One Sweet Day

Malu returned after a month-long training event on Saturday afternoon.  Sina just about died when she saw him walk through the door.  I mean, she screamed as she ran to the door to greet him.  For the first few minutes, she wouldn't let him go.  She'd hug him, then look up to stare at his face repeatedly as if she didn't believe he was really here.  It was so precious.  We knew we didn't have much time to work with; just over a day, in fact.  He actually left yesterday for another TDY (business trip), so it's just me and the mini-me again this week.

However, Sunday with Malu/Daddy was a fantastic day!

The weather was absolutely perfect, so we spent a lot of time outside at the playground.  When Malu's around, I feel so much more at ease as far as Sina is concerned.  Up until that day, I was killing myself going up and down the slides with Sina because I didn't think she could do it on her own.  After all, she wanted to be on the "big kid" playground as opposed to the one nearby made especially for toddlers.  I mean, this playground is high up and the thought of her falling freaked me out.  But then Malu shows up and all that goes out the window.  He encourages me to let her try it on her own.  And you know what?  She's great at it.  He showed her how to climb the ladder on her own.  It totally freaked me out...but she did it!!!

We also spent some time shopping at the PX.  Sina kept pointing at our sunglasses curiously and I'd forgotten that she had a pair in her diaper bag.  I pulled them out and she put them on.  She loved them, whereas months ago, she didn't want anything to do with them.  She didn't even want to take them off when we got inside the PX.  Isn't the picture of Sina and Malu adorable?

After the PX, we went back to the playground before dinner.  After dinner, Sina and Malu did a little crafting and made caterpillars out of egg cartons.  It was quite messy, but tons of fun. 

So even though we had just a short amount of time together, I'd say it was time very well spent!

Lucky for us...Malu returns on Friday afternoon, so it won't be too much longer.  And we intend to do this weekend up big, as in a trip to the zoo!

Happy Tuesday to All!  Thank God this week is just whizzing by!

P.S.  I finished the Hunger Games and am on the second book now! 

Move Over Nutella...

I think I may have found the one thing that tops Nutella on my list of indulgences.  This is saying a lot because Nutella has topped the list for as old as Sina is, as it was a mainstay in my snacking regimen during my postpartum convalescent leave (all 60 days of it).  But really...this is good.

It's bazaar time here at Patch Barracks again.  Same vendors from last year and some new ones.  This year, the weather has been completely cooperative.  Last year, it was cold, rainy and miserable.    This time, it's been sunny and in the high 60s--ideal for shopping!  I've been twice already (yesterday and today; thank God for 3-day weekends).  The second time I went to grab some more of this stuff.

Anyway, have you ever eaten the Biscoff cookies while in flight?  I think Delta Airlines serves them.  It's where I first tried them.  They're like ginger snaps, but better.  I mean, tons better; as in, I always ask for extra on the plane.  I could never find the cookies in stores in the States, but they are sold in our Commissary.  I love Europe!

Anyway, a Belgian vendor at the bazaar sells this creamy Biscoff spread...

Not sure how I missed this last year because I remember this particular vendor.  It's a creamy spread, made with the yummy Biscoff cookies.  It has the same consistency as peanut butter and comes in crunch and creamy too.  I tried a sample at the kiosk and I instantly fell in love.  I have three jars.  I'm considering going back tomorrow (the last day of the bazaar) to buy three more.  Seriously.  This stuff is amazing--especially on a bagel. 

At any rate, Sina and I have been enjoying our time together.  We've been spending a lot of it outdoors, thanks to Mother Nature.  As a matter of fact, we spent our lovely Saturday morning at the farmer's market in downtown Vaihingen (right outside the gate).

Malu will be home next Sunday.  Although he'll be turning right around and going on another business trip, we're looking forward to wrapping our arms around him in one big hug.  We've missed him so much!

Well, it's time for me to cuddle up and watch a movie.  I'll try to post again tomorrow!

Back on the Countdown!

Malu left for a month's worth of training this morning.  At the end of the day, my boss asked me how I was feeling about it.  I said, "It sucks, but I'm okay, Sir!"  He snickered and said, "That's what you say now, but I'm sure your Facebook status will say otherwise later on tonight."  He was right.  Not too long ago, I posted about how much I'm missing Malu already.

