Contributions to Germany Ja

Tags

commissary, German products, Germany, guest post, Heidelberg, military installation, military wife, on post housing, Patrick Henry Village

The bumper sticker I received for contributing to Germany Ja

Over the last few weeks I’ve had a few posts published on Germany Ja and wanted to highlight them as well as tell you a bit about Germany Ja and other “Overseas Yes” sites. The “Overseas Yes” series started with Okinawa Hai. Then Germany Ja was added followed by Korea Ye. The purpose of the “Overseas Yes” series is to help those who get orders overseas go from saying “Overseas Yikes!” to “Overseas Yes!” Each site contains information in several categories: to do, to eat, to learn, to live, to shop, to travel, and to parent. If you have been stationed in any of these countries and would like to share your experiences, go to the “Writers Wanted” section at the top of Germany Ja or Korea Ye and the “Submissions” section at the top of Okinawa Hai.

Below you’ll find my posts to Germany Ja in the order they appeared:

Ways to Save at the Commissary was posted November 27th and provides a few tips on ways to save money at the commissary when stationed overseas (although some of the tips could apply to those of you Stateside as well).

Favorite German Products was posted on December 5th and highlights some of my favorite German products. It was originally posted here on May 28th and has been my most popular post so far with 1, 343 views as of today.

Military Installation Overview: USAG Heidelberg was posted on December 26th and answers questions about U.S. Army Garrison Heidelberg in general.

On Post Housing: Heidelberg was posted on December 27th and answers questions about living in this particular housing section of Heidelberg, Patrick Henry Village.

My Blogiversary: One Year of Overseas Adventures

Tags

blog, blogiversary, German products, Germany, Heidelberg, military wife, moving overseas, Patrick Henry Village, WordPress

 

A blogiversary seemed like as good an excuse as any to bake cupcakes.

I made my first post to Overseas Adventures on October 7th, 2011, about one month before we made our move. Originally I had planned to start the blog from the time we moved, but the moving process proved to be complicated enough that I decided to start early to give people an idea of what that was like and hopefully help some others along the way. Since then, I have gotten several questions from readers and many people searching terms relevant to moving here (more on that later), so that seems to have been a good call.

When I first started, I figured the blog would serve to inform family and friends about life here, and maybe a few other people would stumble upon it and want to stick around. By the end of October last year, I had 7 followers. Now I have 69. I know a few family members and friends occasionally read but aren’t subscribed as they occasionally comment about things I’ve posted, but I did not know most of my readers before blogging.

Screenshot from today of the countries readers are visiting from.

I also never expected how many views I would get from so many places. In October last year, I had 423 views. As of this posting, there have been over 18535 views from over 120 different countries. I appreciate everyone reading. Without you, I’d just be writing to myself.

I also appreciate when people take the time to comment. I read and respond to all comments. If you don’t comment, don’t be shy. I’d love to hear your thoughts. I used to try to ask questions on the blog to prompt discussion but stopped as it was hard to come up with a unique question for each post and I didn’t want people to feel limited to answering the question. I’d like to know whatever is on your mind, so feel free to share.

Since I have been posting for a year and am almost at one hundred posts, I thought I’d also share the top ways people have found my blog. At some point soon, I also plan to share those that may not be that common but I find interesting. Since WordPress lists the exact search term used, I had to do some combining to figure out what was most popular.

By far the most common was “German products” either alone or included with other terms. I counted 170. While I’ve mentioned German products in passing posts about a German Culture Class and in some Photo a Day posts, I am sure most got to my post Some Favorite German Products. If it’s that popular, I may have to write another post featuring more. The commissary doesn’t seem to carry Perwoll anymore and already didn’t carry Somat 10, so I will probably be shopping on the economy more which means more opportunities to find more German products to love and share.

The moon over Patrick Henry Village

“Patrick Henry Village” or “PHV”, usually combined with “housing” was next on the list. I got to over 140 and stopped looking for one-off variations, so there may have been more. Here are all my posts tagged with Patrick Henry Village. I also have a category for life On the Army Post. If you’d like to know what life was like here in the early 70s to 80s you may also want to check out PHVArmyBrat’s blog Patrick Henry Village.

