Hotel Bremerhof Kaiserslautern

... to see the exhibit inside. Tracy was tired and cranky, and I felt I needed to be outdoors in the fresh (cold) air. Tracy waited in the car for DeAnna and Andrew, reading her Kendle, while I stolled around the block, taking a few photos.

After a while, we all met back at Tracy’s Pathfinder and went in search of something to eat. Our first try was a Chinese restaurant. Since most places, especially smaller businesses, don’t accept credit cards ...

... early-morning walks have been the go-to thearpy.

Every morning this past week, Dante and I have arisen a little earlier than usual to walk down the street to the bike path, where our morning walk commences. Normally, the fog blankets the sun in an attempt to lull it back to sleep, hindering me from knowing if it's 7 or 10 in ...

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 ...

... lease we decide to move on to another option that Tracy's German secretary had told her about - a converted country house from the 19th century. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my memory card with me today so that I could upload the photos I've taken. Those will come tomorrow of the next day. For now, I have only four photos for you, each taken at our house.

Yesterday morning I baked a homemade blueberry pie (with ...

... br>
Tracy and I drooled and fantasized about much of the old furniture we saw, some of which can see. The photos, I swear, do not do the actual piece justice, since I used a 2-megapixel camera on a phone. We were at once excited and dolorous at the splendor of it all: dolorous in that we could reasonably afford none of it right now; excited in the idea that at three year's end we will most likely be able to beautify our future houses with an variety.

Until next time!

... 11.

Zwischen dem 01.10. und 26.11. werde ich mir die Zeit zwischen Australien und Neuseeland aufteilen. Die Flüge sind allerdings noch nicht gebucht, das möchte ich so flexibel wie möglich gestalten, um ggf. auch einfach mal eine Woche länger zu bleiben, falls ich unterwegs das Paradies finde.

Zu berichten habe ich derzeit also noch nichts, was das wirkliche Reisen angeht, aber wie groß das Reisefieber ist, kann sich jeder selbst vorstellen.

Zur Einstimmung mal ein ...

... to hitch here, being so close and cheap with the train. I stood for about an hour and a half trying to get a lift there, but people here just weren't willing to pick me up. Ramstein is the home of the biggest American airbase in Europe, so there are lots of American soldiers driving around in their enormous cars. I was hitching in front of a self-service car wash where this soldier was washing his SUV. He was already washing it when I arrived and he kept washing it for ...

... the highlight of the night was the doner stand we stopped at on the way back 'home'. In fact, experiencing the magnificence that is the doner (which is also like shwarma or a gyro) was probably the highlight of my whole trip. :) Sadly, I had to leave to come back to work the next day. I can't wait to be able to go back to Germany and actually experience the culture. Trier will be one of my first stops. Until then....

... the 2nd place team in the Brazil group, which included Australia. We invited our Australian friends Tom & Meggie, as Tom is as huge a Socceroo fan as you will find. We had slim hopes that one or both of our teams would make it, but as it turns out the Aussies came through with 2nd in their group. Watching that game in the only Australian bar in Amsterdam is another story entirely. Kaiserslautern is like the Green Bay of Germany. Its a town ...

... at goal, we were sure it was going to extra time, and with them down to ten men, we were feeling confident. Then, disaster struck deep into injury time when the ref awarded a penalty. Hard to tell from our end exactly what happened, but we have been assured that the cheating Italian ******* dived and Italy go through to the quarters. The result was a real bummer, but it was great to be there and to experience first-hand the atmosphere of the World Cup. There is really nothing ...