Gutenberg (Gensfleisch) Museum

We had the opportunity to see the museum dedicated to Gutenberg's discovery.  Amazing to see the first printed Bible from 1455.  Beate and Marlene got the chance to try out a reproduction press!

Beach at the North Sea

Samuel's sand castle

Walking through the dunes to the beach

Looks like North Carolina but water is much colder!

Vacation in the Netherlands

Well we finally made it to August and are in the Netherlands for the week.  We have really loved it here.  We rented a cottage near Holten.  It has been fun just visiting the local area.  One of the great things about travel it discovering new food.  We have found some great items that we love.   

Poffertjes - mini pancakes are served with butter and powdered sugar and go great with any meal!
Stroop Wafles - just what you would think waffles but with a twist caramel on the inside!
Speculaas - Baked cinammon and brown sugar... delicious

Wiesbaden visit





Beth, Sam and Marlene standing in front of the Roman city walls









Oldest part of Wiesbaden built by Emperor Valentinian between 364 and 373 AD.

Visit to Cologne and the Mouse!

	Well we got to visit Cologne Cathedral or the Dom as the locals call it.  The spirals are 515 feet high and give a great view of the surrounding downtown.  Marlene and Samuel made it all the way to the top.
	It is great having Beth here for a visit.  We have had a great time showing here around.

Ice Cream Specialty!

Well the kids have finished their first year at school here.  To celebrate we decided to go out for ice cream.  They still have ice cream parlors here.  They are mostly run by Italian ex pats here in Germany.  They do a great business in the summer. 

 

One of their specialities is Spagetti Ice Cream. They make an ice cream Sundae that looks just like a plate of Spagetti.  The colors are spot on. They substitute strawberries and strawberry sauce for tomato sauce even press the vanilla ice cream through a spaghetti press so that the ice cream looks like pasta noodles.  This shop had at least 15 different types of spaghetti eis on the menu.  We all just loved it!

A tasty Italian specialty ice cream, The Spagetti Eis!

Happy 4th!!

We all went out to the local Freundschaftsfest which allowed us to celebrate the 4th of July with our German neighbors.  There is a great video someone posted on youtube.


We all had a great time.  Samuel really enjoyed the cotton candy as you can see.  The rides were great and we enjoyed watching Germany beat France in the quarterfinals of the World Cup!  Go Germany!!

There was a great ferris wheel which gave us a great view of downtown Wiesbaden. The kids thought it was great.

 Samuel and his friend Timmy were quite enthusiastic about all the various kinds of candy for sale at the fair.  The popcorn that is often sold here is the what we would call kettle corn (sweet).  This surprised me the first time I went to the movies here and ordered popcorn.  The first bite was shock as I was expecting a salty taste.  All in all it was a great 4th of July and we look forward to the next Fair which comes to town this Fall.

The Quest for the mythical Kia Alternator aka.Part # 37300-3C170 = 37300-3C120

Well like a lot of people who move back and forth between different countries we brought our family car with us to Germany.  It is a Kia Sedona and since Kia is a global brand we thought hey no problem on the maintenance side.  Were we ever wrong.  Kia like all good multinationals markets their products according to local market demands.  What this means is that the Kia you know and love may have a different name, brand, look, wheels, engine, etc...

This was the case for our Sedona.  The other day as we drove home the alternator finally died and with it went all the wonderful electronic devices in said Sedona.  You might be interested to know that includes the engine as well...  Yes, our modern vehicles are nothing so much as computers with wheels.  So as we sat on the side of the road considering life's meaning and other deep concepts.  You see it takes time to get a tow on a weekend when the entire world is watching Soccer.  Yes it is World Cup fever but I will save that for another post.

Anyway, as I have come to find out the parts stores here do not stock alternators for Kia Sedonas.  They have parts for other Kia models but not for Sedonas.  Well I called several outlets in the US about getting the part and wrongly assumed I could just ask for the part number.  Wow, was I wrong!
I had one guy tell me sure you can have the part number as soon as you buy the part and fork out $500.  Oh and by the way you won't see that part for at least 3 weeks!  And please by the way if you don't mind tack on another $100 for shipping! 

Thus began the quest to find a local version of the mythical Sedona alternator.  Yes and quest is the right word to use in this case.  It turns out that Kia produced the Sedona van in many markets under different names.  Our car here in Europe was called the Carnival. Armed with this information I thought great I just get that part for that model and we are home free.  Again I was misinformed.  Kia decided to put a completely different engine(A 2.9L turbo diesel engine ) in the European model.  So now the alternator for that model will not work in our Sedona.