Third most common appears to be “Never Have I Ever” either with “list” or “ideas” with 62 reaching my blog through those searches. That would be because I posted Never Have I Ever Part 1 and Part 2, so named because the list, which I got from Katrin at Land of Candy Canes kind of reminds me of the game.

Meeting one’s husband is apparently a common interest, as 56 people reached my blog searching something related to that, most commonly “How I met my husband”. I assume they’re getting here because of this post, prompted by a game initiated by Laura at German-American Abroad where she asked how I met my husband and experienced my initial relationship to a person in the armed forces.

Passport cover

Over 50 people got here searching something about a “passport”. If you happen to be looking for posts on a no-fee passport, mine are here. I did not have a tourist passport at the time I got my no-fee passport and only recently applied for it. If you are looking for the process in getting a tourist passport while stationed overseas, I’ll be writing about that at some point.

I also noticed quite a few people searching about unaccompanied baggage (usually what to pack), international renters and/or auto insurance, and other terms related to moving overseas with the military, but they were pretty spread out so it was hard to properly track the numbers for them.

However you reached my blog, I’m glad you’re here and I hope you found what you were looking for. There are categories and tags to the right as well as a search box. If that doesn’t help, feel free to contact me, and if what you want to know is within the scope of my blog and knowledge or experience, I’ll be happy to tell you and/or write a post. Here’s to another year of Overseas Adventures and blogging about them. I hope you’ll join me!

 

Schützenhaus near Patrick Henry Village

Tags

Germany, Jägerschnitzel, Paprikaschnitzel, Patrick Henry Village, restaurant, Schnitzel

 

Schützenhaus’s location on Google Maps

We had heard about Schützenhaus from a friend who found it when he took a wrong turn. We tried to find it on my birthday but after driving for awhile down the street and not seeing it, we thought we were on the wrong street and turned around. On March 17th, we decided to try again and it turned out to be on the street we had turned down the first time. We had just turned around a little bit too early. If you’re looking for it, it’s at Rudolf-Wild-Straße 109, 69214 Eppelheim, Germany (close to Patrick Henry Village).

The day we went was one of the first 70 degree days of the spring, so the few people who were at the restaurant were out in the Biergarten (beer garden) and we were the only ones inside. It got windy near the end of our meal, so this turned out not to be a bad thing. When we first walked in, my husband asked the waiter if he speaks English. He said he does and asked if we speak German. I told him ein bisschen (a bit) and he said, “very good.”

An example of Jaegerschnitzel, although this is much smaller and with different noodles than I had.

We were given a huge menu of several pages, all in German. I recognized some things, but didn’t understand most of it. I came across Jägerschnitzel (a cutlet served with mushroom sauce) which I’d had before, so I decided on that. After awhile, the waiter asked if we needed help. My husband wanted Paprikaschnitzel (pepper schnitzel) but didn’t know what the meal options were. I understood the mit Brot (with bread) option, but not the other. The waiter explained mit Brot only comes with bread and the other, which I forget the name of, is a combo meal that comes with salad and a side of fries, noodles, or something else I can’t remember. My husband got fries and I got noodles.

The salad was an interesting mix of lettuce on top of green beans, onions, and some other things I was not familiar with but which were all very good. When the schnitzel came, mine had two large pieces and my husband’s was one that was so large it hung over the plate. The waiter told him “good luck.” I ate one piece of mine and half the noodles. Surprisingly, my husband managed to finish all of his. I was able to get a box for mine.

An example of Paprikaschnitzel, although much smaller than my husband had.

The waiter never came close enough after taking my husband’s plate to ask for the check and we saw someone else who had been outside walk in to pay, so we walked up to the waiter. My husband handed him a tip after the amount of the check and asked if it was an appropriate amount. The man seemed confused at first and then said it was.

