OK, here's an update for the travelers for 30 June to 18 July:

- On 30 June, this Saturday, we check out of our apartment here in Kindsbach by Baeren Loch, the Bear Lake
- The night of 30 June we stay in Baden-Baden near the Black Forest in the Hotel Haus Reichert
- The next two nights, of 1 and 2 July, we are at the Hotel Baeren (yup, more bears) in Meersburg, which is midway down the northern shore of Lake Constance between Germany and Switzerland
- Then on the 3rd of July we head for Garmisch on the Bavarian border with Austria. There we will stay from the 3rd to the morning of the 11th at the Ferienwohnung (guesthouse) Almrausch which is right in the center of the village
- On the 11th we depart the Bavarian Alps for Switzerland and stay in the Hotel Prussien in Neuchatel on the lake by the same name on the left side of the country
- On the 12th we plan to stay in the vicinity of Dijon France at a small hotel in the village of Mercurey named the Hotel val d'or
- We depart Dijon on the morning of the 13th and arrive at the Paris CDG airport to turn in the rent car and get a lift downtown
- For the night of the 13th through the morning of the 18th we’ll be in the Best Western Premier Au Manoir Saint Germain De Pres on the Left Bank
- On the 18th we taxi to the Paris CDG airport and get our flight (Air France 352) back to Toronto arriving there about 1pm on the 18th

Whew

This is the Rathaus (city hall) Restaurant where we have eaten many times. We became friends with the owner and his wife who had a store next door which we also frequented. Each time we come back we chat a bit with them. Unfortunately, because the city built a ring road around Ramstein, the central buisness folks are doing poorly and the wife had to sell her store and the restaurant had to quit doing dinnner fare; now just light meals like Hawaii Toast which is a favorite here, sliced ham and pineapple baked with cheese on toast.

In the village of Ramstein, where we lived when we were stationed here, the Catholic church is very prominent. It was about a hundred yards across from our front door and the bells chimed 24 hours a day.

This barrel is in the town of Bad Durkheim on the German Wine Road which paralells the Rhine and is home to many wine fests. The barrel says it holds 1,700,000 liters which should make for a good fest. Actually attached to the right of the thing is a restaurant where we ate another fine meal.

This was the only entrance to the Castle where we stayed. The picture doesn't show it but below the rickety bridge it was about a 300 foot gorge and you could see through the boards as I crept over the thing.

On Sundays like today, not that many places are open so we gravitate to the Shell truck stop near our place for a really great breakfast. The truckers cannot operate on Sundays either, so the long haul guys need a place to spend the day and the Shell station is it. For 6-8 Euros you can have 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 bacons, coffee and juice, and all the bread and cheese you can eat. Actually the crowd today was mostly folks like us just having breakfast early ... 9 or so.

Saturday we went over to France and the little village of Bitche … and yup that's the way it is pronounced in French. In spite of that it is host to an awesome citadel that looms above the city and was instrumental in the Franco-Prussian battles around 1870. For Richard and Kerry we ate in the same little restaurant we ate in some 8 years ago or so. After eating we did the audio and film tour of the catacombs in the citadel and it was as awesome and chilling as ever. The tiny chapel was built in 1678 on a site that has had a chapel since the 1100s.

Now after weve been here about three weeks, Bob and Julie are getting ready to leave for the States ending their three year tour. On Monday their packers come and then on Tuesday the movers … to crush all their stuff into containers for the long ship and rail journey to Portland. On Friday they board a military flight home and we will begin the next part of our journey.

A little about our daily life. In spite of the frogs, our little house on the lake is working out super. The only things we don’t have are a washer-dryer in the place or a computer hookup of any sort. Both are necessities. So we pop over to the base every other day or so between touring sorties and while Jo-Anne cleans out the latest wine stains from our stuff, I try to keep you updated. The problem with not having a computer at the apartment is time and that has restricted how much I can put on the blog … particulary pictures. We now have hundreds of beautiful shots that I wish we could get to whoever was interested, but that may take mailing a CD or some other method … but I’ll work on it.

