February 3, 2006

We're home! Well - back in Baghdad anyway ;) Coming back wasn't too bad. We had a few problems with the flight and the hotel we stayed at in Amman but first! - the rest of our R&R! The Gorge was quite beautiful. We toured it by torchlight and visited a local restaurant afterwards. I wish we would've had a chance to see the Gorge in daylight because I think it would've been even better. Going with the tour seemed a little rushed because we were at the head of the tour line and they walked through quickly to avoid too much congestion. It seemed like we just snapped pictures and didn't really have much time to take everything in. Ah well - at least we have those pictures!

We took a few more tours including Innsbruck, Austria and the Dachau Concentration Camp. Innsbruck was nice...but I think we could've skipped the tour. We visited a Palace and a Crystal Gallery...and then had too little time to ourselves in the pedestrian area. We at lunch at a local restaurant which had a nice atmosphere but the food wasn't too great. We did discover Mozartballs there though! (Filled Chocolate Balls)

The Dachau Concentration Camp was interesting, depressing, and very cold. Our tour guide seemed well informed about the camp...and she led us around to the different areas. Afterwards we visited Burger King haha..lovely choice for a restaurant. I have to say McDonald's is MUCH better!

Mike and I made it to Munich on our own. We took the train down using the Bayern Pass. We got to visit the Deutsches Museum which to Mike's dismay - did not have any dinosaurs...and we went to the Haufbrau Haus..and saw the Glockenspiel at 11am..we also did some shopping in the Pedestrian Zone and visited several churches in the area!

We used the Bayern Pass to get to Salzburg, Austria too. We had to get there so Mike could try the Augustiner Beer! We saw the fortress from the outside (it was too late to get a tour)...went to the monastery for beer...went to the Mozart Museum..and strolled around town..including the old medieval street! It was a nice little city..only thing was we spent 7 hours on the train to get there and back!

We spent a few more days on the slopes..and guess what!? Persistence paid off..Mike can now board. We finally got him to try out the chair lift which got him on some new hills. The different run enabled him to practice his technique and by our last run Monday night - he was able to do it. It was amusing watching him act like a little boy..he was super excited to get back on the hill Wednesday so he could board some more. I guess boarding is a lot more fun when you don't spend most of the time on your butt!

Thursday morning we got up really early so we could take the train to the airport. We got there with plenty of time to spare only to find out Air France had over booked us! They bumped us off the flight and booked us on a different flight with a different airliner! We had to rush over to a different terminal only to find the lines twice as long and with no possibility of getting to the front in time to make our flight :P While Mike stayed in line - I ran around trying to find a way around the line. Finally I convinced the handicapped line lady to let us in that way and we made the flight. We flew to Athens instead of Paris and since we switched to a completely different airliner there as well, we had to re-check in in Athens! We basically had to exit and reenter the airport and all we had was a handwritten receipt that was supposed to act as our ticket. ;p Fortunately we made it through!

We got to Amman only an hour later than originally planned...since we came in on Royal Jordanian and would be leaving with them the next morning - they put us up in the neighboring hotel for free. Good thing it was free, because I'm not sure if I would've paid money to stay there. It's rated as a three star hotel and I would say that's probably only in the best rooms. Mike would've even brush his teeth in the sink or take his clothes off to go to bed. It wasn't THAT bad...but Mike was definitely uncomfortable with it. We were only there for seven hours and we had to be back at the hotel at 4am so I didn't see a point in moving to a nicer hotel..PLUS I had no idea how much it would cost to take a taxi and back when the next closest hotel was a half hour away!

When we got to Baghdad it was miserable and rainy..matter of fact! - still is! It's muddy and filthy and that's hour our clothes and luggage ended up by time we pulled into our room...we've finally unpacked and cleaned our rooms and now..it's relaxing and catching up on sleep before we have to be at work tomorrow..now...kickboxing tonight or not...Decisions decisions...

January 25, 2006

Our vacation in Garmisch has convinced Mike that he wants to spend a year working here. He seems to love the small town atmosphere, the beautiful scenery and the fact that everything is in walking distance. We were talking today about it over lunch and he even said he thought we could get an apartment and bicycles because he didn't really think we needed a car. Imagine him saying that 6 months ago! haha!

