Day Trip to Stuttgart

Stuttgart on the weekend is SUPER busy!  There were a ton of people in the walking district and shopping and wandering and "being seen".  The weather was (*I'm updating this much later) still cold at this point, but the sun was out after quite a bit of snow for the area.  SO - everyone was out.  I also noted that when the sun is out even if it is snowy in the grounds, everyone will come out as well.  With a lot of individuals living in apartments, they spend a lot of time wandering and seeing what they can see in the shops.

So - we joined the masses to get out and into the sunshine!

Why Stuttgart?  Well, they have a Flomart (aka flea market) on certain weekends... could be every weekend, but honestly I didn't look.  I just knew I wanted to go see the flea market.  It was fun to go and see what they had there.  There were a LOT of old pocket watches.  A favorite of mine for some odd reason I am drawn to them.  They had some very unique things as well such as this:

 Box of old gas masks!  I had to send a picture of them to the girls in reference to a Dr. Who episode where a little boy was wandering the streets looking for his mummy in a gas mask!  Creepy factor was high on that one... but it was a good show.  The kids got a kick out of the masks.  I didn't even look at the price, just noted them and took a pictures. 

 Also, amidst the rugs there was this atrocity... why on EARTH would you leave the hooves on a fur rug?  Really??? Suggestions from FaceBook were to hold it down in a strong wind or door stops - ha!  We will never know!!

WHAT is this??? This is curry wurst.  yummmy!!!  Butch got a Brat with a bun, but I chose the curry wurst.  It was the same sausage he had but this one was chopped and smothered in the curry sauce.  Very tasty!  

Parting shot of a hotel near the platz where the flea market was... cut gargoyle lizards.

All in all a fun day spent looking at things in the market, getting a router for the house to get internet and just wandering through Stuttgart.

A trip to the Black Forest

The first question is "is the Black Forest really black?"  Well, NOT really... but I digress.  we really started off by going to get gas, which seems on the surface like a simple thing to do, but NOT so my friends, not so.  You have to go to an Esso Station... and ONLY an Esso station.  Where are they you ask?  Well, that is the kicker.  The closest one was 10km away.  That, in and of it'self isn't so bad but it was in the opposite direction of where we were going.  BUT instead of complaining, we shall see this as an adventure!!  LOL

So... for your knowledge base, Boeblingen is where the base is and there IS an Esso station on the FAR side of Boeblingen... but it was about 5 more KM away so we opted for THIS route:

We start at our house in the upper left, drive over to the middle right where the red arrow is... over the hills and through the woods... really!!!  AND it's a narrow road and in fact it is one that was seen on a prior blog post about dropping down into a town out of the mountain areas... still a very nice drive through the woods and past the nature park - aka alllllll that green stuff there... there are a TON of walking paths through it... see the map to follow.  Right about that turn off that we took a left to go get gas off of the road through the woods is where this map is:

 We are where the orange arrow is to the left... on the top - well, in the nook on the top left - well, search for it, it's there... there is a tower up on this hill that we can actually see from our top floor as well - the ridge is in the distance... and this is the walking areas.

This is the cool road marker telling you how far to the town... along the ridge and down into the next valley. 

This is actually the roof of the little side "hut" that I took a picture of... well, I took a picture of the roof because I LOVE all of the lichens and moss... but the hut, not so much - it was built in 1997... not so very old, but to have this much growth in just that short amount of time is impressive and makes you think that the hut is much older than that.  I'm thinking it's just a way station to wait out of the weather if you are hiking and your ride is late coming to get you... in the snow perhaps?  Who knows.  I don't know that it snows THAT much down here, but then again, this is only February and we have only seen one week of intermittent snow that melts fairly fast... maybe it does get deeper?  I don't think so as no one is talking about blizzards... but there is a lot of rain here, so that could be it as well.  Anyway, we stopped here to let the map app catch up with Butch's phone so we could head off into the wild blue yonder.

