Hogan's Heroes, but all I could think of was Hebrew.

We were looking for a church to attend, so one day we happened to be following a car with an Ichthus sticker (the fish) on the back. We followed it until it stopped and asked the driver where she went to church. It turned out to be a really great place. It is a congregation of several hundred, most younger people and they had walkmans for English translation since there is an army base nearby.

One of the contractors that Elizabeth audited was HSG in Neu Isenburg (noi-ee-zen-burg). I got to help with surveys a little. The supervisor was an American named Dabney Craddock from Charlotte, NC. I asked him if he was related to our old neighbors and he said he didn't recognize their names. He is an ex-army colonel who married a German woman and now has a 60-some mile commute at $4 per gallon. He's a really nice, talkative guy and we had lots of fun.

Another guy we met was the warehouse supervisor. One of his daughters lives in Melbourne. He is going to move there in a couple of years, so I maybe we'll see him again.

Another place we got to see was the Black Forest. Its a thick forest on a mountain range that runs north-south in the western part of Germany. We ate at an outdoor restaurant on a mountain lake and went for a paddle boat ride afterward. It's interesting how many restaurants have outdoor seating under a large, spreading tree. Most towns seem to have at least one, as well as their own beer. We also got to eat real Black Forest Cake from the Black Forest. It had a lot more alcohol in it than the ones from Publix.

Elizabeth also audited FAG (really!) ball bearing co. They have extensive property and facilities that are all new. There's one small building on the property and that's the only one that survived the bombing in WWII. They have a contract to repair and refurbish bearings that go in Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines that Elizabeth's father's plant helped to build.

One restaurant we stumbled upon was something you don't see very often in the US or Israel - an Iranian restaurant! Actually, they called themselves Persian, since they apparently are not real fond of the current government. (They left in '82.) There was lots of lamb, which Elizabeth loves and some interesting music. Elizabeth really liked it and inquired about it, so we began a hunt for Iranian music. We went to an Iranian shop and an Asian shop in Wiesbaden, but had no luck. A couple of days before we left, I went to the restaurant to buy the CD and the owner remembered us and gave us the CD. So we went to the PX and bought some American cookies which are not imported to Germany, and gave them to the restaurant. They were all as happy to get the junk food as we were to get the CD. See? Music and cookies are the key to World Peace.

Another trip we made was to Luxembourg. We went to the largest city, also called Luxembourg, and ate at a French restaurant in the main square. We walked around and saw a few things. It was really pretty neat. Afterward, we got to see a fashion show in the main square. The introduction was all in French, so I could only make out a few words. It sounded something like this:

"Blah, Blah, Blah, Fashion Geniu-u-s!...Blah, blah, blah Fashion Geniu-u-us!...Blah, blah, blah Fashion Geniu-u-us!.." you get the idea.

I told Elizabeth that this must really be something since this designer is such a fashion genius. Those poor models. Among the things that were shown was an off-white, strapless dress with 5 rolls of material sewn to the front and back of the dress. they were about 2" in diameter and vertically ran the entire the entire length of the dress. Another was of the same material and the top flared outward and forward, kind of like half a cone. it only went down to about mid-torso so the guys at the base of the track got an interesting view.

There was also a bathing suit show. The first one out was a blue one piece with two big yellow fish heads looking at each other, appearing to be like a bikini top. Now, the yellow was almost skin-colored, so guess what the fish eyes appeared to be? At first glance, from a distance, the model looked topless. Like I said, those poor models.

On the way back, we stopped at a town called Trier. As it turned out, they were having a big festival called the Trierfest, one of many festivals in western Germany in June. I got to meet some Buccaneer fans from a nearby Air Force Base (One was wearing Mike Alstott jersey.) We got to see a band that played Peruvian Music on native instruments (now we have to get that CD.) All the stores and restaurants were closed, and several booths were set up to serve different kinds of food and beer and what not.

The following night I sat down to watch TV and guess what was on! The World bowl in Frankfort, 20 minutes away! Oh No! When I was in Israel, I had planned to see it but I lost track of the date. Oh well, it was a good game. Danny Wuerfful would be great if he could just throw the ball a little sooner and avoid getting splattered by defense.

During he week I got to go to the Frankfort zoo. They had some camels. whoopee. imagine that. camels. There were also quite a few tortoises. They had Pancake tortoises, and Hingebacks, which we had. They also had Egyptians, which we had thought about buying at one time. There were Sulcottas which I tried to get Elizabeth to buy, but she refused since they grow to be about the size of your car. They also had a display of water turtles native to Florida. One of the species we owned, and a couple I saved off the side of the road but I recognized about all of them. A really rare kind they had was a Fly River Turtle from New Guinea, which they called something else. They have a shell about one foot in diameter and hog nose and live in fresh water, but otherwise look and swim like a sea turtle. Unlike a sea turtle though, they fight a lot. Whenever they're about to swim into another turtle, one moves or there's going to be lots of biting. You can see how they all have scars and small pieces of flesh missing, something like manatees and their prop scars.

Oh well, that covers few of the things we did in Germany. I have a lot to do so I'll have to get part two in the mail some other time. See ya later

K&E