We rented a car! - Our Weekend trip to Bavaria

Hello everyone!

So, this weekend brought lots of excitement, fun, stress, and exhaustion. We rented a car! The Solid Gold Station Wagon. SGSW for short. Sadly, we forgot to take a picture of it before we turned it back in. Alas.

Quick picture of the front of our house.

First of all, remember Europe is much older than the U.S. So sometimes city streets are very narrow. And parking lots are very small. And parking garages are very tight. And in general driving in a new place is a bit stressful at first. So, when Charles picked up the car on Friday morning, he went out and drove around a bit by himself. Just getting it out of the parking garage was an interesting feat, and he quickly enacted the rule "no one talks while Daddy is parking the car in the parking garage."

After he had a quick drive in silence, we all trucked downstairs and loaded up car seats and headed out for an adventure. First we drove by our house! It is about a 10 min drive from where we are staying. Then, we drove by Charles' office so I could see where that is. It is about 3 km from our house, so a little less than 2 miles away. Then we drove by the school Emmy will attend.  Then we went to find the Tesco. It is a British grocery store chain and we are familiar with it, but were happy to learn from our sponsors that there are a couple in town. Angela suggested I do some of my first big shopping trips as I stock my pantry again at Tesco because things will also be in English, not just Polish. I'm not sure I can tell you how overwhelming it is to walk down a grocery store aisle and not be able to read any labels!  So we perused the Tesco and also found a couple of things we needed to stock up on for Rags, so that was a worthwhile trip.

Front of our house, the garage is to the left and the room over it
our landlord uses for storage. 

Just across the street from Tesco is a shopping area with a Media Market (Best Buy type place), Toys R Us, home store, and several other stores. It also has a Burger King and a couple other food places (ice cream, etc.)  There was a delicious smelling food truck outside, but we ended up eating at Burger King. Travesty you say? Yes, it was but when you  have a hangry child, sometimes the thought of having to stand there and translate what they sell at the food truck using google translate on your phone and then hope there is something that sounds appealing and try and order is way more stress than you can manage, and this was where we were at that  moment. I actually find ordering at someplace like that or in the mall to be way more awful because you are standing there and wrangling children and trying to figure things out, even at a place like Burger King where you kinda know some of what is written, is it stressful. Sit down restaurants usually have menus in English, so while I would like to see the Polish so I can compare, at least figuring out what they have is not as stressful.

Side view of  the Old Town Hall, now the city museum,
with a brewery underneath.  

Anyways, after our outing (we did not really shop much, mostly we browsed, just trying to get the lay of the land), we went back to the hotel. We walked to dinner in Old Town and ate in the brewery that is under the Old Town Hall, which is now the City Museum. The food was good and it was a nice evening to sit outside.

Dinner at the Brewery 

Saturday morning we got up and after breakfast headed to Coburg, Germany. It is about a 5 hour drive, but it ended up taking us much longer to get there. We had to make several stops with the kids and in general getting anywhere with kids, much less in a foreign country, takes a lot longer. I thought we'd be there by 3 at the latest. We didn't get
there until almost 5 pm.

Coburg is a beautiful, historic city. It is the birthplace of Prince Albert (as in Victoria and Albert) so during the war, it was spared from the worst of the bombing and is therefore mostly original, I believe. At least this is what I was told, I have not done any research. :) We'd made a reservation at hotel near the square, and our GPS basically got us there, but small, old streets and modern times, we missed the turn we needed to make and ended up driving across the mostly pedestrian square. Awful. I mean, cars drive there some, but it is rare, so we felt like fools. Oh well, we circled the block and found the hotel, I checked in and got the key and got some sense of parking from the guy at the desk. He'd said to park in the garage under the hotel and bring our key up. Basically, there was room for maybe 6 cars and I guess you leave your key so they can move your car if someone in front of you needs to get out. But the garage was full, so we squeezed (and by we, I mean my husband with is awesome driving and parallel parking skills) into a spot and took our big bag, the pack and play, and a couple things upstairs to our room, then headed back to meet our friends for supper.

Saturday night, after we'd finally arrived. 

Jason and Jocelyn are our Army best friends, our Army family, as she calls us. We were stationed with them at Ft. Gordon and Jocelyn and I became close via email and phone calls during the deployment (she lived in TX at the time and they were engaged) and she came and stayed with me when the guys were redeploying, and we spent a few days together waiting on them to arrive. The guys had meanwhile gotten to know each other while deployed and hit it off. They are very special friends, we flew to NH that fall for their wedding and were the Protestants singing for the Catholic wedding. They left GA when I was pregnant with Emmy, but we were able to have a couple of visits before we left GA, and then were delighted to have them come to KS when we were there at ILE. We were there for the winter class, they came for the summer class, so they arrived in July when Jocelyn was super pregnant with their son, Logan. They lived with us for 10 days while their household goods (HHG) made their way to KS. We had 5 lovely months with them again before we departed for CO. They moved to Germany, to be stationed at Grafenwöhr when they left Kansas 2 years ago, and now they are moving back to the states.

