The government’s fiscal year is finally closed so there was a huge let-up in work for me this week. Tuesday, we celebrated by having a team building event at Volksfest. Thank goodness the fest is almost over. It seems like it has been going on forever and I think three visits in one opening is enough!
Recently, the other half of the duplex we live in sold to a new family. The house has been vacant the entire time we have lived here and while we are excited for the house to finally have some life on the other side of the wall, it’s not been without its challenges. Our yard has been reduced by half as the dogs used to have the run of both and now we race home every day to find parking on the street. The new family has been busy every day with renovations. Unfortunately, during the process, the water main from the street to the house was broken and we are relying on a temporary supply from the city. The renovations continue from early morning until late evening and we are looking forward to its completion and the repair of the water line!
It was homecoming week at Stuttgart High School! Homecoming fell on Columbus Day weekend again this year. While this is supposed to only happen once every four years, this is the second year in a row for Stuttgart High. Because Columbus Day weekend is a four day weekend here and many families travel, homecoming was scheduled for Thursday night. Brooklyn got halfway ready at home, let me take some pictures, and then finished getting ready at a friend’s house. She had a date this year, so did not want us embarrassing her at drop off, haha!
Also on Thursday, Ryan left for a four day camping trip with his friend. They went “glamping” in cabins in Garmisch, in the German Alps.
Friday, the weather was beautiful, as it strangely has been for the last couple of weeks. As the banging and drilling continued next door, we decided to get out of the house after Brooklyn’s tennis practice was over. We stayed fairly local and visited the Bebenhausen Kloster and Palace, about thirty minutes south of our house.
The monastery was established in the 1100s and became one of the richest monasteries in Germany. It was eventually dissolved in the 1500s, and then used as a royal hunting lodge, seminary school, boarding school, and parliamentary building (not in that order). Due to its continual use over 1200 years, it’s in pretty good shape.
Brooklyn and I toured the monastery while Matt waited outside with the dogs, who we brought to get them away from the banging at home- they have been wearing themselves out barking at it. After our tour, we walked around the grounds, and the small town surrounding the abbey. The dogs were surprisingly good and had fun getting out of the house.
Our outing did not take as long as expected, so we stopped in Holzgerlingen on the way home and visited the Kaltenteck “Palace.” We were surprised when we arrived to basically find a house with a moat, and not so much a palace. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the stop.
On Friday night, Brooklyn and I went to the Homecoming Football game, which Stuttgart won.
Saturday, was the Homecoming tennis match. Cold weather moved in literally overnight and we woke up to 50F weather.
Brooklyn played a doubles match, which they won.
Saturday night, Matt and I met some friends at the “Long Pumpkin Night” in Waldenbuch. What is a long pumpkin night? We are still trying to figure that out. There were several food, drink, and craft vendors and fest tables set up throughout the town, but no dancing. So, that made it more of a market than a fest. All the town’s shops were also open late. The town was decorated with jackolanterns and bonfires.
For entertainment, there was a singer signing Irish songs, Irish dancers, and an Irish Fire Show (I don’t know what made it ‘Irish’). We were told the bank manager of the town bank visited Ireland eight years ago and became obsessed with it, and hence the entertainment choices that didn’t really have anything to do with pumpkins. Regardless of the confusion over the theme, we still had lots of fun!
Since it was a holiday weekend when we were not traveling, I insisted we still keep busy traveling around our local area. Sunday, we set out for Freiburg, in the Black Forest, and stopped at Lake Titisee on the way.
The town of Titisee is so cute and has a huge pedestrian shopping zone and lots of little restaurants and cute hotels. We did a ton of window shopping for winter gear; it seemed like everything was on sale due to the upcoming end of the season when everything in the town closes. Then, we walked down and checked out the lake, which still had a few brave swimmers in it. We brought the dogs along for the adventure again and we were so pleasantly surprised at how well behaved they were. They normally are a menace to society and bark non-stop at every other dog they see while tugging on their leashes. On this day, they all but ignored the other dogs and behaved themselves.
After our pitstop, we continued on to Freiburg im Breisgau, or just “Freiburg,” in the southern Black Forest. I was expecting more of a town like Triberg, but instead we found a city with a population of 200k+. It has a really pretty Old Town, and a huge, historic cathedral, as well as a huge, car-free pedestrian center. It’s a university town so the population is generally younger and students were everywhere- sitting on steps, benches, and in parks studying. We walked around, had lunch, and did some shopping before heading back to Stuttgart.
Ryan was finally back home on Monday and we picked him up in the morning. We live in the valley between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb, the two major regions of Baden-Württemberg. Since we went to the Black Forest on Sunday, and more so since we haven’t been to the Alb in over a year, we decided to head there for our Sunday adventure.
I planned out a hike around the woods and meadows surrounding Lichtenstein Castle. The trail was pretty steep and took us to some really cool viewpoints. The leaves are starting to change so the trees were really pretty.
There was also a deep canyon along the route that reminded us of the forest in the show ‘Dark’ which was super creepy. We made it all the way to the castle, had snacks in the biergarten, and back to the car before it started raining too hard. We took the dogs along again and they had a blast sniffing all the new smells along the way and again were on their best behavior. We will definitely be taking them along on more adventures.
Gilcrests Abroad 
I always look forward to seeing the pictures of your travel. The downside of it is that it makes me think of my three grandchildren who live in Germany. We have not seen them for ten years. The twin girls are nineteen and our grandson is seventeen. We never really had a good relationship with their mother, so we decided not to visit them in Germany. She would be the type who would make up a story and call the police. She left our son and went back to Germany and then decided it was not what she wanted so we flew to Germany and brought her back with her four kids. She had one child before they we married. Once her she was not happy with being stationed at Fort Knox or Fort Benning. Our son and his family went back to Germany for a vacation. The plan was she was going to stay there while he was deployed but as soon as he got back, he filed for a divorce. When he told me they were going to get married I advised him not to because I felt she had mental issues. Because it is so hard for a soldier to marry a German woman in Germany, we drove the Denmark where they were married. Once they were married, we did all we could to support them, but she always wanted to go back to Germany and was never happy here. Our son retired from the Army and is living in Clarksville Tennessee with his current wife and daughter. We visited Germany fifteen times and stayed for about six weeks each time. We loved being there except for the difficult relationship we had with his wife. The vast majority of the time we were there he was deployed. She made it pretty clear that she did not want us there when he was there. Please keep doing everything you can while you are in Germany. In future years your child and you will have wonderful memories of life there. I have never met a soldier who did not like their time in Germany. I have met many who were stationed there as far back as the 1960’s.
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The kids have really grown. The sights and pictures are amazing.
We did some traveling this month as well. We spent several days in Las Vegas. While there went to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon which was breath taking. Then went to Goodyear AZ. to visit
Debbie Courtright for a few days. She took us on a Lake Cruze of about 5 miles which was really interesting.
It is getting cold here in Idaho as well. Take care.
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