Since our last update we've gone snowboarding twice at the nearby resort called the Hausberg Lodge. Since we're on R&R, we get the equipment rental for free and only have to pay for our lift ticket and clothing rental (Mike needed some snowpants). We took snowboarding lessons our first day and practiced on the bunny hill. The next day we tackled the mountain and even made it up to the intermediate hills! No worries - both of us made it out alive ;) It was great having it take close to an hour to get up the mountain in a cable car and back down the mountain. Our first day was spent going up the towrope and down a very short slope. I tried getting Mike to try a chair lift so we could go even further up the mountain but he wasn't feeling brave enough. We plan to get back on the mountain early next week (once the weather starts to warm up again) so maybe then. :) Chair lifts are a lot harder with a snowboard especially when you have 5 other people sharing your lift with you so I understand the hesitation! It was amazing how many people they packed into the cable cars! It was like herding cattle! I felt really sorry for the smaller children that rode in them. There was so little space to move and being short, they didn't have the breathing room!

We went to Neuschwanstein Castle on Monday. We decided to join the Edelweiss tour to go there. I'm glad we did. Not only do we also get a discount (we didn't know about all these discounts when we got here), but we were also informed of all the history, etc. of the villages we passed through, the Romantisch Road, and King Ludwig himself. Mike and I trekked up the hill to get to the Castle (probably a 30 minute walk), joined the tour, then enjoyed lunch at a local restaurant. The Castle was beautiful inside. King Ludwig had the walls painted with scenes from the operas he enjoyed and there were spectacular woodcarvings. It was unfortunate that we were not allowed to take pictures while inside. Mike's first real german meal was at the Klaushaus (?) located below the Neuschwanstein Castle. I had Schnitzel while he had steak with bacon and onions on it. Mike said it was quite possible the best meal he's ever had. He seems to really be enjoying the meals here.

The tour group went to the Church in the Meadow after the Castle. This church was built to house a statue of Jesus that was said to be a miracle. Short version - when the statue was first created it was put away because people were uncomfortable with how lifelike it seemed. A woman found the statue and kept it in her living room until the statue started crying. Because of this miracle, and the number of people who came and still come to see this statue, they decided to build a church to hold it. The church itself was very beautiful and is said to represent paradise on earth. Fortunately, there wasn't a service going on so we were able to take lots of pictures. You'll have to check those out in the photo album....

Our last stop of the day was to a wood carving shop in the area. Our tour guide said it was the largest one in the area. They definitely had some very impressive items. We didn't purchase anything though.

We woke up REALLY early on Tuesday because we were going to go to Munich. We went down to the front desk to get some more coffee and also find out more information on the Munich City tour. The convenience and affordability of the Neuschwanstein Tour made us reconsider going on our own and after getting more information from the front desk, made us decide to join them on Thursday. What we found out later in the day was that the Thursday tour had been cancelled so we'll have to get up early again on another day! We weren't ready to go boarding again because both of us had really sore legs so we decided to tour Garmisch some more. We found out on Monday's tour that we had completely missed the Pedestrian area so we decided to go visit that. We stopped in a Konditionerei (Cafe/Cake store) for coffee and then walked downtown. There were a lot of little shops but not as much as we were expecting. It was a nice relaxing day of exploring though. :) It's just too bad that we scrapped going to Munich only to find out that the tour was cancelled! I think we're going to go there on our own tomorrow. We really want to see the Deutsches Museum. It's in our book of one of a thousand places to visit. :) haha. We did go to a local grocery store and pick up some pickled herring, chocolate, wine, some of those peanut butter puffs that my mom raves about, and some potato string snack. Then we stopped at the Metzgerei for some wieners and brotchen and had a yummy lunch! We ate the whole jar of herring in one sitting :) Mmmm...yummy. This picture is the view from our hotel room!

Finally! - Today. We're experiencing a cold front so we've put off boarding for a few days. It's supposed to be cold today (below freezing) and colder tomorrow, so we're going to wait to board till early next week. We went back to the Konditionerei for coffee and Nusskuchen (nut cake), then went to the PX looking for a gator for Mike ...since they were out we went to a sport shop that we had seen by the grocery store. We stopped at a local German restaurant for Goulash, Schnitzel, and beer and tonight we'll be visiting the Gorge. We're going to try to hop on the Zugspitzbahn (cable car) to get up to the highest point in Germany and tonight we'll go on the tour to the Partnach Gorge. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures after that. Tomorrow we're going to get up early for Munich again. We'll get there in time to see the Glockenspiel, visit the Rathaus, and the Deutsches Museum. Plus, we'll do lots of shopping to pick up souvenirs and all those little things you can't live without!

