Hallo Germany!

It's hard to believe we've been in Germany for a whole month now! Jacob, both cats, and Troy and I all made it here safe and sound (after a 3 hour delay on the runway in D.C.). We're all adjusting well, but I've found that one of the most difficult obstacles to navigate has been the time change between us and our family and friends, especially those on the west coast. A nine hour time difference is no joke. We've also just been so unbelievably busy trying to get our lives settled here that it hasn't left much time for casual phone conversations to happen. So, consider this an attempt to fill you all in on how things are going over here, and to share some of the amazing experiences we're having!

We had to fight to get housing in the area we wanted. The original housing that was offered was not in a German town, but in a full US military subdivision outside of base. Our whole reason for requesting overseas orders was to have a real German experience, and living in "little America" was not going to work for us.

Thankfully, we eventually got what we wanted, and we are living in a little town 15 minutes south of Vilseck (where Troy works) called Hahnbach. There are a few other American military families who live near us, but the rest of the town is German. We are within a 5-10 minute walk of two German grocery stores, a bank, and several restaurants.

The closest city to us is Amberg. Anything we might need that we can't find in Hahnbach can most likely be found there (including a Burger King we were forced to eat at when we realized everything in town was closed for Feast of the Assumption a few weeks ago.) Amberg is gorgeous and we've really enjoyed the few times we've had to head into town there. My OB is also located in Amberg, so I'll be making quite a few trips down that way!

Within our first two weeks here, we ventured out on weekends to do some exploring. For Troy's birthday weekend, we stayed in Regensburg and took a river cruise through the Danube River Gorge to Weltenburg Abbey. The weather wasn't great, but we still made the best of it!. Weltenburg Abbey was founded in 617 AD. The existing structure is from the 1800's, but still super cool!

We drove out to Nuremburg (about an hour drive) for a much needed trip to Ikea, and ended up spending most of the day in Bamburg. Bamburg was full of food vendors, music, and people everywhere! It's located on the Regnitz River and has quite a few bridges (which reminded me of mini versions of Ponte Vecchio in Florence).

The best way to describe our experience at Neuschwanstein is *magical*. You can see the castle up on the hill as you drive into Hohenschwangau, and it feels a little like seeing the castle at Disney for the first time. From town, we took a horse-drawn carriage up to the castle (see horse butts below). Jake LOVED the horses!

The castle wasn't finished before King Ludwig's death, so the tour only takes you through a few rooms and no pictures are allowed inside the castle. Regardless, it was awesome, and we saw some of the most gorgeous views of Bavaria from inside.

I wasn't expecting it, but my favorite part of the weekend was touring Linderhof Palace, which is another of King Ludwig's palaces. This one was finished while the King was alive, and it's the only one he lived in. Apparently, he wanted it to resemble Versailles as much as possible (even though it's much smaller). Again, no pictures allowed inside (if you google it you can find some) but it was INCREDIBLE. Almost every room is covered in real gold with Meissen porcelain and crystal everywhere.

The garden around the palace is just as impressive as the palace itself. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The first month has definitely been exciting, but not without stress. We're still waiting for our furniture and most of our belongings to get here, and we have some pretty uncomfortable military loaner furniture until ours arrives. We love our house, but it just doesn't feel like home quite yet. My car hasn't arrived yet either, but we bought a car for Troy earlier this week. The language barrier hasn't been horrible, and most people speak a little bit of English. We're trying to learn as much German as we can, but it is HARD.

I miss teaching... a lot. Seeing all my teacher friends post pictures of their classrooms and first days of school was tough, but I wish all of them an amazing school year!! Since I'm not teaching, I started my Master's in English a few weeks ago, and that is keeping the academic side of me sane for now.

If you made it to the end of my post, I hope you enjoyed it! I'll post periodically to keep anyone updated who is interested in what it's like to move to a foreign country with a one year old, two cats, and a baby on the way! Tschüss for now!