A Georgia Girl in Germany

I know I’m way, way late with getting this update posted. Yes, our trip to Strasbourg was six months ago. Yes, we’ve gone on many more trips since then. Yes, we have more trips planned now that the weather has turned nice again. Yes, I hope to get updates from some of the older trips posted without too much more delay. Yes, knowing our schedule, it may take a while still. So, let’s get started before this update becomes even older. Please be patient...I’ll get everything posted...eventually.


Back in October and November, a good friend and former co-worker of mine came out here TDY for a few weeks...and worked in my office (my ops office, not my PA office). Carie wanted to make the most of her weeks in Germany to travel and explore, so we teamed up and added a few more locations to our repertoire. Within a week of her arrival, we were off to France.


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Strasbourg is the capital of the Alsace region of northeastern France. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhein department. The city's Germanic name means "town (at the crossing) of roads." Strasbourg's European character is rooted in its long history. We started our visit by heading to the Strasbourg Cathedral, which was built between 1284 and 1439. The cathedral's central spire towers 465 feet into the air and depicts the Last Judgment. It was the tallest building in the world from 1625 to 1847 and the tallest church in the world until 1880. It was absolutely gorgeous inside. I especially liked the pipe organ and stained glass windows. Unfortunately, they were getting ready for a service, and shooed us out before I really felt done enjoying the beauty. French rudeness even showed through with a barrage of pestering, almost to the point of yelling at me to leave, as I paused ever-so-briefly to snap off a few final photos.


After Carie and I looked over our maps a few times, Benjamin decided he’d take over navigation duties and did a fairly decent job helping us move around the city.

As we left the enchanting old quarter of “La Petite France," we paused long enough for a quick lunch before continuing on our exploration. The half-timbered houses overlooking the Ill River were just like out of a painting of years gone by, with colorful flower boxes and ivy growing up the sides.


After a while, we opted to take a river tour. The tour came complete with headsets to tell us about the more notable locations while floating on the Ill River as it wound its way around the city and encircled the center of town, a large part of which is for pedestrians only. We even rode through two different locks that raised and lowered our boat to adjust to the different river heights. Benjamin thought it was neat as the wall beside the boat grew and shrank!


The Saint Paul Church was especially majestic from the river -- front and side views.




Strasbourg is a former free city of the Holy Roman Empire, and is now a capital of Europe and the world. Like New York and Geneva, it has the distinction of being home to major international organizations without being a national capital. Among other things, Strasbourg is also an important landmark for the entire European continent as this is where the Council of Europe was founded in 1949; its members include all the democratic states of the Old Continent. The building above houses the European Parliament.

Not sure what this building below is since I lost my notes from this trip -- frustrating, but beautiful nonetheless!


Unfortnately, French rudeness showed through once again, this time when when we took a few minutes to ride a carousel. I told the attendant the four of us would ride, but she only charged me for the three tickets. When we took our seats, Benjamin wanted to sit on a cushion seat next to Zachary instead of on a horse, so I hopped on a horse next to MacKenzie. Apparently, since I wasn’t standing next to Benjamin while he was on a horse, my ride wasn’t free...so another attendant came up to me -- during the ride -- demanding that I pay for myself. So, I spent half the ride fumbling for change to pay for one more ticket. Of course, the language barrier didn’t help, but I wasn’t impressed that they wouldn’t let me at least enjoy the ride free of disturbances, and approach me as it ended. But, at least the kids enjoyed the ride.

Labels: Benjamin, France, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary

After all the fun we’ve had on previous bowling trips, we decided to make another trek that way...especially since Mom and Dad arrived here at the beginning of a German 4-day weekend (Easter holiday) and many places off-post were closed. Benjamin was most excited about heading to the bowling alley. He was the first one inside and had his shoes off before the rest of us made it to the counter.

Once we started bowling, Benjamin didn’t want to quit. In fact, he stood guard over his ball to make sure it was safely waiting for his next turn and no one else used it.



Benjamin actually had a pretty decent game...thanks to the help of gutter-guards and the contraption that lined his ball up with the pins and provided a little extra speed. When he finished each turn, he hopped on the ball return in excitement.

Nana and Papa even joined in the fun. I remember them bowling in a league when I was in elementary school, but I don’t know that they’ve put that much time into the sport in a while.


MacKenzie started her first several frames without gutter-guards, but after three gutter-balls, she opted for the guards by the fourth frame. Her game improved drastically after that.

Zachary and I were in a dead-heat for the top score until the ninth frame when I pulled ahead. It was quite a fluke since my score was well above my college average (the one and only time I was on a league), and within five points of my all-time high!

I’m glad the kids enjoy such simple entertainment. It’s wonderful, good, clean fun!

Labels: Benjamin, MacKenzie, Zachary

What a wonderful Easter! Benjamin had slept with me the night previous, so when he awoke, he gently tried waking me up...although he wasn’t ready to give me the requisite three kisses to do so. Shortly after he began his campaign, MacKenzie came in, gently suggesting that I could stay in bed a little longer. Benjamin wasn’t sold on that idea, so he then gave me the requisite three kisses urging me to get out of bed. I figured something must be up when MacKenzie repeated at least three more times that I could stay in bed. Momentarily, Zachary walked in with a tray serving me breakfast in bed. How sweet! Those were the best scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice I’ve ever had! Partly because I usually don’t go all out making breakfast for myself like that, but mostly because of the huge serving of love that accompanied it.
After church and lunch, MacKenzie convinced Nana to help her plant some more flowers outside (she hit her up within two hours of her and Papa’s arrival on Friday to plant the first batch). Before the afternoon was over, Zachary and MacKenzie had weeded a good section of the garden area outside our apartment, added fresh topsoil and planted some mixed cosmos seeds. MacKenzie and Nana also filled MacKenzie’s second planter with seeds for smaller flowers.


We also had to take time to dye Easter Eggs (yes, we ran out of time in previous days...story of my life). Each of the kiddos was going to have six eggs to dye (18 total -- the max number of boiled eggs we figured we’d be able to eat in the next week). Unfortunately, as Benjamin was getting ready to put his last one in the green cup, he dropped it. MacKenzie didn’t miss a beat, and offered him one of her un-dyed eggs. As he said “thank-you” to her, he also dropped that one. He was distraught that the eggs kept dropping out of his hand. Zachary already had all of his six either dyed or being dyed, but MacKenzie was saving one of hers for me to do. When I asked her if I could give Benjamin my egg, she paused, then hesitantly handed it to him…and we made sure that one didn’t drop out of his hand. She was a wonderful, compassionate big sister, and her big heart truly shined in that moment.

After we finished coloring the 14 eggs (we didn’t want to pickle the other two), we brought the dye to the sink so Benjamin could experiment by mixing the colors together. I remember MacKenzie getting the silly giggles when she was about his age and we did the same thing, so I wanted to see his reaction. It was a little more subdued from her response of yesteryear, but he enjoyed it…especially when he spilled some of the blue dye on my thumb and turned it blue! I was expecting all the dye to turn brown when the five colors were mixed together, but they all turned a deep forest green color that almost would have been worthy of using to dye an egg (the original green we had was more of an olive green).

As tradition has it, we had a few indoor Easter Egg hunts as well. Of course, by the time we got everything else done, it was after supper and dessert, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. I expect we’ll have a few more hunts over the next few days as well...especially as we find the last elusive eggs that I'm sure we missed finding during the original hunt.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Labels: Benjamin, MacKenzie, Nana and Papa, Zachary