The Tale of Schloss Weissenstein

It started out a sad story, but in the end the Tale of Schloss Weissenstein is a happy little story about three adventurers in Germany. 

We left the house on a mission to find some ruins to wander through...  2 hours later we were discouraged and a little grumpy.  (I wasn't grumpy...JOHN was grumpy.)  Ok...I was grumpy...  We had made it to our destination via GPS coordinates and alas...it was the middle of a town and there were zero castle ruins to be found.  So we got out the map and plotted how we might get to the "red triangle" from where we were.  I suggested just 4 wheeling it...but John didn't think our little Subaru could handle the uphill wooded terrain. 

Wimpy.

Instead we just kept driving...and just when we were about to give up and turn around we saw THE SIGN.

Schloss Weissenstein!

It was rainy and super humid.  Yucky combination for those of us accustomed to Pacific Northwest rain with no humidity.  We hopped out at the trailhead to see how far the ruins were from the parking area and Bella and I did a little happy dance when we discovered it was only 1.5 Kilometers!  That's less than a mile. 

I think their measuring was wrong...we walked much more than a mile...but then again it might have been the paths we took...that is one bad thing about living in Germany and speaking German as badly as I speak it.  I can't read the signs...unless they say things like, "W.C.", Toilletten, Gasthaus...  But if it says, Castle is this way....  I can essentially read the word castle and thats about it.

Anyhow...we started off...and would you believe it when I saw this...

Here we are spending family time walking down a gorgeous wooded German trail and he's texting?  There is something very wrong with this picture.  He put it away quickly...I think I shamed him into it.

Part of the trail was incredibly fun to walk on...roots, rocks, dips...it reminded me of the kinds of woods I imagine in the Little Red Riding Hood story...

We were just getting to the point of thinking we must have made a wrong turn when we turned a corner and saw this...

Taduum!  The ruins of Schloss Weissenstein....aren't they amazing.  Essentially it was a castle built into those giant granite rock structures.  It wasn't very big, but it was incredibly interesting and beautiful....

We explored around the bottom first...it was mostly tumbled rock wall, overgrown vegetation (with WAY too much stinging nettle for my liking) and little dirt trails down to the lower walls...and then we found her...

She was just sitting there in a little clearing...with some German inscription I couldn't read, but I thought she was beautiful...she reminds me a little bit of my sister, Emma.  Its the hair and the face...  Beautiful.

We found some hidden nooks and crannies and I had to examine the precarious nature of the overhangs.  Huge holes where there must have been rock at some point.  It was just amazing to me how much work went into shaping this castle home.

And then it was time to go up...

All the way to the top structure and then up the scariest stares ever that were about 5 inches deep to the tippity top of the castle...

But the view was amazing and totally worth the climb...

And then we looked down....

And then we WALKED down...and took a picture of our humid trip to the ruins...

 
And went home happy and satisfied.  :)

The end. Read More...

Space A Part 5 - The End.

Well, this was promised as the "good part" of our trip...and I think that is best shown in photos....so enjoy...

Jenna's gluten free chocolate muffins.  YUMMY.

She learned to PEDAL!!!

Cousin snuggles

Her first violin

Seeing Eric!

...and Xander's play...

Walks on Sunday before church...

Running around the National Mall...

Tongues Out!

FDR Memorial...(my favorite!)

Sunsets...

Cherry blossoms...

Baby ducks...

Hangin' out with George...(Mason, that is...)

...and Mr. Jefferson.

Refusing to take even one step closer to the Capitol

Dinner!  Day family style!

The Easter Bunny...

Easter dresses...

Awesome cousin pics...

And a REALLY comfortable airplane ride home.  :)

Read More...

Space A Part 3 - Walking 3 miles at 3AM

Sorry it took me longer than a day to get back to you.  Things got in the way...life started getting busy again...I'm occasionally stopped in my tracks with the knowledge that in less than THREE WEEKS my husband will be home for good. 

Yeah...I find myself wandering around in a daze thinking about it when I should have been doing more important stuff like...updating my blog!

But...let me just tell you the story of our 3AM stroll through Andrews Air Base...

It all started around 12:30AM when our flight arrived, taxied, parked and we all got off and went to find our bags.

I thought that just maybe someone would be there waiting...there was nobody there.

