Well, We finally took the train to Paris on the last weekend we could use our railpass. We had some difficulty with the local Tübingen D-Bahn office, seems they don’t know how to book the TGV (the fast train) that leaves from the BIG city (ie. Stuttgart). Jamie finally had to go to the office in Stuttgart to do this, but that whole rant is a another [post that I’m sure Jamie would just love to re-live…

Yes, Paris, City of Lights, Romance and Poets. I had high expectations as this was to be my first trip to this legendary city. After watching Ratatouille I figured I had acquired enough knowledge about the local customs navigate the intricacies of French Cuisine so, Loney Planet Guide in hand, we stepped abroad the TGV at Stuttgart station and nestled into cozy First Class seats.The train is half the fun, once you get into the straight-a-ways areas of the French Plateau that sucker gets up to about 180 mph. They also include a nice boxed lunch (or brekkie) with your ticket, and there’s nothing like cruising along at high speed with a little food and wine to pass the time. With the new service it’s only 3.5 hours from Stuttgart to Paris and it’s much better than flying.

Suffice to say Paris wasn’t exactly how I pictured it in both good and bad ways. I really took about a day to get in the rhythm and the city and find our way around. It really is a beautiful place - even when it’s about 4o degrees F out. Wide streets, many places to wander and eat, great coffee, and the Eiffel Tower is actually WAY bigger than you would think from photos..

We had to do the tower to check it off the list but it really was fun. We had a sunny day so we did the stairs up to the second level then took the lift the rest of the way (it’s the only option). I have to say I really don’t care for heights and the last bit of steps was a little freaky but the view from the top was well worth the effort and line-waiting that we had to do to get there (travelers tip: go during the week if you can, the lines are supposed to be much shorter, esp. on a Wednesday).

I could write more but the picts say it better and faster. Just go, Paris really is a great place. Can’t wait to go back very soon. When it’s warm.

Have a look at our picts here.

And also for your viewing pleasure, is a video of Jamie getting her own freak on in the elevator on the way down. I like the lift, Jamie not so much:

Earlier this month we had a really fun weekend in Munich, using a couple more days on our now-expired (sigh) Eurail pass. It was a 35-minute train ride from Tübingen to Plochingen and then we boarded the 1.5-hour IC to Munich. The most amusing part of the journey was our run-in with a fasching (carnaval) witch club of sorts. It was only 9am and the whole gang were already in their bizarre costumes, booze-in-hand, looking ready for a serious party/parade to ward off the evil spirits of winter. The rest of the trip was a blast: Munich is one of our favorite cities, so beautiful and full of style and character. Of course we had to include a visit to the world-famous Hofbräuhaus which is why you’ll see us with liters of beer in front of our faces. Too much fun, despite the headache the next day. Click here to see all the pics.

When our car arrived a couple weeks ago we couldn’t wait to hit the road for a day trip. And ironically our first go behind the wheel in Germany was a drive to…France. Mon dieu! We decided to take what turned out to be a pretty windy, yet really scenic, route across the northern black forest. And once we emerged from that unscathed (safe from all the cuckoo clocks and witches!) we crossed the Rhine and we were in Strasbourg—a city of both German and French speakers and confusing bilingual billboards. It’s a place we’ve really been wanting to see, but since we were a little short on time and had the pooches in tow, we just cruised through the downtown (completely missing the historic pedestrian altstadt ‘island’.) However during our 30 mins of sightseeing, we did manage to get this drive-by shot of their super-cool, newly-face-lifted train station, the Gare de Strasbourg. Then we opted for the uber-fast route back home, which was a practically-no-speed-limit autobahn ALL the way. Good thing I trust Curt’s uber-keen driving skills.

Well it only took two months—to head down the pacific coast, drift through the Panama Canal and sail across the Atlantic—but finally on 14th January the ginormous container arrived with our car and (most) of our furniture intact. Considering we’d been living on camp chairs and an air mattress (thanks to Curt’s coworkers) we were pretty darn stoked to see the movers pull up to our place and unveil all of our material possessions…things that you want to feel like you can live without…but really, you can’t. Oh the comfort of a couch! And the ease of eating at a dining table! It really makes you appreciate everything all over again. Seems like this whole “change your perspective” thing we’ve jumped into is proving effective.

We went to the local Home Depot-like store near our place called “Toom” this weekend to buy some paint and do up our living room before all our stuff arrived. As we wandered down through the many aisles of the vast store we noticed this nice collection toilet seats. There is nothing I want to see more when I sit down on my throne than a crying clown.

…maybe he had some spicy Indian food.

We just popped down to our local watering hole “Credo”. Literally, steps from our home, and I realized they are super crazy for “Holunder” - which are Elderberries - there:

For those of you not speaking the German tongue, the drinks are, in order:

Elderberry Spritzer

Hot Elderberry

Beer with a dash of Elderberry

and the ever famous Elderberry Hot Wine!

BTW: the waitress asked Jamie if she was from America, and if I was from France. I am going to take this as a compliment on how Juanty I am. Gilles, I am going to overtake your Jaunty-ness, you’ll see.

Hello from Europe and happy new year! Over the holidays we traveled to Zermatt, Switzerland for some boarding from the highest lift in Europe. We had a great time although taking the dogs on the train can be somewhat challenging.

Some more picts are posted here.

Well, all in all, Germany is quite a peaceful and safe place. Kids walk to school alone with no fear, no one really has guns, people seem to keep to themselves, life is peaceful and good. But all that changes about 3 days before New Year’s Eve.It all began when some kids down in the park by our house started, seemingly innocently, lighting off some small firecrackers on the 28th of December. Hey, I liked fireworks and blowing up things as a child too, so I would not deny them this pleasure in Germany. But it does seem the size and availability of the munitions here are much more serious and potentially limb damaging than what we can get in the states (where fireworks are mostly illegal anyway).

As the afternoon wore on the bangs became louder, but then near 10pm subsided back to tranquility and peace. “No big deal”, I thought. The next day the same thing began but towards evening some rockets joined the fray as well as some pretty tall roman candle-type devices. The size of the “firecrackers” were up too, seriously, 1/4 stick-dynamite-style by now and quite unnerving for someone who hasn’t even seen combat.

Curious about where we could “see the fireworks” we asked at the local restaurant where should go to view the spectacle. The server looked puzzled, and now we know why: there isn’t one, everyone just does their own private, “professional” display.

Below is a video of the event. Mostly it just paints a picture in sound, it does however give you a sense on what we witnessed from our balcony on New Year’s Eve. Think: Gulf War I, you know, the short one. Now I have have a slight inkling how the reporters filming with thier cell phone cameras from the Bagdad Hilton felt.

Next year I hope to find out where to buy some.

Once we got over our jetlag and post-move trauma, we decided to venture out of our cave of a hotel room in Böblingen and take the S-bahn to Herrenberg to check out Curt’s new office. Frog’s building is very modern and literally on the new side of the tracks, on the other side of town from Herrenberg’s quaint Altstadt (pictured here.)

From Herrenberg we decided to go on to Tübingen so I could see where Curt stayed when he interviewed last Sept. What is usually an easy 1/2 hour ride southeast from Herrenberg via the Regional Bahn—a 2-car train on a single track that cuts through picturesque farmland and vineyards—ended up being an hour-long bus ride due to track maintenance that day. Lucky us. Can you tell by the picture that it was also freeeezing out that day? But we finally got there and I immediately fell for the town’s charming, expansive altstadt with all its great history shopping and restaurants. I guess that’s why we live in Tübingen now!