The man told us that Germany does not have a set standard for tips, so whatever you decide is fine. (Most people I’ve talked to about it agree that one to two euro is generally sufficient.) He also told us that many of the other countries, like France, include a gratuity in the bill. I wasn’t aware of that, so it’s good to know.

Overall, Schützenhaus was a good place to eat with great portions. I have since heard several other people talk about going there (although they usually refer to it as The Schnitzel House, so if people ask you to go there, make sure if they mean Schützenhaus or Schnitzelhaus, as there is also a restaurant by the latter name closer to the Altstadt). Unfortunately I managed not to take any pictures while we were there, but I guess that makes as good an excuse as any to go back some other time.

 

Photo a Day: August 22nd-26th

Tags

Germany, Heidelberg, Neckar River, Patrick Henry Village, pets, Photo a Day, Photograph, Photography

I took a few pictures this week but didn’t intentionally take pictures to the prompts for the Photo a Day Challenge. One fit for the the prompt from the day before it was taken, so I’ll post that. The others all come from other weeks or even months, but have not been posted to the blog before.

22. Home

The moon over Patrick Henry Village, our home for the time being, from inside our apartment, taken March 6th.

22. Pair

My pair of dogs, Apollo and Gir, taken on August 21st.

23. Path

If stairs count as a path, here’s Apollo on the way down the stairs near the Neckar. He just realized there were ducks (not pictured). This was taken June 16th.

24. Fresh

“I’ll get my stupid rope. I’ll get it”. Apollo on June 25th, pulling on the freshly washed rope toy. He finally gets the concept of playing tug of war instead of just chewing on it or running off with it.

25. Dream

I couldn’t find a picture that really related to a dream or my hopes and dreams, so here is a picture from August 15th of a shirt I bought which mentions being asleep. I got it in memory of my grandma who passed away a few months ago because she liked butterflies.

Photo a Day: August 1st-7th

Tags

Books, Nazi, Patrick Henry Village, Photo a Day, Photograph, Photography, Psychology, Reichspfennig, Stuttgart

It’s a new month and Fat Mum Slim has a new set of Photo a Day prompts for August. The first seven prompts for the month were outside, one, coin, somewhere you sat, logo, writing, and 8 o’clock.

1. Outside

I didn’t take a picture outside on the 1st, so here is a picture from June 16th of a storm brewing outside our apartment.

2. One

I forgot to take a picture for “one” on the 2nd, but the coin I was using for the prompt on the 3rd was 1 Reichspfennig, so here is the 1 side…

3. Coin

Someone gave this Nazi-era coin to my husband.

4. Somewhere You Sat

One place I sat on the 4th was next to the Eckensee at Stuttgart’s Sommerfest. The duck is over my shadow.

5. Logo

I actually took this picture on the 4th also where you can see the Mercedes logo on the top of the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof.

6. Writing

Since I am starting my grad school classes this month, I decided to go through the boxes in our basement to find the psychology-related books I’ve already read (or, in the case of a couple, have started). I have a couple others, Escape from Freedom and A Perfect Mess, which were already pictured in the post for Photo a Day: July 15th-22nd.

7. 8 ‘O Clock

I forgot to take a picture at 8 ‘o clock on the 7th. On the 8th at that time, everywhere on PHV for fast food had apparently closed. The guy at Anthony’s pizza was going to sell me the last two pieces of pre-made pizza. Unfortunately the other guy who worked there threw them in the trash instead of giving them to me. Disappointed, we walked back home with our puppies who had accompanied us, and I took this picture on the way.

That’s it for this week of Photo a Day. Next week I’ll post my photo responses for: glasses, messy, ring, purple, spoon, simple, and arrow.

On Post Housing Inspection and Recieving Our Temporary Furniture

Tags

clothes dryer, clothes washer, Germany, housing inspection, Patrick Henry Village, temporary furniture

View from the kitchen nook back to the living room before the furniture arrived.

We left the hotel in morning and brought the dogs with us to the new place so we could wait for a guy to come for the move-in inspection and for movers to bring the temporary furniture. We waited for about an hour after the guy was supposed to come for our inspection for him to actually show up. When he did he was very nice and helpful.