A nice man named Hugh, who was waiting until 7AM for a flight out to Indiana, offered me the use of his cell phone.

So, I called my sister, Jenna.

No one answered. 

I called her cell phone.

No one answered.

So I called her husband Jason's cell phone.

No one answered.

Hmmmm.....ok...so I thought *maybe* they just were sleeping or missed the calls and I'd call back in about 20 minutes.

1:00AM - I call again...all three phones.  No one answers.

1:30AM - I call again...all three phones.  No one answers.

2:00AM - I call again...all three phones and I leave the message that I'd try one more time in 1/2 hour and if I still didn't reach anyone we were going to bed down in the "children's room" for the night.  (They had these awesome bean bags that were calling my name.)

2:30AM - I call for the last time and the phone is answered...

Me:  "Who is this?"
Garrett: "Its Garrett."  (Garrett is 10 and should NOT have been answering the phone at 2:30AM!)
Me:  "What are you doing answering the phone at 2:30AM?!"  (I can't believe I scolded him!  He saved us some serious drama!)
Garrett:  "I just heard it ringing so I went to pick it up."
Me:  "You should be in bed!  But nevermind...go give the phone to your mom."
Garrett:  "I'm sorry, but she's asleep right now and I don't want to wake her up."
Me:  "Garrett - I promise she won't be mad...go give your mom the phone."
Garrett:  "No, really I can't do that.  She's sleeping really deeply."  (Love that kid for protecting his mom's sleep so vehemently.)
Me:  "GARRETT GIVE YOUR MOM THE PHONE.  I promise it will be ok."

Jenna comes on the line and informs me that Jason has been waiting for us since 12:30AM at the front gate because they wouldn't let him on post!

ARE  YOU KIDDING ME?  WE WERE 3 MILES APART FOR THE LAST 2.5 HOURS AND DIDN'T KNOW IT?

So starts the "how to get to the front gate" part of the trip...

My options: 
#1.  Call a taxi to come from off post (45 minute wait) - have the taxi drive us 3 miles to the front gate.
#2.  Wait until 4AM for the nice soldier manning the terminal help desk to get off work and he would drive us to the gate.
#3.  Walk.

"Pack it up girls!  We're headed out!" 

So, Maddie put on her backpack and grabbed a roller bag in each hand.  I strapped Bella in the stroller, threw on a duffel bag and my diaper bag over my shoulders and we started walking.

At 3AM.

To the front gate.

Oh what a sight we must have been.  I wish I had a photo.

We'd only gone about a mile when an MP pulled up next to us and asked, "Uhm...where are you going?"

He offered us a ride the rest of the way. (Thank you MP!!!!)

Poor Jason celebrated the first 4 hours of his birthday sitting in the visitor's center parking lot of Andrews Air Base.  I don't know if I was able to adequately explain our gratitude or my thanks!

Happy Birthday Jason! ( ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...I'm sure he was laughing on the inside.  :)  ) Read More...

Space A Part 1 - The mad dash to Ramstein...

And so begins the Space A adventures of the Larson girls...  Space A stands for space available...meaning we can take a military aircraft flight for relatively very cheap or free to fly to the United States.  In our case we were flying into Washington DC to visit family.

I had been planning this adventure for a few months.  I had agreed to meet Maddie's mom, grandma and brother in Washington DC so she could spend a week with them.  Bella and I would be staying with my sister, Jenna's family.  However, the thing about Space A is that you aren't ever guaranteed a spot until the last minute.

And in order to fly Space A we had to drive 3.5 hours to Ramstein Air Base.  Oh...and did I mention you only have 48-72 hours notice that there *might* be a flight?

So, I call on Thursday and discover that Friday there is a flight to Baltimore.  EEEEEEEEK!  You know those Fred Flinstone cartoons where his feet would be running super fast, but he never went anywhere and then all of a sudden he would zoom away in his car?  Yeah...thats what I felt like that day...run in place......run run run run....and GO!

I managed to get all the packing done and the house cleaned and the anti-spider spray down (tis the season...) and set my alarm for 3:30AM. 

Wake up...shower...get ready to get the girls up and I thought to myself...hmmm...I should call to make sure that we have to be there still at 10AM.

