Cars and Hotel

Germany is famous for making fancy and fast cars. Heinrich found a really nice black car outside of the apartment. It kind of looked like the bat mobile. Really cool looking.

Even though the sports car was fun to see. There was another one that looked even better. His Prius finally arrived in Germany. When he first got here he had to do a lot of walking but one of his new friends let him borrow their extra white van. You can see it in the background. It was nice to use but the Prius will but a lot easier on the narrow German roads.

Heinrich has been staying at the housing on base. It is called the Eifel Arms Inn. Heinrich is staying up on the third floor (without an elevator) but in a nice suite.

The room he is staying in is the Traben- Trabach suite. Pretty fancy, huh?

Fire Hydrant

Germany is a very modern country and has most of the same things that Heinrich remembers from America. Just like in America there are fire hydrants on almost every block. The hydrants are not red like they are the Untied States. They are much taller and they are painted brown. Each one has a number to help firemen find where the fire is burning. Just like the United States it is illegal to park in front of a fire hydrant. But they don't care if bears have their pictures taken on one.

Church Part 2

Sometimes the sacramant prayer is in English, sometimes in German. And there are tithing slips that are written in German and ones in English too. 

The Chapel is nice and the ward has to open the overflow almost every week.  There is a very nice kitchen as well.  In Germany there is usually no air conditioning and the church is no exception so the rooms can get pretty warm on summer days.  Sometimes it's a challenge to stay awake.  :-)

Heinrich finds singing in church an interesting experience.  When they announce the hymn they do it in the English hymnal and then the German hymnal.  Occassionally there is a hymn in one and not the other so then you are on your own.  Since there are two hymnals - there are two different languages singing - definitely an interesting experience listening to the music. 

Church Part 1

Heinrich was able to find the chapel where his ward meets. He is part of the Bitburg ward which goes down to Trier, over to Luxemburg, and north and east about 30 miles. The chapel looks kind of small but that is because half of it is in the basement and isn't seen from the road.

Because members from both America and Germany attend the ward, the name of the church on the front of the chapel is in both English and German. So members can understand, there are headphones to help translate for people who don't understand the language that is being used.

Friends

Heinrich is having a great experience in Germany.  He has seen a lot of beautiful countryside and interesting buildings. But just as important is the wonderful new friends he is making.  Here he is smiling with one of the beautiful girls he has been talking to.  Can you guess what her name is?

Here is another pretty and kind girl that Heinrich met in Spangdahlem. He was supposed to smile for this picture but had to sneeze and ended up with this scrunched up face.  I think when Heinrich finds out that Gretel is Heidi's sister he might get in trouble.

 

Heinrich was out on an adventure and came across a wood carver's place. And right out front was a long lost friend from school. He's gotten a lot chunkier since then and for a bear he sometimes chooses to go bare (at least from the waist up). In the pen behind them are a bunch of wild baby boars. Cute but they really can stink sometimes.

 

On base Heinrich made a new friend too. This is the mascot of the 51st fighter wing, the Tigers. He's a lot nicer than he looks but still Heinrich tries to stay away from those teeth.

 

Wildflowers

The base has lots of beautiful flowers and they really are well cared for. But Heinrich has found that there are lots of wild flowers out in the countryside as well. On one of his adventures he found a lovely river valley. The trees lined the river and the flowers gave great color. And just before this picture a big fish actually jumped right in the middle of the picture.  Maybe Ryan and Luisa will want to try fishing in Germany.

 

 

Along the valley there was a whole hillside of purple and pink snapdragons and on the top of the hill were some very tall trees. It's hard to appreciate how tall the trees are unless one understands they are more than a hundred feet up the slope from Heinrich. He also found some beautiful blue bells (even though they were actually purplish-blue).

Heinrich has also found fireweed in many places. The story of fireweed is that the flowers start to bloom at the lowest level and through the summer the blooms work their way up the stem. When the last blooms at the top of the plant start to wilt snow is supposed to be just a few weeks later. These flowers are getting way too close to the top. Heinrich may need to find his coat pretty soon.

Pretzel Factory

In Dudeldorf , Heinrich found a pretzel factory. It was Sunday so the factory wasn't open (and so no free samples either). Outside the factory was a pretzel statue that was pretty cool.

Heinrich hadn't had lunch and the pretzel was looking pretty good. So when no one was looking, he went over to try a nibble. Unfortunately for Heinrich the pretzel was made out of cement and it didn't taste very good and wasn't very good for his teeth either.  Silly Heinrich!

Dolmens

Germany has been an important place for a long, long time. There are a lot of monuments and historical places scattered all over the countryside. Heinrich found a cool dolmen in Bitburg Germany. A dolmen has two legs with a stone lying across on top of them.

It's going to be important for Heinrich to remember to have fun exploring the fun things in the German countryside, but he will have to be careful not to get hurt or damage any of the cool things that he discovers.

 

Trier Part 2

One of the famous landmarks in Trier is the porta nigra (Black Gate). It was built by the Romans and was part of a wall that was as tall as the gate that went all the way around the city. Only parts of it are still standing.