In addition to noting most of the existing damages to the place (which were pretty minor overall but still nothing we want to get stuck paying for) he showed us how to work the windows. They are quite large and have a handle and keyhole (which has to have the key in it to work) and can either open all the way out or be tilted for ventilation. He also explained about the hard water in the dishwasher and needing to use “special salt” at least once a month. (We later found out if you use the German product Somat 10 you don’t need the special salt and it works a lot better than salt and American dishwasher detergent).

He also taught us about the apartment’s parquet floors. At first I’d been excited because I thought the hard floor would be easier with dogs than carpet. Then he told us how you can pretty much only wash the parquet with white vinegar and water and if anything gets on them (like a puddle of water from leaving a window open in the rain) it will start to warp the floor within a few minutes. I still like it better than carpet because I can sweep and mop instead of vacuum and steam clean, but I’d prefer to be able to use normal cleaners. He also showed us the storage unit in the basement which is a nice size. It turned out later he was actually showing us the one next to ours but they’re about the same except that our window and lock aren’t missing as we had originally thought upon seeing the wrong one.

Living room with the temporary furniture.

Dining area with temporary furniture

When the temporary furniture guys arrived later that day, they were fast. They brought furniture according to a sheet my husband had filled out previously with what we needed. We got two bedside tables, two end tables, two arm chairs, a couch, a kitchen table with four chairs, and a double bed. There were no pillows or sheets. We knew this ahead of time and had brought sheets but hadn’t been able to pack blankets or pillows. Rather than having to buy extra blankets someone let us borrow some until our household goods would arrive. We put some sheets and shirts into pillow cases to make “pillows” for the night and my husband bought some the next day.

The washer and dryer inside a kitchen cabinet.

Later that day, I tried to figure out the washer, dryer, and dishwasher. There are English instructions for the latter two–in fact there are three different books just for the dryer–but there are no instructions for the washer. I guessed that the cup furthest to the left was for detergent because that’s where the water ran first. and found I was correct from later looking up the symbols online .

The washer was moldy and smelled bad. I put bleach it and ran the white cycle (hottest setting) to clean it and one more rinse cycle in case any bleach remained. It got most of the mold out and, most importantly, the smell. The washer and dryer are smaller than the American counterparts but they still wash a fair amount of clothes. They just have a longer cycle than I’m used to (and hour or two or longer depending on the setting), and the same goes for the dryer.

Throughout the day, I put our luggage away in the closets. It seemed empty, but of course we still had all of our unaccompanied baggage and household goods on the way. We assumed we would have plenty of space between the closets and basement. We also have attic storage though we don’t expect to have to use it (and so far haven’t). As I put stuff away I also saw some other damages and noted those even though they weren’t too bad. We don’t know how picky the move-out inspector will be so it’s better to note it and have it be trivial than not note it and be charged. Overall the place was in pretty good shape, especially compared to some places I’ve heard about here and we have a lot of space, so we’re pretty happy. I don’t think we could have found anything out on the economy this nice for what we’d have been allotted to spend so I’m glad we were able to get set up here.

Getting Permanent Housing in Patrick Henry Village

Tags

Germany, Heidelberg, military move, OCONUS, on post housing, Patrick Henry Village, PCS

Many people had told us not to accept the first place we were offered if we didn’t like it. Some places here are shabby, or lack things like a washer and dryer. Some have a separate room with an American washer and dryer while others have the smaller, stackable German washer and dryer. They recommended to make sure we get the best. We had found out that we were getting paid Temporary Living Allowance (TLA) of about $140 a day while in temporary lodging, but if we turned down a valid housing offer we’d only receive TLA up until the point the original unit would have been available. While we could still stay in temporary housing up to sixty days, it wouldn’t make sense to turn the offer down unless there was something majorly wrong.

A view of our apartment from the living room toward the kitchen and dining area.