I'm not going to lie.  This really sucks.  I hate having to start another countdown.  Granted, this is only until the end of this month, but no amount of time apart from a loved one--be it a few days, a week, etc.--is easy.  And this is coming from someone who's about to go through her third deployment as an Army wife!  It's harder now that I'm a mom and doing everything on my own with Sina, holding down my full-time job, and trying to keep house.  It's exhausting just trying to get through each day.  In fact, I feel all my energy draining out of me just thinking about trying to get through the next few weeks.

But you know what?  I'm going to be fine.  I always am.  I'm stronger than I give myself credit for sometimes and I have a strong support system.

But Malu...Sina and I miss you so much and wish you all the best at training!  We are so proud of you!

I posted this picture on my Facebook profile.  It was taken at a monastery in Ettal, Germany.  It's one of our favorite places to visit. 

I love pictures of my sweetheart and our little girl.  My loves.  My life.

Ice Ice Baby!

Gosh, what a fantastic weekend.  All in all, it was pretty relaxing and tons of fun.  We just did whatever it was we felt like doing--no particular schedule to follow, and that was just fine with us.

We went to a basketball game on Kelly Barracks.  Malu trains a junior high schooler and he wanted to support him at his game this weekend.  Sina and I tagged along.  Sina was entranced.  I keep saying this, but I definitely think we have a future super star athlete on our hands!

We went shopping at the mall.  There were some really great sales out there.  We bought the heck out of the kids' clothes department at H&M!

We went out to dinner on Saturday night.  German food...I can't get enough of it.

We watched movies--finally watched the last Harry Potter movie last night and just got done watching Conviction, starring Hillary Swank.  Both very good movies!

Did a good amount of cooking too; including brioche french toast with fresh strawberries this morning, chicken pot pie for dinner tonight, along with bacon-wrapped dates (first time making this--delicious!).

By far, the best thing we did this weekend was take advantage of the free ice skating event offered to military families.  The local American ice hockey league as well as the Stuttgart Community Spouses Club sponsored the event and paid for us to skate for almost two hours at a rink about twenty minutes from post.  Ahhh, the advantages of being in the military!

It was Sina's first time and she had a blast.  It was also Malu's first time in years and I was surprised at how great a skater he is!  I'd done a few minutes of skating with Madisen (our friends' daughter) at the Stuttgart Christmas Market last month, but I was excited to get back on the ice again.  The skating rink had these neat chairs to take the little kiddos out on the ice.  It was so much fun to see Sina with her hands up in the air, as if she was on a rollercoaster.  She'd also clap every couple of minutes and since I was pushing her, she'd always try to keep her daddy in her sights.

The last photo is my favorite.  My two loves.  At the time, Sina was watching the Zamboni "clean" the ice.  Yet another experience to go down in the "book of firsts"!

This week, Sina moves to the Toddler Room at school (ages 18 months-3 years).  An opening arose and she's been ready to go for a few months now.  I have to admit that it was a bittersweet moment packing her bag for the week.  She has to bring all kinds of new stuff with her...like a toothbrush, two extra sets of clothing, a blanket for nap time, and a stuffed animal.  Our baby girl's movin' up in the world and it's killing me :(

Anyway, hate to see the weekend go.  Hello new work week!  Ugh.

Happy Sunday to All...and a shout out to my family back in Colorado, as they are celebrating my Grandma Ines' 83rd birthday (which was yesterday) today.  Love you all!



Christmas Party

My office had its annual Christmas party on Friday night.  It was the first Sina-free night Malu and I have had since, like, last year.  Last year around this time, we were spending the holidays with family and they'd completely taken Sina over.  To date, we have yet to find a babysitter. 

On Friday, Child Youth Services just happened to have a Parents Night Out evening where they extended their hours from 1830 to 2330.  So Malu and I were able to have a night to ourselves.  The party was so much fun.  We didn't plan it, but our outfits ended up matching perfectly and my boss told us that we won the award for best looking couple that night.  How flattering!

The food was great, as was the program.  People walked away with some really great White Elephant gifts and we had tons of good laughs.

Just as Malu was starting to tear up the dance floor, we had to leave to get Sina and she was surprisingly still awake when we got her.

Anyway, it's back to reality tomorrow.  Another work week.

We spent tonight at the Stuttgart Christmas Market and I'll be blogging about that tomorrow.

Holy Fudge!

