An Unusual Summer

So, shortly after our return from Garmisch I had to leave on a two month TDY to Nellis AFB, Nevada (where I had been back in March). This time the entire squadron was going for a flying TDY. The runway at Spangdahlem had to be repaired and the engineers needed two months of German Summer weather to get their job done. So, all three flying squadrons on base had to go somewhere else for a while to continue operations. The other viper squadron flew out of a Luftwaffe base about 15 miles North of Spangdahlem. The A-10 squadron moved to Lakenheath, England, to fly. And we drew the extreme hardship tour to Las Vegas.

Kristen stayed back here and was organizing a big wive's trip to Paris when she unexpectedly got very sick. Its a long story, but she very shortly found herself in a German hospital awaiting surgery and I found myself back in Germany early from the TDY. Everything went fine and we were very happy with the German medical care. During the following weeks while Kristen was recovering my mom flew in to town to help out. What a tremendous help! As Kristen got feeling better we were able to take day long trips that included an antique market in Belgium, a trip to Bernkastle (see last Christmas pictures), and some other fun day trips. It occurs to me that every picture we took while she was here was on her camera, so standby for me to post pictures as soon as she sends me a CD with them on it. (By the way, mom, can you please send me a CD with those pictures on it?)

We're very thankful for Kristen's recovery, answers to prayer, and for the squadron commanders foresight to send me home at the first sign of trouble. All's well that ends well, but it has hardly been the summer we expected.

Another quick thank you- to Dad, Scott, and William, who endured a grueling 20 days of a canned soup and frozen waffle diet along with the daunting task of figuring out the washer and dryer for themselves. Your sacrifices made mom's trip possible.

yodel-odel-a-hehooo

The second half of our trip was to Garmisch, Germany. The town is in the middle of an incredible alpine setting and is an outdoor sports hotspot in all seasons. The military has one of its MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) resorts there so you can not only visit an incredible spot on earth but do it in a full-up resort with English speaking staff. Its really a fantastic place.

We packed our days full of activity while we were there. The first day we rented mountain bikes and cycled a few miles into the mountains to a hiking trailhead. The trail goes into a gorge carved by a narrow and fast moving river. No kidding, at times the gorge was 5 feet across and 100 feet deep. The trail is carved into the rock wall beside the river so you spend the mile or so hike in and out of caves always along the water. Its hard to describe in words and I would have to post dozens of pictures to cover all the amazing twists and turns in the trail. Suffice it to say, even though you knew you were with other tourists on a well established trail there was always some sense of great adventure- like you were in a whole other world. It felt like Jurassic park, or maybe thats just my imagination running away with me.

The next day we drove over to the base of the Zugspitze- the highest mountain in Germany (which is also part of the border between Germany and Austria). From the base there is a gondola lift you can take directly to the top. The view is incredible as is the array of things the Germans have perched up on top of this mountain. There is a multi-story building with several restaurants, a museum, gift shop, and layer upon layers of observation decks complete with their own bratwurst vendors and hot chocolate shops. This is hardly Everest, obviously. However, the temperature on top was decidedly cold, even in summer, and when we first went outside we found that we were in a cloud which prohibited any kind of cool view of the alps. We decided to get a bratwurst and wait and see if the weather would clear. Sure enough, a few minutes later the cloud passed and we were greeted with a jaw dropping view. After riding the gondola back down we took some time to hike around one of the many deep blue alpine lakes before getting back in our car to drive back to Garmisch.

Our last day on this trip was perhaps the most exciting. Kristen had been trying for days to secure a spot with a paragliding instructor for a flight. She finally got one. It was a brilliant day to go gliding. The drill is we met Kristen's instructor at the landing sight- a nice comfortable grassy area in the valley in amongst the mountains. After some quick review of the equipment Kristen and he rode a ski-lift up the side of a mountain some way behind me. Once at the top of the lift they buckled into all their equipment and (I'm not kidding here) went running over a cliff. Well, actually it was a really steep slope but I don't think a cliff is too much of an exageration. The parachute filled with air during this maneuver and the instructor flew the two of them on a pleasant sight-seeing descent back down into the valley and back to the same spot the whole ordeal started from.

One of the most fantastic parts of trips like these is that we were only a 5 hour drive from home. So, after a dinner of Chili's at Ramstein air base, we could be back in our own bed that very night. A great trip to be sure.

Alpine castles

Earlier this summer (early June) Kristen and I took some real vacation time and traveled down to the Bavarian Alps. I'll divide this trip into two seperate posts because of the amount of pictures we took and the amount of stuff I could write about. So, the first half was castles!

The southeastern corner of Bavaria is home to some of the castles built by "Mad" King Ludwig during the 19th century. This eccentric and arguably insane monarch was obsessed with the romantic notions of chivalry and castles and all things middle-ages. Since he was King, he had castle after castle built to match his romantic notions of castles. He grew up in Hohenschwangau (the yellow castle), which he had renovated as an adult. His final project as an adult was Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired Cinderella's castle for Disney.

