Luxembourg & Trier

Bonjour mon amie!

This weekend I had originally planned to travel to Madrid, Spain but due to a series of unfortunate events I had to abandon my previous plans, airfare, hotel rooms, etc. Okay, not really so many eventS as much as a single thorn in my side. I am only allowed to travel within a 600 mile radius of Kaiserslautern, Germany before needing to take leave to travel. Unfortunately because I am considered a deployed person I am not authorized to take leave. While it turns out that Madrid is way outside my radius and unfortunately I was not aware of this policy when I made my travel plans. But luckily for me a fellow Air Force physician had this weekend free and was looking for something to do this past weekend as well. Funny story: Laura is actually stationed at Langley but had only started working there for a couple months before she got sent here. So between her short time there and the fact that she works two floors above me in the Internal Medicine clinic, I had never met or even heard of her. It's a small Air Force world I guess. We finally found some places in Europe that neither she or I had seen and headed out Friday for Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and then Trier, Germany.

It was such a fun weekend and I'm so glad it worked out that she happened to have the same weekend free and needed someone to travel with (God is so good!). Rather then type a whole bunch of words and then post a few pictures, I'm going to share more pictures and type with the pictures. We'll see how this goes...

On a side note, I've reached the 90 day mark already! Time is flying by here. I'm so excited for the next couple months and have a few more exciting travels and things to do before I head home stay tuned. For now though, come travel with me to Luxembourg and Trier. :)

Luxembourg doesn't really have a dramatic sky line and there's not really a place to step back and get a view of the city like some of my previous photos. The picture above was a view off to our left as we were walking up Roosevelt Ave into the city center or old town. We arrived in Luxembourg around 5:00 pm on Friday, checked into our hotel and then walked about a 1/4 mile into the heart of Old Town to the main tourist information center. Once got there right before  it closed and got some good information of a self-guided walking tour along with tips on how to take the bus and then the walking path to the a US Military Memorial and Cemetery. We proceeded to walk around the main parts of the City and then tried to locate a restaurant that we had read about in a tour book. We easily found the restaurant but it looked really dark inside and there was no one sitting at the tables. Now, it's very common for European restaurants to be kinda dead around what an American would consider normal eating times but it wasn't that early so we were a little confused. We just figured it was closed, so we quickly ditched that street because every place looked closed and went into one of the main city squares. 

We were pleasantly surprised/dumbfounded to turn the corner and see a very elegant Pizza Hut Bistro and Chi Chi's!! You can't find an open Chi-Chi's in the US so for all y'all who like Chi-Chi's just hop on a plane to Luxembourg to get your fill. It was so bizarre. My blog would not be complete if I didn't have a couple food picture right? We found a great place right next door to Chi Chi's: le Bistro de l'Entracte. It's cut off from the above pictures because I was mainly getting a picture of the American chain restaurants.

 Started out with a nice glass of Syrah and were then treated to an appetizer salad on the house. It was so cool - we had shots of salad! :)

 This was a great pizza. I had Spanish Pizza complete with crispy delicious crust, yummy tomato sauce, salami, peppers, onions, and salad. Yes, I was a little confused about the salad when I ordered it, thinking oh they probably meant spinach but then this was served in front of me. Instead of spinach, I literally had a salad of fresh arugula on top of my pizza and it was SOOOO good. Definitely a new addition to my pizza's.

Coolest pizza cutter/knife ever!

Plus, to make it even better, I got to eat it with the help of this awesome pizza knife. If anyone has any ideas on where to get a set of these let me know. I want some. They are so cool.

After eating we walked around a little bit more of downtown, stopped of at a cool little bar for another drink and then went back to our hotel. We thought with all our walking around the town finding a restaurant and the bar we had pretty much seen most of the city that the walking tour wouldn't really be all that exciting. We were wrong, there was a lot more to the city that we would have missed.









 Luxembourg City has several sections to his town, the portion that we walked around Friday night is set up on top of large old stone wall fortifications. There is a 'valley below this walls for which several bridges connect to the other parts of the city. Because of this it's pretty hilly moving as you navigate over and under walls and bridges and various parts of the city. It's going to be fun running my half there in May! Anyway, our tour started right outside the visitor center. It was a drizzly, cloudy day so my pictures aren't great, but in the main square of course was another wonderful farmer's market full of fresh produce, flowers, cheese, and meat. I want to live in a city that has a big market like this...