Sure enough...times had changed since the night before.  New "roll call" is now at 12 noon!  Woohoo!  I leave the girls sleeping, reset my alarm and crawl into bed for another hour.  Its now around 6:40AM and both girls are up...dragging...tired...whiny...hungry....

I decide to call again.  And it was a good thing I did because roll call had been moved to 10:40AM!  EEEEEEEEEEEEK!  If we didn't leave by 7:00 we weren't going to make it...and if you don't make it...you don't fly.

For those that know me well..you would have been in awe at the speed I managed to pack, dress the girls, feed the girls, close down the house and get in the car...we were pulling out at 7:10AM. 

The drive went pretty fast.  It *might* have been due to the fact that the speedometer did not go below 80 MPH the entire way there.  It also did not go above 100 MPH.  The poor little "American car not built for the autobahn" shakes too bad.  Just sayin.

And then...right near the end of our drive it got really exciting.  Why? 

Because I almost ran out of gas on the autobahn. 

In my defense...I was only 7 kilometers from my exit.  (7 km = 4.4 miles) when the car started to lurch.  I'd been eyeing the red flashing light on the gas guage and was determined we would make it.  ( I like to live life on the wild side...) 

Lurching...almost stalling...lurching some more and I gunned it the last 2 km onto the exit just praying if the car stalled it wouldn't be on the autobahn.  And as we careened around the corner there in bright lights with angels shining around it was a SHELL station!

I literally wheezed into the shell station on fumes.  Yelled 10 Euro at the attendent and ran inside to pay.  Thats like saying - "Put in 3 dollars."  I'm sure he was pretty irritated with me...but we were only a mile from base and guess what the time was?  10:32AM.  We had one mile and 8 minutes to drive it, find the terminal parking, park the car and race to the check in.

We didn't make it. 

What a let down...right?  Here you are thinking we'd slide in just in the nick of time.  But, we didn't.

That was the bad news...the good news was this...

The flight had been delayed until 4AM the next morning.

My reaction in my head, "&^%$^*&^%*&" 

My reaction out of my mouth, "Oh cool, girls!  We get to hang out in Ramstein all day long!  I'm so glad I just drove like a crazy lady to get here by 10:40AM! (insert manic laughter)  Yay!  We get to do this again in the morning!"

We got a hotel room then went to the Mall.  Yes, they have a MALL at Ramstein.  Granted its like the smallest little mall you've ever seen, but it was the most "Americanized" mall I'd seen in over a year.  Then we found a park.  This is also where I finally got out my camera.  I *wish* I had photographic memories of the speed demon drive and nearly running out of gas and if only there were video of the guy telling us the flight was delayed 24 hours.  *sigh...*  Maybe next time.

HA!

Back to the park.  Best park we'd ever seen.  Spent the entire day there.  It was glorious.

We all went to our hotel room and went to bed at 7PM that night.  I wanted to make sure we were well rested for our 4AM flight the next day.

Its now 2AM and I get up and shower.  Wake up the girls at 3AM.  Get the car loaded and packed.  Check out of our hotel room and go back to the air terminal.

"I'm sorry ma'am.  We just cancelled the flight.  It will be leaving at 10PM TOMORROW NIGHT. 

I got myself and my girls up at THREE AM just to be told I had 43 hours to wait until the flight was actually going to leave.

Let me expand my reaction in my head, "*(*&^$@!#^&**^&*$&!@##$%^(&)^%#$%^$#"

We turned around and went BACK to the hotel reception where begged my key off them, checked back in the room and reserved it for another night.

And then I made the announcement to Maddie..."If the flight is delayed ONE MORE TIME we are going home."

Tune in tomorrow for what happened 43 hours later in  "Space A Part 2 - Flying with Dick Cheney's RV" Read More...

5K...and I'm not talking about money here...

As part of my physical fitness goals for this year I decided I would be running a 5K.  While for you fit running/jogging types you may snicker a little or even scoff a little at my piddly little goal, but if you aren't a runner...then you know as well as I do...the thought of running three miles or a 5K may as well be uphill both ways in the snow....

But, YES!  I've committed myself to participating in a 5K in just ONE MONTH...on my father's birthday...May 7th at 9:30AM.