First we drove down to Fussen, the town closest to Hohenschwangau and Neuswanshtein. There we stayed at a bed and breakfast that I had stayed at five years ago when I was studying at Maastricht. The place was fantastic! We walked around the town that evening and saw the old castle (an actual fortification, not just for show like H and N). After breakfast the next morning we took tours of both castles. Hohenschwangau still has all the furniture from Ludwig's childhood, so the tour shows off how royalty lived. Neuswanstein was never lived in- never finished actually- so the tour more or less shows off the over-the-top style of Ludwig. After the tour we started talking to a pair of couples who had stayed at the same bed and breakfast as us the night before and we'd been bumping into all day. We took the hike up the mountain above Neuswanshtein where there is a huge suspension bridge above a gorge from which you have a great view of the castle (last picture). From the castles we got in the car and took a drive across the border to enjoy a scenic alpine drive to Garmisch, the second half of the trip.

Nurnberg with Boppy and Cott

We had the good fortune to be able to meet up with Boppy in Cott in Nurnberg where they were starting a two week long European river cruise. How cool! We got treated like guests of honor on the boat by the staff and even the other guests.

We got to tag along with their tours to the Nazi sights just outside of town and to the Medieval center of town. Nurnberg is known for its unique small bratwursts and good pilsner beer- a winning combination if ever there was one. Special thanks to Boppy and Cott for a fun weekend.

Paris in the spring time

Back in May we took a long weekend in Paris to revisit some of our favorite spots from last Christmas and to see some of the places that we didn't have time for before. It was really a good trip. We stayed in a neighborhood very close to the Eifel Tower and every morning the markets spilled out into the streets. We started each day by buying quiche or a pastry or something in the market and then walking to our first sight to see. Good times.

The weather stayed fantastic for the whole trip and was nice for evening walks along the Seinne by Notre Dame (first picture). We also got a chance to see something that Kristen really wanted to see our last time in Paris- the catacombs. It may seem morbid, but Paris has millions of Parisians buried in tunnels under the city from the Middle Ages. The priests who reburied folks in these tunnels thought it would be nice to arrange the catacombs by bone types (and arranging skulls into the shape of a heart amid the tibias- look closely) instead of by persons. Today you can walk nearly a mile of dark tunnels completely lined with the bones of former Parisians.

While we were there we also repaid a visit to the Orsay Museum, Eifel Tower, saw Napolean's Tomb, and the Rodin Museum.

Darn that lucky gnome . . .

In April Kristen took a trip to Poland for her yearly orgy of shopping and estrogen with all the other wives from the squadron. Actually, truth be told, Kristen was the orgy organizer this year and, no suprise, the trip went great. She came back with, and I'm not exagerating, SO MUCH POTTERY I COULD BARELY FIT IT ALL IN OUR CAR. I would normally be critical of such excess but as I mentioned in a post a few days ago, we're about to go on a trip to Burgundy and I have a feeling my keeping my mouth shut about her shopping in Poland is going to pay big dividends. This picture is of Kristen and the travel gnome the squadron wives take on all their trips.

Vegas baby!

We took a short break from traveling for a month or so before I left on a 2 week TDY to Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, in March. The course was purely ground training- no flying but Kristen came out at the end and we started a two week trip to the states with a long weekend in Vegas. We had a great time. Nellis has something we call the "petting zoo" which is a park of enemy weapons systems you can crawl around on and sit in and, in our case, take pictures with. Kristen is on top of a Russian made SA-8, which is a short range surface to air missile system. We spent lots of time having fun on the strip (and winning at casinos!). We also went hiking in Red Rock Canyon- awesome time. From Las Vegas we flew down to Texas where we got to see all of you! Writing this blog, I realize that we didn't take a single picture with our camera while we were in Texas. Kristen says its really hard to take pictures and eat chips and salsa at the same time, and we were doing a lot of chips and salsa eating.

January in Turkey

So, after Paris last Christmas with Meredith I left on a 4 week TDY to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. I flew a viper down on the 6 hour or so flight. This is a picture taken by one of our guys on the tanker of me while I was being refueled over the Mediterranean. The TDY went fine with lots of night flying. I learned all about Turkish food out of necessity and have been able to share some of that knowledge with Kristen and my mom while she was here- if you ever have the opportunity to try Tava I highly recommend it.

Coleman here- sorry we have been totally neglecting our blog. We've got a lot of catching up to do. Since Christmas travels with Meredith I've been to Turkey (again), Kristen has been to Poland, we've been to Las Vegas, Paris, Nuremberg, and the Bavarian Alps. It has been an eventful spring and Summer. Following Kristen's recent recovery and my early return from the states we are planning a trip to Burgundy and Alsace to do some wine-tourism. So, don't give up on us yet. Keep checking here for rapid fire updates and lots of pictures from the past several months.

Catching Up

It has been a really long time since we made our last edition to the web page. Since our last post we have had a great vacation with Meredith, moved into a new house and Coleman has done a lot of travelling for his job. Things have finally settled down enough now that I can begin to work on the blog again. Be sure to look for pictures of our new house on the web site soon. In the meantime enjoy the pictures from our vacation - we travelled to Rothenburg, and Paris with Meredith as well as our local stomping grounds, Trier.