Lunch Hour Surprise!

Hubby surprised Wifey today with a lunch outing.  First we stopped at Sanders Cafe for a Leonardo!  We've tried to relive this tradition a couple of evenings this trip without success (Unity Day and then Sunday).

After Sanders we made a quick stop by the once a quarter Farmers Market in Ramstein.  We saw signs for this event a couple of days ago, and Wifey (who is a Farmers Market seller back at home) has been looking forward to attending.  The rain had her convinced it wasn't going to happen (seriously, who wants to walk a kilometer and a half in the rain?  Not this girl)

Funnel Cakes

We did not partake, however got a kick out of this milk vending machine!  

Alpacas and alpaca wool products at the market! 

This man carves logs with a chain saw.  You can barely see him at work under the green tent, with an example of his art in the foreground of the below picture.  WOW!

Also of interest - fish cooking over a fire. Each slanted piece of wood has a fish somehow attached to the underside cooking away.

The highlight of the market for Wifey was the one soap vendor:

We purchased some Apple soap and some Aleppo Soap.  We loved chatting with the soap maker who is a also a dual-professional!  Can't wait to try these soaps!

Frontline Community Church in the Rain

Today was our second visit to Frontline Community Church.  Prepare yourself now for a pictureless blog post.  We went to the 8:30 service this morning before Hubby went to work and it rained on the drive there. It rained when we parked and as we walked into the church building.  We could hear it raining through the service.  It rained all the way home and was raining when Hubby left for work.  So, yeah, photos were not on the priority; staying dry was.

Frontline is an English Language congregation about a mile and a half from the Hotel Circle Inn.  Frontline's beliefs are linked here.  Culturally it is a pretty good fit for a church home away from home.  Today's sermon was part of a new series on spiritual warfare.  Unedited notes are below:

Stranger things - spiritual warfare. 

Ephesians 2:10 - you're a child of God called to do good works.
Chapter 6 - but there's going to be some resistance.
6:11 - armor of god
Sometimes what is behind our problems is a present darkness.
Paul tells us to hold firm and fight.
The spiritual battle takes place in the mind.
Place - the only thing these spiritual forces can use is your mind. But the mind controls the life. That's all they need.
Timing - these spiritual forces let no crisis go to waste. They will wait until you are vulnerable and lodge lies in you.
Power - as you replay the lie, it is empowered by your agreement.
Who's voice is loudest in your mind?
How we fight?  We recognize the lie. Recognize what's a truth from god. Fight to agree with God.
Romans 12:1-2 renew your mind. Fill it with the thoughts of God.
Colossians 3. - bible should be really familiar to us.
Every time you expose a lie that is in your mind, these spiritual forces lose their influence over you.
John 8:31 - abide in gods word. 

Royalty Soaps and Benji's Burrito

What better way to pass the time on a cold and rainy Saturday than watching Royalty Soaps videos on YouTube!?  Hubby has never been so glad to be working long hours :) 

We planned for dinner at Zym Remigiusland, however after driving out to Altenglan, they were booked for the night.  Serves us right for stopping by on a Saturday night.  We were able to book a reservation for Sunday night so we'll try again tomorrow.  

On our way back to Ramstein, Hubby suggested we could eat at Benji's Burrito; a new-to-us restaurant in Landstuhl that we had driven past the day before.  Wifey was ALL ABOUT that.  Seriously, why is there a Döner restaurant on every corner and no Mexican food here? Benji Burrito is basically a Chipotle or Freebirds type restaurant.  Wifey had the chicken burrito bowl and then we walked across the street to New York Doner for Hubby's 6th Döner.  He has branched out some and is now ordering Döner Burritos and Döner Pizzas.  We've figured out that Döner shops are like Mexican restaurants at home - the same 10 ingredients packaged up in different ways.  

YUMMYYY!!!

Not Pictured - the 6th Döner.  

A Beautiful Home

Wifey passed this beautiful home while out walking this morning!  The fall leaves just "make" the picture in our opinion. America - you need to up your architecture game.

Circle Inn - Ramstein

This year Wifey decided she wanted to stay in the town of Ramstein instead of the town of Landstuhl.  We've enjoyed both hotels we've visited in the area (the Merkur we've stayed at twice); but felt a new home base might spice things up and give a different radius for walking and exploration. After much trip-adviser research, the Hotel Circle Inn was chosen.  This is on the outer edge or Ramstein; and we now realize probably the closest hotel to Hubby's work.

We missed our hotel when we first exited the round-about onto it's road.  Hotel Circle Inn shares a parking lot with Avis and is somewhat tucked behind the entrance. Luckily we also rent cars that can make u-turns and recalculate! The next few pictures show the entrance area and view as you curve around to the 'front' of our hotel.

across the street view.

The circle of Hotel Circle Inn - as viewed from our beautiful bedroom windows!  

And, our beautiful bedroom windows!  So much natural light even though it is rainey outside! 