So here's how my temporary insanity happened.  I was alone one night on the computer just messing around (i.e. playing tetris or bejeweled blitz on Facebook) when I saw that a new post had been made by our Vilseck Spouses Club...it was an invitation to join them at the "Fallen Dragoon Memorial 5K run." 

Well, sheesh...tug at my heartstrings for the fallen soldiers and all sense leaves my head and I immediately signed myself up.  It is a "family event" so I've noted that I'll have a stroller, a toddler and an 8 year old with me.  They wanted to know if I was planning on walking or running it.  I said, "both...we'll go at the 8 year old's pace." 

Totally threw Maddie under the bus.

I'm sure the 8 year old probably will have more of a spring in her running step than me.

But...I signed up...and I'm proud of myself...and on Monday, April 4th I will start the Couch to 5K Program (aka C25K) and hopefully by the time this 5k comes around I'll be able to run nearly 2 whole miles.

(Stop laughing please.) Read More...

ROUS update

Oh my dear Wesley!

Six ROUS's down for the count and more than 24 hours since the last "eviction notice" was served.   I think the last one actually cried, "Aaaaaaas Yooooooou Wiiiiiiiish" when the trap snapped close.  (Too much visualization?)  Yeah, well, I'm feeling extra sassy tonight....and thats all your getting by way of apology. 

I've got two poison feed boxes outside my house, a mouse trap set and an appointment tomorrow morning with housing to check the chew damage under my sink and to call the mason to come and fix it.

I will probably have to continue to set up my baby gate plastic mouse guard for awhile still.  *cue melodramatic music*

I may never sleep the same again. Read More...

R.O.U.S's

There are two things I've learned about myself this week.

1.  I really am wonder woman, and

2.  I hate rodents more than I hate the giant spiders in Germany.

Aha!  You sense a story coming on, don't you.  Yes, I've been quite absent from my blog for the past couple of days because I have a story...and its, unfortunately, seeming to turn into the neverending story.

Two nights ago, at 2:30 in the morning, I heard a scuffling on the stairs in my house.  Being a "single woman" these days I immediately sat up in bed to figure out what I was hearing...and then I saw it.

In the glow of the bathroom nightlight comfortably sitting in the doorway of my bedroom was a R.O.D.E.N.T.

GrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGross

So, in my 2:30AM intelligence mode I leaped from my bed and grabbed a towel from my laundry basket and chased that furry creature down the stairs.  At least I had the sense to turn on the light for the stairs because by the time I reached the bottom of the stairs I realized that I was actually terrified that a mouse or rat or whatever it was I saw was going to run over my bare toes.

But, the thought of a mouse or a rat (which I will now refer to as the R.O.U.S) coming back UP the stairs if I was to retreat...yeah, that was an even more powerful fear...so I spent the next hour searching for my unwanted houseguest.

And never found it.

Thinking back...what in the world was I going to do with a towel?  I think I figured I could throw it on top of it and trap it...and then what?  I have no idea....I can picture myself at 3AM with a ROUS trapped under a towel and me totally clueless as to my next step.  i. am. brilliant.

Anywho...my beauty rest was definitely over for the night, but I thought I'd better attempt a few more hours of sleep or....repeat after me...  oh wha....taygrummmm...pieyam....

So, because that hussy of an ROUS had already breached the unsaid limit of actually coming up the stairs to the bedrooms I lined the stairs with plastic bags so I could hear it coming if it attempted such a brazen act again...

Of course the night got worse...little Bella must have sensed my unease and was restless and whiney until about 6AM when she insisted on being in my bed where she demanded loudly for cartoons.  And I just gave in because there was no more sleep for our little house.

At 7:30AM exactly I called the housing department....they transferred me to facilities....they transferred me to Pest Control where I spoke with a nice German woman who said the earliest they could get to my house was the next day at 10AM. 

So I went to work...and discovered that the ROUS had entered my house from under my kitchen sink.  It had chewed a large hole in the drywall and around the pipes. 

Now, just a little housing information here...I live in an attached townhouse.  There are four houses connected.  Three of the houses have people living in them...one is empty.  The empty one is next to me and it has had workmen there for about the past 3 weeks...The wall the ROUS had chewed shared the living space of the empty house next to me.  Yes, in not so many words I am blaming the empty house and those workmen for inviting these ROUS's into my life...