Soooo this is where we went:

 Yes, this is a VERY round about way... and there were lots of DARK roads with lots of hill and mountains and TINY towns along the way that were very cool... here is one that Butch took a picture of to share with Angela via text during my drive out there... Yes, it was MY choice to take the scenic route.  Little did I know what I was getting myself into!

If you want to see some of the towns you can get lost in google maps and click on town after town and see cute valleys with very German buildings and actually some very modern ones too... we came down one hill and there was a huge manufacturing plant for mufflers of all things.  They were a well known one too as Butch said "Oh...xxxx, wow"  Yeah, there is industry tucked here there and everywhere and it doesn't seem to impact the environment at all - it's very nice.

Anyway a GREAT LONG drive.  Mostly because I do NOT drive the speed they say on roads I'm not familiar with OR that are wet and going at a 12% grade.  OK, that was ONE hill that was 12% then you hit the bottom of a hill and it went form 70km/hr to 50 in two seconds... yeah, thanks!  Glad there was no ticket camera at that hill!! ha!

Anyway when we got to our destination it was a ski lift and the top of the mountain you could see both directions quite well for MILES... I think you really could see France from there... honestly.

 Parking was MAD here... the parking lot was full to the brim and they were parking on the edge of a very busy road with kids just piling out of cars and standing in traffic watching it all happen.  Like 3 and 4 year olds in ski outfits getting ready to hit the slopes.  The snow was HORRIBLE... it was very icy... granted thick, but super icy.  NOT something I would be clamoring over to ski in for sure!!  I'm sure on the slope they had some man made stuff, but still it was warm enough to stand out without jacket, so very slushy I'm sure.  Oh, well, to each their own  I would sit in a nice warm lodge and watch... that is my limit :)

We did continue on the road going to the south a bit, passed a HUGE hotel
https://www.schliffkopf.de/ is the site if you care to go check it out.  It looks great on the website.

 So this is when we finally pulled over to stetch our legs and switch drivers for the drive back home.

 Looking south over Germany... for MILES!!

You can see the wind mills in the distance!  very tiny in the distance.... but they are there...

And THIS is the way we came back home.  I didn't mind that we went a different way.. it was still just as nice and it was a few new places.  At some point we did get on 28 by mistake on the way to the mountains... but I don't feel like we missed anything skipping out of the valley and tiny town options. 

This was an all afternoon thing.  I think we left at noon and got back at 6pm... and we didn't reallys top more than 2 minutes to change out drivers and take a few pictures on the top of the one ridge.

Long fun day driving just to see what we could see.  It was weird to be at that peek and know you were probably looking out over france as he mounts just dropped away from where we were at that height...

And then I was in the passenger side coming back... so I took a few more pictures...

This was a very small bridge over a creek that we were stuck on during a detour.  I love that there is such a mix of old and new all around.

This is one I took of the double towers in this town.  I don't remember which it is, but it's on the 28, so should be easy to find with Google maps.  The town platz (square) was full of people out enjoying the pretty sunny day and warmer weather even with lots of snow on the grounds in the shade... they are a determined bunch about getting out and getting fresh air!

I think Butch took this one further up in the mountains...

OK this was just funny, I was taking a picture of the tall building as a typical building type we have seen here at times and Butch pointed out the lower slung building is a McDonalds.  You just can't escape McDonalds, can you?

What is this????
A castle???  why yes, it is Hodennagold Castle (ah, the grace of the internet to look things up AFTER the fact!).  Yes, this one is on our list of castles to visit!  It looks cool 

That and the Herrenberg castle now as well. 

Although the Herrenberg one is called: Herrenberg Pulverturm... what is that you ask?  Well, I asked Google and found this:
Pulverturm

The Pulverturm is a historic brick-built powder magazine in the city 

more research found this: 

Herrenberg Castle was located on the Schlossberg in Herrenberg in the district of Böblingen in Baden-Württemberg . The first documentary mention of the former castle dates back to 1220.

