Verdun, France

We decided to try to make the most out of our spoiled weekend plans. Though we couldn't go to Munich, we could still do something. We kicked around a few ideas, then settled on Verdun, France. Verdun is about a two hour drive from our house, and it a site of World War I battle fields and trenches. It is something we have talked about doing for a long time, and decided to take the time to do it.

Our first stop was a French cemetery. As we pulled into the parking lot, the sky opened up and poured - absolutely poured - some of the hardest rain I have ever seen. Within a few minutes my shoes were completely soaked. I spent the rest of the day with wet feet, which was slightly miserable. However, I feel like the weather being dark and rainy was appropriate when visiting areas where so many young men died.

By this point we were already soaked through, so we decided to just keep going. We went further up the road to an old fort. The fort was used during World War I, but was built hundreds of years before. You can see many areas around the fort which are pot-marked from mortars. Josh walked around on the inside of the fort, but I chose to stay outside.

After our time at the fort, we walked around and followed some of the old trenches.

The sun finally came out, which offered me some better opportunities to take pictures of the cemetery.

We decided to take a small break and went into the town of Verdun itself. We bought sandwiches at a bakery and then sat along the river. Verdun itself is a quaint, beautiful little town. I feel the memories of World War I are all over the town - they have never forgotten.

There is suppose to be an American cemetery nearby, but we didn't have an address to put into the GPS, and the directions we did have (via Rick Steves) didn't lead us to it. After driving around in vain, we decided to go home.

There are many abandoned trenches, forts, and old battlefields which litter the area around Verdun. If you wanted to, you could spend days exploring the area. Although we started out in miserable weather, it turned out to be a nice day.

Upcoming Plans - Tracing Family Roots

I have been a bit under the weather this week. Although it is still August, our area of Germany has decided summer is over and fall has arrived. Every day has been in the low 60s with rain. I am not a heat person, but I'm not sure if I was ready for the summer to be over so quickly. Accompanying the fall weather has been my first cold of the season (or what I think is a cold - it could just be bad allergies). Generally blech. Despite this, a highlight I was looking forward to was Josh was suppose to have Friday off, and I had Friday off as well. We were planning a trip to Munich with a friend to do our own personal brewery/beer tour of Munich. Essentially drink our way through Munich. When in Rome...  But, Josh ended up having to work, and it would have cut our time in Munich down by an entire day, making the trip not worth it (since Munich is about a five hour drive for us). SIGH. That seems to be how our summer is going. We make plans, only to have something come up or get in the way. I am trying to not be frustrated by this. The way I am distracting myself from the situation is putting the finishing touches on upcoming trips.

And with that, I will announce and unveil my upcoming plans for my parents' visit.

After we found out Josh was going to be able to stay in the military and we would be completing our time in Germany, my parents started talking about their next trip over to visit. They were waiting to hear what our future plans were as well before they planned a trip. Once we received our good news, it was the green light to start planning a trip. We have found Thanksgiving is a good time for visitors - plane tickets are cheaper, Europe is not in "high" season and is cheaper, and visitors can get a taste of the European Christmas season. My parents were saying Thanksgiving would be a good time for them to visit again this year. We were discussing what areas/where we could travel while they visited. My great grandfather on my Mom's side is from Germany. We have talked about going to the area of Northern Germany where he immigrated from many times. However, winter is not a great time to go to Northern Germany - winter on the North Sea - it would be cold, windy, and generally miserable. My Mom brought up the idea of visiting the North Sea again when we were talking about Thanksgiving plans. I reminded her of my concerns of the North Sea in winter. To which I reminded my parents of a proposal I made months earlier: join Josh and I on our cruise up the coast of Norway and visit Northern Germany at that time.

