Christine in Bastogne, Belguim

The Battle of the Bulge occurred at Bastogne, Belgium, beginning 16 December 1944 and lasted until 25 January 1945.  This is a fascinating battle and I recommend you read up on it.  Others have written more eloquently about it than I could ever.  The show Band of Brothers renewed interest in the battle.  So you can also watch that.  But I would like to point out that Easy Company were not the only ones to participate in the battle-far from it.  Many brave Americans gave their lives or were injured during the fight.  I believe around 16,000 Americans died and 64,000 were injured.  The Germans knew they could not win this battle with just fighting and their weapons.  They struck when the weather took a turn for the worse, so American planes could not support our troops.  The weather improved on 23 December and the bombers followed the tank tracks in the snow to take out the tanks.  Also, they dropped much needed supplies.

On December 10, 2011, the USO offered a walking tour of the battlefield.  And since it is around the anniversary day of the battle re-enactors were there.   The troops had to face snow (with little to no snow weather gear) and Germans.  We had a sunny day with no precipitation or enemies (as best I could tell there were no German re-enactors).  This made hiking much easier (or so you would think).  In many areas, the route was covered in black ice.  Not fun.

You had the opportunity to participate in an 8km, 18km, or 23 km walk.  I walked the 18km hike.  (This is *just* over 11 miles.)  I hiked through the woods, mud (yes, this city girl walked through mud-it's good I purchased hiking boots prior to my move), and water-logged clay.  I am fairly certain the entire hike was uphill.  Around the middle of the hike, I slipped on icy cobblestone (my slipping on cobblestone actually is a frequent occurrence around Europe).  I believe this is when I hurt my ankle.  And so I walked in pain for about 4 or 5 miles.  PSA:  Do not wave at buffalo.  Yes, the buffalo was looking at me.  And then I waved.  Then he charged.  Luckily, the electric fence stopped him.  There are no pictures of this event.  I was too busy moving out of the way.  And you would do the same thing.  Thanks to Joe for the camel pack-it came in handy on my walk through the woods.

Mud that I crossed over.  

3 German soldiers were buried in each grave (2 Unknown soldiers, 1 Known)

Me on the clay road-one of the more walkable parts

Veterans of WWII

Christine

Christine at the Schokolade Festival

Germany is a wonderful place.  Tübingen has a Schokolade (Chocolate) Festival.  The only bad thing--they have it for one week.  Really, this event should occur every weekend as far as I am concerned.  And I think the hordes of people that attended would agree with me.  Tübingen is a university town, right outside of Stuttgart.  There were all types of chocolate there.  As is custom (during Christmas time), there is a mug you can purchase for the event.  I had both heiße Schokolade (hot chocolate) and Kirsche gluhwein (cherry hot mulled red wine).  I also sampled Swiss hot chocolate.  

The people:

Examples of Schokolade makers and creations:

Best Schokolade cake ever.  I took a bite before I thought to take a picture.  But it was that good.  

Someone did painting with Schokolade:

Finally, I had a shot of Schokolade in a Schokolade made shot glass.  But forgot to take a picture.  Too excited.  ha ha 


Christine 

Christine in Mayrhofen, Austria

It is the greatest time of the year.  That's right--It is SKI SEASON.  Woo Hoo.  For Thanksgiving, I traveled to Mayrhofen, Austria to ski.  Mayrhofen was suppose to open on that Saturday.  But alas, there is no snow to be had in Europe.  We skied at Hintertuxer Gletscher (Glacier).  There's always skiing on glaciers.  We were 3250 meters up (10,750 feet for you Americans).  It was above the tree line.  You take 3 gondolas to get to the top.  That is my least favorite part.  Of skiing in general.  Sometimes you have to suffer for your sport.  Big risk.  Big reward.

The views were breathtaking.

Yes, there were T-bars as you can see in the above picture.  Those are not so fun, but whatever.  I got to ski.  I just like the mountain.

You can't tell depth perception in a picture of a snow covered mountain.  But this is what a run looks like:

But we did more than just ski.  We also hung out at Après-ski (it means after skiing, in French).  That means you drink Glühwein (amazing spiced hot red wine) or heisse schkolade (hot chocolate). Speaking of them, the French like matching outfits.  I found this very amusing.  I don't know why.

