The Beginning of our BIG YEAR

Eurasian Teal

My oh so darling husband decided to sign us up for an early morning bird watching trip the day after the Trier medieval fair. He forced me out of my nice warm bed at the crack of dawn to brave the icy cold weather to see a couple of birds.... Needless to say I was not happy at first. We met up with the rest of the group at the Outdoor Recreation Center in Kaiserslautern, piled into a small van and drove an hour to a wildlife reserve which is apparently a bird watchers sanctuary. The others in the group had much more experience than us, fancy binoculars and bird ID books but despite our shortcomings and the freezing weather my love of wildlife over took over and I ended up quite enjoying myself. 

Black-necked Grebe  

"Great Tit" - seriously that is its name

This whole bird watching idea came about when Justin rented a movie called The Big Year. The movie stars big name actors such as Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson. It was ultimately a flop since the entire plot was about bird watching but we thought it was pretty good.  A Big Year is common among avid bird watchers; it is where they see how many different species of birds can be identified within a year. Our guide was very knowledgeable, he was able to identify birds by flight and song, he has travelled to many countries all over the world to look for birds. We ended up seeing 44 different species of waterfowl and song birds, not too bad for our first experience and we are now well on our way to our first "Big Year". Plus it gave me the chance to practice for my dream job of being a Wildlife Photographer!

The Blue Tit

Bottoms Up 

Future Photographer at work

Let's get medieval - Trier

The drinking horn!

Last Saturday five of us piled into our little BMW and took a quick drive down the autobahn to the city of Trier. Trier was hosting its annual medieval fair and Justin and I couldn't let a chance to visit the fair pass us up. We arrived just after 11am paid a small fee and walked back in time to the medieval ages. Tents were set up outside and the vendors were selling all sorts of trinkets; drinking horns, leather, furs, knives, swords, food and of course plenty of wine/liquor. We met up with another group of Justin's friends and proceeded to join in the festivities! Most people were dressed up in the most eleborate medieval "garb". Justin bought a drinking horn right off the bat and the entire fair we filled it up with Mead (honey wine), drinking from a horn is definitely a new experience...

palm reading

The whole spectacle was a blast. We ate and drank to our hearts content, watched the belly dancers, were serenaded by minstrels, almost got involved in a sword duel and I had my palm read. Normally I am extremely skeptical of palm readers and all of that nonsense but this woman was really good. I let Justin sit in and even in his inebriated state he was impressed by the palm reading. She knew exactly where I have constant pain in my back, knew about my headaches and said they were caused by my eyes, advised me to have my thyroid check, told me that I manage my money well, I work hard but have been having issues with my job and when I was around 8 years old something happened that changed my life... Well as it just so happens my back always hurts in a specific area because my horse threw me into a fence a couple of years ago, my eyes have always been the cause of my headaches, I had just told Justin the previous night that I should get my thyroid checked, Justin and I always talk about how well we are doing with our money, I still have not found a job even though I have been searching so hard and I was 8 years old when I found out we were moving overseas which did change my life, it was that move that I found out how much I love to travel! Crazy right?! It was probably all coincidence but I was quite impressed by her insight.

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” 

― Eleanor Roosevelt

We finally learned how to ride the German train - Speyer

Monday morning we woke up WAY too early, bundled up, picked up two of Justin's buddies and headed to the train station in Kaiserslautern. We had signed up for a USO trip to the town of Speyer which also included a short lesson on navigating the German train system. It turns out the train system is just as easy as I thought it was going to be but our guide was able to give us a few tips. For longer trips there is a place in the train station that will actually book your trip for a small fee, the accepts VAT forms (a form that waives the 19% sales tax) and if you purchase a yearly Bahn card it is another 25% off. Basically if we played our cards right we could take a train all the way across Europe for about 30 euro. Pretty good deal if you ask me!

We bought our train tickets and boarded our first train to Mannheim, we had a short layover and then hopped on our next train to Speyer. The boys of course took this opportunity to buy beer and breakfast. The train was crowded and made frequent stops but overall the trip was only about two hours. Once we arrived in Speyer our guide took us on a short tour of the town pointing out the main sights and ending at the famous cathedral in the center of town. Speyer is home of the pretzel and there were permanent pretzel stands throughout the town. According to our tour guide the pretzel shape was to mimic the arms crossing of the monks, I have not yet verified this fact but it does make a good story. We were able to walk through the last remaining ancient gate in the city which is still in use today. After a short stroll down the main road our guide pointed out the first church where Martin Luther posted his thesis. A couple of hundred yards down the road lay the most spectacular cathedral I have ever seen.