Ho Hum what to do next.  Thanks to the kind editors at Wikipedia I did more reading.  Really fascinating and scintillating history.  Industrial manufacturing history..yeah!  Yes, I know you will be excited to know that Kia acquired the Hyundai Corporation in the early 2000s!   I am sure a triumph of negotiations and Board room power games.  What this means for us was that Kia hit on the idea of using Hyundai products in its Kia car line.  And thus it is so that the Kia Sedona has a Hyundai engine. 

Now I knew I had found the clue to the mythical alternator.  I needed to find a model car sold in Europe with the same engine.  And yes there was the Hyundai ix55.  Don't you just love that name.
Of course to further muddy the waters, the marketing types at Kia also decided to release it with another name, what for it...VeraCruz!  Whoo yeah just think cool Carribean breezes and panama hats sitting on the beach eating fish tacos and watching the sunset.  Breezes and tacos aside I was thrilled to have a local make to take to the parts gods here in country.

I quickly typed in my hard won discovery into my trusty decoder ring (aka.  insert your favorite search engine here) and discovered that the part number that Kia assigned to the alternator for a Vera Cruz was 37300-3C120.   Eureka!!  This must be what the guy felt like at Sutter's Creek as he pulled out that first gold nugget of the American River.  I had discovered the part number for a locally available alternator.

But wait I realized that the official Kia Sedona part number was  37300-3C170 not 37300-3C120.  Arggh..so close but need confirmation.  The part needs to provide 12V and 130 amps of juice to make all the electronics work to include the engine.  I called an alternator specialist in New Jersey and confirmed that the case and power requirements of the 120 are identical to the 170.  I further discovered that Kia marketed another vehicle called the Sorento with a the same engine (2007 model) but which used the same alternator, 37300-3C120.

Now fully armed I did purchase from a dealer in Berlin which can have it here in 2 days!

More to follow!

How do you eat a popsicle?

Annalie got to try a popsicle this weekend.



Which side is up?

She was sucking on the wooden handle

It was tasty anyway!

Kaffee und Kuchen...yummy

We have been back for almost 4 months now and have enjoyed getting access to awesome baked goods.  This tradition of Coffee and Cake in the afternoon is the equivalent of English Tea Time.  Most weekends we gather around the table about 3 in the afternoon for some lovely fresh cake or torte and hot coffee and tea. 

I took this picture of my half finished cake to give you an idea of what has been great about being back.  This is not your store bought sheet cake with butter cream frosting.  This particular construction had 4 layers of chocolate cream filling and chocolate whip cream to top it off.  Don't misunderstand there are all kinds of cakes to be had I just tend to go for the cream tortes myself. 

I'll snap a few photos the next time I am in the bakery.

Fresh Milk!

3 Liters to go!

One of the benefits here where we live is access to a lot of local farms.  During our time in Virginia, we had the chance to make friends with a family which ran a dairy farm and we really missed the fresh milk.  Here right near my workplace is an active dairy farm.  It is great you drive up with your milk cans walk in and fill up!  At .60 Euro = $.80 a liter you can't beat the price. 

Yesterday, I stopped by the farm on the way home and was waiting for the farmer to come up and fill my jars.  Another customer mentioned that it was self service which I did.  No need to wait just help yourself, toss your money in the collection jar and go!  What a deal.

Back online!

Well the friendly technical staff from Deutsche Telekom showed up and reconnected the house to the phone system.  We have 12K down which is decent FIOS would be great but not going to happen in our village for some time.  The technician said that Fiber is being planned but it would still be copper the last 150 meters to the house.  This would mean that our speed would be 50K vice the 100K that most FIOS customers see stateside. 

All said we are glad to have internet and phone service in the house finally.  What really surprised me was that it took 2 weeks to have someone come out and turn the service back on.  I will grant that they were here when they promised to be here and did a good job.  What I wonder was what their management is doing that requires a 2 week wait between signing the contract and turning on the service.

It is great to be able to start posting since lots of exciting things are coming up like Fasching and some travel.  Stay tuned for more exciting pics and posts.

Awesome playground



Well we are back in Stuttgart this weekend to pick up some stuff we shipped via APO to friends. This saved us money on our household shipping but that is another story. We love visiting Omi and Opi in Kornwestheim. They have an awesome playground. We always love to visit because of the "killer" slide and the climbing ropes.  Just a good time for us and the kids.