Some of us at the bar (the cool people--me too, but I'm the photographer):

And we played this game.  You hit the nail into the log.  But the hammer is hollow.  So there is just a rim to hit with.

My nail is the middle one.  Winning.  ha ha

If you are not a skier, you can be an ice mountain climber:

Or just hike with some friends:

Like I said previously, there is not a lot of snow to be had (this is a sad sight):

Very cool formation in the rocks:

The hotel after the jump.

Christine in Lego Land

Well, not really.  But very close.  When I was little, my Dad use to take me to downtown Pittsburgh to make a donation to Children's Hospital.  KDKA radio broadcasters would set up shop in a different department store window each week (or maybe it was just each Saturday--I was little back then and I don't really remember the exact specifics) and collect money for the Hospital.  You said your name and who you wanted to wish Merry Christmas too.  I always said my family and grandma since I knew she listened to KDKA.  She also lived downtown so afterwards we would visit her.  Then she would ask why didn't we stop at her apartment first (she lived across from Heinz Hall) and get money to give.  We usually gave at the Horne's Department store, which was a block or two from her place.  The best part about giving was not the radio.  It was the amazing cookies they gave you.  I don't remember the name of the cookies; maybe something to do with stars.  But I loved them.

During my walk tonight, I saw Christmas windows at one of the Department stores in Stuttgart.  I bet that Nathaniel, Jake, and Q would love it here:

Yes, that's right.  They did a Star Wars Theme.  How awesome is that?

It was not all R2D2.

So Maddie and Olivia would also enjoy a visit.  I would say that Santa was a bit shorter than me in real live.

The Truck's arm actually moves.

Christine
p.s. There is a Lego Land in Germany.  Maybe it will make my to visit list.  I am easily amused.

Christine in Stuttgart

Stuttgart is my "new" home town.  Although I have lived here for *almost* a year.  It is the 6th largest city in Germany, generally considered industrial.  This is why we bombed it heavily during World War II.  As previously written, we are home to Porsche, Mercedes, and maybe Bosch (think home appliances).  But we are so much more than that.  My apartment building:

I live in the apartment with the 3rd set of windows (either direction), right side.  It was obviously very warm the day I took this picture as the windows are opened.  I never open windows.

There is a church down the street from me.  Around the lovely church is fire lake.  And as you can imagine, the lake around it was originally used to put out fires.  It is Feuesee Church.  The saying goes that we may have bombed it as well.  And the Germans did not finish rebuilding the top tower.

The Church in the middle of the Stuttgart Mitte (City Center) (two different styled towers):

There are a couple of castles in town as well:

The main castle (now I think it is now government offices but whatever):

Statute of someone (I just kinda like it):

The Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station).  It was the first thing built after WWII.   As a side note, Germans like long words.  So they put all the words together to make up one word.  This may be why I can't speak Deutsch.  Just throwing it out there.  

This is not an in and out bahnhof (train station).  The trains pull in and then there is a separate engine in the back that takes the train out again.  So essentially, every train has at least 2 engines.  This is not very economical.  Years ago, the powers that be decided to expand the Hauptbahnhof.  And make it a threw station.  So that a train could come in and leave without backtracking.  There is a group called Stuttgart 21.  They are "environmentalist" who protest the expansion.  It is suppose to be done in 2021.  Hence the name.  They camp in the park next to the hof (station).  (It is to the right in this picture.)  The park will be gone once they expand the bahnhof (train station).  The Germans love trees.  They are quite upset that very old trees will have to be cut in order to expand the station.  They should have cared back when the vote was taking place.  (My free advice.)

Sometimes they march through town as well.  Germans have to obtain permits to protest.  The polizie (police) always know when there will be a protest.  And they have enough in case things get out of hand.  Which I doubt they ever will here.  (There is a cop on the right hand side.)

One guy does chalk art work on Koenigstrasse (King Street).  This is the main shop street, where the castle is located.  No cars allowed.

 

There is some interesting architecture as well.

I'll post more pictures of the city another.  Something to look forward too.  Ha ha  I look forward to Mayrhofen, Austria and skiing this Thursday, Thanksgiving.

Christine
**Pictures were taken on different days.