Schönen-Wochenenden

Loosely translated "happy or great or beautiful weekends." We've taken a few little weekend trips and I just decided to mash 'em together here. Only one was on the Harley due to rain and kids.

This was the first weekend trip we took on the Harley. I'm kicking myself that we didn't take any pictures of the bike or on the bike. We went to Clervaux, Luxembourg for lunch and for a visit to the WWII museum dedicated to the Battle of the Ardennes, known as the Battle of the Bulge. This small town, set in a steep valley was a key point in the battle. It lies about 30-40 miles from Bastogne. Below is the only known remaining Sherman tank of this particular model. It was disabled basically where is stands, outside the fortress, then repaired and kept as a monument to the soldiers who fought here.



Inside the fortress is a very small museum, just a handful of rooms. However, each room is PACKED with thousands of items, medals, clothing, weapons, letters, etc. It is a great little place that we spent about an hour in and really enjoyed the personal, individual aspect of the place. No motorcycle picture, but Jeff is carrying a helmet and wearing a Harley shirt:





A weekend or two later, we headed to Köln (aka Cologne) Germany, just an hour and a half away to the north of us. First stop was a biergarten for some good beer, schnitzel and Spargel (German giant white asparagus--yumm). Katie was very glamorous looking:



We visited the Gestapo Headquarters in the infamous "EL DE" building. This was a somber and disturbing place. Ironically, during the bombing which completely leveled the entire city, the only two buildings of note still standing were this Nazi hell hole and the cathedral or "Dom." After the war, this became a government office, like a social security office, meaning people had to visit this building each month to pick up pension checks--the same building in which hundreds or maybe thousands of them had, over the 12 year "Reich," been tortured and imprisoned.



This is the prison level, underground. The walls are covered in graffiti, left by prisoners. Some just kept track of days, some wrote their stories, only ending on the day they were hung. Some wrote of loved ones they would never see again. The feeling in the rooms was of horror--a kind of left-over evil, sense of sadness and inexplicable foreboding. Which was surprising, since we hadn't known a lot about the place before arriving and when walking into the basement we had no idea of the details of its past. Still the same, you could FEEL it. You could feel the history of the place, and not in any single way that could be considered good. The cells were just wider than the doors, but about 15-18 feet deep. As many of 30 prisoners would be kept in a room after a large "sweep" or round-up. The room they are looking into below led to a smaller room with a torture table where countless innocent people were mutilated to death for information.



What's the only thing that can bring you back from the very brink of the abyss of human evil? Three words: THE CHOCOLATE MUSEUM. That's right. Oompa Loompas and the whole shebang. Chocolate rabbits, cats, bars and yes...a chocolate fountain with all the chocolate you can eat. Just before we cross the bridge onto the island of chocolate (yes it is actually on an island in the Rhine River for safety of the chocolate):

Here's Jeff and Katie at the fountain. You can't see, but the lady of the fountain, her arm clad in shimmering samite, held aloft an Excalibur-shaped wafer, dipped in chocolate, signifying by divine right, that chocolate was to be your king--and that if you smile and say "Mmmm good" over and over, she will just keep dipping wafers into the fountain of endless happiness and handing them to you.

We watched chocolate candies being made, learned about cocoa production (1/2 the world's cocoa comes from Ivory Coast, Africa), ate chocolate cake and had hot chocolate at the restaurant, and decided to head to the Dom (cathedral) along the wide boardwalk filled with young and old couples, skaters, musicians, etc. For proof that chocolate makes you grow up big and strong, check out Andrew:

And Katie has surpassed her mom in height and strength, too:

When we were taking the last picture of Jena and Katie, this car (or boat?) was masked by their bodies. This guy drove right on by. Talk about weird:

Next we went to the Dom. This is a hard structure to describe. It is huge. That is an understatement. The spires are over 515 feet tall. That's like a 50 story building. For perspective, that's as tall or taller than every building in New Orleans. There is one church in Ulm with a single spire 10 feet taller, but with the 2 spires side by side, this represents the largest facade of any church in the world. The inside is equally large and cavernous, but because it is so large, it appears vacuous, not as decorative as some of the others we've seen. There appears to be a project underway to clean it to its original white color. We will come back to see that! Look carefully. Those are people at the bottom:

Katie got so tired of carrying Jena, Jeff had to carry her:

Ah, another Saturday without the kids. Unfortunately, Germany was having a little rain (that's a joke it rains 90% of the time--the other 10 percent it drizzles). No motorcycling for this trip. We drove the car up to Monschau, Germany, on the Belgian border. It is a nifty town of half-timbered houses, filled with shopping and food. The town is in a steep valley and surrounded by a castle wall and towers on top of the surrounding valley walls. Here's Jena in the square where we found a good bruschetta and smoked meat specialty shop:

This is the Rur river (not the Ruhr--a massive industrial river valley farther north, silly) flowing through town, which provides fresh trout to the multitude of restaurants:

Take a close look at this one! We believe this may be the "Tale of Sir Robin" also known as "The Not-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot." For you people who don't know your Monty Python, Sir Robin is the knight of the round table who is famous for having "nearly fought the dragon of Angnor," for having "nearly stood up to the vicious chicken of Bristol" and for having "personally wet himself at the Battle of Badon Hill." Here, he is nearly fighting the vicious chicken of Bristol (really, click on it, look at the picture, I do not lie):

After remembering the brave Sir Robin, we climbed up to the castle wall ruins to look over the rain soaked roof tops. It really is a little time capsule.

