It’s November and the cold weather is officially here! Until now, the weather has been sunny and in the high 50s/low 60s. This week the temperatures have dropped to the high 40s/low 50s and been really cloudy and rainy. We also changed the clocks back last week so it has been extra dark. It seems like the winter is finally here.
We had a jam-packed week! Tuesday was Halloween and we all went on base for Trick-or-Trunk. Ryan dressed up as a special forces soldier to collect candy and Brooklyn dressed up as Spider-Man to work at a fundraiser for her softball team.
Halloween is not a big holiday in Germany and is only just starting to be celebrated by Germans so the base puts on a lot of different activities. We go to the one closest to our house and it is a huge event with tons of concessions, performances, games, and about 100 cars decorated and giving out treats.
As we were driving home from Trick-or-Trunk, we saw SO MANY Germans out trick-or-treating. Last year we saw one family all night, and the year before, none. This year, there were also so many houses fully decorated for Halloween. It is crazy how much it is growing here, and how fast.
Wednesday night, we attended a “Wetting Down Ceremony” for one of our friends. A Wetting Down is a promotion ceremony for someone in the Navy. The newly promoted sailor invites his friends and family for dinner and drinks and covers the tab up to the increase in their salary. Luckily for us, they held the party at a restaurant within walking distance of our house. It was super special to be there. Many of Rob’s family, friends, and colleagues had flown in from the U.S. to attend, including his mentor who gave him his oath of office right in the restaurant. It was really cool to be there.
Friday night, we went out to dinner in Sindelfingen and had dinner at Funzel, a German restaurant that Matt has been wanting to try for a long time. It was the first time we had been inside and to our surprise, it looked like a log cabin on the interior. Of course, I forgot to get a picture. Afterwards, we stopped outside on the market square, where the winter hut was set up this week and glühwein was being sold.
On Saturday, Ryan set out on another camping trip with Boy Scouts. This weekend, they were working on archery and knife skills. They did a cold weather camp-out (which ended up being really cold due to high wind gusts over the weekend) and then did a 3 mile ruck back to base, carrying all their gear. The troop here is really focused on skill building, independence, and accountability. A few months ago, I had a hard time getting Ryan to carry a dish to the sink. Now he is hiking 3 miles with all his camping gear on his back and said it was “fun.” We also really love that while there are adults present, it is really a “student led” activity. The Scouts plan every event and assign each other duties and responsibilities at a meeting in advance. Last month, Ryan was responsible for feeding everyone. This included doing all the grocery shopping and cooking. This week, his job was to run one of the day’s activities, teaching younger scouts about knife and axe safety so they could earn their badge. The Scouts are responsible for setting up and taking down their own tents, and must pack their own bags. It has been awesome to see Ryan become so much more independent and how much he loves it, on top of it.
I headed to Ribeauvillé, in Alsace, France for a quick getaway with some friends over the weekend. Ribeauvillé is just across the border and a little over two hours away. We started the trip with a quick stop at Cora, France’s version of Costco, to stock up on French wines, chocolates, and Christmas gifts.
Then, we headed on to Ribeauvillé where we checked into our hotel, walked around, and had lunch. We had planned on doing the Three Chateaus hike in Les Vosges mountains, but it had been raining most of the day so we stayed in town instead. We did a lot of shopping on the town’s Grand Rue and did several wine tastings at the town’s big vintners, Louis Sipp, and Caves de Ribeauvillé. We made several purchases and by the end of the day, were running out of room in the car to store them.
We had dinner at the Ami Fritz hotel, which has a wine cave restaurant. They had the most delicious Onion Soup, which I will surely return for, and pepper steak.
We finished the night back in the hotel lounge where we sampled one of our wine bottles from our shipping excursions that day.
We could hear rain coming down all night and Sunday, to our surprise, we woke up to a beautifully sunny morning and a rainbow just outside our window. We had breakfast at the hotel and then decided to do the Three Chateaus hike.
The hike starts in the town and then leads up some trails through the vineyards, which had changed into their fall colors. Then, it led up into the woods behind the town. At this point, some light rain started moving in and out, interspersed with periods of bright sun and blue skies. It was so weird to have to pull up our hoods and put hats on one minute, only to take them back off and put sunglasses on the next.
Finally, we reached the mountain ridge and could see all the way across the valley, almost to the Rhine River. There were multiple mini-rainstorms moving through the valley and we could see where it was raining just a few miles away.
We explored the two castle ruins of Chateau Girsberg and Chateau St. Ulrich. It was starting to get so windy. The entire region was under a severe wind gust warning and it was so strong, my cell phone was almost blown out of my hands several times. When we were done, we hiked back down into town, this time on the front side of the mountain through the vineyards.
We ended the trip with one last walk around town and lunch, and then headed back home.
While Ryan and I were gone, Matt and Brooklyn hung out around home and attended a boxing match on base.
When we were all finally reunited on Sunday evening, we went to downtown Stuttgart for dinner at Malo. We have been wanting to try this restaurant for sometime now. Back in February, we told Brooklyn to choose a restaurant for dinner. She finally chose sometime over the summer, but every time we tried to go, a conflict came up. We finally made it Sunday night and the food was so good. The restaurant is decorated with so many plants and green lights, it makes it feel like you are in the jungle. It was a super fun way to end the weekend.
Gilcrests Abroad 