Hotel Am Rathaus Kaiserslautern

It's been a Daddy and Dante week while Mommy has been in France on assignment. Dante's poor, anxious doggy brain, missing her mommy, has a tendency to slip into bouts of depression. I haven't had much better a time of it, either, to tell the truth. We both like Tracy to be around, so when she's not, we lean on each other for support. This ...

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!

Tracy has left for France to inspect food production plants, so I'm here ...

... two bathrooms, a sizeable kitchen, dining room, a large living room, a separate laundry room, a utility room (workshop), and a wine cellar. Soon I will also be able to park my car indoors, in an old barn. right now there is a tractor in there, but not for long. The rooms and amenities are very modern, but there is an old-world charm to parts of the house, as well. I will post photos soon, but for now, just enjoy these four.

... on infinitely upward. It looked genuinely magical, like something out of a Tolkein book. Winding around the low mountain (I would classify it as a 'cerro' in Spanish, since I don't know what to call it in English) we fianally arrived to an enormous old school house that had been converted into an antique store. The tiny town was called Schneeweiderhof and you might have a difficult time locating it on even a detailed map. But thanks to this blog you can see pictures of it ...

... differences, but it might be just chronological; we haven't known each other for long. It may take some time to create a bond. My wife introduced us a little over a week ago and cutely skipped off for us to become acquainted. It takes a little convincing to get him to go along with the plans I make on any given day, but he inevitably acquiesces in my decree and comes along. This morning we took a trip together, which I'll write about in short order.

... through the rain to the car and headed back to Spangdahlem. On the way back Janet stopped at a rest stop to show me a good view of Trier. Its interesting, all the rest stops each have their own names in Germany. This one had a really cool carving on a canopy that covered a huge topographical map. I don't know how clean or unclean the bathrooms were as I didn't venture in.

... met me at the airport. After a quick shower and stop at the base, we found ourselves at a BMW dealership. Jason had recently ordered his very own 3 series and was there to make his final payment. Somehow, he convinced the salesman to let him take me for a test drive. The 3 series coupe is spectacular. Very sleek...and very pretty. I think at one point we got to 135 mph on the autobahn, but I wouldn't know for sure ...

... gutted on the way home. There were Germans on the train singing still from the day before and it sort of made me sadder because I was all on my own and it was finally hitting home what had just happened an hour prior in the stadium. On the way home, Italians were coming up to me and telling me how lucky they were and sending their congratulations to the team for how well they had played. It was nice of them to recognise us and all our achievement. I traded my flag for ...

... of power we were in only a minute prior - but following Francesco Totti's unstoppable strike; after the immediate emotions of loss faded; there lingers a single feeling which I now recognise as pride - pride in being a supporter of the Australian National team; proud to be Australian. Previously in this blog, during this world cup, I've referred to my feeling that Australia soccer is turning - that ...

... and has a great swimming lake. All in all, we were pretty happy to end up here for a few days R+R before the big match. They even had a big screen in the restaurant so we could keep up with the football. Only downside was the rules-obsessed woman who ran the joint. Rachel and Yamen turned up on the afternoon of the first day we were there. They had been trying to call us, but we had no credit so we couldn't accept calls or texts. Turns out that they had a different Lonely ...