Martin Luther statue and church 

The Cathedral is a UNESCO world heritage site and is the burial place of kings and emperors. In 1925 the Pope raised the status of the cathedral to the rank of a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. Today it remains the finest example of romanesque architecture in Germany and quite and impressive site. We paid a small donation in order to head down to the crypt housed below the cathedral. Justin loved it but I was seriously freaked out. At first we were the only ones down below, there was little lighting, a cold draft and an eerie quietness which added to the overall creepiness that follows hanging out in a crypt. There are 8 german kings and a couple of bishops buried in the catacombs. I just got shivers thinking back on the experience...

The door to the cathedral 

The view inside 

The small chapel in the catacombs  

A few of the tombs in the crypt

Afterwards we headed across the street to a local brewery/restaurant. They made the BEST beer I have had in Germany so far. About half way through our lunch a random German gentleman over heard us talking and asked if he could join us. Sure, why not. As it turns out he has a home in Florida, used to be a professor in both Germany and the United States AND his son owns a winery only two hours from our apartment! He invited us to come over and "see how a real German family lives and drink REAL wine." The area where the winery is located is known for their Reisling.  He left us his email and phone number so the next time we were in the area we could give him a call. This is not the first time we have been joined by the locals while we are out. Everyone is so gosh darn friendly! After finishing up a ridiculous amount of beer and of course taking a few bottles to go we headed out into the rain to the Technik Museum.

Brewery!

We made it to the Speyer Technical Museum with only and hour and half before we had to be back at the train station. It was no where near enough time! The museum was definitely one of a kind, the main building had rows and rows of older cars, trains, tractors, farm equipment and small planes. We then went outside where full size airplanes, helicopters and even a full size submarine were on display. My favorite part was the full size Boeing 747 they had mounted, you had to walk up a really tall spiral staircase but they had the plane opened up so you were able to walk out on the wing! We were running really short on time so we rushed through the Space display, walked into a real space shuttle and then finished up by climbing down into an old submarine. By this time we were super late and had to run all the way back to the train station. We arrived just in time, hopped on the train and slept the rest of the way back home. 

A piece of the Berlin Wall 

An old Fire Truck 

Climbing down into the submarine 

The submarine! 

Real Apache helicopter

Out on the wing of the Boeing 747

Speyer was an incredibly interesting town with so much to offer, we are hoping to go back soon and check out two of the other gothic style churches, aquarium and of course to buy some more beer! 

We braved a snow storm just to visit another festival.

Saint Patrick's Day we awoke to find a foot and a half of fresh white powdery snow while more kept falling from the dark grey sky. Ugh! I am so annoyed with the cold snow. At first Justin and I planned on spending the day relaxing in bed watching movies and drinking Guinness but around 2:00pm we were bored and decided to brave the weather and head 30 minutes down the road to St. Wendel where the local Easter Market was being held. Lucky for us the snow plows had come through and the roads were manageable.

St. Wendel is a quaint little town with a cathedral in the center of the town. The Easter Market was set up around the cathedral and despite the cold now rainy weather the market was full of people. Close to 40 stands were set up, vendors were selling easter crafts, wine, food such as crepes or sausage and even a small petting zoo.

Sausage!

We bought a tiny carved rabbit trinket to add to our collection and ended our shopping at the "honey" stand. The honey was being sold by a local vendor and bee farmer. He let us try the different flavors and we settled on buying a jar of fresh wild honey. It was fantastic! If at all possible I am only buying local honey from now on. Once I was thoroughly soaked through my jacket, quite cold and full of brotwurst and gluhwein we headed back home to defrost.

The Easter Egg Tree

Germans have a festival for everything...

The husband and I just had a fantastic weekend celebrating not only my 25th birthday but also 6 months of married life! The time sure has been flying... Friday night we started out the evening at a local pub with two delicious banana beers and while some of you might cringe at the sound of it, they are actually really yummy! Followed up with a fantastic german meal of "jagershitznel", potatoes, more beer and a fruity shot of some unknown local schnapps. We took the short walk home in the rain to finish up the night with ice-cream (we decided to break our diet for 24 hours so we could properly celebrate).

Saturday we went on another full day USO trip and just so happened to have the same tour guide as our trip to Mainz, luckily she didn't keep me up with her history lessons during our two hour bus trip but I had taken dramamine to help with my motion sickness so I was pretty much passed out for a good portion of the drive. Our first stop was the town of Erbach where we went on a private tour of the count of Erbach's castle. My favorite part was when you first entered the castle the entry way was lined floor to ceiling with the largest atypical antler mounts. It was an impressive collection that put Cabela's display to shame... The first room we walked through was display case after display case of guns. They were amazing, a few had the most ornate carving, inlaid with ivory or pearl. One of the guns was a duck hunting gun that was at least 5 feet long, it took two people to aim and shoot! They had an old "grenade" type launcher that was about a foot and half long and apparently had a recoil/kick back so bad that the shooter usually ended up with broken bones. We then grabbed a pair of slippers and headed up the stairs, slippers were required because the second floor had all of the original flooring and they wanted to preserve the castle as much as possible. The stair case was also lined with more antlers and it led up to a room where the count had mounted all of his trophy bucks dating back about 500 years ago. Our tour guide informed us that deer 500 years ago weighed an average of 500 kilos while deer today average a weight of about 150 kilos. This did help to explain the massive antlers that filled the room. We then headed into another part of the castle that was filled with boring old furniture and pictures (stuff I was clearly not interested in...) After suffering through the boring section we filed back downstairs into the knights armory! There were full knight armor displayed throughout the room, real weapons used during the time period as well as horse armor and chain mail. Unfortunately photographs were not allowed on the tour but I did manage to sneak a couple.... We finished up the tour and headed outside where thankfully it was sunny and warm! After spending a couple of minutes checking out the town we headed to our next stop.