We spent last Wednesday night in the Burghotel Auf Shoenburg 500 feet above the village of Oberwesel on the Rhine or Rhein. Absolutely spectacular! The rooms are immaculate and very well equipped and there is a bottle of conac on the table to use as you wish … free. Inside the minibar the water, soda and beer were 1 euro each. After drinks on the patio looking down on 5,000 years of history on the Rhine, we had a fantastic dinner in the castle dining room. One the way home we picked up another dozen cases of wine for the Tillemas to ship with their household goods. Hey, really good wines … we know, we tasted em … anywhere from 2.8 to 4.5 euros a bottle.

"Boy this is a great view of the Rhine river, eh Bob. By the way what day of the week is it?"
"Jeez, Bruce, I don't know. Is it important?"
"I guess it won't ever be now that we are both retired."
"Another cup of grape juice?"
"Sure."
"Ahhhhhh!"

OK ... here's some of the artsy stuff ... Leigh and Brooks take note. Looking through the windows at the Rathaus at lunch out toward the marktplatz.

The square in Bernkastel-Kues and the Rathaus or main business building of the old city. Actually we ate in the Rathaus in the right hand lower window facing the square.

Inside the Rathaus for lunch of wienerschnitzel and pils. Huge schnitzel with sliced pan fried potatoes and salad was $13 and the pils beer $2.50. I figure we’re packing on a couple of pounds of extra body weight per day so at this rate we’ll both be around 300 pounds when we leave … oink.

On the way to Heidelburg, we blew a left rear tire on the autobahn and by the time we could find a place to pull over we were at a gas station where Bob and Bruce changed it with the spare. Fortunately the spare is a real tire and we were off again. But now we have a shredded tire to deal with … the Peugeot adventure continues. After unresponsive calls to the car people, Bruce found a dealer in the next town over and they will replace the tire … for $200 or so …. Ain’t vacation fun. It's taking about 5 minutes per pic to load on the blog ... may have to wait.

Here’s a shot of Heidelberg, one of our favorite places. The castle is spectacular and forbidding above the city. Heidelberg is about an hour from where we are living so an easy trip. Computer is slow today.

Here's a couple more pictures of the local area. Kaiserslautern is about 5km east of Landstuhl and 5km south of Ramstein so we're really in the middle of things. Kaiserslautern is a town of about 100,000 and known by the locals as K-town. The center of the town is a pedestrian mall and hosts many shops and eateries.

And then a couple more pics of our place on the lake ... with Jo-Anne trying to coax some of the barking frogs to shore. We've now eaten at the little stubbe on the lake a couple of times and the wiener schnitzel is awesome.

For the last week we've been settling into our new place and doing some of the necessary stuff like laundry and obviously not getting pictures posted here. We got Lt Col Bob Tillema retired in style last Tuesday and his brother Mike who is a Lt Col as well did the ceremony in excellent fashion.

The weather has been hot ... about 82 or 83 and about 80 percent humidity, so it is fortunate we are living in the lower floor of the house and right near the lake ... at least a bit cooler. We have had an afternoon thundershower almost every day.

Every day there are several people who are swimming in the lake even though it is still about 55 degrees. Maybe before we leave, Bruce will get up the courgage to plunge in with the frogs and fish. Actually the frog chorus at night is awesome ... some of those guys really have a loud ... almost bark! Local legend is that the cheese called Quark comes from the sound the frogs make.

We made it up to the Mosel river yesterday, to pick up a couple of cases of wine from a vinyard we know. Usually that drive is spectacularly beautiful but the haze from the humidity made it hard to see for more than a couple of miles .... kinda scuzzy. So we haven't been able to get any good pictures but will be out this week and maybe go up to the Rhine to play and photo a bit. Then on the way home we went through a pretty powerful t-shower on the winding road near Hahn ... a little tense.

