Week 7: Out of Quarantine!

The kids are finally out of quarantine and we have been busy running back and forth to appointments and doing some exploring in between.

Even though Germany ended its quarantine requirements for travelers from the U.S. the prior weekend, the base did not update their own quarantine policies in time for the kids to make an early escape. Luckily they only had to do seven days and were released on Tuesday.

That evening, they picked me up from work and we went to Downtown Stuttgart to do a little walking.

The dogs have also been to trials at three different kennels. Dogs are pretty much treated like humans here and you cannot just drop them off to be boarded. Now that they have their passports, they can get registered with local kennels for when we are traveling. We decided to get registered with a couple since they book up really fast and we may need a back-up plan in the future. The kennels require multiple trial days before they will “accept” dogs onto their registries. The first visit is with the owners. The second is a drop off for a few hours while we stay local and if all goes well, we’re in. Matt has been busy running the dogs to all of these appointments and fortunately the dogs are now on the registries of two kennels and we have most of our future travels covered.

Friday was my first “Compressed Day Off.” I work nine hours days and will have every other Friday off. The timing was perfect since the whole family was out of quarantine. The first thing we had to do was go to the pet store and get seatbelts for the dogs. The owners of the kennels had chastised us for not having them, which, unknown to us before, is the law. Once we got the seatbelts, we were on the road. The weather didn’t look great but we got a break in the rain and were able to travel to Tübingen. Since we had the dogs, we didn’t want to travel too far since they historically haven’t done well in the car. The seatbelts have actually helped them and now they just sit quietly during the ride.

We walked around the park and the old town of Tübingen. The dogs surprisingly did great. They are usually so yappy but they were fine, unless we crossed paths with another dog. We were able to get ice cream, pretzels, and some drinks in the Platz before heading back home. We are so proud of the little guys.

Friday night we had dinner with some friends at the Böblingen Brauhaus. We barely saw the kids the whole night because they were busy playing with other kids on the playground and trails behind the restaurant.

Saturday we had another dog appointment, so after dropping them off, we went to the Sindelfingen Saturday market. We met some friends for coffee and the kids did a little market shopping.

Ryan decided his purchase would be a mini watermelon he found at a produce stall. We didn’t think ahead to how he would eat it but after some thinking, we dropped it on the ground to crack it and then split it open and dug out the interior.

After the market, we picked up the dogs and headed to Herrenberg. We tried out a Kebab shop (they are everywhere here and Matt has been dying to try one). Ryan and I got pizza and we all agreed the food was so good (and so cheap). After lunch, we checked out the old town. Herrenberg is another medieval city that was spared a lot of damage during WW2. It was so cute and I know we will definitely be back to visit (and return to that great Kebab shop).

We took the kids and dogs, who were now exhausted, back to the hotel. Matt and I headed into Downtown Stuttgart to meet some new friends for dinner. My wonderful friend Donna connected me with her cousin who has been living in Germany for 7 years. We had the best time and cannot wait to get together again!

Sunday, we took a longer day trip to Ulm, which is the next city over from Stuttgart. This was the dogs’ longest trip in the car and they did great! We are ready for longer road trips now.

Ulm is… another medieval city 😅. I would compare it to Stuttgart, but smaller, or Tübingen, but bigger. The city had a medieval wall, which is mostly gone, but still has parts of it throughout the city. There is a beautiful old town and Fisherman’s village as well as Ulm Münster, which is famous for having the tallest church steeple in the world. We walked around, ate at another kebab shop, and then made our way back to Stuttgart.

On the way back, there was an accident on the autobahn that we needed to divert around. Our new route took us about 40 minutes out of the way but we drove through the most beautiful countryside and pretty villages. I wish I had more pictures but I am learning to live more in the moment, instead of behind and through a camera lens.

Matt finished up the day with a full round of golf with some new friends he met online. We have a busy week ahead. We get the keys to our house on Monday, and hopefully will move into our house. Then, next weekend, we take our first out-of-Germany trip to Mallorca!