There are still ruins, remains of the walls and a cellar of the former mansion, which was incorporated into a restaurant in 1957. There are also remains of the Westzwingeranlage. There is also the Castle Mountain Tower , which is built on the stump of the former Pulverturm ; there is a dungeon under the tower. Single descriptions, six small drawings, cuts and engravings as well as paintings, an inaccurate fortress plan and the land register are available.And with that, we will end photo's for the day... the trip was good and very nice.  A few more places close to home to go visit in the near future - spring sounds good.

Sorry, no pictures of the Herrenberg one as it's close to home and I know we'll go there in the spring and when we saw it the first time it snuck up on us.. and the 2nd there was just lots of industry between me and the ruins... no good picture opportunities. 

This weekend I have heard Stuttgart is on the plans... if we can get up and out by a good hour we can go to the flea market - that would thrill me!!

On the "news" and what is really happening here... I am fighting getting my German number... they are having problems getting my phone to accept the eSIM card. Butch's accepted it just fine, but not mine. BUT we're working through it thus why I am just now getting blogging done and it's almost 10pm.  Couldn't be that I got home close to 7pm, helped make dinner then started this after dinner and dessert that I brought home from the BX... figured if I was there that late I deserved a treat (that and it is our 25th anniversary).  Yeah, we're a couple of wild people  We made dinner and ate a dessert... but we'll make up for it this weekend or even dinner at a local place tomorrow... it's all a party here :)

Floor plans

While planning for furniture and all that jazz I like to have a picture of the layout of the house... so here is what I have from Visio and it's only PARTIALLY correct in sizing.  Butch went out and bought a tape measure - which was helpful when shopping in Ikea today to see what would fit into some of the nooks and crannies. 

We picked up a few things, but mostly we're sill figuring out what we want for where.  So... here we go, here are the measurements we have to date

This is the basement - the lower left is the "laundry" and electrical and hot water heater room ... it's quite long and has one tiny window.  The storage room also has a window (not shown on here, but you can see it on the pictures of the front of the house as the grate is right beside the house and the garage.  Odd place for a window, but hey, whatever works for codes I guess.  So, there is that very tiny and high window in there as well.... the stairs here are open and the floating sort... so under them is open and they spiral up and out to the entry on the First Floor

 Welcome to the ground floor - the entry hall is quite large and actually has a bump out where the stairs come up. Anyway... there are nooks and crannies in there where a coat rack will be in the future, but it was hard to get the walls to behave and stay the right size... so the empty box off the kitchen and entry is actually a little nook that will eventually house a bench and a coat rack of some sort.  The kitchen is really tiny and although there isn't much as far as cabinets, they are all the Ikea type and have multiple pull outs and drawers and think they will store quite a bit.  The refrigerator is tiny... we did get a 2nd one from the base... we had them put it downstairs in the laundry so we have more freezer room than in the one here... I will have to remember to take a picture of the inside of it because it really IS tiny... but this is our effort to downsize and quit buying so much for just the two of us!!

The 1st floor (at least here in Europe it's considered first) has two bedrooms and a LARGE bathroom with a deceivingly large looking bath tub.  I did take a bath in there the other night and although it is big it's not really deep enough to really enjoy a good soak.  Maybe if I was a twiggy person, but I am NOT so it was ... meh, OK.  Now what I want to try soooo bad here are the baths.  The Germans have zero problem with nudity so you just go in and soak in your birthday suits and enjoy the thermal waters... which to me sounds super ideal.  Butch is not on board with this however... so I will have to find a non-shy person to join me on this adventure!!  Anyway... the bedroom with the ed in it is the one we will end up putting our room in as it's slightly bigger than the one we have our bed in now... so it's been decided we move to the back bedroom... which I LIKE the idea of as it's a super sunny room :)

Upwards... to the TOP of this joint... this is the attic rooms.. they have sloped roofs, but honestly they aren't too bad as they brought in the walls a little and the slope is very tall.... so there we have no tub, just the shower, but they are square, not cut off like this one shows... so they offer quite a bit of room in there!  This floor has a tiny balcony off the south facing room... and the doors that open on both sides... makes for a very sunny room up there for sure.... this will probably be a bedroom or an office.  I think as it's slightly larger it should be a bedroom but time will tell on that one!