So, we are super sad that we will not overlap with each other in Europe for longer because we would have some amazing trips together (Jocelyn is a fabulous trip planner. She's just a fabulous planner in general) but at least we needed to see each other!! Charles actually stayed with them for 4 or 5 days back in March when he went to Grafenwöhr for an exercise with the 4ID and their planes were later leaving to come back than planned. So he had some time with them, but I had not!

We'd agreed to go to Coburg, where she has family friends that lived across from her family in NH for a few years growing up. And the daughter of that family is a little younger than we are and lives in the house her mother grew up in there in Coburg and had invited us all over for a cookout. Jocelyn's parents and sister, whom we also know, are here for a visit and their whole family is traveling for a couple of weeks before they head back to the states.

So, now that you have that history, you know we were headed over to their friend Lisa's house, just outside the the area where we were staying, about a 7 min drive. Our GPS found it, and Jocelyn sent me written directions. We did not see the first street she mentioned and we could not leave exactly the way we'd entered the city because of the one way streets (which is where she started us from) so we just followed the GPS. We clearly got to the right area, but we could not find the house. And in the midst of all this, my phone stopped working. (Turns out because we'd done a temporary set up on the phone at first until Charles could go back with his employment letter, NATO ID, etc. and set it up on a long term contract and get our cable/internet/home phone added, we were not able to use our phones more than 10 days so they stopped working on the network). 40 minutes later, we finally found them. It was 6 pm.

This photo does not adequately show how narrow this was.
Yikes!

And I should also point out that before we even got lost, it was stressful just getting out of the city area because as we circled behind the hotel, the street was so narrow I had to get out and guide him. We pulled in the mirrors on both sides and had about oh, 4 inches of clearance maybe on either side? So Charles was already a bit on edge (he did great, it was super impressive) and in need of a beer, and then we got lost...Lord have mercy.

Sunday morning in the hotel. 

Finally, we found them and there was much rejoicing and hugging and good food (and yes beer and wine). It was lovely to meet their family friends and their children. Emmy had fun playing with Logan, who is now almost 3, and Lisa's son Fritz, who is 3, and her daughter Mia. We stayed way too late because we hated to go, and so then getting everyone in bed was a challenge because everyone was over tired and cranky.



Because we had a late start to our visit, we decided to meet up the next morning. We had a lovely German breakfast in our quirky little hotel, and then took our bags to our car (we found a parking garage a couple of blocks away and that was a MUCH better option for parking the Solid Gold Station Wagon) and met them in front of our hotel.

Yummy brats!

 We walked across the beautiful square and just managed to catch the 10 am little shuttle (it looks like a train, super cute) up to what they called the castle, the Fortress of Coburg. We had a nice time walking around outside. There is a museum inside, but we did not really have time to do that on Sunday, and the rest of them had already done it, so we just walked outside and the kids had fun running around. Then we went back down on the little train to the square for what Jason and Jocelyn promised us is the best bratwurst in Germany. Coburg apparently is known for their bratwurst because they smoke it over pine cones. There was also a booth selling sauerbraten (German pot roast), knödel (potato dumplings), and rouladen (beef stuffed with bacon, cabbage, pickles rolled up and braised). So Jocelyn and I got plates of food from there and Charles, Emmy and I shared my rouladen and knödel and Emmy shared her brat with me. Yum!

Apparently, Germans love their dogs. Rags was welcome in the hotels without extra fees or anyone batting an eye. Plus, we were able to take her all around Coburg with us. She loved it! 

The Codys and the Dixons together again!

After some ice cream with the gang, it was time to hit the road. We said our good-byes and headed back to the SGSW to head to Pressath, about an hour and a half away and a small town close to Grafenwöhr, which is where the closest Army post to us is located. (Most of you probably know that there are several U.S. installations in Germany.) Jason and Jocelyn have been stationed at Graf in their time here, so they had just left when they headed to Coburg. Before they left, they met up with some other friends we were stationed with at Ft. Gordon, Leslie and Daniel and their boys Andrew and Jack, and left several things for us, including a microwave, home phones (remember none of our electronics work over here without appropriate converters and adapters). Plus, we wanted to go to Graf and visit and I wanted to check out a few things.

