Mini Rover, check, Liter of beer, check!

Well, we had quite the weekend!

It all started at the Lemon lot (a place where people have their cars for sale, which, are hopefully NOT lemons) with a black vintage mini. It was kind of like me and purses, Jake saw the mini and became obsessed. Only problem was, the car was already sold. BUMMER!

On Thursday I arrive back from work to find Jake searching the AutoScout24 Europa website (Think auto trader in German) for old style Minis. By old style I mean the Minis made in England before 1999, yes you read correct, they were made up until the year 1999. Well, we found three. One in Stuttgart looked the most promising and the seller spoke English, a big relief, considering our German is still limited to Hello, goodbye, please, thank you, thank you very much, and you're welcome.

After a quick conversation on Thursday night, we decide we are going to Stuttgart for the weekend to check out the car. On Friday Jake researches how to obtain insurance, and register a car as a DOD (department of defense) employee in Germany. Thank you Jake! This process is long, convoluted and requires interaction with no less than five different agencies who don't talk to each other. Jake also books us on the 4:09 train to Stuttgart. Here are some pictures of the ride. The Train station in Landstuhl.

Arther, the owner of the Mini, picked us up at the Stuttgart train station and drove us to see our future dream car. On the way over, we find out Arther, 1. Is a Mini fanatic , 2. Has a wife who is making him sell his Minis, 3. Was founder of the Stuttgart Mini club, 4. Has a dirty mouth. When we arrive we find out one of the greatest facts about owning a mini,

You only have to pay for a third of the spot

We took the car for a quick test drive then took some more glamor shots.

We went to our motel and had a good sleep then, got up the next day and wandered around Stuttgart:

Me in the Courtyard of Altes Schloss (Old Palace). We found an awesome farmer's market with lots of colorful flowers (many varieties of fall mums)
We bought a liter of the above beverage, Apfelsoft, which tasted like the farmer just squeezed apples into a bottle that morning.

We had heard there was a festival going on in town but couldn't find it, although we did find the tourist office where we were directed to take the U-Bahn (subway) to Canstatter Wassen, and we would run right into it. Well, all we had to do was follow the men (and women) in Leiderhosen (I am really not sure how to spell that word) and we were there.

A beer keg float, I don't think we are in Pasadena anymore.

Out of the 5-6 beer tents we finally decided on the one with the chicken logo, Gockelesmaier, for no other reason than they had outdoor tables and it was a nice day. We were able to communicate with our waiter to order a beer, forget picking the size or type.

Yes, that is one liter! I know, I know, it doesn't count because we shared. But give us time, we need to ease into the festival season!

After all of our festival fun, Arther picked us up and the handoff was official, we are now the new owners of a 1997 Mini Rover, complete with sunroof and MP3 player.

Jake, Arthur and Mini (still yet to recieve an offical name) More pictures of the new family member to follow.

Living arrangements...

So far we are still looking for a house. It's been a fun search with quite a few options. We've seen apartments, free standing houses, houses in the town, houses outside of town. There are houses all around! Well, not really. The supply has been limited because the summer has ended and people have stopped PCS'ing for a while. For now we are staying in a long term hotel on base. Actually, you can see our hotel in the photo at the top of our blog. It's the hotel on the far bottom left hand corner. This is the little town that we'd like to live in. I'm sure we'll find something.

We are Driving!

Well, after two weeks of studying, three hours of class and 100 questions, we got our licenses! Our test included 75 multiple choice questions and 25 sign identification questions. One of the signs is below. The circle on top means no parking either side of the street and I have no idea what the black and white sign below says.

Here is my temporary license

We are now driving a VW polo, which is smaller than a Golf. It is great, we can park anywhere. We have been looking at cars to buy, we are currently hooked on the old body style MINI cars.

This is a 1994 version and comes with airbags, leather seats, CD player, and Jake's favorite, aluminum wheels. We haven't driven one yet, so hopefully we will fit inside, it is a little different from our pick-up, that is for sure.

At the Stadtfest

At the festival in Downtown Landstuhl

The Commanding officer taping the ceremonial first keg of beer

The festival stage

The only sports shop in town, yes it is table tennis

The Weinstasse (wine street) at the festival, and a really pretty moon

All the girls (a little dark)

Yes, Jake is wearing a gingerbread cookie, hot husband, huh! These are traditional to German festivals. Jake's says "I love you" in German. I would tell you what the translation is but I ate the cookie before I wrote down the phrase.

Waking around Landstuhl City

It was a beautiful day! (one of the few)

This is City Hall

No, you can't get a burger here, it is the Citizen's House (don't really know what that means)

We went here for Schnitzel night (28 different kinds!) Schnitzel is pounded pork that is breaded then fried. Jake had princess schnitzel with ham, white asparagus and hollandaise sauce. I had mine with ham and melted Camembert cheese.

Pictures Finally

The plane that took us from New York to Frankfurt

Buses picked us up once we exited the plane

On the bus, right after we got off the plane

The building where I will be working

Trying to find a house...

It's been a few days of looking now and we haven't found a house yet. We'll throw up some photos soon. We are OK and getting over colds. Email us!
jakenyman@gmail.com

Arrival in Germany

Wow, it just took me about 5 tries to figure out where to log in. I never guessed all the instructions would be in German. I will have to take time to figure out how to change the language to English.

Well, we arrived in Germany to rain and more rain (at least my new coat is being put to good use). We are staying on base a great little hotel that is kind of like an apartment. On the first night we were here we ate traditional German food at "Andres Stube," a wonderful local restaurant that we will take you to when you vist. I had Jagersnitzl (pounded pork with a dark mushroom gravy) and spazel (German egg noodles). Jake had another kind of spitzl with a light creamy gravy. I had some traditional wine-very good, and Jake had a light Hefevisen (sorry for the bad spelling). Everything was amazing, and not just because we were starving.

The next day I had a meeting in the afternoon and then we had dinner with Kathie (my boss) again. She took us to the German grocery store which was the most fun yet. We bought some necessities and then went to Kathie's house for a dinner of German Pizza. The pizza was good and we stuck to the classic four cheese and tomato basil. Jake ventured out and tried the peperoni, which he said was a bit more like a mutant salami. Oh well, if we don't try we wont know.

We are on our way to town to look for an apartment. This should be interesting! I will try to post some pictures next time.