There should be a rule on how much fudge there should be within the workplace.  Wait, what the heck am I saying?  There can never be enough fudge...anywhere!  And another thing...have I mentioned that I really love the holidays?  People are just super duper nice during the holidays.  And already-nice people are super duper nicer--like one of our Colonels at work (of the Air Force type; let me tell you, I grow more and more fond of our comrades in blue by the day!).  He brought all of this homemade fudge to work today.  Seriously.  His lovely wife (and I'm sure his kids helped too) brought eighty of these to pass out to our entire directorate.  On a good day, we have about 75 people, so there was enough for every single person. Needless to say, I was going around looking to see if anyone didn't want their fudge :)

There were tons of flavors--milk chocolate macadamia, Twix fudge, pecan, mint M&M fudge and more.  I chose Rocky Road.  Heavenly.

I thank God for my gracious co-workers and their families.  I thank God for fudge!

The holiday excitement continues.  Tomorrow is our work Christmas party.  The Child Youth Services in town is sponsoring a Parents' Night Out, which means they've got extended hours from 1830-2330 where parents can leave their kids for the evening and go out to do, well, anything.  Since we still don't have a babysitter, we signed Sina up for the evening so that we could attend my work Christmas party.  Since I didn't want her staying the entire day at daycare, I opted to take the day off tomorrow.  Instead of going to work , Sina and I will be hanging out with some soldiers and our senior spouses and decorating for the Christmas party.  A day with my baby girl?  I'll take it over work any day!

Last day of the week you guys...enjoy!!!!  Happy Thursday!

Weekend Recap: Grafenwoehr

I typically hate drill weekends, but I didn't mind this drill weekend so much because we were able to join Malu on this one!  It was pretty much an abbreviated drill weekend because the unit had its Christmas party, but I'll get into that more in a little bit.

The last time we were in Grafenwoehr it was May and we stayed in lodging that must have been centuries old.  When I made reservations for this weekend, I dreaded the thought of staying in those old, dingy rooms.  Little did I know that an entirely new lodging facility had opened and those old buildings were no more.  Malu pulled up to a building that looked exactly like the lodging here in Stuttgart.  As a matter of fact, we experienced some major deja vu as we walked into our room.  It looked exactly like the room we spent three weeks living in almost a year ago (I can't believe that much time has gone by)!  I'm not sure why I'm so surprised.  Army lodging is pretty standardized worldwide.  Army lodging is also becoming more expensive.  $155 a night?  For real?

We were right across the street from the PX, which was perfect for linking up with Malu at lunch time on Saturday.

You guys, these chicken trucks are everywhere in Germany and we love them to death (my family knows how much Malu loves his chicken!).  It's the best rotisserie chicken you'll ever eat, so we eat it whenever we have the chance.  As a matter of fact, we have a really good chicken guy that sells his stuff right outside our gate here at Patch Barracks.  He's aptly named, the "Chicken Man" and is quite popular in these parts.

For those of you that don't know, Malu works for the same unit that I do here in Stuttgart, but he's really assigned to a reserve unit based in Grafenwoehr.  So he does double duty.  This was the first time I actually got to meet his co-workers and what a great group of folks.  This weekend they held their unit Christmas party at a place called the Brauerei Bruckmueller, which was originally a Franciscan monastery dating back to the late 1400s.  Located in Amberg (about 30 minutes away from Grafenwoehr), it has been a family-run brewery for over 500 years.  This place and the food was amazing in terms of the ambiance and the structure of the building.  I also haven't had German food this good in a while.

There was a really neat beer crate Christmas tree out front.  I thought my dad and brother would get a kick out of this.

Sina, feeling a little bit under the weather (there's a bug going around her school!) and perhaps overwhelmed by the crowd, decided she wanted to play shy and snuggled up to daddy most of the time.

I absolutely love this photo of the three of us!  And yes, I recently got my hair cut.  Back to my old, short style.  I just think it suits me better...and it's definitely low maintenance (I'm a wake-up-and-go kinda gal).

I'm not going to lie...this was my plate.  Hey, it was a buffet.  And it was FREE--compliments of the USO!  I definitely got USO's money's worth.

We had schnitzel (pork), spaetzle (noodles), some kind of pasta casserole, a mushroom gravy, and a dumpling.  It was dee-licious!

We also sprung for dessert.  Apfel (apple) strudel.  Yum!

There were tons of drinks (and shots) to be had.  These guys were tons of fun, and extremely nice.  I'm so happy Malu's got a great team!

Malu might have imbibed in his fair share of said drinks and shots.  Okay, maybe I had to drive us home :)  It was all in good fun.  Definitely a team-building experience.

We also did an elephant gift exchange.  I won a really cool Starbucks mug and some coffee.  Speaking of Starbucks...the Grafenwoehr PX has a Starbucks.  I was in heaven!

Some other things...

