Rick in Europe 2011: Germany

After several years of procrastination I realize I need to have this blog to keep most of my family and friends informed about what I am up to since I am now a global traveler. Most of you know that I have spent the past 2 years living and working in Vietnam. This summer I wanted to visit Europe. I was hopeful of being able to stay and work as an English Language Teacher. However I seem to be experiencing the dual discrimination of nationality and age. (62 year old American) I am only able to be here for 90 days every 180 days as a tourist. I am choosing to spend the time this summer in Germany, France and Spain. Today I will post about the first 3 weeks I spent in Germany visiting with my son Isaac and his family.

My son Isaac and his family live on a US Army base in Boeblingen near Stuttgart, Germany. A couple of days after I arrived we did a day trip to the black forest (Schwarzwald) town of Triberg see the town and visit Germany's largest waterfall the Triberg Wasserfallen.

The town also boasts the world's largest cuckoo clock. Unfortunately we arrived 5 minutes after the cuckoo came out. It is a big clock.

Bavaria: The Fourth of July weekend

For the fourth of July weekend the family went to Bavaria. We stayed at a large house near the small village of Frasdorf that the US Army took from the Luftwaffe after WWII. It is now used by the Special Forces 1-10 for training or occasionally troop family use.  There is lots of room there for several large families or several dozen troops on training maneuvers. It was a great location to visit the nearby Bavarian Alps.  

The kids especially loved the evening campfires including the traditional roasting of marshmallows.

The next day, July 3, we drove about 1.5 hours to the Alpine town of Berchtesgaden and visited the Salzwerks there. The Salzwerks are a salt mine that has been in continuous operation for centuries. They have a very nice underground tour but we were not allowed to take photos because of marketing and other concerns. Ahh those Germans!

We did have to wear protective jumpsuits over our clothes.  In spite of these, our shoes and exposed skin surfaces had a briny salt dust on them after we exited the mine. It was a very interesting tour but unfortunately we felt that we were hurried along during certain areas of interest. Ahh those Germans!

On the Fourth of July the weather finally warmed up and the sky cleared into a gorgeous day. We returned to Berchtesgaden and took advantage of the clear weather to first visit the Sommerrodelbahn,  a kind of bobsled run.

Even this OF mustered up the nerve to take a run.

 

We decided to take the shuttle bus to visit the Kehlsteinhaus,  AKA “The Eagles Nest”.  This is a house built on the top of a nearby mountain.  It was constructed as a fiftieth birthday present for Adolph Hitler.  It was seized by the Allies near the end of WWII by Easy Company of the 101^st  US Army, who figured prominently in the docudrama ‘Band of Brothers’.  It was later returned to the Bavarian people and has been used as a major tourist attraction since then.

The views from the top are superb!

On our last morning in Frasdorf, before returning to Stuttgart, Isaac and I went for an early morning walk up into the hills above Frasdorf.  It brought back memories of 'The Sound of Music'. All that was missing was the soundtrack.

  

The weather in Germany during my first few weeks there was often very cool and sometimes rainy.  However there were many nice days of being with some of my family and seeing beautiful places I have heard about but have never seen in person. 

Next installment: France