Hello, Columbus

Well I've made it. And John is a day behind me. We're FINALLY here. Ready to start our new lives in our new home! I go today at 10 to get my house ... I can't believe it ... MY HOUSE!

So I still have a ton of stuff from Germany to put on our blog, it may just take a bit ... since I've got to get moved in and get a job :)

Furth Fest

Furth is a town just outside of Nürnberg that we frequently travel through. They had a fest, a beer fest where that weekend they were celebrating the town’s beer.



John and I joined Mark and a bunch of his friends at this fest for a night.

I learned quite a few things about these fests while there. There is a group of teens or young adults, who are in charge of guarding the fest’s pole (I don’t know the correct German word for this and for that I’m sorry). These young adults guard it from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon. The girls make the decorations for the hoop around the top of the pole, and the guys cut down the tree that hold it up. Apparently there’s a ceremony that the town has when they put up and take down this pole.



Anywhoo … at the fest there’s like a carnival outside the beer tent, with rides and food and candy stands. Inside the tent there’s a TON of tables, usually jam packed with people and beer stands and a big stage.

Bands will play, but they only play famous German songs and even some covers of American songs too. When the bands are playing though, there’s soooo many people up on the benches singing and dancing to the songs that if your feet are on the ground then you are not having fun.



This blog has a lot of media on it, since John and I though it’d be cool to put both videos and photos online. Most of the videos are LOUD … so you may want to turn down your speakers.

4 stories below Nürnberg

Mark took us to these dungeons underneath the city of Nürnberg. In the medieval times, these dungeons used to be used for ½ prison and ½ stock house for pickles and beer. I don’t know why pickles, that’s just what the tour guide said.

See the reason for so much beer is that the water was bad then, so it was hard to find a place to get clean water without going far into the country. Well it wasn’t entirely safe to go that far into the country and leave the city, which they knew had protection. In that time, beer was also seen as a food group. We also learned that the average German consumes 109 liters of beer each year (that’s ½ a coke bottle if you need that to be put into perspective). WOW!!!


Okay so now the really cool part about these dungeons, during WWII, Nürnberg was the stronghold and headquarters for the Nazis. Hitler himself had his very own bunker in these dungeons! I mean there were actual Nazis walking the halls in this dungeon we went in just some 70 or so years ago. In addition, this bunker was built back up/expanded by mostly women and children since most of the men were off fighting in the war for the Nazis.



When American and British forces bombed Nürnberg there were over 60,000 people in these bunkers hiding for safety. OVER 60,000 … that’s where they stopped counting. Now there’s electricity in these dungeons, but back then all they had were candles to use down there.


In addition, we (as in British and US forces) destroyed 96% of that city in 58 seconds! You can even see it in the city wall … where the old bricks turn into nice new ones.
John took a lot of really great photos in there … here are a few.

Snuggly Sunday at the Spa

We went to the Franken Therme recently. It’s a spa, where a lot of old people go, but hey it’s nice. They’re renowned for their salt pools. Even with one that’s got salt from the Dead Sea! We got a spa day package that was entitled “Perfect Bathing Ceremony,” it was quite romantic!

We started off our day in the heated pools. They all have that light therapy where different colors glow from the bottom of the pool. They also have jets and these bed things where you lay in the water and the bubbles bubble on you. There’s even a pool bar, you better believe we checked that part out!

Our package included the sauna section, which we couldn’t decide if we were comfortable or not in there. Mainly because it was jam packed with old people … and I mean 60+ old people … that were NAKED! I guess it’s a European thing so we didn’t fight it. We went with the flow. There are saunas and baths you can take.

Now there were also spa sections to our package, which we loved the most.

The first was a mud bath “thing” (since it’s not what I’d call a mud bath) that you do. You get in and rub mud all over. There’s a special mud for your face and a different one for your body. Then the steam starts … and it gets H-O-T in there! I was like to a point of almost gasping for air. So you sit in this steam, sweating and in the dark. Then as the brochure calls it, “a sensual tropical rain begins” … it was more like a tsunami! The lights flew on and both John and I across the room simultaneously jump out of our skin we were so relaxed and comfortable. We decided that it was great, but a terrible way to end it.

The next part of our spa day was the couples’ massage. It was fantastic. We got to pick out our own body oils, I chose red wine and John chose white wine. Then we had a ½ hour massage, which was sooo worth it!

Our final part of the spa day was the emperor’s bath. Where we got in a got into a milk bath in a gold bathtub with champagne and chocolates. THAT was my favorite part.

When we left, we were relaxed and drunk of that wine they kept bringing us … it was a fantastic day. The only thing we missed out on was a beautiful fall day. We couldn’t take any photos inside, so we took some just before we went in.

And one after we left, as you can tell we were so snuggly sleepy that we didn't want to do a thing.

Troubles in German Land

So we have all these cute photos and stories, and videos of Germany, but for some reason we can't put them online. This isn't good :(

John and I are coming home next week and I know we'll be super duper busy getting ready to move into our new home ... so I'm trying to get all our Germany stuff on here before the hustle and bustle of real life sets back in and we let this blog slow down ...

I'll keep trying, but don't go anywhere ... you will get to see photos soon :(

Rothenburg

The medieval city of Rothenberg is the most famous city in Germany. It’s a city that’s rich in medieval history and still ha displays or performances, if you will, of these events and practices. Every night there’s a tour of the night watchmen that happens, however we haven’t had the chance to go, so we’re not entirely sure what this is about. But the title of the tour sure sounds fun :)

The first time we went, it was right at the sun was going down. We drove into the town and decided to walk to this really great sushi restaurant that John loves. We went on a Tuesday night, and unfortunately this was the ONLY night this place was closed. So we walked around town and found a little bar to get some bar food in.


The second time we went was when we were house sitting for Tony & Katrin. John got off work and I had a lunch (that turned into dinner due to work) packed. We took our two favorite dauschaunds, Oscar & Bucky, to this beautiful park John surprised me with. We sat right at the city walls in this gorgeous park as the sun went down. So we had a really romantic dinner of ham sandwiches, Doritos, on a blanket in the park.


This trip we also took a moment to browse through the Christmas shop that’s famous in this town. It was fantastic! I went in with my eyes as wild as a child waiting to see Santa. I was so excited to see all the lights and ornaments.


Then we went around the town to do some shopping. Here's some photos of the "downtown" shopping district.


We also saw a horse and buggy tour ... just had to snap a photo of that ...


We stopped for a bite to eat, and I got an apple struddle and John got a Bailey's and Coffee.


These are called Snowballs. They're famous of Rothenburg, and you can only find them here. We got one, but ended up not eating it :(

Adventures in Pooch Sitting (Part Trois)

BOTH BOYS ATTACKING JOHN

JOHN BEING ATTACKED BY OSCAR

JOHN WITH THE BOYS

BUCKY BASKING IN THE SUNLIGHT

LIL OSCAR

I COULDN'T RESIST