I’ve been doing a poor job of keeping up with my blog the
last several weeks to say the least! Things just seemed to fly by the last
several weeks and I especially the month of May so on the long plane ride from
Ramstein AFB to Baltimore I busted out the computer and used the time to write
– pictures will be added once internet is readily available again.
So to catch you up: the last weekend in April, I went back
to Paris!! J I
was a happy girl about that! I had to go back because there were things I definitely
ran out of time with on my first visit. Plus, can you ever have enough of
Paris?!? I ate outside at a real Parisian brasserie in the museum of modern
art, went on a wonderfully long 11 mile run all throughout Paris, waited in
line and climbed up the Notre Dame, saw Le Cordon Blue, ate and fell in love
with macarons, saw the Luxembourg Garndens and had a picnic in the Tuileries Gardens (supplies gotten from a fromagerie and patisserie. The trip was short but so worth it. I found and discovered more things
to do and see so I definitely need to go back to check more things off the
list! I came back Saturday and was able to FaceTime into Ben and Leah’s wedding
(thank you so much Liz for taking the time and energy to cart that iPad around
and show me around). It was so so so cool to see Ben and Leah and so many of my
aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends back home but at the same time really sad
that I wasn’t there in person.
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| Gargoyles @ Notre Dame |
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| The Seine from N.D. |
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| Shopping for Dinner |
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
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| Lux Gardens |
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| Le Cordon Blu!!! |
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| Enjoying French Wine @ Dinner |
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| Notre Dame |
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| Picnic Dinner at the Park with the Louvre in the background |
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| One last walk by the Touleries Garden |
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| Riding home on the French train |
The month of May flew by in a blur, thankfully. I had a
working weekend the first weekend but the next two weekends were great. I went
over to a friends house in the town of Hochspeyer one weekend. It was relaxing
and nice to get out of the ‘dorm’ apartment – I actually got to do some
cooking!! Saturday after a training run of course, we drove down to Strasbourg,
France, which was beautiful and got to taste some yummy local food. Sunday we
went to see the Hambacher Schloss in Neustadt o.d. Weinstrasse. Nothing super
adventuresome but still fun and a chance to expose myself yet again to the
French language.
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| Welcome to Strasbourg |
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| Strasbourg Cathedral |
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| Downtown Strasbourg |
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| Tarte Flambée for dinner! |
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| Ready to Climb some Castle ruins |
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| Looking out over Neustadt |
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| Portion of Hambacher Schloss |
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| Pretty German Sunset |
The next weekend was a trip that I had been looking forward
to for 3 months. The weekend I had been training and preparing for day after
day after day: the Luxembourg ½ Marathon!! This weekend was one of my favorite
weekends and memories over the past 5 months. Friday night about half of the
group came over to my apartment for wine, salad, and pasta in preparation for
the race. On Saturday, we drove over to Luxembourg got all the important race
necessities: race numbers, race t-shirt, and running chip to record the
official race time. The race didn’t start until 7:00 pm so we bummed around our
hotel in the afternoon before finally heading over to the starting line. Running
in the evening was definitely challenging, as well as the fact that the last 3
miles were done in a steady rain (refreshing at first but then kinda annoying!)
but I finished with a time I’m very proud of and hopefully can continue to improve on: 1:46:47. I really
enjoyed running 13.1 miles but the marathon bug definitely didn’t bite me!;) On
Sunday the whole group of us went to this cave system within the old city wall
to check them out in the morning and then enjoyed a delicious lunch in the
city. (how can you not when chevré is involved?) Beth and I split off from the
group and went north to see a chateau that a coworker back home in Virginia
recommended. We drove through the rolling, lush, green hills of Luxembourg
(gorgeous) to the town of Vianden and it’s castle. It was a gorgeous medival
castle and totally worth going to for sure! In fact the village of Vianden was
super cute and looked like a fun place to explore if we had more time and it
wasn’t a Sunday. I was really impressed by the country of Luxembourg in general.
I never would have thought such a small country would be so much fun!
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| The essential race gear and finishers medal!! :) |
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| I did it! |
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| Beth, Me, and Liz post race |
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| Wonder Women!! |
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| Inside the Casemates |
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| Views of Luxembourg from within the caves |
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| Luxembourg (casemates are on the left) |
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| Salade de Chevre for lunch ... delicious!! |
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| Chateau Vianden |
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| Cool Windows in the Castle |
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| Castle Tower |
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| Cool Door seen on the way up to the Castle - seemed like a perfect picture opportunity |
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| The Castle in the Sun |
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| Castle from below and some of the town of Vianden |
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| Our River |
The rest
of the week flew by between packing, out-processing, and good bye dinners in
Säarbrucken and downtown Landstuhl at the one and only Thai/Vietnamese
restaurant that I have grown to love. ;) (it was the same place I went to on my
first night in Landstuhl so many months ago….).
My countdown is zero, and I’m ready to get back to the real
world. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED being in Germany and all the opportunities I
got to experience. I will miss the long daylight hours that have been happening
the last few weeks and will continue to get even longer, the hills on my runs,
and most of all a few people that I’ve gotten to work and travel with during my
5 month tour. However, I’m excited to get back to Eastern Standard Time, friends,
Emmanuel Lutheran Church, and getting to be a PA again (not necessarily looking
forward to long hours but it’s time to get working again…), and of course seeing what
happens to me the next 18 months in Hampton VA!
