The Car Arrived: Trip to Weiden

Our car got here today and I was so excited! I literally hugged my cute little Mazda.  Believe it or not, there is not a lot going on in Vilseck (thank goodness for fun neighbors!), so we decided to take a short road trip and go exploring.

We ended up in Weiden, which is about 40 minutes from where we live. 

We stopped at some store that I can't remember the name of, because I am in search of something similar to a Target!  Well, it was no Target, but more of a Lowe's with a furniture store on the top floor.  Not too much fun stuff to look at there, considering we are not allowed to remodel our government housing. So we left Furniture Lowe's in search of something else fun. 

We found this cute little strip of shops.  Germany is cool because it seems there are all these tucked away little places, with modern stores, but in old and beautiful buildings. 

As we were walking, we saw this little restaurant where people were enjoying huge sundaes of Italian gelato (they love gelato here, which is great because so do we!).  Almost every restaurant has outdoor tables so that you can enjoy the beautiful summer, it doesn't last long here apparently.  The funniest part of our adventure in Weiden was when we were going into some of the shops.

Andy looked at one of the stores and said, "What's EuroShop?"  I looked and said, "Oh my goodness, it's like the dollar store! Everything is 1 Euro!"  We thought this was hilarious because just a few days ago, we were joking about how it's too bad they don't have a dollar store here.  What a find!  We picked up some floats for Evan for the schwimmbad (the pool).  After the Euroshop, we enjoyed an authentic, outdoor meal at the local McDonald's, and of course some gelato for dessert.  It was a fun day and so nice to have our car and leave the post! More adventures to come!

Our First Trip: Nurnberg

We took our first trip to Nurnberg, Germany with our new friends Shannon, Micah, and their son, Grayson.  We all took the train, which was a cheap 14 Euros round trip (just over $18 American...the exchange rate is not in our favor).  The train ride was great because we could all talk and enjoy the beautiful, rustic scenery without having to navigate.

We arrived at der Bahnhof (the train station) in Nurnberg and we were immediately impressed with the German architecture.  The buildings are so old and beautiful and in such great shape.  Everything is well taken care of here.  The Germans are proud of their buildings and their country, and it shows.  It is so clean!

The churches are beautiful!






We went to the top of Nurnberg Castle and got to overlook the city. The view was amazing, like nothing we have ever seen before. 

 This was the day we really got excited about exploring Germany and alll of Europe.  This is just one city and look how beautiful it is.



The Beginning

We made it to Europe! This is the start of our new adventure and we feel very fortunate to have this experience.  We have been in Vilseck, Germany for a month now.  We have a house on the base and our neighbors are awesome!  We have already met so many amazing people...on the flight to Ramstein, on the bus from Kaiserslautern, and of course in Vilseck and Grafenwoerh.  We have always been lucky with great people coming into our lives.  Or perhaps we would call it karma.  We pick up our car tomorrow, so the exploration begins!