If you are ever stationed in Germany you will get the chance to visit at least one German Christmas market. Most of the towns have them even if they are small. While we were over in Germany we got to visit quite a few of them. We never were able to make it to the big one in Nuremberg.
Have you ever been to a German Christmas Market?
Schweinfurt
I have posted about my Space-A trip that I took last summer. Space-A part 1 and Space-A part 2. But I haven’t posted about the return trip. Since it is almost summer again I figured I better post it before I forget too much 🙂
After spending a wonderful summer in California it was time to head back to Germany. Instead of trying to get a flight out of Travis AFB which is about 8 hours from where I was, I took a commercial flight to Charleston, SC to meet up with my friend who was heading back to Germany too. I had a hotel booked in the city so when we got to the airport we just had to get the van to the hotel. I was so tired once we got in that I was glad my plan was to meet my friend the next day.
The next morning I woke up and called a van to take us to the Air Force base. He picked us up and dropped us off right in front of the Pax Terminal where you catch your flights. Inside the terminal they do have a kids room with toys, cribs and tvs. That was nice. We chilled there for a few hours and then decided to get something to eat.
I decided to walk the boys to Burger King. Well it was about a 10 minute walk and we get there and it was closed. Keep in mind it was the end of August in Charleston so it was very hot and humid but also suppose to rain. Also keep in mind that you must have all your bags with you at all times. Not fun to walk anywhere!
We went back to the Pax terminal and just decided we would get stuff from the vending machines until my friend got there. Well the problem with that is that it only took $1.00 bills and I had a bunch of $5s and no one would give me change. It was so frustrating. I asked the guy at the counter if there was any place to get change and he told me the bowling ally.
So we got all our stuff and headed there. Another 10-15 minute walk. We get to the bowling ally just in time for it to start pouring down rain. They had a little food place in there so I decided to feed us and just relax. After we ate we bowled a little bit. I think we spent about 3 hours there just killing time.
We made it back to the terminal at about 6ish and I was hoping my friend would be there soon. Well by 9 she still hadn’t showed. I was getting worried. I couldn’t get ahold of her at all. I didn’t know if I should go for a hotel or wait there. The boys were getting crazy and I had a major “why did I decide to do this crazy thing?”meltdown.
At about 10pm my friend finally made it. She had been in a minor car accident and that was why she was later than she had planned. It was so stressful for both of us that we decided to skip the first flight out they had the next day. That was probably our mistake but it was what we decided to do at the time.
We ended up having to stay the night in the terminal which was ok for the boys but I hardly slept at all. The next day we were able to get a hotel on post which was really a house. It was very nice. We all got to shower and rest a little bit.
Well what ended up happening was the flight we were trying to get out on kept getting cancelled and changed to the next day. It was suppose to leave on a Thursday and we finally left on the next Tuesday. This was so hard and why I would never do Space-A again with small kids. Just the waiting and wondering, having to find a hotel, not knowing if we were really going to fly each day. We would call each morning only to find out that the flight had been moved again. Thank goodness we were together. I don’t know what I would have done if I was without another adult.
We finally flew into Spangdahlem, Germany 6 days after I had arrived in Charleston. That was when it got even more frustrating for us. I will talk about that in the next post.
I wanted to post about where we use to live. Now that we don’t live there anymore I feel more comfortable talking about it.We use to live in Erbendorf which is about 25 minutes from the Grafenwoehr Army post in Bavaria.
We use to live in Erbendorf which is about 25 minutes from the Grafenwoehr Army post in Bavaria.
The village is cute. It’s small. Really small. The people are friendly. Lots of cute places to walk.
We lived living off post in Germany outside of Graf. We lived in Gov’t leased housing. Which in Germany means living off post but the Army runs the house. You don’t pay rent or utilities.
When we lived in Schweinfurt, we lived on post. So this was a chance to live off post. I am glad I got to experience both while we were overseas. Living off post in Germany can be great because you do get to interact with more of “real” Germany. What I didn’t like about where we lived was that we were so far from post. It made it really hard especially since it snows so much in the winter.
Here are some pictures of our little village 🙂
And let me tell you, it does feel odd seeing these pictures now that we are back in the US. Weird that this little village is now apart of my past.
Well…it’s time. This will be my last post from our home here in Germany. Our internet is being turned off tomorrow. I have a Kindle I can post from so I will try to blog again soon but not totally sure about when.
Tomorrow I say goodbye to all my friends 🙁 That will be hard.
Then it will be time to leave. Pray for us on our long journey. It is going to take forever to get there. But then we will be in America again and I will be super happy 🙂
I think the boys pretty much know what is going on. They seem pretty ok about it all so far but we will see. Usually when a big change happens they just can’t sleep well. They are excited about going on an airplane but I think they think we are going to end up at Grandma’s or Disneyland.
Our family is officially closing the Germany chapter of our lives…and what a weird feeling that is.
I grew up playing with Playmobil and I love the stuff. We have been collecting it the whole time we have been married. Now both of my boys LOVE it. It is everywhere in Germany and they even have a Theme park. We took the boys there for my son’s 4th birthday.
There are so many fun things for the kids to do. It’s great! Lots of water play and climbing fun. They also have this huge inside area where they have almost every set they ever made for the kids to play with. It is all set up by theme too. So pirates in one section, Egypt in another. They even have places for the toddlers to play with the special toddler sets. I believe that part is open throughout the whole year but the outside stuff is closed in the wintertime.
Here is the link for all my friends living in Germany…
It is just outside of Nürnberg.
They also have one in France, Malta, Greece, Palm Beach & Orlando. Playmobil Parks
We have less than 2 months in Germany! About 8 weeks left! In some ways, it seems hard to believe. That we will get on an airplane and our time here will be over. On the other hand, it is a long time coming and I am so ready to live in the US again.
I will miss the bakeries, the church bells and the whole experience of living somewhere in Europe however I am really looking forward to a lot of things I have missed.
Here is my list:
Target
Starbucks (They have these in Germany but not anywhere near where we live)
Favorite Restaurants
Non APO address
Finding a real church to attend
American Houses (I think the German style is cool but just isn’t for me)
Not struggling with not knowing the language
A new cell phone
Not living 30 whole minutes from anything American
Not having it cost over $3,000 to go home and see my family
Having my family be able to come visit often
Only being 2 hours time difference from my family
Seeing my friends in KY again. It’s been 4 years 🙁
Barnes and Noble
The mall
Not feeling the pressure to go out and see something because it is Europe. (This might sound weird but being in Germany I feel like we have to go out and see things all the time and when we don’t I feel like I am not taking advantage of living here. And that is just stressful to me.)
Stores open late and on Sundays
Mail being delivered to my own house
Being able to sell on Ebay again
Going to Old Navy vs having to order online
Did I say Target?
There are reasons that I am “done” here that have more to do with where we live in Germany vs Germany itself. Living out in the middle of nowhere is no fun in the winter with all this snow. And since we only have 1 car too, that makes it even harder.
So the next few weeks will be spent getting ready for the movers and all that fun stuff. I am excited. It is time to go. And as I write this I start to cry because we do have to say goodbye. We will no longer live in this house. No longer see the friends I have made here. And the chapter in our lives called “Germany” will be over. So many mixed emotions. So many memories the last 4 years, both good and bad. Germany is where my son was born and where my love of photography turned into a passion. It is where we had our first & second deployments and it will always have a special place in my heart.
But it’s time to move on and make new memories in a new place. And I can finally see what it is like to be an Army Wife in the United States.
Auf Wiedersehen 🙂