The knights armory room 

Michelstadt was a small medieval town just a couple of minutes down the road from Erbach. This is where the Easter Egg festival was being held. I have learned that Germans LOVE their festivals and there is never a shortage of things to celebrate! The town was surrounded by what used to be an old moat and even had one of the old watch towers still intact. The festival took place inside of a toy museum and artists from all over came to display and sell their etched, carved or hand painted eggs. It was amazing what these artist could do with a simple egg. Justin and I each picked out an egg to add to our collection of knick knacks from around the world and headed out to test the local cuisine. Our tour guide highly recommended a restaurant/brewery where we sat down and ate a hearty german lunch, complete with locally brewed beer. However lunch did not sit to well with me and we spent the rest of our free time relaxing on a park bench while I tried to keep all of the food down. Luckily I recovered quickly and held down everything for the rest of the trip.

Locally brewed beer

The old moat around the town 

The last and final stop of the day took us back into another part of Erbach where they have the largest and one of kind Ivory Museum. Once again no photographs were allowed but I did feel compelled to snag a couple... It was incredible to see the detail carved into the huge pieces of Ivory. The most impressive piece was a giant ship depicting seven chinese gods celebrating with local fishermen. There was also a four foot carved ivory crucifix that was amazing. The majority of the pieces were carved from antlers NOT elephant tusks. We finished up with the museum and headed into the gift where we decided we had to have something carved from Ivory to commemorate our trip. Immediately a little tiny frog caught my eye and I knew I had to have it, Justin gave in and reluctantly paid 24 euros for a carving the size of my pinky nail. Which we then found out was carved from a piece of mammoth tusk, it was certified and everything, making it quite the legitimate purchase! We headed back to the bus and both of us fell asleep the whole way home, exhausted from our daily adventure.

Carved Ivory 

Sunday we spent the majority of the day relaxing. We took a quick trip into Ramstein to sign up for a tutorial on how to use the German train next Monday, grabbed lunch and headed back home to finish up season one of "Walking Dead" a great TV show about a zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately it started snowing again this morning so there will probably not be an adventures to update everyone on until Sunday when we will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day!

Lost in the Woods

I apologize ahead of time for another post about hiking but we live in a small village and there is only so much we can do in our limited free time! So yesterday Riley, Justin and I set out on what was supposed to be a short little hike so we could enjoy the amazing weather we are having right now. Off we went through town to a well marked trail that we were assuming was a loop. We saw horses (I of course pet one of the horses) and Riley found a couple of creeks he could play so far everybody was happy...

Two hours later we came across a couple of German hikers and asked them where the trail was going. "It is a loop, you have about three hours until you are back in Baumholder." uhhhh ok.... now we had a choice, go back the way we came (about two hours of hiking) or continue on the trail, see some new parts of the country side and only hike an extra hour. It was about 2pm so we decided there was enough daylight for us to finish out the loop. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Well as we continued, the trail got significantly harder; icy patches, steep uphills, dramatic drop in temperature, our pants were covered in mud up to our knees and my shoes/socks were soaking wet. Twice I wanted to sit down and cry. We had no water, no snacks, the sun was going down quickly, I was freezing, there was no sign of civilization and we had no idea where we were. We eventually lost the trail; luckily not to far away we spotted signs for a nature park and according to Justin "there has to be a trail that eventually leads to a parking lot that will then lead to a road..."  I made the executive decision to follow the trail, which did end up leading to a paved road (that seemed to have been heavily travelled) and back to the start of our trail! Turns out our little short cut only shaved off 30 minutes of the trail but I was in no mood to get lost in a German forest at night.

We made it back to the apartment with about 15 minutes of day light left. After changing out of our wet clothes and bundling up in something warm we all collapsed on the couch, completely worn out from five hours of hiking. We have had enough exploring to last us at least a month!

The view from the top! 

Our LONG trail, we found the map AFTER we made it back to the trail head. 

***Spoiler alert: Justin and I are taking a trip this weekend to celebrate my birthday and our 6 month anniversary!!! Look for a new post from me on Sunday evening...