As it turned out, we got lucky. On November 17th my husband got to check out the unit on his own and was pleasantly surprised. Most people had said to hope for Mark Twain Village, but this one in Patrick Henry Village was newly renovated and seemed to have everything we needed since Patrick Henry Village is where the commissary, veterinarian, dentist, Village Grill, Burger King, the shoppette, the library and the Java Cafe are located. It’s further from the PX and town, but once we would have our car it wouldn’t be a big deal to drive over to that side when needed.

Because I hadn’t been able to see the apartment, my husband explained the room sizes based on comparing and contrasting with the dimensions of the room in temporary lodging. From his description, it seemed like it would be a good size. It was a two bedroom apartment slightly smaller than we shared with roommates in Savannah, Georgia (but all to ourselves). There was a full sized fridge which I hadn’t expected due to having talking to a friend in Germany who has a small one. We had a stacked washer and dryer in the kitchen and access to American and European outlets throughout the apartment. It sounded good but it would be a few days before we could move in.

On November 21st I got to go over to see the new place. I was happy to find we had a spacious living room with a dining nook. The kitchen was bigger than the one I had in Florida with plenty of cabinets, drawers, etc. One feature I really like is that the cupboards closest to the dining nook are accessible both from the kitchen and dining area. The bedrooms were nice sized and each one had a full wall length wardrobe. (The master bedroom’s is along a long wall, and the other bedroom’s is along a shorter one). Because I had heard a lot of places in Germany don’t have closets I didn’t realize we’d have so much storage. Overall, I was very impressed and happy that we would already be able to move in the following day.

Wandering Hauptstraße and My First Österreicher Schokolade (Austrian Chocolate)

Tags

Chocolate, Germany, Hauptstraße, Heidelberg, Honigtraum, Patrick Henry Village, Rosenauer's Weiner Schokolade, Thalia's

The sticker from my chocolate bar from Chocolaterie St. Anna No. 1 in Heidelberg

After Café Rossi, we walked back toward Hauptstraße (Main St.) and wandered, mostly just looking. We stopped in Chocolaterie St. Anna No. 1, which is actually on St. Anna Gasse, a slight right off Hauptstraße if you’re coming from Bismarckplatz (Bismarck Square). The woman inside started telling us something in German and we had to ask if she speaks English. She did, and asked what chocolates I  like and listed some options: white, dark, and so on.

I told her I prefer milk chocolate, and she showed me some little ones with nougat, and some layered ones. One was white chocolate with blue flowers inside it. It was interesting but nicht für mich (not for me). They were also a little more expensive than we were looking for, about 9,5 €. Then she showed me some Rosenauer’s Wiener Schokolade bars, which were about 4,50 €. They are handgemacht (handmade) chocolate bars from Vienna, Austria. I didn’t understand all of her translations for the options and didn’t want to make her repeat herself, but I did see orange and honey that I recognized.

A closeup of the Honigtraum chocolate bar.

I decided to try the Honigtraum (Honey Dream) which is a Honigkomposition mit Vollmilchschokolade (honey composition with whole milk chocolate). She offered to gift wrap it, but we declined. I put it in my coat pocket for later. I tried it when we were back in the hotel room. It was so good and very rich. The ingredients are milk chocolate with 35% cocoa content, honey, hazelnuts, and sugar. My husband doesn’t really like sweets including chocolate, but he tried a bite and thought it was really good. I tried to save some and only eat a little at a time, but it was gone by the end of the night.

The only other store we actually went in was Thalia’s, a book store, to buy a map. It looked like they had a pretty decent English selection which is nice since I’m sure it will be a long time before I can read in German. When my husband checked out, the woman asked in German if he needed a bag. He must have looked just confused enough because she immediately asked the question in English before he could even ask if she speaks it. Of course we declined since we were just buying a map. Nearly everywhere in Germany charges for bags, so at least one of us usually has a back pack anyhow.