I think Friday we'll go to Innsbruck, Austria, Saturday - Dachau Concentration Camp, and possible the Linderhof Castle and Ettal Monestary on Sunday... We haven't decided yet whether we're going to go to Linderhof yet... Early next week has been reserved for boarding again... We may decide to scrap the Linderhof Castle and try to venture out to Bamberg or St. Augustine on our own. We'll see! Vacation is going so quick!

That's the update! Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

January 20, 2006

Ooookkk..where to start? Our R&R started on the 17th with a Rhino ride from the IZ to Victory. It was an early showtime for the Rhino but we still left rather late. By the time we got through the briefings, traveled to our destination, unloaded the truck, and got to our room - we only had a few hours before we were picked up to be taken to the airport. We were given one of the GRC rooms which was actually pretty nice. It had a queen size bed, dresser, tv, etc. The only downside was no bathroom. It seems most people have to use the community showers located on each floor. I'm not sure how much I would enjoy that living there. I prefer my own bathroom. The Baghdad Interational Aiport (BIAP) was pretty much like any other airport I've been to. The only people we saw were those that worked there and those who would be joining us on that flight. It made for a very empty airport. Security seemed a little more relaxed than usual. They did have dogs sniff our bags for bombs and run everything through the medal detectors but noone made me take my jacket/shoes off and I wasn't searched again when I made the detector go off...Ah well. We were charged an additional tax which I'm not sure was legal but it was only a dollar so who's going to make an arguement about that? The waiting room for the flight was quite filthy and the bathrooms weren't much better. The bathrooms there and in Jordan were actually on a BYOTP basis. Fortunately, I had packed kleenex so paper was at hand. :) When we finally boarded the plane we had to find our bags that we had already checked and put them on the plane. I guess that's their way of making sure all the baggage that ends up on is supposed to be there. The flight went well and we landed safely in Jordan. Upon exiting the flight I immediately got in line to get some currency. We had a little trouble figuring out what we were supposed to do since we wouldn't be connecting immediately. We were in a rush too because we had a driver waiting and were worried he would get impatient and leave us stranded. Turned out we only had fill out a form saying we were in transit, obtain a stamp, and leave. Only problem was it took a long line and a lot of questions to figure that out! :P I thought it was odd that we didn't have to pay for a Visa.. The hotel that we stayed us was really nice and even had free internet! :) We spent the afternoon going to Jerash (Check out the pictures at my photoalbum) and then went to dinner with our driver at an Arabian restaurant. We spent the evening enjoying some drinks and a cigar and then crashed early. By 5am we were back in the car on our way to the airport.
Our flight from Amman ended up delayed which made us late for our connecting flight. We ended up taking a different one 2 hours later. Figuring out the trains was a little amusing especially when we missed the connecting train because the first train was running behind too! It was very cold outside so standing outside waiting for our train in the dark wasn't too pleasant. When we finally arrived at Garmisch we decided to just take a taxi because we just wanted to be there..haha..and would rather pay the money for the taxi than try and figure out the bus system. Edelweiss was closer to the train station than we anticipated so it wasn't too expensive anyway. I took a nice bath when we got there - Mike passed out on the bed..haha What a day.
We slept in this morning..went to breakfast at the restaurant...and then went to the PX/Commissary. We stocked up on some food for snacking/breakfast and then were off for downtown Garmisch. We spent the day shopping, enjoying the scenery, eating at the local pizzeria, and playing darts at the Irish Pub. I purchased Harry Potter in German...and I will read it! I'm hoping it'll help improve my German... :) Tomorrow we will take some Snowboarding lessons and spend the day and the next on the slopes...Monday we're going to Neuschwanstein Castle...and we'll see after that! :) yay! Hope all is well back in Baghdad and back home! Adios!

January ... What day is it?

Hello! I have to make this quick because it's late - I'm tired - and I want to go to bed! Just wanted to let everyone know that after only one missed flight and one missed train we made it to Edelweiss safe and sound..and worn out from traveling. Can't wait to hit the slopes! Hope all is well!

Argh

I wrote a nice long blog and then lost it - so just check out the photo album for now! I'll write more in the morning!