The Family Visits

Well, most of them, so far. As you may or may not know, my family and I have been trying to figure out the best time for them to come visit me. We thought we had good days planned out, then the Army bandit struck again. Yes, I am being deployed again. I knew it was coming, but the changed the days, after my family had already bought tickets here. So basically, I got to see my mom and sisters for about 2.5 days and will miss my dad altogether. But, they have a big trip planned and will be able to enjoy Germany just fine I think.

I picked them up Friday morning at the Lux airport. Unfortunately, the airline lost my sister's baggage. So that put a crimp in the plan right away. We could only think of the worst, since my other sister had lost a bag on an earlier trip and never got it back. We immediately went into Luxembourg City and did the easy tour there. The we came back to my house and rested a bit. We then did a walking tour of Trier and had some dinner at an outdoor cafe. We were all pretty exhausted and went home early to get some sleep.

The next day we headed down the Kaiserslautern. This was a big deal because that night USA was playing Italy in the second game of the World Cup. So we went down to join in the festivities. I was amazed to see so many American fans. Most of whom were NOT military. Considering there are 40,000 Americans that live in the Kaiserslautern area, that showed how many made the trip. It was a lot of fun, especially since we played a great game and managed to tie the Italians. A very difficult thing to do.

Here's Pappy (from the Eastern Europe Trip). We rn into him there. He's holding up his ticket for the game. He got lucky and has tickets to all the USA games, for normal price. Scalpers were asking for 400 euros for the USA-Italy game.

Nastasja was able to meet us in Kaiserslautern for a few hours. I was glad she was able to meet my family, considering the bad timing of my deployment.

On Sunday we drove up the Mosel Wine road, same one from the bike ride. But this time we went the whole way. It was a beautiful day for a drive in the Audi. We stopped at a couple of tourist spots, but great towns. First was Bernkastel. Neat town on a bend in the river. Then we got up to Cochem, a surprise for me. I didn't realize such a cool town was so close to me. This place has an awesome Castle up on the hill.

I took them to the Cochem train station and waved them off. They are on their way to Italy for a few days to hike on the coast. Should be a very nice experience. I wish I could go too! But I'm home now, and packing for the deployment. They'll get back to my house, and then pick my dad up at the Airport. Then they will travel Germany more. Wish I could be here but thats just the way it goes I guess.

Happy Mosel

Every June the region I live in has a bunch of bike only days. The biggest one was last Sunday. Luckily I was home and Nastasja was able to be visiting. Basically, they close down a road for 140km, about 90 Miles. Its the road that follows the Mosel River and is surrounded on both sides by steep grape fields for Germany's famous Riesling Wine. Its really a beautiful ride.

World Cup 2006

Well, the World Cup is here in Germany. It is amazing to be living in a country that is hosting the WC, even more so since there is so much passion here. We've been able to watch every game just by walking downtown and going to any number of bars and restuarants. They all have widescreen TVs set up outside.

This is Matt and I prepping for the USA - Cech game. We sang the National Anthem and were applauded by the Germans. Funny how they also clapped as we got our asses kicked...

This was the scene after the Germany - Poland game. German won at the last possible second. So the Germans were partying in the streets all night long. Here they were blocking traffic and making each car earn its passage. Notice I'm wearing a Poland jersey. I just thought I'd root for the underdog as usual. I got the jersey from the USA-Poland friendly in March. Some Polish guy saw my USA jersey and wanted to swap.

Gran Canaries

Took a week with Nastasja and went to Playa de Ingles in the Gran Canaries. Beautiful Islands that are under the Spanish Flag and located just off the coast of Africa. Weather down there stay around 70-80 degrees all year round. Lots of good beaches and beautiful mountains inland.

The first fews days were totally cloudy so to make the most of it we rented a car. Great decision. The island is small, but has a bunch of different things to see and do. So, without a car, you'd be stuck in your resort city the whole time. This way we got to go inland and see the different landscapes of the island. The inland mountains are awesome, but the cloud cover was so low, as we drove higher we coulldn't see anything. The roads were very very windy and had drop offs at every turn into the valley.

At Masapalomas, the beach turns into a huge desert of Dunes. Its really cool and looks like you are walking across the Sahara.