When we walked out of the store, it was nearly their closing time (8 pm) and they were cleaning up. A girl pushing a metal cart of books ran into me, catching me right in my shins. It smarted, but it wasn’t anything serious. The girl seemed mortified and kept repeating “Es tut mir leid (I am sorry)”. I kept telling her “It’s okay” as we walked away because I couldn’t think of what to say in German. I later learned that I could have said “Keine Angst. Es ist kein Problem. (Don’t worry. It’s not a problem)” or “Macht nichts (No worries)”.

A whimsical knife set and holder in a store on Hauptstraße.

After Thalia’s, we walked around a bit longer checking out some of the store fronts. We liked this little man knife holder we saw in one, but it was a little expensive, about €149. I didn’t take too many pictures because I only had my phone and it was dark, but I am sure we will be back on Hauptstraße and I’ll have many opportunities to take more pictures.

We found a row of taxis at Bismarckplatz at the end of Hauptstraße and went to the first one in line. The driver was familiar with Patrick Henry Village (we have yet to run into one who isn’t) and took us back toward post. He dropped us off at the end of the bridge before the gate. It was about €13. Considering that I once paid $20 for a cab ride from the Orlando International Airport to the condo I lived in about 3 miles away, that didn’t seem like a bad price for taking us a couple more miles. Since we were in the temporary lodging, it was only about a five minute walk from the drop off point back to our building. While we didn’t do a lot, it was a fun first day out, and I look forward to having much more fun out in Heidelberg.

Getting to Hauptstraße (Main St.) in Heidelberg’s Altstadt (Old Town)

Tags

Altstadt, Galeria, Germany, Heidelberg, Kaufhof, nette Toilette, Patrick Henry Village

The view near where we were waiting.

We got to make our first trip out to Heidelberg on November 12^th and had decided to go to Hauptstraße (Main St.) in the Altstadt (Old Town). Getting there was an experience in itself. We called the front desk around 3 pm to arrange for a cab. We were told it would come to the Burger King located between the guest lodging building we were in and one of the gates to the post. After we had waited about 15 minutes, my husband Tim asked a kid coming out of the Burger King what the cabs around here look like. He said they are beige Mercedes, but they don’t come on post. Since we had been told to wait there, Tim walked over to the gate to find out what was up. He came back and told me the gate guard had said we have to meet the cab at the bottom of the bridge, and if you’re not already there waiting for them they turn around. The guard had called us a new cab, so we walked to the bottom of the bridge.

While we were waiting, a lady stopped and asked if we needed a ride. Since other cars started to stop behind her, she pulled over on our side of the road. We told her we were waiting on a taxi to go to Hauptstraße, but she offered us a ride because cabs are expensive. She had some stuff in her car and her son with her so we told her we were okay, but she got out to reposition everything and insisted, so we accepted. She showed us where there is a bus stop not much further than where we had been waiting and suggested we take that in the future, as it’s cheaper, except if we’re coming back from town at night. She told us that if we want to ride bikes it’s only about a twenty minute leisurely bike ride into town. She also showed us where we can pick wild blackberries in the summer.

The Galeria Kaufhof. This is actually the one at Bismarckplatz at the end of Hauptstraße, rather than the one in the middle which we went to.

Once we were in town, she and her son pointed out and told us about so many things I don’t remember it all. We saw the Neckar River, the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge), the castle (Schloss) and several other places before stopping at a parking garage at the Galeria Kaufhof, a department store which she described as a “very upscale Walmart”. She said they have everything but it could be 400 euro for a good bedding set, and 90 euro for a coffee maker and so on. Fortunately she told us a place I’m familiar with, Ikea, is only about 10 minutes away.

As we walked up from the garage, we passed a bathroom, and she told us about the bathroom attendants around Germany who expect some coin for their services. She said you don’t have to pay them but they’ll remember if you don’t.

The Nette Toilette Sign

I later learned the reason there wasn’t an attendant at this store was that Galeria Kaufhof is one of the few places on Hauptstraße that have a “nette toilette (nice toilet)” sign meaning they don’t charge and you don’t have to buy anything to use the bathroom. Some places, like Starbucks, require you to buy something and give you a code for the turnstile, and the train station requires you to deposit 50 euro cents into a turnstile.