Heinrich got to see the old streets and cathedrals and old shops. He also had lunch in the Dom WeinKellar (Cathedral Wine cellar) restaurant. It was originally a restaurant that tried to add on and discovered it was sitting on the ruins of the ancient cathedrals wine cellars. In the restaurant were lots of artifacts they had found and some original friezes that lined the wall. Heinrich had a wonderful meal of potato soup, salad pork schnitzel and an unusual combination of thin smoked pork wrapped over watermelon and honeydew. It was really good.

The restaurant also had a copy of the oldest cookbook ever printed. (Not the oldest cookbook, but the oldest PRINTED cookbook. Printing started just up the river in Mainz by Johannes Guttenberg.) On the weekend all of the menu items come from the cookbook and the recipes are more than 500 years old.   Heinrich thought Becky would really like to have that cookbook.

After lunch Heinrich treated himself to an ice cream from one of the Eis (ice cream) shops.  Cherry cream (Sorry Becky but it was delicious).

On the way out Heinrich got one more picture of the Porta Nigra. Can you see the beggar on the side walk just in front of him?

Trier part 1

Early the next day Heinrich went to the Airman and Family Readiness Center on base and cautght this bus for a ride down to the Speicher train station. It was the same station he had seen the day before.

The train was very nice and Heinrich had a comfortabe seat for the ride down. The train went through a beautiful valley and the scenery through the window was very green with lots of trees and plants.

After about 45 minutes the train got to the station in Trier. Trier is a very old and large ciy for this area. It was founded a long time ago and was made into a Roman fortress area by Julius Ceasar. The train station was busy and a lot like the Harry Potter train stations. When Heinrich got to the station he treated himself to a schokobrotchen (chocolate roll). Then it was off to see the city.

Trains

Trains are very important in Germany and the system runs all over the country. Some of the lines are in very beautiful countrysides. This line runs over a quiet river in a wooded valley. The tunnels in this valley actually look like old castle walls.

The closest train station to Heinrich is near a valley close to Speicher. The train comes right up next to the station and actually runs a lot like the Hogwarts Express. The station building is very interesting. It looks like a cross between a castle and a palace. 

 Heinrich went down to the station on one day on an adventure. The next day he went on a tour to Trier that left from the Speicher train station.

Road Signs and Driving

Before Heinrich can get a driver's license in Germany he has to learn what all of the street signs mean. This is a little more tricky than it may seem. Some of the signs are very different than Heinrich knew about in America. This signs means no parking on this side of the street, both in front of the sign and behind the sign.  (Can you tell Heinrich has been working out?  He is showing off his muscles here.)  Look at that beautiful sky!

Heinrich came across another sign which he didn't know what it meant. So he decided to just keep driving. After about 2 miles he found himself on a big main road that was being retarred and he was stuck in the construction lane. There was nothing to do but drive right through the "no passing" area. All of the German people were waving their hands at him. Hopefully they were waving "hello" and not just showing how silly they thought Heinrich was. From now on Heinrich drives with a German dictionary so he can understand the unusual street signs.  We practise as we drive - we look at the sign and tell each other what that sign means.  Hopefully Heinrich will get very familiar with ALL of their signs soon. 

Signs

Some of the signs in Germany have special meanings. Some of the farmers use animal manure to fertilize their fields and when Heinrich drives in those area he has decided that this blue mask should be posted around those farms.  Gotta love that Eifel Air some days. 

Heinrich also found this sign in one of the local parks. He just hopes dogs are as smart as bears and can figure what this sign means.

Wheat Field

On the way home from church, Heinrich took a drive through the countryside. There are lots of cornfields and wheat fields. The farms are so beautiful on the rolling hills.  This time of year, the wheat is already to be harvested. In this area the wheat gets very white when it is ready to be harvested. It reminded Heinrich of the scripture that says the "fields were white, already to be harvested." He had a very nice Sunday afternoon drive.

Oberkail

One of the cities that Heinrich really likes and is looking for a house in has a village welcome or Willkommen sign and then as you leave the city it says Auf Wiedersehen (good bye). It is a very quaint village and was started in 800.  So it is a very old village.  I am not sure how many people are in the village but it is a typical village - one church and one school.  One day we were driving past the church and the church bells were ringing and it was so beautiful. Whatever was going on he was not sure - but everyone was carrying a bouquet of flowers home. They all looked so festive and fun.



This is just one small section of Oberkail.  Heinrich got a house in this village but this is a different section of the village.  When we move to our new house Heinrich will take lots of pictures to show you it.   

This is the sign as you leave the village. 

Flowers

The weather in Germany has been wonderful. It's warm with some rain but not too hot and not too cloudy.  The German people love to have delightful yards and gardens.  Their yards are immaculate!  They even sweep the roads in front of their houses.  There are beautiful flowers in many places. Heinrich loves to see the bright colors and smell the greats scents.

Heinrich has to be careful, though when he smells the flowers because he's not the only one enjoying these beautiful plants. There are lots of busy bees climbing over many of the petals. The bees can be a little scary but Heinrich really loves honey so he doesn't mind sharing the flowers with his busy bee friends.