Well, now that I knew where it was coming from I promptly duct taped shut my kitchen cupboard doors and rigged a ROUS no trespassing barrier for the stairs out of a baby gate, plastic bags and duct tape.  And then I waited for Mr. Pest Control to show.

So, here's the deal.  I'm just gonna spill my guts here a little...the idea of a ROUS in my house strikes an unreasonable fear in me...and the thought of having to set a trap or dispose of something caught in a trap literally makes my stomach churn.  Thus the second thing I learned about myself.  I really really really do NOT like ROUS's of any kind.

Which is crazy because I actually had a pet mouse that I named oatmeal and I loved him dearly.

Apparently my love for oatmeal does not extend to his untamed wild brothers and sisters.

So, yesterday morning, the pest control guy finally came...told me he was going to set the trap, put it under the sink (where I promptly reducttaped it shut)  and said he'd be back the next day to check and I was not to touch US. Government property in the form of a rat trap.

FINE BY ME...

...except that within 2 hours there was a mouse in it.  So I had to wait 22 more hours for them to come back and get it.

And today he came and got it and then reset the trap....just in case.  And said he'd be back on monday and reminded me not to touch US Government property in the form of a rat trap.

...and within 4 hours we had another mouse in it...which I managed to leave until about 10pm tonight where I decided that leaving a dead rodent for almost 3 whole days under my kitchen sink was asking too much.

So I put on my plastic cleaning gloves and with a sturdy plastic bag release the mouse from the trap and IT WAS STILL ALIVE.

**Should I have put a "not for the squeamish" caveat at the beginning of this?**

Anyhow...I still managed to put it in that bag and took the whole scrabbling little nightmare out to my garbage can that will be picked up Monday morning BEFORE my appt with the Pest Control man.

And then I reset the trap.

W.O.N.D.E.R.  W.O.M.A.N.

Yes, me.  The one who didn't think she would be able to ever 1.  release a ROUS from a trap (dead or alive)  or 2.  dispose of a ROUS in any way shape or form or 3.  not vomit from actually doing steps 1. and 2. OR...and here is the big one...4.  will actually repeat this process because within the time that I disposed of one ROUS and started writing this blog guess what I heard...

SNAP!

That dang trap has got another ROUS in it.

Thats THREE...THREE so far.  I am really not happy about this.

...and so I guess I leave you dangling...on the edge of your seat...desperate to know what the next step will be...with a TO BE CONTINUED...    Read More...

Feed the deer...tuppence a bag....

Remember that song from Mary Poppins?  Actually, in our case its Feed the deer...un euro a box of corn. 

There is this GREAT little outdoor wildlife park with wild boars and elk and deer.  Its in the forest and has a little gravel/dirt pathway that you walk around the park in a big circle.  The day we went had just a little gleam of sunshine shining through the trees making the green on the ground sparkle...

I'm guessing to minimize the goring law suits, the wild boar and elk are kept separated from the masses.  Call me crazy, but I'm just fine with hucking food over a fence for these wild pigs.  They are HUGE.  And they are seriously...well, piggy and gross.  They ate the hardest stalest bread and before chomping on it would root it around in the mud...Yuck.  It was pretty fascinating to watch them.

I'm not sure if John is taunting this bore to "jump" for the bread or what...

The deer, on the other hand, are hanging out in the park just roaming around.  Some of them are very skittish...others are totally approachable and will eat out of your hand.

The first time you see the deer come close I was a little nervous because honestly I've never seen deer teeth and I'm not sure if they are going to nibble fingers or not....  Plus, the fact that we had a deer with a rack on his head come racing toward us was pretty cool...but both John and I kept close to make sure that nobody got their eyes poked out. 

Although...that would have made an interesting blog...hmmm....and I would be able to say the rest of my life, "Stay away from the deer or you'll get your eye poked out."  that ALMOST makes it worth it. 

They also have some chain saw carvings around the park.  My favorite were the "teeny tiny mushrooms" made out of the stumps...

It was such a beautiful and peaceful day.  Its now a family favorite now to go and feed the deer.  So, if you come to visit be prepared to get nibbled on by a large forest animal.  Does that scream TRIP TO GERMANY or what.

PS...**sigh**....isn't he handsome?

Read More...