I had found an amazing deal on a 7 day cruise with four stops in Norway leaving from Hamburg, Germany at the end of August. I thought this would be perfect - a cruise would be a cheaper way to see multiple places in Norway, leaving from Hamburg means no airline tickets since we could drive, and we could swing by the area where my great grandfather was from. When I booked our cruise (back in January) I tried to get my parents to book with us then, but they weren't ready to consider it. But. When the talk of trying to see Northern Germany and the idea of enjoying a cruise to Norway (a place they have always wanted to see)... well, I think I had talked them into it. My Dad agreed if I could find a decent deal/price on our cruise, they would come. Challenge accepted - and I won - finding them a good price to join us on our cruise. Dad cashed in some of his hard-earned airline miles to get flights over here. Now it is less than a week until they arrive. Normally I have a few months to think/plan visits. This time I have had less than two months. Not that I can't plan it, I am just used to having more time to figure out details.

Mom and Dad arrive next Thursday after 24 hours of travel. As usual, my plan is just to keep them awake - which usually isn't too hard. We have plenty of shifting around to do getting everything ready to leave for the cruise. I have an appointment for Mom and I to get pedicures as cruise prep, and I am sure we will visit my parents' favorite local restaurant. The next morning, we will leave for Hamburg. The cruise leaves and returns to Hamburg, which is a place none of us have been to before. Our plan is to leave in the morning and arrive in the afternoon. For the first day in Hamburg I don't have any set plans, as you can never be sure with traffic what will happen (I am reminded of our journey to Berlin, which was suppose to be 6 hours that turned into almost 9).

The second day in Hamburg I have found an all-day walking tour, which will take us around to the major highlights of Hamburg, including a harbor cruise and the sites where the Beatles played. Basically a tour which will go to each place I want to see in Hamburg. The next morning we will check out of our hotel, get the car parked, and board the cruise ship. I am excited to share this experience with my parents. Josh and I usually travel alone, and we enjoy each other, but it will be nice to have other people with us.

Our cruise stops in: Oslo, Stavanger, Geiranger, Aalesund. For this cruise I have booked quite a few excursions through the ship - which isn't something I usually do. However, these excursions just work better for the times we are in port, and for the things I wanted to see/do. I have planned for us to do our own traveling in Oslo, so I have spent quite a bit of time researching what to do while we are there. Rather than detail what our plans are now, I'd rather give you the re-cap afterward. But, here are pictures of the places we are going, which I keep drooling over every night on Pinterest.

One week after we lose, we return to Hamburg. After we retrieve our belongings and car, we are traveling to Bremerhaven, Germany - a smaller port city on the North Sea. To our knowledge, this is the port where my great grandfather left Germany from. Bremerhaven is also an area where I could find a hotel, as the small farming town my family is from doesn't have many housing options. In Bremberhaven there is a an immigration museum, which is something I want to see, a for-sure stop. There are many other sightseeing options in the area I have researched - it just depends on what everyone wants to do and how much time we have. The main focus of our trip will be going to Holtgast, my great grandfather's hometown.

When I was researching our time in Holtgast, my Mom had asked if I was planning to find or research any extended family which still lives in the area. I wasn't sure if I would be able to find anyone who was family, or who would remember who my grandfather was. I was looking on Google one morning, and typed in my family name with Holtgast. I found this link - which, if you open in Google Chrome it will automatically translate it, or you can use Google translate. The link shows a picture of my great-great grandparents, and the farmhouse where my great grandfather grew up. There on the page shows my great grandfather's family tree. I was blown away. There, plain as day, easy to see and find, was my family history. As I looked through the site, I was hoping it would list an address where the farm house was, so it would give me a way to get to it. I didn't find an address. However, on the main page for Holtgast, there is an email address where any family history inquiries can be sent. Well. What did I have to lose? I sent off an email (with the help of Google translate turning my English into mediocre German) with the link, explaining how I was related to the family, and asking for the address to the farm house. I thought I may never get any sort of response.