Below is our new place in Kindsbach, near Landstuhl. We have the bottom or ground level apartment in this private home which you get to through the left archway in the picture. Behind the wall and archway is our private patio looking out on the Baren Loch ... Bear Lake. We are the only house that faces directly onto the lake. Across the lake is a small stubbe or bar ... convenient!

Pardon for all the text, but as we just got the the computer hooked up I'll get more pics on here tomorrow or so ... too busy having fun.

Anyhow off Wednesday morning to Paris. At CDG airport in Paris we were supposed be met by the car rental dude at the gate … but noooo. After 6 cell phone calls we finally connected and picked up our new Peugeot (more on the car purchase later) and drove to Germany. We have done that route several times, but it is still a fun and extremely beautiful route through the champagne country of eastern France. The French speed limit is 80 and the road is a smooth trip for the 240 miles to Germany.

We arrived at our new place in a little village called Kindsbach, near Landstuhl about 7 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon. Again our GPS led us directly to the house without any other map or direction.

We took off from Aberfeldy … can’t say enough about the location and the facility. Anyhow off on the A9 north. A couple of years ago we thought we would stay in a little place called Kingussie between Perth and Inverness. Well that would not be our choice now. Kingussie is in the middle of the Grampian Mountains and pretty barren and stark. And if you were staying in the little village, there is nothing near for shopping, etc.

We went on toward Dornoch where we had a reservation at the 2Quail B&B and restaurant. Our host for the B&B is a well known and highly rated chef in England and we were unable to eat there because the booking for dinner must be done well in advance, even at about $180 per couple. Dornoch is a neat little town on the very northeastern coast of Scotland and really convenient to the places to the far north. After we checked in we explored the little burg. We were right on the main street and parked right in front of the place. The town is probably about 1000 people and really compact and ancient. We had dinner at a local pub where we did some email and then were told that at 8pm there would be a demonstration of the local pipe band so we went out into the cool rain to watch. Really neat and the bagpipes are kind of chilling as a military call to battle; but a bit chilly under the kilt, eh.

In the morning our hostess convinced Bruce to have some of the black pudding … better known to us as blood pudding . Actually it was a circular cake resembling a sausage patty but a bit more crumbly … and very good. Then we were off to explore some of the Gunn heritage north of Dornoch. We made it up the coast to Dunbeath where we stopped by chance at the Neill Gunn Heritage center. There, we found out that the Gunn heritage museum would not be open until June first so we would not be able to see inside it. We did find out a lot about the Gunns and a good email address for future research from the lady at the center.

We did go up to the Gunn heritage center just beyond Latheron and it really was wonderful. We wandered around the graveyard and looked at all the Gunn headstones in the place. The setting is truly spectacular and the vegetation is a lot more colorful that I thought it would be. Extremely green and lush and the gorsh bushes are a bright yellow-orange and cover the hillsides. The Caithness region is a truly beautiful place at this time of year and yet very lightly populated … just sheep.

To end our day in the north we stopped off at the Dunrobin castle which is another baronial home still in use today and full of antiques and beautiful art and history. Dunrobin is just north of where were staying in Dornoch.

We will be back to the north as we only scratched the surface of what was there.

On Moday we left the 2Quail and headed south toward Fort William on the west side of Scotland. Actually the place we picked was in a little burg called Roy Bridge to the east of Fort William and a Best Western Grand Spean Lodge up the side of the mountain … actually it was an 1870ish hunting lodge and the views of the snowy mountain were spectacular. Our dinner in the lodge dining room looking at the snowy slopes reminded us of looking at our own Rockies. This was really surprising because we had though that we would see some limited mountains but the high snow covered ones were really a treat and took our breath away.

Our room was on the third floor above the lobby and without an elevator the two 60 pound suitcases, two computer type cases and another bag full of stuff took some effort … a lot of effort.

Tuesday morning we headed back to Edinburgh airport and stayed at a Quality Inn … remember the fire alarm from when we arrived … which also housed the Thrifty car rental place; planning paid off here.

The Quality was a good choice as was the Thrifty rental located in the lobby of the place and that planning paid off.