Pictures from the Christmas Trip

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... and she's off...

... for holiday vacation!

day trip to Edersee

A week ago Sonja asked Patricia, Bernard and me if we'd like to join her on a trip to Edersee.

Edersee is an artificial lake near Kassel and as we had not so much rain in that area this year the water outflow was more than the water inflow. The water level now is so low that parts of the villages which were flooded years ago now poke out of the water.
You can see foundation walls of houses, parts of a bridge, cemeteries etc. They call it Edersee-Atlantis.

We started yesterday at 10 am and had to drive about 2 1/2 hours (actually, but there was a lot of construction on the road and we had to detour a lot). We arrived at the lake around 1:15 pm. We walked through the lake (hee hee) to get to a hill. Usually that hill is an island surrounded by water. Sonja told me that the last time she was there she had to take a boat and paddle over.

We really had a good time and were lucky with the weather: it was cloudy but it only rained some drops two or three times. I arrived at home around 7:30 pm, tired but happy.

I took a lot of pictures, here are some of them:


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Entering Atlanta Area

close to home

Well, another 2 weeks are over and we are packing again to leave Texas tomorrow morning around 6 am. The weather finally is giving its best, so we could sit in the backyard the whole afternoon, yesterday. We had a BBQ in the evening and a lot of fun!
Even right now it is 74* and I'll keep this post short to enjoy the last warm sun rays before being back in "Good (c)old Germany".

sun showing up

Finally the sun is showing up today! Here you can see the sunrise today from the entrance of my sister's house.
Now it's 2pm here and around 70F/23C.

Yesterday we did do nothing - I read a book (The devil wears Prada, I missed the movie). Started in the morning after breakfast and had finished some time after dinner. It's a fun book!

Today we went - have a guess - right, shopping, but we didn't leave the post. Just were at PX. We had a lot of fun anyway.

That's me and Mom after the shopping tour today, waiting for my sister to get the car...

feel kinda sick today

Today we just hang around. The weather is a little better, the sun came out for the first time we are here and the fog is gone. But it is still cold. Rumors are we're gonna have some snow tonight, others say it would be warm on Monday... we'll see.

My sister wanted to show us HEB today and so we went there shopping. I like that place! They offer a lot of European stuff so it felt close to home (no, not the TV show!).

We just got back (it's around 2pm) and I feel a little sick now... Hope I didn't catch another cold!

Arrived in Killeen

We had a horrible flight!
The flight itself wasn't bad at all, but it was long! After 10,5 hours flying from Frankfurt, Germany to Atlanta our connection flight was 1h and 20 minutes later than scheduled and - to make it worse - we couldn't land in Killeen because of thick fog.
We circled for a while and then headed to Dallas. Problem: I was SO tired during that second flight that I didn't get that special information. I just wondered why the flight took us so long... When we finally landed, I THOUGHT we were in Killeen BUT only after a call to my sister I finally realized we were in DALLAS!
Delta (our carrier) organized some vans to bring us to Killeen Airport. Which took another 3,5 hours.

After all I was up for 29 hours with a traveling time of 25 hours.

I feel SO tough, HAHA.
But more tired....

Traveling Tina

Flight Itinerary:

Monday 21. January
Frankfurt, Germany take off at 12:45pm (Delta 15)
arrives
Atlanta, GA at 5:05pm

Atlanta, GA take off at 7:40pm (Delta 4445)
arrives
Killeen, TX at 9:13pm

1.148 km, 3 Ladies and 1 Car

Sunday 23th of September Fran, Jacquie and I flew to Gothenburg, Sweden to pick up Fran's brand new Volvo XC90.

We started at Fran's house around 11.30 - Michelle dropped us at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport approx. 1 hour later.

We had to wait there because check in didn't start before 1.30 p.m. But we had a good cup of Cappuccino and a good time in a restaurant in between. After checking in we had to wait again but it wasn't boring at all! Jacquie showed us some really interesting pictures on her digital camera and soon we could pass the last checkpoint to go to the airplane.

It's a long time ago that I entered an airplane like this, just walking the maneuvering area where the aircrafts were waiting like busses at a bus station here in Germany.

But if you take a closer look you can see that you don't miss the right plane because they write the destination on a little sign (underneath the "B1" sign).

We landed 2 hours later in Gothenburg, where we were picked up and dropped at a hotel. Later we did some kind of sight seeing and looking for a restaurant, which was finally a swedish steak house; we all ordered salmon...

Gothenburg Impressions

On Monday at 9 a.m. we again were picked up to get to "Volvo Land" to see Fran's new car. Isn't it fancy?

After a wonderful lunch at Volvo's and a tour through the Volvo factory we started 2:30 p.m. in Gothenburg to drive back to Germany. Just four more pictures from that trip: we had a short stop at a parking lot beside the highway, you can see the sea in the backround!

And the impressively huge and long Öresund Bridge as we enter the bridge,

-----------------*----------------

halfway in the middle of the bridge

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and - finally - in the rearview mirror of the car as we entered Denmark

We then crossed Denmark and went onto the ferry to get to Fehmarn Island, which we also crossed that evening to get to german mainland. We got there at about 10 p.m. , found a much over-priced room for the three of us to get some sleep and continued on the road at 7 a.m. the next morning. We finished the trip back at Fran's house about 2.15 p.m, Tuesday 25th of September.

And that's how it looks on a map:

Have you been to Germany?

this post is NOT translated into german

I actually didn't want to stay at the computer today because I am pretty tired... BUT then I saw THIS here at my sister's myspace bulletin board and I think this must be read at least by Allison, April and Amy... (love&miss you all!)

You know you are in Germany too long, when....

