Caravelle Hotel im Park Bad Kreuznach

Here are the promised photos. I am not including photos of our workshop room and wine cellar; they're not that interesting. Excuse the messiness of parts of the house. You all know how trying moving in can be!<br><br>Tracy has left for France to inspect food production plants, so I'm here ...

As most of you know by now, our house deal in Kusel (the 'little castle', of which I posted some photos) fell through. The landlord was the problem, not the house. For those of you who have seen the movie Il Postino, the landlord is reminiscent of the mother-in-law character. For those of you who haven't seen the film, the phrase 'forceful and argumentative to a fault' will suffice. After the third failed trip to the house to sign ...

... garlic-buttered baguette with cheese, apple-cream crepe with coffee, and pizza. The coffee was mediocre, but I'm picky about my coffee. The bread and crepe were awesome. You can see a photo of them here.<br><br>From Ramstein, we all left for an antique store on top of what seemed like a mountain. As we approached the general area, I spied some kind of spire on top of a distant hill. The low-hanging clouds covered the higher sections of the spire, so it gave the appearance of ...

Meet Henry, my Mercedes-Benz. He's an odd fellow; nice enough, if a little cranky; advanced in years. We don't communicate so well yet, even if we are both obviously making efforts. It's that I can't always read his signs clearly. He lags when I want to move quickly, and when I want to play it safe, he jumps. I never know which button to press to get the reaction I want, and sometime he acts confused. For now, I'm chalking it up to generational and ...

... is that I am the foreigner here. I knew I was going to meet with a German in an office of Germans (even if they are employed by the US government) to go to meet Tracy's and my future German landlord. And I don't speak German. When associating with people from other countries, I am accustomed to it being more of less on my culture's terms, though I never thought about it until now. Plus, I am used to ...

... it was about 25 degrees up there and brutal.<br><br>We left the park around 3pm; we had planned to go biking on this trip, but the icy weather put the kibosh on that. (in fact, this is the first day I'm warm- I bought a long-sleeved shirt so now I am not a frozen Jonesicle anymore.) So we headed to wine country early. Now, our guidebook saId that "zimmer frei rooms for rent abound, so you don't need reservations for a hotel." So at 5pm ...

... the WW1 sacrifice of the local reserve infantry division based in the town. It seems a bit sad that the Germans don't remember their war dead as we do in Australia. Yes they were on the losing side and there were atrocities committed (by both sides), but many of the soldiers fought just as bravely as their enemies.<br><br> Rhine<br><br>We shared our Rhine River cruise with lots of German ...

September 1997 My journeys would now take me to a part of the world that I've never been to ... but have always wanted to go to, Europe and more specifically, Germany. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time nor the freedom to explore the way I'd want to, but I did get to see some of the countryside nonetheless. The majority of my time in Germany was spent in a town called Bad Kreutznach ...

... deal than in other countries, with people often getting 3000 euros or more worth of gifts. All for going to the church for a few hours. Although this church service was suprisingly good, with a few unstoppable bursts of laughter as my host mum and I attempted pathetically to sing the hymns. After the service we headed to the celbrations at a local pub, where everything tasted delicious except the soup ...

After being waved goodbye at by my brother, sister, parents and dearest friends. The bus rolled out of the bus-station and Amsterdam was no more for me for the upcoming year. I didn't feel sad at all; but it did not leave me untouched. Sent the last goodbye text messages on the bus. Until we had hit the German border and some of the passengers almost had a few fingers inserted ...