La vita ordinaria in Italia

Translation: Ordinary life in Italy

The past week has been a pretty "normal" one, especially after our trip to Germany. We needed some downtime to recoup.

Riann and Lincoln enjoyed their first week of preschool.
Riann is going Monday through Friday, and Lincoln goes Tuesdays & Thursdays. They are both loving it!!







Thursday on the way home from dropping them off, I was driving back to the highway. Thinking I wasn't focusing, I slowed down only to realize the road was "fuzzy" being crossed by a herd of sheep. There had to have been at least 500 or so, with several sheep herding dogs.
Holy sheep!! Of course, I had to take a photo! Afterward, I went with a friend to a market to stock up on fresh produce, one of my favorite weekly excursions!


Saturday, I ran my first race since foot surgery! Friday night at the playground, my friend Suzanne and I were making plans meet to run in the morning. Someone overheard us and asked us if we were running in the race in the morning. With that, our plans changed to run the 5k for September 11th on base at 9:30am... a bit later than what we are used to!!
Prior to the race was a 1 mile family fun run, Riann said she wanted to run with me, however she was done running after the first 1/10th of the mile. I made it a better workout for myself by giving her a piggy back ride the rest of the way. The 5k was a fun, easy little race, but it was the warmest day we've had in a couple weeks... or maybe it just because the sun was up before we started.


Saturday night, Jamie and I had "date night" which really means "no kids but game for anything". We made plans with our friends Glenn & Tina, and my running friend Suzanne and her husband Scott. We went to a place called Arbustum. I had heard a lot of great things, and Suzanne had been there before too and wanted to go back. The restaurant has no menu, they just begin serving you as soon as you sit at your table. They have a set menu - several courses of delicious, delicous food. We had bread, antipasta, vegetables (the first time I've had eggplant and LOVED it!), 2 types of pasta dishes, the main dish that was some sort of beef and potatoes, melon and then dessert. Also, the wine & water flowed as quickly as we could drink it. Thanks to Tina for capturing our evening...


Sunday, I headed with my friend Sonja and her daughter to Napoli's "Shoe Alley", a market that sells shoes, TONS of shoes and so much more. I was easily overwhelmed part way through the shopping experience but not before I bought myself my first Italian-made shoes and two pairs of "dress up" shoes for Riann for 1 euro each. I can't wait to go again soon!

Tuesday after I took Riann to school (and Lincoln did not go due to a stomach bug he had all day Monday), I went with some friends to a shop in Teverola (the little town a few minutes down the road from us) to check out demijohns. What are demijohns, you ask?


These are demijohns and you see them EVERYWHERE on base. American's love them, Italians think we are crazy. You can find them anywhere from 5L to 50L or more. You can always go on a demijohn hunt out in the country and find them on the side of the road, as Italians think of them as junk. They areThey are almost always clear or green, but the place we went Tuesday has them in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Since Lincoln was with me and he was being a little impatient, I couldn't make a deicison and will go back again very soon.

Some things we have had to get used to since living in Italy are the various "strikes" the workers go on. I joke that it is the Italian's way of having a day off. But Tuesday, Jamie told me to make sure I went to the gas station to fill 'er up because the gas stations were scheduled for a strike and would be closed the rest of the week: not just the gas stations here, the gas stations in the ENTIRE country. I must have picked a good time to go because there was no one waiting, and I got my full tank of gas. The next day, one gas station I passed had a line down the road... 10+ cars at least. Of course, the strike must have been canceled because I saw gas stations open this morning.

Still loving Italy, even when life is just ordinary.

Avventure in Germania

Translation: Adventures in Germany

After FINALLY getting definite word that Jamie had a work trip to Germany (we had done plenty of research, I would truly have been disappointed had it been canceled), we began our adventure on Saturday August 28th. We managed to pack well for a week with chilly temperatures in the forecast, saving room for a lot of shopping I was hoping to do. We couldn't pack enough snacks as little snack monster Lincoln eats and eats and eats.
The drive was gorgeous!! North of Rome, the landscape is beautiful: hills, mountains, vineyards... the closer we got to our first destination, the scenery became even more picturesque (and I took plenty of pictures of the drive alone!!). Innsbruck, Austria...