While waiting on Malu during the day, Sina and I were able to link up with the Finch Family for a visit.  They dropped by to do some shopping at the Graf PX (they live about an hour away from there) and we joined them. We also met their newest little one, Mackinley, for the first time.  What a cutie!  We'll be linking up with the in the coming weeks for a Christmas market trip!

While at the PX, I ran into an old friend that I met at Fort Bragg 9 years ago.    Her husband was in my unit and gosh, they were so young back then and pretty much new to the Army.  They are a Filipino family, which instantly connected us although I wouldn't say we were extremely close.  Nevertheless, they made me a godmother to their daughter.  We'd lost touch all these years, so imagine my surprise when this 8-year-old girl comes walking up to me, not having a clue who I was.  Yet, her mom excitedly exclaimed, "this is your ninang!"  or godmother, in Filipino.  At the time, we were in a rush because we were on Malu's lunch break and I had to drive him back to his unit, but I hurriedly had her scribble her contact information on a piece of paper.  When we got out to the car, I told Malu I felt like I should have handed that little girl $100 or something (as this is customary for godparents in the Filipino tradition).  He asked why I didn't.  Well, I didn't exactly have $100 on me.  Fail.  But I'll be keeping in touch from now on.  Small world, eh?

And that was pretty much our weekend.  Pretty cool, huh?

It's definitely getting colder around here.  I heard mentionings of snow a few times today at work, so I'm thinking we'll be getting some soon.  This cold weather makes for some perfect cuddling time in front of our Christmas tree, which I'll tell you guys about soon.

Oh...and Sina turns 16 months tomorrow!

Happy Monday everyone!

Grafenwoehr

[source]

Okay, let me just take a moment to orient you guys to Germany.  I had to take a moment to do it myself.  It's always good to know exactly where you're going when you're headed someplace new.  On this map are all of the Army installations in Germany.   Germany is made up of sixteen states.  We live in the state of Baden Wurttemberg, the third largest state.  Stuttgart is its capital. Grafenwoehr (just FYI...when you type out the "o" with two dots over it, you type "oe" because we don't have the "o" with dots on our U.S. keyboards) is in the state of Bavaria, which is the largest state.  It's capital is Munich.  So, a three-hour drive heading northeast took us from one state to another and it was quite scenic.  I've never seen so much green in my life.  It was beautiful.

Remember the other day when I said that friends had told me that there is nothing to do in Grafenwoehr and I set out to prove them wrong?  Well, I couldn't.  There ain't crap to do in Grafenwoehr.  Yes, I said ain't and crap (sorry mom and dad).  At least on the post, there wasn't much to do.  I didn't see much going on in town either.  If you really want something to do around Grafenwoehr, you have to drive (i.e. an hour away, is Nurnberg).  So I guess it was really my fault because I let Malu take the car with him to his unit.  To be honest, I didn't really feel like doing anything other than relax and spend time with Sina.  So that's exactly what I did and I enjoyed it, really. 

We hung around the PX...a lot.  It was a pretty nice one with a good selection of merchandise and food.  Imagine my delight when I saw that not only did they have a Starbucks, but a Taco Bell as well. Yup, I had both.  The place was buzzing with activity because an aviation brigade had just redeployed.  It was actually kind of chaotic.  On Saturday, I met up with an old friend of mine from college who is stationed at Vilseck, which is about 30 minutes away from Grafenwoehr.  We ate lunch and chit-chatted a good while.  Fun times!

Anyway, Grafenwoehr has a rich history.  I found a quick wrap-up on this website.   It's got two landmarks--a water tower (which is still functional)

and an adjacent Forsthaus (that belonged to the Chief Forester way back when).

Both were built in 1910--a little over 100 years ago!

The romantic Swiss style of both buildings is echoed throughout the entire post.

Um...and that was pretty much it.  On Saturday afternoon, Sina and I thought we'd wander into town.  A big city like Stuttgart at least has stores open in town as well as a farmer's market on Saturdays.  Didn't see anything open outside the gate.  Nada. Zilch.  That's small German town life for ya.  We quickly walked back into post, went to our room, cuddled up, and watched movies on TV.  I can't complain.  I definitely got a lot of naptime in!

The best part was just being close to Malu.  He would meet up with us for lunch and Sina would go crazy at the first sight of him.  I mean she'd straight-up just scream and clap her hands until she was finally in his arms.  This was a picture of the two of them in front of the PX.  Not sure what was going on with her hair, but I still think it's a cute picture.

