last weekend was mellow, but we still managed to find something to marvel at. saturday was filled with walking... lots and lots of walking... and learning our new home. we started downtown, making our way there by taking a new route and savoring a favorite pasttime of ours- getting ourselves lost and then finding ourselves again. the sun was shining gloriously when we left the hotel, but then those pesky clouds rolled in, making the morning chilly, and i was of course in shorts and a t shirt. we went in and out of stores that we came across, looking to buy me a sweater, but after spending the first half of the morning doing that, i got tired of shopping (like i always do) and i sufficed to just cross my arms and ignore the chill. we walked behind downtown by st. michael's cathedral and then deeper into neighborhoods of charming houses, endless trees and vines and grasses, and more flower pots than i have ever seen in my life. standing high above the houses was the tower of a church that we havent explored yet, so we walked a wide circle around it trying to find a path that would lead us there... we didnt find one. so that church will wait for another day. by this time i was ready for lunch, but we werent having much luck finding our way out of the houses and back onto the main streets, and therefore to an eating establishment. we finally found our way back to the river... but it was the wrong side of the river. we walked along the river walk for a ways, which, by the way, was breathtakingly beautiful. with trees hanging into the river on our left, and thick trees growing up and over us on our right, it felt like we had wandered into a simpler time and we drank up the beauty and stillness like it was water. after walking along the river for a couple miles, we finally found a bridge that would take us back to the right side of it, which also dropped us right into the biggest park in bamberg. we didnt explore because by this time we were all starving, but it definitely looked like the kind of place where we could spend a lot of good family time. we wandered along, still looking for a place to fill our bellies, and still not having any luck. by the time we found our way back into downtown, it was almost dinner time. and we finally found a little chinese restaurant to eat at. by the end of the day, i imagine we had walked a good 8 miles. on sunday, we left the hotel with intentions to find a lake that jake had found on his gps. our path took us to the side of town that we hadnt explored yet, which was nice. it was peaceful and green and our map took us out of town and introduced us to 2 other villages before we ended up on a gravel road with wheat and barley fields all around us and rolling hills in the distance. we could see the top of the far-off hills had funny-shaped protrusions growing out of them and we wondered if they were cathedrals or castles, or just big rocks (although we havent seen rocks of that size here, so we figured they were probably something much more interesting). over the tree tops, we could see 4 spires and we both silently discarded the lake idea and let our curiousity reign free. the road that we were on spit us out at the front gate of the palace that we had stumbled on. what a romantic idea, to set out on a walk and stumble upon a random palace. it was beautiful. we were surprised at the grecian statues of gods conquering beasts since our experience of the architecture here was limited to the churches and cathedrals we have seen. we explored the grounds and took a million pictures and then made our way back to our hotel. we discovered that the autobahn that the palace sits on is a straight shot to our hotel. we had just taken the scenic route to get there. so that was our weekend. we still plan to take the train somewhere soon, but havent had a chance to get to the train station and buy tickets. who knows what next weekend's adventure will be, but the weekend after that we finally move into our home! and thank god because all this eating out is making me fat again. german food, with all it's sausage, cheese, bread, and beer is not the healthiest palate. i will be able to cook again! finally, a kitchen! a refrigerator to hold the baby's milk in! and for the first time in her life, kailey's own room! and no more hotel! at least for a while, until we make our way to london for jake's 4-day weekend, where we will go see the last harry potter movie, ride in a double-decker bus, and if jake cant find a way to stop me, practice my fake english accent :)