In the middle of the square is a statue of William the Second, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. He was a central figure in the history of this country and city. Just outside of this square is the Palace of the Dukes.

The Place

Just a random street in Luxembourg to help you get the idea of what it was like here.

 From the town square we moved out to the outskirts of Old Town, saw a statue and monument to fallen soldiers in WWI and WWII. This monument is topped with the Gelle Fra aka the Golden Women aka Nike the goddess of victory. Who knows if  you'll find this as funny as Laura and I but on the descriptive sign of the memorial, Nike, disappeared one year in the early eighties and then suddenly re-appeared a couple years later. That's it, no words on it just that she disappeared and then reappeared one year. I mean how does a large golden statue suddenly disappear??

These next two pictures are located to the east of the city center and over looks a town/suburb called Grund, Luxembourg. In the distance is the more modern and business part of town and the Kirschburg district. We didn't make it over there. I'll be staying in that area for the race so I will be able to check that part out.

We continued to walk down the street along the bend and came to what our tour pamphlet describes as the most elegant European balcony. It was elegant even on a cloudy, rainy, winter day! I bet it's really nice in the spring/summer/fall when the plants are actively alive.

 So this picture is in the same location but I wanted to get a good angle of what is the Bock Promontory and the Bock Casemates. These casemates are a whole cave and tunnel system created within the walls of the cities original fortifications. They used them as a hiding place and shelter during WWII. How cool is that. The don't open until March, so I missed being able to go in them by just a few days. Again, something I can come back to in May. (For those of you who aren't aware I signed up with a few co-workers to run the cities 1/2 marathon in May; just prior to leaving Europe. Training is currently underway ;) )

 Just to give you an idea of how high up the city walls are! I felt like I was almost in Gondor! hahah :)

So after looking out onto the city from above we wound our way down to the lower city and into the valley. We walked down rue de Large. The next pictures are of a little tunnel/arch just at the top of the street and then a view looking up what we just walked down. 

 This is the Viaduct Bridge, and what we walked over earlier that morning and Friday evening to get into the city and the tourist info center. It is comprised of 24 little arches and was built in I believe the 1860's. I am standing in the Petrusse Valley and about 100 yards away is another set of casemates called the Petrusse Casemates (they weren't open either...)

 This is the New Bridge or Adolphe Bridge (because it is Adophle Street). It was built from 1900-1903. That building in the distance is the same one as the very first picture I have; the bank museum. The WW memorial and Gelle Fra is on the left side of the bridge.

That's Luxembourg in a nutshell. You could see most of the city/highlights in one day as this walk just took us the morning. It was fun; can't wait to come back in the spring to see the plants blooming and hopefully the beautiful sun. 

We were able to catch a bus and take a short trip outside the city to see the US Luxembourg Cemetery and US Memorial. This memorial is home to 5000+ graves of US soldiers including General Patton. I thought it was odd for him to be buried here overseas, but confirmed that he really was buried here (complications from a bad car accident in Germany in 1945). 

Entrance to Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial

Small Chapel just inside entrance

Instagram Filtered photo of just a small sample of the graves. 

In the midst of the cemetery looking back at the chapel.

We left Luxembourg shortly after and headed back to Germany. Once in Trier we quickly found our hotel and then caught a bus to a local winery for a brief tour (in German, supposed to be translated by some of others on the tour who didn't do a good job because they waited so log before translating and forgot a large amount of what she said. It was okay because I have been on other tours and heard the same sort of thing. Germans make wine the same way American's do!) We went into the restaurant next and tried several different Riesling's.

Riesling Rose; surprisingly delicious

 We got back to downtown, hunted down a delicious place to eat and went to bed. I was so hungry that I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of my food. Sorry! On Sunday we got up and explored Trier. This cities claim to fame is that it is the oldest, Roman developed town north of the Alps. We went to the local amphitheater ruins, bath house ruins, and famous Porta Nigra. Afterwards indulging in cool, creamy, luscious gelato (again, so excited to eat it that I didn't bother getting a picture. I'm sure I'll have some of that again though ;) ). 

