Even though we are having a wonderful time here in Germany, eating some yummy food and seeing all sorts of new and beautiful things, there are moments when we really miss home. Laurel put it best weekend before last when she told me there was an America-sized hole in her heart. I couldn't agree with her more, so we set out that Saturday to do what we could to temporarily fill that hole. We spent the day on Grafenwoehr investigating some of the awesome services and facilities available to us. The USO is absolutely amazing and offers all sorts of free services, to include free phone calls back to the states. There is a fantastic outdoor recreation center on post that offers a high ropes course that looks like a ton of fun, an indoor rock climbing facility, and a lake with canoe rentals.
After spending the day on post, we went into the town of Vilseck to eat supper. We had heard about a soul food place there in one of the briefings we attended, so I googled it and saw that it had really good reviews. We arrived at Angelo's Soul Food and saw that it had that "dive" look that usually signifies there is some really good food on the other side of the doors. We actually got there about 30 minutes before they opened for the evening, but the owner saw us pull up, came outside, and told us to come on in. Once on the inside, it was like we had stepped straight off of Beale Street in Memphis into a southern eatery. Our waiter, a former soldier, was from south Louisiana. He had attended Louisiana Tech and knew where Bastrop and Epps were!! Crazy!
After setting up a table for us, the owner brought out 4 sweet teas, and they were SO good!! I think we all had big smiles on our faces after taking our first sip.
The food was equally as good as the tea. The boys had fried catfish and hush puppies, while Laurel and I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. It was just what we needed to end the day, temporarily fill that longing for America, and get us ready to jump back into all things German!
After our southern feast, we went back to the hotel and walked across the street to the train station to buy tickets to travel to Nuremburg the next day. The ticket counter had closed for the day, so we were forced to use the automated kiosk. I managed to switch the language on the screen to English, but then can I tell you that there were approximately 999 types of tickets to choose from and we couldn't determine exactly what we needed. After about 10 minutes of trying to figure it out, a very nice German man came over and asked if he could help us. We told him where we wanted to go, how many of us there were, and how old our kids were. With a few touches of the screen, he pulled up the cheapest tickets that would get us there. Thank you, sir!! Just as a precaution we took our tickets to the front desk at our hotel and asked our favorite guy there to confirm what we had bought. He even got on the computer and printed out the times we could catch the train there and back.
So the next morning we found ourselves aboard a train for Nuremburg. Here in Germany they spell it Nurnberg, and since it's their city, we'll go with their spelling and pronunciation! (There are supposed to be two dots over the u, but I can't figure out how to get them there...lol). Like Amberg, Nurnberg has an old center city surrounded by the original city walls which were built between the 12th and 16th centuries. It was often referred to as the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire because of the meetings of the general assembly that were held at the castle in Nurnberg.
Here are some pics from around the city.
Standing outside the original city walls...
Love the locks on this gate!
Nurnberg was home to Albrecht Durer, a famous German painter. Laurel was excited to discover this, as she had studied him in her art class last year.
We had lunch at this restaurant - bratwurst and fantastic potato salad.
Of course there were beautiful churches to be seen, three of them to be exact. The first one we went in was the Church of Our Lady (or Frauenkirche). This church was built between 1352 and 1362 under the instruction of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Apparently I didn't take any pictures at this church - what in the world?
The second church we toured was St. Sebaldus. Construction of this church began in 1225 and was completed between 1273 and 1275.
The final church we saw was St. Lawrence. Construction of St. Lawrence began in 1400. It was badly damaged in WWI, as was St. Sebaldus, but both were restored.
While these churches were beautiful, the highlight of our trip was our tour of the Imperial Castle. Laurel and I are castle crazy, and we were super excited to tour our first one! The first mention of this castle in any documentation is 1105. That's old, y'all!! While Laurel & I were fascinated by the castle itself, the boys were more impressed with the displays of medieval weaponry inside. In the end, everyone had a great time touring this magnificent old castle.
This was the path leading up to the castle.
Some views from along the way and from the top...
And a few from inside the castle...
This was one of two church halls inside the castle.
Swords and knives everywhere meant these two were a captive audience!
Our last stop in Nurnberg was a tour of "The Dungeons" which is located underneath the old Town Hall. The Dungeons consisted of 1 torture chamber, 2 penal cells, and 13 ordinary cells. It was used as a remand prison. The fun thing about this tour was that the tour guide, who spoke some English, only gave the tour in German. She did, however, give us an English brochure that we read ahead of time. We were spoiled at the castle where most things were written out in English and the tour guides said everything twice, once in German and once in English. I didn't take any pictures in The Dungeons because I was too busy hoping to recognize a German word here or there and correlate it to what I'd read in the brochure. We got the general gist of things, but it was interesting to say the least.
All in all we had a fantastic weekend - an American Saturday and a German Sunday!
As this week comes to an end, we're looking forward to another fun weekend full of new sights. We're going to be doing some exploration relatively close to our house. Between now and then I'll be doing some unpacking because our unaccompanied baggage is being delivered tomorrow. Hallelujah for having most of our linens, kitchen items, a TV, and a PS3!! The rest of our things are still a good month away from delivery, but I'll take what I can get :)
Hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend!