Opposite the windows we have a built-in work-space and living area. Also pictured in the center bottom of the "work space" photo is our mini-fridge.  It shares cabinet design features so you can't even tell its a refrigerator.  

Work Space!

Think we can bring this couch home!? <3

COMFY!

Sitting area

 The bathroom is nice and roomey.  I would slightly prefer if conditioner was provided; but that's just me :) Note - German or European towel dryers.

The entry-way hall includes a coat closet and bathroom access. 

Housekeeping is on top of things!  We left our room around 9:00 am to buy some groceries and came home around 10:15 to find the room already cleaned and our neck-pillows artfully incorporated into the freshly made bed!  Love it! 

Old-school key - no comment. 

Breakfast is good, although not the best we've had in the area.  Hot options included a mozzarella salad, scrambled eggs, and potato dish.  3 cereals were also available along with a selection of breads, meats, and cheeses.  Black coffee comes with it, and specialty espresso drinks are available for a fee.  There are also several varieties of juice to drink.  Hubby prefers breakfast at the Schloss with its dried fruit.  Wifey prefers the Merkur's yogurt options.  

Breakfast room/Bar

French Bakery and German Cemetery

We had a bit of trouble locating the french bakery that was recommended by our desk-clerk probably due to crossing 3 languages and two GPS's.  We managed to follow our rental car's GPS to the town where this mystery bakery was located but had to stop in a random hotel and ask for directions from there.  The directions were basically:

• go to the next round about and take the first exit.  
• Then go to the next round about and take the first exit.  
• Then go to the next round about and take the third exit.  
• Continue straight.  

La Mine de Pain did not disappoint.  We ordered coffee that was well - too french for our taste; but did serve the purpose of espresso - keeping us awake!  We also enjoyed a sweet treat of some kind for which we don't have a name.  The whole outing cost about 8EU which is about as much as one drink from Starbucks. Also, free-wifi allowed us to download and install google translate as well as the French and German Language packages which we had forgotten to do before leaving for Europe.  

Across the street from La Mine de Pain was a grocery where we purchased all-important bottled water; a necessity for the night!  Wifey drove home.  #WomenWhoKnowHowToDriveAManualTransmissionRock

Isn't this the nicest restaurant bathroom sink you've ever seen? 

After returning to our hotel across the border in Germany, we went for a walk .... because (1) avoiding sleep and (2) Wifey has a one year goal of walking 10K steps every single day.  We're just over 9 months in, so today isn't the day to break her streak! 

Random statue we saw along the way!  This was in Landstuhl.  

We also wandered into an old German cemetery.  It was clearly catholic and dates from the mid 1800's.  Most of the tombstones are no longer legible however.  We thought for a while the local sur name must've been Goff or Gott.  It's not.  Gott means God in German.  Apparently folks write "God" on their tombstones a lot here.  

For dinner we chose to visit New York Donor in Landstuhl.  We've been here several (many?) times before and it was one of the few places open on the holiday. We knew it'd provide a good quick meal that both of us would enjoy.  (Wifey doesn't eat Donor).  We were right.   

After dinner, we returned to our hotel room for the night and settled in for a few hours of work before bed!  All-in-all; a successful first day in Germany (and France)!

We Stayed Awake All Day! (and Happy German Unity Day)

Jet Lag Is Real.

One of the suggestions i've read for fighting jet lag is to stay awake once you land in a new time zone until a reasonable bed time.  No naps allowed.  This is especially tough when you land in that new time zone around 9 am local time as we did today!

Packing Light This Trip

9:34 - hitting the road

In order to keep ourselves busy we planned to do a bit of grocery shopping before even making it to our hotel.  As we headed west, we saw a scheck-in and knew it was perfect!  However, it looked closed and even had a gate blocking off the parking lot :(  Weird, but maybe it opens at 11:00 am so we decided to go after some coffee and maybe an early lunch instead.

We enjoyed lunch at a small Doner shop a few kilometers from the Scheck-In but couldn't quite understand the feeling in the city.  Everything was pretty dead.  We planned for our coffee and ayran "to-go" but communication failed and we sat instead.  Later we learned the English phrase for "to-go" that might have been successful was "Take-away".

Wifey had french fries and chicken nuggets.  Not Pictured.



Alas, enough time had passed, surely we could go get our German grocery shopping on!!! NOPE. Still closed.  Same with the home-improvement store across the interstate!  WEIRD!

An hour later, we began checking into our hotel.  It will receive it's own post later this week as we decided to try out a new lodging facility here in town.  Wifey casually asked the front desk clerk if today is a holiday and she answered, yes!  Today is German Unity Day.  Apparently on this day in 1990, East and West Germany became Unified.  Cool!  However this means that most stores and restaurants are closed.

Upon hearing our plight, the desk-clerk suggested we head to a coffee shop across the border that also happened to be located next door to a fancy-smancy grocery store.  After all, it isn't France's Unity Day! At only about a 45 minute drive away, it sounded like a perfect option. To Be Continued