Oh, I forgot to mention we also walked by the famous churches in Trier. The one on the left is very large and one of the oldest.

Trier Amphitheater. Once home to Roman Gladiator games; it could hold 20,000 people. The stands are no longer present, apparently the Monks took them to build their homes. Crazy monks. 

Looking out the South entrance from the arena floor.

To live or to die? If I were Caesar...of course to live!  

Inside the cellar/basement. It was cold, dark, damp...can't even imagine living down here if you were a gladiator. It would have been miserable!

Stairs up to the arena. Stair way to light and freedom!

This is one of the main entrances into the theater. In July and August, Trier has a big festival in which they reenact Roman customs including events here at the amphitheater. There are horses but no lions...

The Roman Bath house is mostly in ruins. The main entrance is still standing and pictured here.  Back in it's day it stood at 98 feet high, this structure is only 62 feet high. Can you imagine another set of arches on top of that??

This is picture looks out on the rest of the bath house. The entrance structure is looked to the left in this picture. Underneath this field is a large hallway system that you can climb down and walk around in. I'm not sure what was the point of these halls because they don't lead to any rooms or anything. Just off to my left and behind the entrance was a large network of scaffolding and construction equipment. I can only imagine and guess that they are trying to reconstruct the bath house, but who knows?

Looking up at the bath house's grand entrance architecture. 

The infamous Porta Nigra, aka the Black Gate. Sadly no orcs, hobbits, elfs or better yet Aragorn leading men into battle. ;)

Looking down the Main Street into Trier. Our hotel was about 1/4-1/2 mile down the road. Do you see the white awning coming off the building on the right about half way down the street? That my friends is Colchera, home of excellent gelato! 

Looking out of the window of the Gate onto Trier's Cathedral

Trier. 

Inside the Gate, just hanging out. Man...my hair is getting loong.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Happy March 1st day - don't you just feel spring in the air? It's been so beautiful here; mostly sunny in the 50's and I'm seeing buds on the trees during my morning runs. I'm so excited February is over and can't wait for my exciting trips in March and even better April!! Stay tuned. Love you all and missing you like crazy!

Heidelberg

Enough about work, lets get down to the cool stuff: more traveling!! ;) After being on call and hanging out around Landstuhl/Ramstein I was ready to do a little more exploring. I've been trying for a few weeks to make a trip over the Heidelburg (remember how I couldn't get off the train one of the first weekends I was here?? I was trying to get to Heidelburg and never made it...). I had heard from numerous people about how cool the city and castle is. My roommate decided that she wanted to rent a car for a week, so I convinced her to let me drive her out to Heidelburg the day she went and picked it up. Thankfully for me she agreed and so we headed out to brave this incredibly bitter cold weather we have been having here on a bright sunny Saturday afternoon. (yes, I have been spoiled by living in Virginia to not tolerate cold weather so well, not like I really did when I was back home in Michigan to begin with...) After navigating the autobahn we made it safely to Heidelburg, found the castle and parked our car half on the curb of a narrow road that had quite a few hair pin turns to get up to the castle. Driving these German roads is a fun adventure in and of it's self!! Now that I'm writing this, I wish I had pictures of some of the roads and our park job so I can give you just a little glimpse of what I'm mean. 

The castle, or should I say palace, is incredible. Gorgeous architecture, incredible views. I'm sure in the spring/summer/fall the landscaping surrounding the castle and the views looking out would be awesome. We were able to see the outer courtyard and then paid a few Euro see get access to the inner court yard, German Apothecary Museum, and this insanely large wine barrel. There is a special ticket you can buy to see the inside of the remaining parts of the castle but we didn't do that on this trip. We thought we'd save that for a future visit (got it Mom & Dad?!?).  After meandering through the courtyard and museums and taking pictures we hiked down the other side of the castle into city center and the main shopping street. Just like every other German city/town that I've been to there is a large courtyard surrounding the central church and a bunch of shopping surrounding the courtyard. By the time we arrived, the farmer's market was packing up for the day. We walked through the cute historic downtown and arrived at the arch marking the entrance to the famous old bridge that crosses the Neckar River. This old bridge was part of medieval Heidelburg's fortifications. The bridge that is standing today was the 3rd bridge built as the other two were destroyed by flooded waters and ice damns. They must have figured out how to withstand nature since it's still standing today. We crossed the bridge and wandered up the other side of the mountain to take in the view of the city and castle from the other side. Of the castles that I've been to, Heidelburg is by far the best one. 