To my surprise, I had a response in less than 24 hours. Even more surprising, the town historian responded informing me my great-grandfather was his uncle. Although I had to put his response into Google translate (as he wrote back in German), I got the basic jest of his letter. I think he was as surprised and excited to have heard from me as I was from him. We have emailed back and forth a few times. Our tentative plans are to meet up with him in Holtgast, and he has agreed to show us the family home. My Mom is bringing family photos for him to keep, as well as some Montana momentos. I am excited to be tracing my roots - something I have dreamed about doing since we moved here, but haven't known where to start. Our meeting will be interesting as I believe our relative only speaks German, and the only person who speaks German is my Mom, and she isn't super confident in her skills. But, I am hoping we will find a way to communicate. It is still exciting, even if there may be a huge communication barrier. 

After two days in Bremmerhaven, we will return to our house. My parents will only have that evening to see their grand-kitties and repack their bags before they have to leave the next day. It will be a whirl-wind, like most of their trips over here are. I am excited for all the moments we are going to share together.

Many people I have met and spoken to in my time here have never had family members come visit. There are many reasons for this - financial, time, family ties and relations, excuses - many combinations of all of the above. This will be my Mom's fifth trip here, and my Dad's fourth. I am extremely lucky my parents are willing and able to make the trip over to visit us. I am luckier than most. I am excited for this coming week to hurry up and pass so my parents can get here!

A Failed Trip, and the Post-Failure Shopping

One of the popular things to do over here is to take a trip to Poland to go shopping for Polish pottery. It is an extremely popular "girls trip." Polish pottery is pottery hand-crafted and hand painted/stamped. There are multiple factories in one town, and you can get high quality pottery at a fraction of the price you can find it for in our area. I have always wanted to go Polish pottery shopping, but have been putting it off. I think the big thing hindering my girls shopping trip is a lack of girl friends. There are only a few people I would be willing to make this trip with, and it has been hard to coordinate schedules. The base offers a Polish pottery shopping trip once every year in August. This trip includes the bus trip to Poland, overnight in a hotel, and usually a stop is made along the way for other sightseeing (such as Dresden). When the date was announced for the trip this year, I decided I was tired of waiting for a trip, I was content to go with the base trip by myself. And hey, maybe on this trip I would meet new people or even make a new friend.

However. My trip was cancelled a few days before it was suppose to leave due to lack of participation (only three people had signed up for it). Meh. I was somewhat disappointed as I had been looking forward to my trip. I also had, after three years, decided I was ready to invest in some nice pottery/pieces. I was bummed.

A lady I work with told me she had bought her pottery at an off-base Polish pottery shop in Ramstein, and she had been happy with the quality and service. This co-worker also pointed out that once I figured the money for gas/hotel or for the trip to Poland... the prices were about equal. She had a point. So I spent a portion of my afternoon when I should have been in Poland shopping for pottery in Germany. Not quite the same. But I still am happy with what I found for myself.

What I had wanted to find were some bigger bowls to replace the plastic/garage sale type bowls I had. What I like about these is aside from being huge, they are dishwasher safe. I am so please with my upgrade! Some people find one pattern they like and stick with just that one pattern. I personally would rather get a little bit of everything and have an eclectic mix.

I had mentioned to some co-workers about my failed trip. The silver lining - there was a flea market that weekend. So while I wasn't in Poland, I was able to go shopping at a flea market. We started out the morning early - 6:30! While that isn't early for me since I am up early for work during the week, it was an early start for a Saturday of shopping. There were hundreds of stands at this market selling everything from clothing, to antiques, china, electronics, and junk. Some of my co-workers were there looking for specific things, and really had some good luck. I was mainly there just to browse and see if there was anything I stumbled upon. I did find a few treasures. I found a few small pewter steins with hunting scenes on it. I also found an antique book about castles on the Mosel river. Each item 2 Euros.

I like this book because the castle on the cover is Cochem castle - which is near Spangdahlem, and we have been there before. Cochem castle is used on a lot of Spangdahlem decorations.

So while I didn't get to go to Poland, I did get some new treasures for myself. I also discovered an amazing flea market which occurs once a month.