Well, it was nice to get out of town even for a little bit even if the place lacked adventure. I mean, we were together and that's all that mattered!

I can't believe that Memorial Day weekend is upon us.  Normandy in less than two weeks!

Hope everyone's week has gotten off to a great start :)

Military Spouse Appreciation Day!

I found this picture on Erin's blog, Every Branch.  Isn't it lovely?  Happy Military Spouse's Day to all the fabulous military spouses out there.  We all know that behind every servicemember--be it Soldier, Airman, Sailor, or Marine--is one heck of a significant other, whose unwavering support and unconditional love we could not be without.  Pat yourselves on the back today!

I'm gonna pat my husband on the back because he's one heck of a super-stud military spouse,  a far-out awesome dad, and my biggest fan.  I would not be able to do what I do everyday if it weren't for his love, constant guidance and encouragement.

And if it's okay, I'm going to pat myself on the back because I know I'm one heck of a military spouse myself :)

This day is doubly special because our baby girl is exactly 9 months old today...

...but I'll save her monthly update for another post, maybe on Monday after she's had her 9 month check-up.  And by the way, Malu said he was trying to do the front "poof" hairstyle that his sister, Lulu, sports.  Nice try, babe.  Nice try.  The outfit is so cute though, no?

Happy Friday you guys!  Weekend....woo hoo!!!

{05.01.11}

May 1, 2011...another date in U.S. history that will live in infamy. I was at work this morning, around 0645, when I finally connected to the outside world via the internet to find out that Osama Bin Laden had been found, killed and buried at sea.

I don't usually relish the thought of someone being killed, but I must admit that I did exhale a ginormous sigh of relief when it all settled in. Now I didn't go buck-wild crazy with excitement as I saw many do on the news in front of the White House and on ground zero in New York City. Instead, I thought of all the men and women that lost their lives during the attacks orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden on 9/11. I thought of all the servicemen and women who lost their lives in defense of our freedom, as well as those who served overseas and continue to serve today and are in harm's way.



photo courtesy of flickr.com

I wish I could say this war is over, but it's not.  Unfortunately, Osama Bin Laden is just one in an extremely long line of terrorists trying to bring our Nation down.  We've merely scratched the surface.  So we must be vigilant--more now than ever before.  However, let this victory be a message to our enemies that as a Nation under God, we Americans are an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.

I am definitely proud to be a part of that force. I'm proud to be an American.

Go USA!

Don't forget....today is the last day to enter my Ritter Sport Chocolate Giveaway!  Winner will be announced tomorrow!

Cookout!

Malu and I have been dying to barbecue.  Okay, maybe it's just me.  And it's not so much the barbecue I've been wanting, but rather just wanting to find some friends around here.  I have some great friends at work, but haven't quite found a group of "regulars" to hang out with like we've had at previous duty stations.  Today, we finally had the opportunity!  We met up with some new friends of ours.  Well, actually, the person that invited me is an old friend from high school.  Meet the Fargo's!

This is Adam and his wife, Nichole, who's such a sweetie.  I really love how small the Army is.  You just never know who you're going to run into and when.  By way of Facebook, Adam found out that I was heading to Stuttgart and that I'd be working in the building right across from his (he actually works in the EUCOM headquarters).  Not only that, we pretty much work hand-in-hand on a daily basis and I must say that it's been nice to have my go-to guy at the headquarters. I would never have imagined, almost 15 years ago (when I last saw him at our high school in Carthage, NY, right outside of Fort Drum, where my dad was stationed) that we'd link up--and in Europe of all places!  I must also add that the years have been great to Adam.  He's done well professionally and has a beautiful family.

The Fargos introduced us to their lovely group of friends and we had a great time, more food than we knew what to do with, drinks and tons of laughs.  Although Mother Nature couldn't quite decide how to feel today (sunny, rainy, sunny, cold & windy), we were happy with the company and it was a lovely afternoon.  Here are more pics from today...

Sina quickly made friends with Adam & Nichole

Having fun!

She was totally diggin' that hat!

Doing some walking around the gazebo

I definitely hope this get-together won't be our last!

Thanks to the Fargos for thinking of us!

I hope all of you are enjoying the weekend.

Don't forget...Monday is the last day to enter my giveaway!

Downtown Stuttgart

This morning, I opened my Facebook and saw a message from my friend, Maddie, saying "FYI...you promised an updated blog post today".  Leave it to Maddie to keep me squared away.  What's cool is that Maddie will be moving to Germany in a few months, only she'll be about two hours away from us.  We're super excited.

