Househunting and our first castle

After looking at 5 different properties in 5 different areas, I think we have found a house to rent. The biggest problem is it is located in a German village so small I don't think it has a grocery store. So much for riding my bike to the market. The house, however is beautiful. The floor plan is very open and bright. Originally, it was an old stone barn and just recently renovated. It has 4 bedrooms and 3(?) bathrooms and lots and lots of windows. The view from the deck is breathtaking. There is even a small outdoor pool in the yard. The kids will have a 20 min bus ride to school, but the bus stop is meters (woo hoo for the metric system!) away from our front door. Hopefully I will have some pics to post soon!!
(1 meter=3.3 feet)




We ventured out to tour a castle yesterday. I think the kids were expecting a bit more fantasy :) I don't think they quite get the 'this building is over 800 years old' thing yet. On the Fruhwirth's European Vacation (similar to National Lampoon's European Vacation) I missed the castle tour thanks to Aunt Flow, fucking bitch. But because I missed that, I have little to compare our castle tour to. It was a nice time and good to do something other than requirements of living in Germany.





These photos are the kids at a lookout point at either the front or back gate of the castle. Baile suprised me saying my name after I walked through and I couldn't see where she was. Their faces looked so cute, I had to get pictures :) Plus I thought it was a really cool "Halt! Who goes there?!" station.



















Baile and Will had this to say about seeing an authentic castle:
Will: "It was cool."
Baile: "I liked it."
Yes, both with that punctuation...or lack of it :) But neither said it was stupid or boring or a waste of time. So I feel like we succeed in attempting to 'get out there and see Europe' kind of thing. LOL












If you want more historical info on the berg, check out this site:
http://www.keithlaney.net/Legendary_Castles_of_the_Palatinate/Nanstein/castle_nanstein.htm

Really.

Yes, here it is. A blog. Written by yours truly...Tari. Can you believe it? I hope so, because I can't.

I'm starting out just playing around...so bear with me. I haven't even the photos I want to post on this computer. But because I clicked the blog button, here I am. And if I stop now I may never continue!

We have been in Germany for 12 days. It seems like less. Probably because there is so much to do to familiarize ourselves with the area. We have started to look for permanent housing. No luck yet. We have only seen 2 properties. The first was a house of which I could tell Paul was screaming inside as we walked through. Luckily strangers don't know his, "Let's get the hell outta here" expression vs. "wow, this is kinda cool" expression. The other property was a townhouse with a nice yard. The yard was for the children. No dogs allowed....huh? So, that was out too. Why have a yard if the dog can't pee in it? Frankly, I'm getting tired of taking the poor guy (Dexter) down 4 flights of stairs every time he needs to relieve himself. No, the hotel doesn't have an elevator. We will be seeing 2 more places tonight. I guess it is a tough time right now. There are lots of families in our situation.


Thankfully the hotel we are living in is nice. This is a pic from the other side of the lake. This pic reminds me of the hotel the family from Dirty Dancing stayed at...in the Catskills?? Paul & I have our own bedroom with a door to the balcony. The kids sleep on a hide a bed in the living room. Our place in the pic is the top floor left side balcony. We have a small kitchenette, fridge, 2 burner stove, sink. It came equipt with closets and shelving from Ikea(yay)....so much better than living in just hotel rooms and we don't have to live out of our suitcases.

This is the view from the balcony. There is a public beach across the lake. The weather is tricky here, but we were able to make it over there once since our arrival. Like SLC there has been a lot of rain here. The thunderstorms are wonderful. I missed thunder and lightning...I didn't realize how much until I heard it in SLC days before we left. I was kinda nice to enjoy a few storms here. I would've felt very gypped to miss out on storms in Utah had there not been any here. Over 7 years in Utah and the only other time I heard thunder was in November...odd.





The living room, where the kids sleep. Actually Baile sleeps here. Will sleeps in a playpen in a closet (by choice) because they can't lay in the same bed without physically harming each other. God I love kids.


Signing out for now...I think Dexter has to pee.