Rhine river visit

View from the Niederwald Denkmal (German Unification Memorial)

We finally made it out for some siteseeing. After the mad dash to find a home before the household goods arrived, more on the new house in the next post. It was a cold but clear and sunny day near Ruedesheim on the Rhine. This overlook gave a great view of the Rhine river which is something akin to the Mississippi for us.

Getting gas in 13 simple steps!

Based on my last post you will understand why we treasure our gas subsidies.  You could spend hundreds of dollars a month just filling up your gas tank.  So I set out to get the gas card for our rental and to say it was a challenge is an understatement.  I started out with a simple goal of getting the gas card thinking how hard can it really be?   I think hey let's take the kids since this won't take so long and maybe we can do something extra!

Here is a break down of the effort:

Start to finish 5.5 hours!

Step 1:
Go to MP station contract of rental car does not show the current date!  No allowance unless the contract is current.  Ok so head over to the rental agency.

Step 2:
Go to Rental Agency on a Saturday afternoon.  This could be a problem. Yepp when it comes to hours of operation Germans love their weekends.  Office is only open from 11-1 Saturdays.

Step 3:
Their is another rental agency across town that might be open! Arrive at the Rental Agency and surprise... They are not at their desk.  Sign posted says they will be back momentarily.  Waited 10 minutes hmm... my understanding of moment is apparently different then the person working at the desk. 

Step 4:
Give up and go to the Bowling Alley around the corner.  The kids are thrilled and we have something to eat there as well.  Now enough "Moments" have passed (1.5 hours) and I hope someone is manning the rental desk

Step 5:
So back to rental agency to get an updated contract.   How long can that really take?  Let's just say it was a few "Moments"  30 minutes to be exact.  Contract update process I am told is simple takes about 2 minutes to print out on dot matrix printer!  Wow,  I haven't seen one of those in at least 10 years.  Yes, and it still works.

Step 6:
We have the updated contract!  Kids getting restless.  Dad how long is this going to take....
Race back across town MP station has correct paperwork and now I can get the paperwork.

Step 7:
Over to the gas station wait in gas issuing point to get ration card. 

Step 8:
I can now pump gas!  It has only taken me 5 hours.  Woo-hoo almost their all we to do is pay no problem right?

Step 9:
Go to paypoint show ration card...Nope you need the piece of paper which says you can have the ration card.  Yes folks that is right, you have to show the ration card which you can't get without the piece of paper and the piece of paper that says you can have the ration card.  Umm...why do I need a ration card then if I already have the piece of paper?

Step 10:
Back to the car to get the piece of paper got it!

Step 11:
Show piece of paper and ration card and ID card and yes almost forgot means of paying for the gas. 

Step 12:
Swipe all the cards and now I can pay!!

Step 13:
But wait your credit card has been denied do you have another means of payment.  Thank God yes I do the other card works and now I am paid.


In the meantime two people waiting behind me.  The lady is laughing the guy is huffing and puffing about the wait.  Please people never forget what it is like learning how the system works.  Have some Mercy and patience.  I just spent 5 hours of my life trying to buy gas!!!

Fill up your car for a mere $148!

Well we are settling in nicely in spite of all the crazy inconveniences of an international move.
One thing we have learned is be flexible.  One thing to note is that gas in Germany is EXPENSIVE!
That is why we really appreciate the subsidized gas we had the opportunity to buy.  To give you an idea here is what it would normally cost:

A normal car has about a 20-30 gallon tank.  Gas is sold here by the liter not the gallon.
That means that your 20 Gallon tank is 20 x 3.78 = 75.6 Liters.  That is a our starting point
now figure that the average price of unleaded gas is about 1.43 Euro.  We also will use the dollar
to Euro exchange rate to get comparable price denominated in Dollars, $1.37 to 1.

Price per Gallon
3.78 x 1.43 x 1.37 = $7.40 per gallon

Average fillup will cost you
20 x 7.40 = $148

Ouch, is right which is why we appreciate the chance that we have as military members to buy the gas at US prices. 

House

Well the house has been picked and the key handover is scheduled for this morning at 10 AM Central European Time!  We are excited to finally have located a place which will be our new home away from Ruckersville.  Everyone can't wait to get into the house.  The movers will be here early next week with all of our household goods.  It is going to be great to be reunited with all of our goods.  We will post some photos once we have them!