1. You refer to other Americans as "they" or "Amis".
2. You REALLY think AFN (Armed Forces Network Radio) is quality entertainment.
3. You realize that Ausfahrt isn't the biggest city in Germany.
4. You forgot how to use round doorknobs.
5. 100 MPH seems like you're really driving slow.
6. You start converting prices to marks in your head (Yeah, but that cup of coffee is FIVE MARKS!!)
7. Even at home you don't put ice in your drinks.
8. You never leave home without your keys, ID card, license, and passport.
9. You answer the phone "Hallo" instead of Hello.
10. You need a power drill and sledgehammer to hang a picture on the wall.
11. You're used to the fact that there's a crane outside your house.
12. Sunshine actually becomes a topic of conversation.
13. You play "guess what town" the driver in front of you is from (HD, MA, KL, PS), based on their license plate.
14. You are incredibly careful about being loud during the "quiet hours" of 7 p.m. – 10 a.m. and 12 – 3 p.m.
15. You don't drive anywhere that you can take a bus/tram/train to.
16. You get excited about the great deal of paying under $4.50 a gallon for gas.
17. When visiting the States, you think you will buy something that costs $0.99, it'll cost that much.
18. Pay toilets for you mean there's another woman standing outside the "public restroom" with a change dish, glaring and demanding her 50 cents.
19. You know David Hasselhoff was a singer, and think "I've been looking for freedom" is quality music.
20. You can wear black socks and nothing else that's black… and it's okay.
21. The only contact you have with other Americans is through Myspace.
22. Nature becomes its own entity for you (I went out into "the nature").
23. Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Presidents Day fade in favor of Tag der Deutschen Einheit, Nikolaus, Erster Mai Tag and Heiligen Drei Königen.
24. You start writing the number 1,000.25 as 1.000,25 and your ones look like sevens and your sevens are a molestation of a 7 and a T.
25. Finger food ceases to exist. There's a utensil for EVERYTHING.
26. You know the lyrics to American Oldies in German – i.e. the Beatles' "Komm gib mir deine Hand".
27. You start to refer to hip hop, rap and R&B as "black music".
28. You've gone back to calling clubs discos.
29. When you think of fast food, Döner comes to your mind quicker than a burger.
30. The sauna doesn't scare you anymore.
31. You start introducing yourself with a German accent to your name.
32. You refer to your friends with the word "the" in front of their name. As in "the Valerie" and "the Leah".
33. You catch yourself putting verbs at the end of sentences in English.
34. You watch German T.V. and GET the jokes.
35. When people come to visit you, and you start telling them historical facts about the things you drive by.
36. You know that every black man you see is in the US Armed Forces or afri…. uh, an exchange student.
37. You crave cake at 4:00.
38. You start saying things like "I'll meet you at sixteen o'clock".
39. Bread, cheese and cold cuts constitute dinner.
40. You can name more German politicians than German actors/actresses.
41. When purchasing presents you prioritize them as useful over being enjoyed.
42. You heat each room in your house separately.
43. When you talk about a two room apartment, the living room counts as one of those rooms.
44. Everything you eat needs to have nutritional value and you justify fatty things with "it's healthy".
45. Driving half an hour to go somewhere is a hassle.
46. $1,000 a year tuition seems like a lot of money.
47. You think soccer is the best sport ever invented.
48. Aldi satisfies all of your shopping needs.
49. All of your shoes are sensible.
50. You call your cell a "handy".

Maybe you can find yourself in some of those topics...

A Start with Difficulties

We were supposed to be in Gemünden at the retreat Friday afternoon but Mario was so kind to pick us (Fran and me) up in Wiesbaden. He had told us before it could be late like 8 p.m. and that was fine for us.

At 9 p.m. Mario sent me a text message that he was caught up in a traffic jam and still 55 miles (90 km) away. To make a long story short: he arrived 11 p.m. and after a cup of coffee and a sandwich we went to the car. While we were packing the car we heard a loud crash on the road pretty near! We walked over to check - it was a serious accident and we called the police and ambulance immediately. In the meantime it was 11.45 p.m. and I was really surprised about how many gawkers came along all of a sudden... and even if I really dislike any kind of craving for sensation I took a picture with my cellphone-camera, because it was such an unusual situation. The quality of the pictures are not the best but they leave a mark anyway. Believe me: this is not an upside-down picture - the truck was like spinning and then toppled over after it was hit by the other car.
I am still surprised about how the occupants could get out there and walk around...
We left the scene pretty soon for not to disturb the police - they tried to find some accident witnesses - and headed off to get to Gemünden.
We wanted to save time and took the Autobahn for the first part but this route wasn't familiar and so we missed the right exit and lost our way in the woods of Usingen, Königstein and Gemünden.

A route that usually means 1 hour car driving took us 2 hours...
We arrived at 2 a.m.

What a "time saving"!

Easter Monday Trip

Today Sigi, Klaus and I went to Trippstadt area (near Kaiserslautern) to hike. We had wonderful weather and a lot of fun!

I am always fascinated in spring watching the awakening of nature. I can't help thanking God that he created something so beautiful like flowers, grass, trees... and the sound of a rippling creek... Click the video and listen!

Aaaaaand: surprise! We do have really BIG trees here in Germany (we call it mammoth trees, it's like Redwood for the US)! Not far away from Landstuhl (Pfalz).

Video-Impression:

If you want to see more pictures of that day go to my webshots

My US-Travels

I found this tool at April's blog and it's pretty cool!


create your own personalized map of the USA

In case you can't see the whole picture:
I've travelled to:
Florida (1995/1996)
California (2003)
Maryland (2005 and 2006)
Delaware (2005)
DC (2006)