4th of July Weekend

Germany has seen more sun since the start of the World Cup Games than I can remember of the previous 3 summers. I have enjoyed watching the World Cup, even though I admit I do not know much about the game (except that I played it a lot in the 5th grade). I have especially enjoyed watching the fans who are so passionate about the game, I have even seen them weep when their team loses. Germans are by nature a very reserved people and it is rare to see them express emotion freely. I have enjoyed watching the German fans cheer and rally for their team, waving flags and filling restaurants and Gasthaus' to watch the games and cheer their team on.
Kasierslautern hosted several of the early games in the tournament. The USA team played Italy here in June (a very exciting and exasperating game if you saw it). The "World Cup Mile" is located in downtown Kaiserslautern, or K'Town to the Americans. You can find all sorts of food vendors, beer tents, and meet people from all over the world. Don and I started the long 4 day weekend by watching the Germany vs. Agrentina game at a friends house. Saturday night we ventured downtown to watch Brazil (the reigning world Cup champions) lose to France. I have posted a picture of the big screen where you can watch the games live.


On Monday Don and I took a day trip to Rust, Germany on the French/German border to Europa Park, our favorite amusement park. Europa Park is broken down into different countries: Spain, Greece, Switzerland, France, Portugal, etc...
All of the rides,and buildings reflect the architecture music and food unique to that country. Don and I ate lunch in Greece, had a snack in Spain, another snack in France and ate dinner in Italy. We rode the SilverStar, a Mercedes Benz rollercoaster in Germany and the bobsled run in Switzerland. Here are some pictures from Greece and Portugal. The one of me near the waterfall was in Austria. You can check out the website




We had a blast!

Don and Robin

Recap

Oh wow, I can't believe I haven't posted for almost 2 months. Here is a brief recap of the Rigadizzle house happenings.



We wrapped up our trip to Southern Germany with a day trip to Salzburg and Halstatt, Austria. I have posted a few more pictures of our trip from April. This first picture is of Don and the giant pretzel, we both ate one for lunch that day.






The center photo is in Salzburg, you can see the Medieval Fortress that sits above the old town. I love Austria and Salzburg is one of my two favorite cities in Europe so far (the other one is Prague)..


The last picture is of Halstatt, one of Europe's oldest towns (800 B.C), in fact there was Halstatt before there was Rome! Until 1875 you could only travel to the town by boat and it still has this peaceful far away feeling to it. Both Don and I agreed this was our favorite day of our trip, we will definitely be visiting Halstatt again. We planned to visit Switzerland the next day, but we woke up to rain and fog and knew that we wouldn't be able to enjoy the view like we wanted, so we stayed in Garmisch and shopped and rested instead.

Since then, we have been extremely busy. I planted my garden in late May. Early June brought freezing temperatures that zapped my little plants. They are slowly recovering.

Don had the awesome opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. with several other service members from Ramstein to accept the Installation Excellence Award. He toured the Pentagon and several other National Monuments. This was the second time he has been to the states since we moved here 3 years ago and he really enjoyed being on home soil! He also had a chance to visit his sister KT who lives near D.C with her husband and 2 boys.

June has been a busy month with Don's always unpredictable work schedule. I am also super busy taking 2 classes right now, and after this term will be 1/2 way through my Master's program! I am finding 2 classes and working full time to be a heavy load, but I am still able to enjoy everything right now.

Don and I are taking golf lessons at the golf course on base. It is a basic introduction course that covers etiquette, and the basics. So far we have worked on putting, chipping, and of course our swing. We wanted to find a sport that we could learn together and we are really like it so far.

That brings us to the present, we are enjoying the summer and hope to make a day trip to Europa Park, our favorite amusment park for the 4th of July. I will keep you posted!