this weekend we went to our first german festival. it was in downtown bamberg, which is the old part of bamberg. we were surrounded by incredible arcitecture, beautiful sights, and a million people. a german festival is a little different than american festivals in that parades push right through the crowd, shows and acts set up in rather inconvenient places, and there's no way to tell who speaks your language and who doesnt lol... but the ambience and charm of the event is unrivaled. we ate our first german bratwurst and drank our first german beer! both of which were amazing. johnsonville is good, but a german bratwurst blows it out of the water, which is to be expected :) just a few minutes' walk past downtown is the bamberg cathedral, which is the cathedral in my pictures. jake found out today in his classes that this cathedral houses the tomb of the only pope not buried at the vatican. it also houses a holy nail from the Crucifixion of Christ. this cant be viewed though because the church cant handle that kind of traffic. next to the cathedral is a rose garden that overlooks the town, and also looks up at the church of st. michael on the hill. we havent gotten to that one yet but it's on the list. this is all part of bamberg's seven-hills district. there are seven hills and atop of each one is a church. you can see the sillouhette of st. michaels in my rose garden pictures, it's bigger than the one we went to. i'm sure it will be breathtaking. i cant wait to visit these places outside of tourist season. i have this little pet peeve about having random people in all my pictures lol, which is why you may notice a lot of my pictures pointing up- i'm trying to put the bottom of the frame above everyone's heads lol. anyways, it was a very fun weekend. next weekend we're discussing taking the train somewhere, so stay tuned :)

       last night was a little rough. the baby woke up around 1 and wouldnt go back to sleep till after 5. she just wasnt tired. we slept through the alarm this morning and missed breakfast, which was a bit inconvenient because there are few businesses open on sundays here. fortunately, jakes sponsor called and offered to come pick us up and take us to the commissary, so we were able to get some food for the day. i cant wait to have a kitchen again! it's almost criminal, we've been in germany for 3 days and have not tried any german cuisine. the idea of going into a restaurant when i dont know how to order food is a little unnerving lol... so, as much as it pains me to admit, we have been eating at the mcdonalds behind our hotel. tomorrow though, we plan to go out somewhere for dinner. i think i know enough of the language to be able to read a menu.
yesterday i had something of a conversation with the cashier in a store. she did most of the talking and i was pretty proud of myself that i could mostly understand her. fortunately she didnt ask me any questions. it was exciting that she didnt know i wasnt german :) just a little validation for my pronunciation and hacking abilities lol...  we found out today that jake will be getting a lot of 4-day weekends. at least one per month, sometimes more. now the hard part is deciding where to go first. london might be first because i want to go see harry potter :) hopefully the baby will cooperate in the theater. we still havent spent any time in bamberg besides the couple times that we have been on base. jake starts his in-processing tomorrow so hopefully within the next couple days we will have an idea about our living situation, car situation, and phone situation.
the weather here is nice. it's not horribly hot, but it is pretty humid. by the end of the day we all feel so sticky. i dont think the baby likes it very much but she's pretty good about rolling with the punches. we experienced our first german thunderstorm tonight. it reminded me a lot of a good colorado thunderstorm. kailey and i went to play in the rain. she didnt like it much at first, i think because the chill of the raindrops shocked her. but i eased her into it and soon she was running around in it and splashing in the puddles. she enjoys it here i think. there are a lot of new things for her to experience. and of course she is as cute here as in the states, we get lots of german ladies telling her how cute she is and giving her suckers lol... she just sits and smiles at them, probably because they sound funny lol... at this rate she will pick up the language before we do :)

We're Here!

we're finally here! it feels like thursday and friday merged together to form one extra long day. probably due to the fact that we only saw a couple hours of darkness in-between them. Kailey did really good on the plane. she got a little irate when she couldnt get comfortable at bedtime. jake was able to get her situated so that she was finally able to go to sleep. I'll say this, it's not easy dealing with a baby with jet-lag. we landed in frankfurt around 8 am and spent the day in the airport waiting for a bus to bamberg. there were a lot of army families sitting with us, waiting, and everyone was falling asleep. i've never seen such a somber crowd. i have been so excited all day, reading german on signs, hearing it spoken, and even daring to speak a little myself, which can be a little nerve wrecking at first. but it seems that the german people appreciate that i'm at least making an effort. i think i will pick up on it quick, it's very similar to english. we left the airport around 5 pm and after about a 4 hour bus ride, caught our first glimpse of bamberg. we came in on the newer side, so we havent seen much of the old buildings yet. but the post is nice. the ride here was so beautiful, i think i took a couple hundred pictures just from the road lol... it's so green and the trees look so untamed. everywhere i look, there something breathtaking. this weekend will be all about getting out into the culture on our own. it will be a lot of fun. the people seem nice and the architecture is so charming. dispite the language and the sights, i still cant believe i'm in germany. i dont know when it will hit me lol... it will be easy to make this place our home.