Our kind stranger showed us where she likes to get food inside the Kaufhof Galeria because she was picking up a fresh fish for dinner. When we came out, she also pointed out a couple places on Hauptstraße to get a quick bite to eat. Then we parted ways. Tim and I wandered Hauptstraße for a little while. Then we decided to find somewhere to eat our first German meal…

Our Temporary Lodging at the Patrick Henry Village Guesthouse in Heidelberg

Tags

Germany, Heidelberg, military move, moving overseas, OCONUS, Patrick Henry Village, PCS, pets, PHV Guesthouse, temporary housing

The bed and one of the side tables. The dimensions of the room made getting a good picture difficult.

I previously mentioned that we were put in room 666 for our temporary lodging, but we didn’t get to really see it right away because we had things to get done. So now I’ll tell you a bit about it:

The room itself was pretty standard: a queen bed, a micro-fridge, a coffee-maker, a small television, a dresser, a desk, a bathtub with a shower hookup, and a hair-dryer. Pretty much what you’d find in any hotel room. We didn’t have a microwave in the room but there was one in the “kitchen”. (I say “kitchen” because there obviously used to be a stove and wasn’t anymore, so it was just the microwave and sink. We met someone with a stove in theirs though, so I guess it was just luck of the draw.)

One thing I liked that I don’t see in every room was the abundant storage space. We had a closet that spanned one whole wall. There was only one rod to hang clothes on, but there were plenty of shelves. I also liked the drape set up. Some hotels have drapes that don’t ever seem to pull all the way shut, and these did. They had a light fixture above them which was a nice feature.

The hair dryer. You can also see the German-style of toilet flusher above the toilet.

Then there were the things I hadn’t seen anywhere else. The bathtub didn’t just have a curtain but also a partial door. The hair dryer was almost industrial looking. I tried to use it once and it really doesn’t give off the amount of air one might expect from looking at it. The tub was nice and deep with a little ledge on the back big enough to sit on. While the German electrical outlets were to be expected, we had a couple American ones as well which was nice. And the floors in the bedroom were wooden which makes for much easier cleanup if the dogs miss their pee-pads.

On the downside, we had an adjoining room. As was a concern before, that tends to not go over well with the dogs. And it didn’t, especially as the first lady next to us had a kid she always yelled at, and the next occupants were a group of people who talked loud enough to follow their conversation until 4 am. People also liked to stomp down the metal stair case outside which echoed into our room. So you can imagine we dealt with a fair bit of barking throughout the stay, although surprisingly it wasn’t until the loud group of people showed up that we got our first complaint. We later found out another couple had two adjoining rooms all to themselves and their cat, so again I guess it was luck of the draw.

A picture my husband took of me in the room.

Other than that, it wasn’t a bad place to be. We had free WI-FI, so I could be more productive than I had originally expected. We also had access to several television channels. Since I refuse to pay for cable I would barely use, being in a hotel room is about the only time I watch more television than I would ordinarily. We had CNN and a couple of other things which were in English, but we did watch parts of a few movies in German. I want to find some some that were in German with English subtitles to help my comprehension.

Our first night in the room, I was so tired I felt like I was on a boat. Everything had a slight sway to it, even when laying down. Actually being on a boat and going to sleep is relaxing. Feeling like you’re on one due to exhaustion is not. We fell asleep around 5 pm and thought we could sleep til the morning. Instead I woke up several times, once to some kid screaming. I finally slept from about 2 am to 9 am.

The next day, I pretty much hung out in the room while Tim was at work, except when I took the dogs for a walk. On my walk I found out Patrick Henry Village is where the library, post office, shoppette, and the veterinarian are located. It’s also the location of the commissary, java cafe, a Burger King, a bar, and a restaurant. This made it seem much less inconvenient than it did initially. Around 9 pm I got tired, which was early, but at least it was more of a normal time. Since the next day would be Saturday, we decided to make it our first day out in Heidelberg, which I’m excited to *finally* get to write about.