I could move there and never leave, but I'll have to learn to ski really, really, really well... there are no bunny hills in the Alps. We had a perfectly located little hotel, Hotel Innsbruck, next to a great pedestrian-only area which also is home to Goldenes Dachl, The Golden Roof built in 1500, a roof decorated with 2657 fire-gilded copper tiles for Maximilian I. The only downfall to our short visit to Innsbruck was most of the cute shops were closing as we arrived.


Sunday, August 29th we left Innsbruck and headed to Fussen, Germany.

I didn't think our drive through the Alps to get to Innsbruck could be topped, but this wild, curvy road adventure had us stopping on multiple occasions to snap a few photos, including views of the Zugzpitze, the highest mountain in Germany. Everything in Germany is so lush and green, and by green, I mean GREEN!! Our stop in Fussen was to see and tour Neuschwanstein, "Cinderella's Castle". We took a bus up from the small surrounding village up to the castle, but took a little detour to the Marienbrucke (bridge) that overlooks the castle. It was a (terrifyingly!!) high, narrow bridge made of steel and wood boards (that you could feel moving with all the other tourists walking on it) that offered amazing views of the castle and the landscape of as far as you could possibly see.




We only had a short 2 hour drive from Fussen to Stuttgart, Jamie had work Monday and Tuesday mornings at Stuttgart that we had to be there for. We stayed at Kelley Barracks, had a HUGE hotel room that made our two rainy days in Stuttgart that much easier to tolerate since Riann & Lincoln could run around. The hotel also had free DVD rentals which we made good use of to pass the rainy weather by. While Jamie was at work, our only adventure was a walk to Subway to get lunch... not really what I had in mind for Germany. It was a blessing in disguise though, since we ended up having a really busy next few days.
Tuesday, August 31st, we left Stuttgart and headed to Ramstein Air Base & Landstuhl, Jamie had some meetings and people to meet between two bases in Ramstein and Kaiserslautern. We stayed at the hotel on base at Landstuhl right next to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC). The hospital looks tiny from the outside, not exactly what I expected to see after hearing so much about how many troops have been treated there before being sent home or to Walter Reed Medical Center. I kind of felt depressed being there too, with the thought of how many troops had been transported via the ambulance BUS that we saw a few times. But LRMC is the only place on base where you can get breakfast, which is where we ate Wednesday morning before leaving... I was shocked to see how enormous this place is!! Hallway after hallway, wing after wing... Enormous, I think, is an understatement.
Wednesday, September 1st we left Landstuhl and Ramstein and headed back towards Stuttgart, but we had a little fun planned with some of the guys Jamie works with: wine tasting!! Jamie's boss, who used to be stationed in Germany, has a friend, Herman and his wife Erika, who own and run their own winery in Ilsfeld. Though they were not open for business that day, they opened their doors to us and treated us all like old friends. The wine... YUM!! I have become a red wine drinker Since moving to Italy. It is NOTHING like what we get in the US. It is SO SO SOOOO good here!!! We tried all the wines they make,

they served us TONS of food... everything was so fresh, so delicious... YUM!! We ended up buying 12 bottles at this winery. Also, I just found out that you can do a separate WINE shipment back to the states (as in addition to the express shipment, regular shipment and your car shipment...), it is considered a "collection" and you can bring as few as 30 bottles up to 500 bottles of wine. I am SO excited!! The view from their winery was unbelievable too!
Lincoln was popping grapes from the vines into his mouth, Riann and the other girls we were with got to feed and watch horses.

This was probably my favorite part of our trip!!
As if we didn't get enough "wining" in already, we got settled back into our hotel in Stuttgart only to leave and take the U-Bahn (mass transit train) downtown to the Stuttgarter Weindorf (Stuttgart Winefest). So much FUN!!! We nestled in with the locals, tasted more fabulous wine, ate some more delicious food, let the kids play, all the while being in a beautiful part of downtown Stuttgart! Lincoln LOVED listening to the music being played by older men dressed in lederhosen, with their accordions...
the music was very rhythmic and soothing to one tired little man. But the wine drinkers made it that much more fun as they danced and sang along, one woman fell in love with Lincoln, I think she ended up dancing half the time just to entertain him.