After wandering around, looking in store windows and doing a little bit of shopping we were so cold and hungry that we found a restaurant to warm up in and fill up. I was so cold and my hands were freezing because I kept taking them out of my mittens to take pictures! I warmed up with a nice cup of tomato soup and a main dish that in English was called Knight Pan. The waitress described it as stir fry, but it actually reminded me much more of fajitas with the spicy mexican-ness! We topped the night off with apfelstrudel. That  seemed to be the dessert of choice in this city because every restaurant was advertising it on their windows and street signs with their specials. It was delicious! :) We walked back up to the castle, hopped in our car and drove back home to Landstuhl. It took a lot longer to get back because I got a little confused trying to get onto a different autobahn and ended up taking back roads home through cites and the german countryside...I'm learning that German's don't see to label roads and highways very well! It was a great day and I LOVED this Germany city. I can't wait to visit again because there are a few things that we missed during our short visit including a cool train ride further up the mountain to a look out point that has been named "King's Throne". Hopefully this spring I'll make it back so check that out, the university, and some other places and be able to enjoy the seasonal asparagus food festival. Apparently this region produces awesome asparagus in the spring and all the restaurants go all out to highlight this food on their menus. It will be fun to check out Germany's number one visited city again!

Here are some pictures to show what I tried to say in words above. The pictures do a much better job of showing the beauty and incredible views of the castle and city.  

Close up view of the of the Neckar River, tower arch, and bridge of Heidelburg from the castle. 

This picture is taken from the other side of the river looking up at the castle with the bridge in the foreground.

Had to get a picture of myself with the beautiful background. It was soo cold, don't let the bright sun fool you!

This was up on the castle grounds, I was testing out the front camera on my iPhone. Worked pretty well...

Castle ground, main entrance/front courtyard. I bet this place looks awesome in the spring/summer with leaves and flowers...

Looking down on Heidleburg!

The inner courtyard and main building. There was a sun dial on the outside - cool huh?!

The extremely large wine barrel - made from 136 oak trees, capable of holding 58,000+ gallons of wine!! Apparently, it usually held a little over half of this at the most. This is where the king would hold the taxes paid by the local vineyard owners.  

Standing on the bridge looking back toward the famous arch and old town. The two towers have those cool tops on them that resemble old German helmets called spitzhelm. 

Delicious apple strudel - it was yummo!!

Work. Work. Work.

I know you all are just dying to know if I actually do work over here. Sadly enough, I do have to work, at least just a little bit. ;) I did post a lot about what I do several weeks ago but since I've been at this for a little over a month know I have had a chance to get into a groove and know a little bit more about what my job entails.

As I mentioned before, my role at the DWMMC (deployed warrior medical management center), is only one of several keys things that happen when a patient is transferred from the desert to Landstuhl, Germany. Once a patient has been flagged for a need to come here, that's where our team comes into play. We coordinate the flights and necessary medical equipment and persons needed to get time safely to Germany. Once they get here to Germany, a team of air force med techs transports them off the plane and onto a blue bus and then drives them across town and up the hill to LRMC (Landstuhl Region Medical Center). Once here patients are unloaded and brought either straight up to the ICU or if they are more stable and here as an outpatient they are all brought into a room and briefed about what how to process through here. Based on the reports we get from down range, we know what the patient is here for and are able to put in whatever consults to specialist they need to see. Now, all this that I've said so far is done by an awesome team of nurses, or clinical flight coordinators. They do a great job and getting all the right info, entering the consults, etc.