All in all a fun little trip with a cozy dinner and good (Italian) wine, that a little rain couldn't hurt. That's all for this installment of Schönen-Wochenenden!

Spring Break '09

What a great break! We flew from Frankfurt to Atlanta, met by Jena's dad, who brought us to Blackville, SC for a few days back on the homestead. It was good to be in SC again and we had a great time and a really nice run one morning. We saw a lot of birds: blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers and more. We also noticed a lot of changes in the land, a new horse ranch, and a general change from wooded to farmed/ranched area. From there, we all loaded up and headed to the beach in St. Augustine, Florida.

James, Diane and Minnie ("Two's" Granny--Jena's maternal grandmother) had their own condo on the beach. We had our own on the 2nd floor of the condos. Jeff, Amanda, GB, Emily and Wyatt (aka JW--pronounced Jay Dubya) Hardigree brought Gary's RV down to the beach and were parked right next door. Rounding out the crew was Katie's friend Devin and her family, Robbie, Darlene, and Dillon Johnson, also in the RV park. How's that for a gang?! Not enough you say? Okay, then Jeff's parents Janet and Jimmy (aka Scooter) drove from Las Vegas, stopped in Gulf Breeze to buy a boat and house and joined us, too! Still not satisfied? Fine. GB, Jeff and Andrew drove to Hahira, picked up Nick and brought him down for the second half of the week, just to satisfy your obvious compulsion to see more names on the blog. I hope you are impressed. I am.

Here are Jeff and Jena relaxing on the beach (or at least posing on a dune as if we were relaxing):

Jeff and Janet walking on the beach. The sand was nice and we enjoyed running/walking on the beach each morning. It was unfortunately cold and windy 2 or 3 days, so on those days we went to the old town or hung out by the pool.

The real motivation for running every morning (our bodies still on Germany time=up early) was to show up at Chez J&D, a little upscale condominium-based restaurant operated for the entire week by James and Diane. On the menu: grits, butter, toast, butter, eggs, butter, bacon (yes with butter), sausage--you guessed it, butter, and potatoes (with butter). The potatoes, alone were worth travelling from Germany, or Las Vegas, or Hahira to eat. Here's a shift of the crew gaining weight like a baseball player on human growth hormones:

If this doesn't make your mouth water, you really need to meet the Hairs and have breakfast with them. This is proof that food CAN actually be love:

After a hot day on the beach, it was time for what Jeff had been waiting for--a low country boil. For the uneducated, that is a SC twist on the good old Louisiana shrimp boil. It is boiled shrimp, onions, garlic, sausage and potatoes. All that boiling is hot work and took a lot out of J-Dubya, but he knew it was time to "hydrate or die":

Oh yeah, GB is driving now, so he and Andrew were rarely around, preferring to cruise for chicks in the Scion (which resembles a refrigerator on wheels, albeit BLING wheels):

While we were cooking, dad sat back and let us do the work, which he usually is right in the middle of. However, he had been sick for weeks. On the drive from Las Vegas, he was actually hospitalized for several days with pneumonia. Not the flu, pneumonia. He got out of bed, drove another 2 days, stopping in Gulf Breeze to buy a house and boat, to see us. We couldn't believe it, and couldn't have been happier to see Mom and Dad. He had to wrap up in a blanket with the sea breeze as he was still fighting the pneumonia. However, boiled shrimp is boiled shrimp, regardless of details like being deathly ill!

Jeff squared (Jeff Hardigree and Jeff Lee, get it? Jeff to the 2nd power!) picking up the low country boil:

Along with the low country boil, Jeff Lee, Amanda and the children have been waiting to get together to have beer steamed oysters (steamed in the same strainer in the boiler pot for about 30 minutes with water, beer and sprinkled with salt and Old Bay). Wyatt "J-Dubya" ate close to his body weight. We even got another bushel to take home to Hahira and repeated the scene for good measure. Yum.

Jeff had to go back to Hahira on Wednesday to get his GA motorcycle endorsement and go shooting at the Duck Pond. Meanwhile, Janet and Scooter hit the road to go back to Vegas to pack up for their move to Florida. Jena, Minnie, Diane and James took a tour of the oldest city in America. The weather was perfect and the tour was rich with history.