So, we headed to stay in a hotel in Pressath (which is the town actually where J&J lived), and after we checked into another quirky hotel (I've never checked in where I did not see anyone face to face, just talked to them through an intercom and was given a key code so I could get the key from a key box!)  met up with the Watters family at their home in Weiden, about 20 minutes away. They just arrived in May and just received their household goods (HHG), so we are grateful they let us come by! And, I got to do laundry again, which was great. It was so wonderful to see them again. We last saw each other I think at Jack's first birthday party, which was 5 years ago. Leslie and I were pregnant at the same time and Jack and Emmy are just a few weeks apart. The kids had a great time playing, Emmy is already asking when we are going to see them again.

Andrew, Jack and Emmy

We spent the evening with them, walked to dinner nearby, and the kids played while I folded clothes. They have a great house in Weiden and we can't wait to go back and stay and see more of the town near them.

Monday morning we checked out and headed to Grafenwöhr to the post.  This is where we will go for our well checks and vaccinations for the kids to keep them in the Army system, Charles will have some appointments and things he will have to do there periodically, and this is where we can shop at the commissary and PX and get a taste of the U.S. when we need it. Although I will say it is certainly  more lovely than many Army Posts!

Breakfast Monday morning

We walked around the PX and Commissary for a bit. I wanted to see if they carry certain items like my make-up I use, diapers, razor blades etc. Not that we can't or won't find things like that here in Poland, but since I don't speak Polish, reading labels, etc. in stores is really difficult. Some things it will be easier to get, or at least know I can if I need/want to. We needed a few things and we stocked up on some basics at the commissary.  There was not much rhyme or reason to my shopping, but I figured I would be grateful to have some basics when we move in and not have to figure out what everything is right away in the Polish grocery store. And we bought lots of tortilla chips and some tortillas. It was weird to go from Colorado where the tortilla section was the whole end of one aisle to the commissary here which in general does not offer as many options of brands, but when it comes to tortillas, it was one brand (and none of them were corn tortillas). Time to get back to making my own tortillas, so if anyone wants to send me a tortilla press, that'd be great. We love Mexican food and the only way we are getting it over here is to make it ourselves!

Since our phones were not working and I could not get WiFi working, I was afraid we would not be able to find Leslie and the boys for lunch as we'd discussed since we had not made a definite plan. Miraculously, they walked into the Food Court just as we did, so we got to sit down and have one more meal with them which was delightful.  She showed us where we needed to go to register our ID cards while we were there (so we are in their system and should have an easier time getting on post in the future), and Charles checked on sizes of new uniforms at Clothing and Sales, and then we hit the road. Thus ended our quick recon of Graf, as Charles called it. We were both very glad he had been there back in March so he was somewhat familiar with the area, that made navigating it a lot easier.

The drive back to Szczecin was pretty uneventful, and much smoother than the Saturday drive to Coburg. We just had timed it better, I supposed, because both kids slept for the first 2 hours. We did run into some pretty heavy rain, which slowed us a bit (especially when we watched a car spin out in front of us on the Autobahn, miraculously not hitting any other cars). We stopped for supper and with a delay due to an issue with our debit card we still were back on the road within an hour and were able to make it the rest of the way without stopping, except for getting gas right before we returned to the hotel. There was a lovely rainbow on the way home, too.

Charles decided he really likes driving on the Autobahn with no speed limit. My lead foot is pretty excited to try it next time. And while the SGSW served us well, my car has much better get up and go, which will make it better.

We got back into town just before 9, it was another late night. The kids needed baths (neither hotel had a bathtub, though Emmy sometimes does and did take a shower) and we had to unload it all. We were glad to be back in our hometel, as Charles has dubbed it. The lady at the front desk said they were glad we were back. I can tell we've been here awhile!

Thus ended our first weekend adventure. We both agreed that we are glad we were sort of pushed out of our "comfort zone" so quickly, now we are ready when we need to go to Graf again, and Charles at least has driven around and feels a bit more comfortable driving here. And we know where not to drive when my car arrives (small parking garages and super narrow streets)!

Here are a few more photos...

Hay Market Square in Old Town in Szczecin, right by the City Museum where we ate Friday night. 

Being silly and wearing Matthew's bib. 

Coburg

Riding the little train up to the Fortress

Emmy and Logan 

Sweet sleeping baby. Look at those eyelashes! 

Martin Luther spent time here in Coburg writing and translating the Bible. 

Best buds together again. And Rags.

Best friends together again! It was also Jocelyn's birthday and I'm SO happy we got to be together! 

Ice cream after lunch. 

Logan loved walking Rags. 

Silly shot after Sunday night supper. 

Pressath hotel had this fun little space for Emmy. We were in the "family room," which is not so family friendly when it is on the 4th floor! But it was a good space for us. 

Matthew's pack n play went right here, so it was like we each had our own "room!"

Our room was just to the right of the sitting area, separated by a wall. 

Rainbow on the drive home.