The Month of May (and a little of April)

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.

Gargoyles @ Notre Dame

The Seine from N.D.

Shopping for Dinner

Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Gardens

Lux Gardens

Le Cordon Blu!!!

Enjoying French Wine @ Dinner

Notre Dame

Picnic Dinner at the Park with the Louvre in the background

One last walk by the Touleries Garden

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.

Welcome to Strasbourg

Strasbourg Cathedral

Downtown Strasbourg

Tarte Flambée for dinner!

Ready to Climb some Castle ruins

Looking out over Neustadt

Portion of Hambacher Schloss

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!

The essential race gear and finishers medal!! :)

I did it!

Beth, Me, and Liz post race

Wonder Women!!

Inside the Casemates

Views of Luxembourg from within the caves

Luxembourg (casemates are on the left)

Salade de Chevre for lunch ... delicious!!

Chateau Vianden 

Cool Windows in the Castle

Castle Tower

Cool Door seen on the way up to the Castle - seemed like a perfect picture opportunity

The Castle in the Sun

Castle from below and some of the town of Vianden

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!