After patients have seen their specialists, had whatever labs or CT scans or MRI's if necessary, they are either determined to be able to return to duty (RTD) or transferred for continuous care (TCC) back to the US. They then see a case manager and finally come see me. I met with patients to make sure the meds are all written on their patient movement record (which essentially serves as their boarding ticket), that all their information about medical attendants, blood type, vitals, etc is written out correctly, they had a traumatic brain injury screening, and that they have all their medications in large enough quantities to get them back to the US without running out. I remind them of important side effects of their medications, sign off on their check list and send them on to get their flights arranged. As you can see not a lot of patient care. The only time that comes in is if they have something that develops during their stay hear, such as a cold, stomach virus symptoms, etc and I can see them for that. I often find that I end up talking to them for a few minutes about what life was like for them down range and pretty much every time make sure to thank them for all they did! Sometimes I have to straighten or clarify a few things and I take the time with them to do that, which they always seem to appreciate. That's when I know I'm doing something important and feel like I'm here on a worth while mission. I can only stamp and sign so many papers as a check and balance before I start to feel like I'm not doing anything for these guys! It's really interesting though to hear what some of these soldiers have seen and what they dealt with. It makes me appreciate my freedom and lifestyle that much more!

The other big part of my job is seeing patients that have been cleared to RTD. I have to make sure their diagnosis fits within these guidelines that were created that outline what sort of diagnosis and or treatments prevent someone for being able to deploy into the desert. It's pretty interesting what fits and what doesn't. So far I haven't had to question what a specialist has determined (thank goodness!! This is the least favorite part of my job because I would hate to have to question a specialist...) but I did have to get involved on one that my supervisor had found to be not fit to return even though the specialist said RTD. That was kind of intense and I'm glad it's over and done with!!

One thing that's so unique about this place is how much I work with my sister branches. It's crazy, I'm stationed at an Army hospital but I'm technically assigned to an Air Force unit at the army base so my flight commander and technical supervisor is AF even though I rarely see them. To top it off my clinic, the DWMMC, is totally run, staffed, and administered by the Navy! I very rarely interact with Air Force people over here.  It's kinda fun to see us all working together, with a few friendly jabs about which service is the best.

Because our office is ran by the Navy, some of my patients can be sailors who have been mobilized to work here at the hospital. There are other sailors working in various parts and clinics in the hospital besides the DWMMC. If they have an acute issue they can come see us for care. Every once in a while I'll see them, which does give me some patient interaction.

We do have to have a provider on call in case a late night/early morning flight of patients arrives and needs a bridge of medications to hold them over until they see their specialists.  So about half the weekends I will have to be around and able to come over to assess the patient and assist in that way. One those weekends I will hang out for a few hours in the fast track of the Emergency Room to help them out and continue to work on my skills. So far I have only done it for one weekend and it was so slow that I ended up seeing a total of three patients in a 5 hour time frame! It'll be interesting to see if every weekend is like that...we'll see what happens this weekend and next weekend.

That's my job in a nut shell, so for all those curious minds out there. Yes, I do work, but I must say it's not as demanding and time consuming as what I do back home. I enjoying being done in the evening and still having time to cook supper, hang out and relax before going to bed and waking up to do it all over again. I'm getting spoiled in that regard and will have a hard time re-adjusting back to life in Virginia...on that sad note, here are a few pictures of my office and clinic and even some showing what happens as patients are unloaded from the bus.

Team opening the doors to start the unloading process of the bus.

Handing a patient off

Here is an even better picture of how they transport patients off the bus onto the gurney to bring the patient inside. This patient is quite a bit sicker then the majority of patients. He went directly to the ICU because of his injuries and level of care. I personally don't see these kinds of patients but the rest of the DWMMC does work on getting his transfer here as well as back to the states once he becomes more stabilized.

This is where I work. The white trailers to the left of the ER is the actual DWMMC. That's where case managers, the nurses, administrators, and all the people who work on the logistics of getting our patients on planes to come here and leave. My office is in the actual hospital, connected to the ER. There is a little ally way between hospital and first trailer - if you go down that you'd walk past my office.

Hard at work inside my office; sorry for the blurriness.

The rest of my office

You know you're legit when the office is labeled with your name!