Jamie had one more day of meetings in Stuttgart on Thursday, afterward we decided to go back to the winefest for some more local fun.

We took Riann & Lincoln into a local toy store, Riann was in Barbie heaven, and there were so many toys out for kids to play with, Lincoln especially loved the cars and trucks. Some delicious wine, all kinds of sausage and cheese spaetzle (German noodles with cheese), ending our evening with some of the best berry strudel we've ever had, YUM!!
Friday, September 3rd, we left Stuttgart and headed to Gunzburg to take Riann & Lincoln to Legoland Deutchsland.

Such fun for them, and a lot of fun for Jamie and me too!! Rides, playground after playground, so many things created out of Legos like Munich, Amsterdam (yes, the actually cities were rebuilt by Legos and someone who has a lot of creativity and patience). Jamie was going to take Riann on a "big" roller coaster (good for 10-12 year olds maybe, but much too big for a scaredy cat like myself) but half way through standing in line she wanted to leave. I think she was just distracted by a few other rides nearby. So when we saw a "little" roller coaster for younger kids with a little uphill climb and small hill down and a few twists and turns, Jamie suggested that was a perfect size for me. I told Riann it made the ride more fun if you scream on the way down the little hills, so she masked my screaming with her high pitched scream and I felt like I looked like I was just trying to have fun. I was a little terrified but I would do that roller coaster again. But yes, I am not a big fan of amusement park rides and I don't usually do roller coasters. They must have had a lot of fun because Riann and Linc both fell asleep quickly in the car for our drive to Munich, only about 100km away.

Ahhh... Munich. So much to see, so much to do...
Our hotel was great, (Hotel Concorde) the location was right near Marienplatz, Hofbräuhaus, and all the other must-see sites on our list. Unfortunately we woke up to rain and gray skies Saturday morning, but we didn't let it stop us. We visited the Residenz





the Hofgarten (Court Garden)


the Theatinerkirche (St. Cajetan's Church),

Feldherrnhalle ("Field Marshals' Hall"),


and stopped by for the 12:00 noon "play" at Rathaus-Glockenspiel.



Every day at 11am, 12pm (and 5pm in summer) it chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century. It consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures. The top half of the Glockenspiel tells the story of the marriage of the local Duke Wilhelm V (who also founded the world famous Hofbräuhaus) to Renata of Lorraine. In honor of the happy couple there is a joust with life-sized knights on horseback (thanks Wiki!!). We ate lunch at the world famous Hofbräuhaus, drinking Radler (beer and lemonade, sounds weird but tastes good!!) and an Oktoberfestbier. It was a little overwhelming that our waiter did not speak much english and everything of course is in German. We asked for the menu in English (I know, we cheated) but the English and German version didn't match up in the order it was written... again, the language barrier... We asked for milk for Riann & Lincoln, first saying "Milk??" and he looked like we were crazy, so we said "Latte?" which is milk in Italian, and he kind of shook his head and then said "Oh, okay" and brought us two little tea cups of sweetened, warm milk with an almost-coffee taste to it, so I drank it, it was GOOD but I also found out later milk in German is "milche"... gotta love that language barrier! We can usually figure out most things here on the menu in Italy because we are certainly more used to eating Italian from the US and everything is pretty self explanatory but German menus... and German food... words are 43 letters long sometimes and with the exception of a few dishes of authentic German food, I don't know much German food by name.
Jamie took care of nap time while I went out to do a little shopping though I was disappointed in how little I purchased.
After nap, we headed back out to climb the stairs of St. Peter's church bell tower, some 300+ stairs to the top... I had Lincoln in a ergo carrier, what a workout!!
We also revisited the Viktualienmarkt (food market), had dinner and polished off the night with what else: Gelato! Yes, gelato in Germany.

We had planned to drive half way back and stop in Bologna on the way home, but after getting an earlier start, making good time, having no traffic issues, we ended up making the 11 hour drive all the way home Sunday night.
3,331km in 8 days, so much fun and so many great memories!!