Anyway, the main purpose of the downtown tour was to get us acquainted with Germany's mass transportation system.  Having used the eurail to go all over Europe (well, Germany, France and Italy) a few years ago while on R&R, I can tell you that it's fabulous.  I mean, you can take a train all over Germany and outside of Germany and at decent fares.  Paris?  Rome?  No problem. 

In any case, there are five means of transport here in Germany, aside from having your own car, of course, bikes, and the intercity trains that take you from city to city.  There's the subway (called S-Bahn), the streetcar (called U-Bahn), the cable car (called Seilbahn), the bus, and the cograil car (called Zacke). All modes are different, but honestly, to me, all of these things looked exactly the same.  They all look like subway trains.  I mean, when I hear cograil, I think about that slow choo-choo train that I've taken up Pikes Peak in Colorado.  But no...it looks just like the subway train.

This one actually did take us up a huge hill.  As a matter or fact, most of Stuttgart is hills and mountains.  A huge part of the city sits below in valleys and there are houses and buildings going uphill or up mountains.  I'll tell ya, the view coming downhill is just gorgeous.

So we rode on every form of transportation, which was really neat.  It's all kind of confusing, but I'm sure we'll get the hang of it eventually.  But really, we need to do it fast.  The people here don't have much patience for rookie Americans who wander around lost in the train stations or on the trains.  They'll literally knock you out of the way if you're not careful.  The main train station is in the heart of downtown and is huge and you can access both the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn.  It's called the hauptbahnhof and ours looks like this:

It has a couple of floors with shops and food eateries.  And it's busy as hell. When you actually get to the subway platform, you'd be surprised at how clean it is when you compare it to someplace like NYC.  They also have big flat screen panels throughout for advertisements and stuff. 

While we were downtown, our teacher showed us some really cool places.  Because I was so busy taking pictures and not quite listening to what she was saying, I've linked a lot of these places to Wikipedia so that, if you're interested, you can actually see what these places are about.

The Swabich are a hard-working people.  As such, Stuttgart is one of the wealthiest cities in Germany (as we've been told).  Not surprising that in downtown, you'll find a lot of big name shops along the konig strasse, or walking zone, like Cartier, Lacoste, and of course...

Louis Vuitton.  Yes, right in front of an old, beautiful and historic church.  I know my mom is getting excited right now.  And mom, it doesn't end here...they have big department stores like this one...

...called Kaufhof, as well as H&M and C&A.  Or this one, called Breuninger, which is comparable to a Bloomingdales and has floor after floor of merchandise...

I could barely contain myself.  Really.

There was a really cool toy store that we went to as well, but I'll save that for a separate post.  Also, I just thought about how crazy it was to see so many people out shopping everywhere in the middle of a workday (it was Wednesday morning).  Does anyone work around here?  Just kidding.

Here's that church that's behind the LV store.  She referred to it as the university church, but I'm not sure what it's called.  But it's gorgeous, inside and out.

We were also taken to the city hall, which is called the Rathaus (not rat house, but pronounced "rot-house"). 

It's smack dab in the middle of the city with a huge plaza outside of it.  Inside, it had a really weird (but cool), old elevator that our teacher wanted us to try.  I have a video here, but you have to watch sideways.  I didn't know how to rotate it.

You'd be surprised at how many people in our group were too mortified to try it. I thought it was a hoot!

Here is the altes schloss or Old Castle.  I know it's now a museum, but I think it also has a courthouse and a really beautiful church that I took pictures of.  The interior is just magnificent.

Here is the Schillerplatz.  Apparently Schiller (big statue) is one of the country's renowned poets.  I thought the plaza was stunning.  It's right across from the old castle.  A few feet away is where the flea market is held every Saturday.

Not too far from here is the new castle, which I didn't take pictures of.  But across from the new castle is the schlossplatz which is the biggest square in the middle of the city.  Oh, and that domed building to the left?  Another mall.  Craziness.

And, by the way, I can't wait to see these places in the Spring where I heard it's just beautiful, green and flowery.

Behind the new castle and beyond its gardens sits the opera house as well as the art museum behind it.

There are musicals, ballets, symphonies all year long. I'm soooo there!

And I believe these are all the pictures I took, as I'm sure you guys are tired of reading this post by now.

As glad as I am to know that we can travel all through Germany and out of it, I'm amazed at how much there is to do just in our own city, like the zoo, the spas and mineral baths, as well as the Mercedez Benz and Porsche museums.

All right friends and family....do you want to get on our waiting list to visit?