Break time for the gang inside the fort:

The next night, we dropped the kids of for the world's hokiest Ghost Tour. They drove around in a "trolley" and went to several lame locations with gallows and prisons and actors supposed to be scary but, according to all involved it was not scary, nor enjoyable. Oh well, tourists be warned.

With the kids occupied the next day, the Jeffs, Amanda and Jena decided to assault St. Augustine and pillage/plunder/shop until our heart's content. Someone caught a picture of us about to plunder the booty:

We found an awesome pizza place in the artsy (somewhat more alternative) neighborhood. This place had great beer and all sorts of interesting pizzas.

We crossed the street for dessert, plus another beer, at this English pub. Why is Jena smirking? Well, read the menu above Amanda's head. You may need to "click" on the picture to enlarge.

Here's Jena "holding down the fort":

Jeff and Amanda are cuddling near the fort. Not nearly as productive as Jena:

James, Diane and Minnie returned to Blackville on Friday. On Saturday, we packed up, bought another bushel of oysters, and headed back to Hahira for Easter and a few days of visiting friends there, staying with the Hardigrees (a full house). We took the boiler right out of the trailer and boiled oysters on the drive. We stood around and ate them right out of the pot. Another bushel down. We should have bought two.

Twas the night before Easter...and we were dying Easter eggs, duh! Jeff did this every year with his great grandmother, Grandma Meedy, then with his mom when Grandma had passed away. Hopefully she can see him and is happy to have given him such good memories and a tradition to carry on.

We got to visit with our friends Susan and TP Perlman and their son James, who is close to the cutest kid ever born (besides ours). He's quite the fan of Peter Pan and smart as a whip. We also had lunch with Rob "Sweetness" Sweet, Jeff's old commander from Moody in the 435 FTS and our friend. Jeff had come to Hahira during the week and had a blast with Rouse, Jeff, Tim, Bruce and the rest of the Duck Pond gang--both shooting guns, then a little imbibing of Belgian and German beers.

The trip was over too soon and before we knew it, Jeff H. was driving us to Atlanta for our flight back to Germany. This spring break really was a booster shot for all of us, a little homesick after 2 years in Germany.

Frank, Charlie, and Alex Visit London

January 2009--Frank and his new bride Charlie visited London with her niece, Alex(is). Jena and I took the EuroStar from Brussels under the Chunnel to London to meet them for a 3 day weekend. On Friday night we met up at our 5-star hotel (Price Lined for a steal!) and went out for great Indian food.

We found our way to an English pub, surprise! They even had beer...



After a few pints, Frank (through his connections at the hotel) had us on the "list" at an exclusive late night club, where we bought a table for the night and got our dance (and drink) on. Charlie knows she's got at least the second best guy in the club:




After a few more vodka and cranberries, we morphed closer and closer to Euro trash celebrities in our new techno-disco surroundings.



It's like feeding your Gremlin after midnight! Jeff has resolved to feed Jena vodka more often. She, Charlie, and Alex were in the groove. Jeff put on a few moves not seen since "Breakin 2: Electric Bugaloo." But really, people, I ask you, "Does the robot EVER go out of style?!"



Saturday, we luxuriated in our 5-star suite (some rumors say we ordered in $60 hamburgers because we were too hungover to leave the goosedown bed). We rallied for a nice Italian dinner in the Leicester Square area, known as the theatre district of London. We got to get caught up in the Palestinian protest/riot (fun...throwing things) due to January's Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This is outside the restaurant right after the last of the riot police moved the mob north.

Getting last minute tickets meant all the seats were taken in the main sections. However, they had the Queen's Box and this box left. Frank, Alex and Charlie took the Queen's seats (she never showed). Jena and I had this private box. I kept turning around looking for John Wilkes Booth. The show was not "Our American Cousin," luckily, but was instead "Avenue Q," a comedy with live actors and Sesame Street-like muppets. It was a bit more adult themed and pretty funny.

Here's a room in our hotel, the Grosvenor House Hotel. The pillows, bed and duvet were the softest, coziest we've ever felt. Laying in the bed was like being nestled in a cloud. I'm pretty sure we nearly bankrupted Frank by emptying his mini-bar!

Sunday morning we took a walk, then parted ways. Frank and crew missed their flight, but got out on the next one. We got a 1st class upgrade on the EuroStar back to Brussels and really had a great end to a great trip. Charlie was awesome. She is very down to earth, pretty (as you can see), smart (she's a teacher), and warm. We joked and talked and laughed like old friends, which I'm sure we will all be in the years to come. Oh yeah, it was Alex's 20th birthday. She was fun and we enjoyed her company, too. She did well hanging out with uncool old folks. I guess we are kind of cool--we took her clubbing in London!