So for those of you who like to have a nice floor plan to really put things into perspective there you are... that and looking up the place on google maps is about all you'll need to know to really see what it looks like here... our NEXT adventure is to use the Micheria - which is a farm place near here that has a milk automat for fresh milk... Yep, fresh, unpasteurized milk straight from the farm.

OK, more on our trip to the black forest when I can actually get the blasted phone to load my pictures to Blogger :)

Adventures in Temporary Furniture

 Our address, not that anyone really would use it is: Fliederweg 5/1, 71116 Gaertringen Germany (well, really it's Ga(umlaut)rtringen)... but I'm not sure how to put that on this keyboard.  So... that little VW is the rental - this was just as we were moving in...  He's actually parked on the "yard" in the front (yeah, it's pretty non-existent).  Anyway THIS is the front of our house... yep, all ours... just for two of us.  Seems a little silly but hey, if we have folks come at the same time, we're set!! 

 Here is the lovely (yes, that is sarcasm) loaner furniture that we have for the next few weeks while waiting for ours.  This will not be our true living room but rather than have the movers heft this stuff down stairs until then seemed... well, a little cruel!  So, it's upstairs for now.  We do plan on getting a larger dining set while we are here as we re-sold our dining table from Georgia for the move.  To our defense it was a table I got for $45 and fixed the wooden slides to work (they were stuck prior), then Butch sanded the corner... and.... well, we never did anything else with it after that.  So this room will become one BIG dining room with the doors that will open onto the deck.  yes, BOTH of those doors open all the way on BOTH sides... so it really is a nice airy set up for a dining table in the summer.

This monstrosity... uh, I mean bit of loveliness is our bed.  Yeah.  It's a double.... yeah we are WAY too close to each other right now!  ha!  And the thickness of it?  Yep, that is it.  There is foam... there is hardness... there is misery... there are some old backs that are ready to cry now.  This was delivered to us on the 15th... we got sheets and such and we moved in on the 16th.  It's now the 18th and let me tell you what... that thing makes my hips hurt to look at it from here....  sigh... it's temporary... it's temporary.  We should have our household goods before the 3rd of March or something like that.  I would honestly have to look it up but I think that they had a "must deliver date" no later than the 5th.

SOOOOO pray for me that we live that long... two weeks isn't that long, right?  RIGHT????  Yeah, my back would disagree with you there... my lower back is hurtin!!

oh, well, it was MY decision to move here and my stupidity that allowed us to move into this place without really looking at paperwork to know when the furniture would be here.... so it's all my fault.  I said something (or just thought it possibly) about "next time I'll know better"... lordie, there's not going to be a "next time" ... next time we will hopefully be moving home.... and have someone nice enough to let us crash at their house before we have to move into an empty house!!

So... that is my update for last week...
I am now away from the hotel and will try and load pictures as I can but I'm working on the equivalent of dial up at this point, so things are slow going.  I loaded these pictures while I was at the BX when Butch was signing us up for phones.... 

SO... in about 2 weeks we should have phones that will work in Germany for cell phones AND have a home phone that we can call home to the states for free!!!  FREEEE... OK, so it costs us about $19 Euro a month, but shoot, that's a drop in the bucket compared to what it would cost without that.

Wonderful Wednesday...

OK So Tuesday (or was that Monday?) wasn't so wonderful as I made it all the way into work and to the first room of my office... and then when I stood up to go to another office... flop, flop, flop!!!

