"The Front Nine"

Guten Tag!

After our exciting, but exhausting snowboard trip to Garmisch, Clint and I decided to make the next weekend a relaxing one. We slept in, goofed off around town and watched a movie at the Ramstein Air Force Base Exchange. The Exchange is what we consider a "safe house" for Americans. It has clothing, shoes, home items, Coach purses, appliances, a food court, recreation/outdoor center, theater, Harley Davidson store, furniture store, etc, etc... etc. We also go there on Sundays because in German culture Sunday is a family/rest/church day and most places are closed. And get this, Germany also has quite hours. Before 6am, from 1 to 3 and after 10pm you are expected to not make any noise outside. Genius.

We are also getting more comfortable with the recycling process here. It is NO JOKE, and I actually kind of like it. We have a trash can for paper (blue), a trash can for plastic/cardboard (yellow), a trash can for compost (brown) and a trash can for…trash. Oh, and you can get money back for returning plastic bottles and glass. Responsible, huh?

Clint and I are trying our best to finish all our "errands" so we can start traveling and enjoying this awesome country. I would say we are 85% done. We get the keys to our new German palace tomorrow and officially move in on Wednesday (we hope internet/cable/phone come soon after)! We have to get temporary furniture for two weeks until our house goods arrive, and we also got a few pieces of Danish furniture last week! I cannot wait for everything to come together. I promise many pictures will come soon. 

Lastly (and the inspiration for this post), Clint and I both got cars! Clint got a beautiful, and well maintained, 1990 Volkswagen Golf CL. Clint swears the CL stands for Classic. It easily keeps up with the "big dogs" on the autobahn and gets killer gas mileage. Only downfall… radio doesn't work. I somehow managed to get a brand new 2012 Volkswagen Golf TDI! This amazing and cute and sporty diesel gets close to 50 mpg. We got it tax free and will be able to bring it back with us. Please see the pictures below :)

From 2012

…To 1990

Miss everyone!!!!! 
Tschüss!

"OUCH"

We have been told since we got here: "Don't wait to start doing stuff.  Start now. Three years will go by faster than you think."

And so we listened.

Joel and Maria picked us up at 1:30 AM last Friday for our first German skiing/snowboarding adventure in Garmisch (we figure if we confuse our bodies enough, they will eventually catch up). When we arrived, the sight of snow and mountains made us feel like we were back in Colorado. Then we stepped out into the cold and were immediately brought back to reality. IT WAS COLD. And not the "scarf and down jacket will do" type of cold. The type of cold that requires several thermal layers, heat packs in your gloves and constant movement.

Clint and I learned several things early on that day. Germans don't really care about personal space, they don't really care about lines and my patience for learning how to snowboard is basically nonexistent. My snowboarding skills never really improved during the day and I definitely spent more time on my arse than anything else. To be perfectly honest, I am still recovering. Clint did pretty dang good for only having a few past snowboarding experiences and lasted much longer than I did. We eventually made it to a snack bar (sigh of relief) where I got my new favorite drink/milk combo called a Milchkaffee and Clint got a good ol' fashioned German beer. I quit after we hit this milestone, but Clint pushed on for another 2-3 hours.

The next day we decided to go to a place called Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany! This place was amazing. It literally looked like we stepped into a skiing wonderland. They had typical "ski runs", but you could basically ski and snowboard wherever there was snow (and of course there was snow as far as the eye could see). The most notable, exciting and terrifying event happened after Clint and I got wind that they had an “above average” sledding slope. I should mention that neither of us could physically get on another snowboard this time around due to our aches and pains from the day before so this discovery was pretty awesome. This sledding slope was no joke. It ran parallel to a red ski run and once you decided to start that sled down hill, there was no turning back. We estimate hitting speeds of around 40 mph, and definitely acquired a few bruises and snow burns along the way. I wish I had pictures to prove it, but I think the camera would have gotten broken along the way. Believe me though, it was intense and it was a blast!

We are currently on a no-joke hunt for two awesome vehicles, and I have a feeling a blog post for that will be coming soon! :) 

Here are a few pictures from Zugspitze!

See… it's unreal!

My girly/nice ski jacket hasn't arrived yet… so I was stuck with this pretty thing :)

Another view.

Clint looking cool as usual :)

"Hallo Aus Deutschland"

Clint and I are moving at lightning speed. 

Our "sponsors" Joel and Maria (who just happen to also be friends from Colorado Springs) have been amazing these past few days. They picked us up from the airport, drove us to our temporary German apartment and even cooked us a welcoming spaghetti dinner. Joel set up Clint's in-processing schedule that started yesterday and Maria has been nice enough to show me around town during the day. I should also mention that Maria is from Germany. We are constantly asking her (and Joel and her son) how to say things in German since we are bound and determined to wow the pants off all you Americans.  :)

Clint got his driver's license today which means we can go find our first vehicle soon. With the small parking spaces, expensive gas and freakishly narrow roads, the locals drive very "efficient" cars. I believe Clint and I will follow in their footsteps since we are learning quickly that Germans tend to be pretty darn smart! We are also going to TKS tomorrow (a third party vendor for T-Mobile) to get our new cell phones. These phones will allow us to text and call within Germany, but are not the best idea for calling back to the states. Not to worry though, landlines/home phones are common here and we plan to follow the Germans on that as well.

OH, and… we found a house!!! If everything goes well with the housing office, we will be moving in February 1st! It's in a neat little village called Hohenecken (pronounced HOnekin, not HoNEkin). The landlord's son is an architect and this is his first "designer house" so to speak. It is brand new, outfitted with IKEA appliances/walls/everything and has a fantastic view of a church and castle from our living room. It has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and another bedroom/storage room. I will put up pictures very soon.

We also had our first official German meal last night at Burgschänke (pictured below), the restaurant/hotel near the house we found. It was delicious and I promise to take all visitors there. (Incentive!Incentive!)

The American Website: http://www.burgschaenke-kl.de/ 

Tschüss!

"Auf Wiedersehen America"

Clint and I are currently sitting in the Baltimore Airport USO enjoying free Girl Scout Cookies and watching football. We also had a hamburger earlier. Come to think of it, I believe our subconscious is telling us to fill up on all things American.

As you can see, we finally have our boarding tickets. Row 63, seats B&C will be home sweet home for a grueling 8 hour plane ride. I personally plan on finding some Tylenol PM, blowing up my travel pillow and throwing on my cool new eye mask from Brookstone. Clint says he plans on doing the same…minus the cool eye mask.

We land in Germany around 1PM local time, which is close to 5am EST (I think…I plan on becoming a timezone expert very soon). Unsure of our future temporary home or how easy it will be to get Internet access, it may be a little while before people hear from us. We hope this is not the case, but who knows!

We are officially diving into the unknown.

-C&A

"Ready or Not"

Clint and I are officially the proud new owners of two ONE-WAY plane tickets to Germany. Sounds kind of permanent doesn't it?

We have been preparing for this new adventure for several weeks now and came to a simple conclusion:  If we can manage to get engaged and married in less than 2 months and (more importantly) for less than $40, we can surely navigate through a new country together.  

Friends and Family: We hope that you all take this opportunity to use us as your vacation destination. We are determined to find a home with enough bedrooms to accommodate the masses. START SAVING NOW!

This blog will hopefully be a fun way to follow us on our European Staycation! (...or what we like to call our 3 year Honeymoon)

The Plan:

 Leave Colorado on Friday, Jan. 6th and arrive in Germany on Sunday, Jan. 8th

Our Inspiration For This Blog: Ellen and Clark Griswold from European Vacation
 (if you haven't seen it, you have to watch it!)

…more to come