 I had a BAD flat tire in my shoe!!!  Yes, this is what it looked like when I got back to the hotel later in the morning.  It was sooo funny!  So no one had any super glue at all at work and *I* had a meeting to go to with the big boss in my area... yeah, fun.  So I asked the Marines across the hall if someone had anything to include duct tape....

 Yep, they had duct tape!!!  Talk about classy, eh?  ha!!!  I fixed up my shoe, kept my foot on the floor and tried to not draw any attention to it!  I then went over to the BX during my lunch break and picked up shoes from there... I did find a nice pair that were very close to what I had but they actually have heels on them and are better for me in the winter weather here!  Score.


Annnndddd today we signed the final paperwork for the apartment.
SO here are the picture from the house today... starting from the top floor - this is the north side room with the tilted ceilings.  I think this will be an office or possibly a guest room.  it's on the 3rd floor - which here is called the 2nd as they start with 0 for ground , then 1 then 2.

 Nice bright hall way with the stairway to the downstairs... and the bath to the right.

 The bath - it's small but functional and the lovely skylight is GREAT - as you can open it and there is a pole to get the window back down again to lock it.  It's GREAT to have the airflow from the bottom floor to the top!

 This is the south room - it's quite large and look at that cute terrace!  I can imagine sitting out there having a tea watching the world!

 OK, down the stairs to the master floor leel....

 The north side room - will be an office or a guest room ... probably an office as it's next to our room and if we put the guest upstairs everyone coming to stay would have their own bath.

 This is the master bedroom and I just noticed that window to the left is full length to the floor... interesting... you can see the shed in the back yard (aka garden)  The others who lived here prior to us had some wardrobes on that side... note that there are NO closets... welcome to Europe... wardrobes are the thing here!

 "master bath" aka main floor bath... two sinks... bath.... and shower behind the door....  I thought I had a picture of that shower... but maybe not...

Here... I'll never understand why they don't shove the toilet over and make a MUCH bigger shower.. but OK... we'll deal with it as it is what it is... it'll do.  The shower is the same size upstairs as here.. and it will do for now... it's a temporary thing... temporary... keep repeating after me.

 This is the hall and that wardrobe will move to a bedroom to be used there... but for now it's in the hall as we purchased it from the prior tenants.

 Yep, MORE stairs!!!!  ha!

 main floor as seen from the kitchen.  those doors ALL open - as in it can be very, very open to the outside... and I LOVE that idea.  We plan on using this as a very large dining room and the living room will go downstairs... yep, there is MORE... four floors...

 Butch putting our lovely $20 microwave into the microwave hole....

 This is the entry area...

 Tiny 1/2 bath right off the front door.

 Potty... why is that toilet paper blowing out?  Not a clue.. probably because the windows are open and I just shut that door, but it's funny that I JUST noticed this as I'm publishing the blog!  ha!

No pictures of the stairs going down this time... they were right beside the 1/2 bath and the door... as you walk in and face a stairwell and a few doors... if you go downstairs you get to this room:

 They consider this a craft room or hobby room... we will call this our living room for the duration and put our living room down here to watch TV and hang out.

 good size storage room in the basement...

 absolutely HUGE landry room with a sink and a FOLDING area... I could even get to like doing laundry down here!!

 The other end... they have heated floors throughout... this is going to be GREAT... the water pipes and heating elements are all in this corner.

 OK, the back yard is in rough shape right now as they had a BIG down out there... a Rottwieler... so a baby horse.  There is straw out there to keep the seed down and we'll rake it up and/or add seed as the spring hits to see if we can get the lawn looking good.  I did tell her I love flowers, so we were given permission to plant as we want.  Should be fun to plant here.

 This is the back of the garage...

This is the other side of the house... so tiny, tiny, tiny!  BUT it's all we need.... really.

I forgot to get a good shot of the front of the house and see how it all looks from the outside.

Friday we get temp furniture... and who knows when we get the rest of the goods... sometime in March I'm sure.  So about three weeks to go until we can really settle in, but it's a start!