Our First Multi-Day Weekend Getaway

This was our first long weekend since we have been here (Brandon had Veterans Day off) so we went on a weekend trip with Warren and Toni to Bamberg and Rothenburg.  We left Saturday morning and drove about three hours (in the rain) to Bamberg.  The rain had let up a little when we got there, so we walked around the town a bit, saw the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. George, an old monastery and found a great restaurant/brewery that makes Bamberg's famous beer.  This rauchbier (smoked beer) is definitely unique, but was really good!  We also found a little shop that sells Germany's traditional attire (the dirndl and lederhosen) and I found a really pretty dirndl.  This is one of the things I really wanted to buy while we are here and I can't wait to wear it to next year's Oktoberfest in Munich.  Brandon has yet to get his lederhosen, but he is planning on it ;).

Sunday we walked around Bamberg more and hiked up to the Altenburg (burg = castle).  It was a very foggy day, so our view wasn't as good as we had hoped, but it was still really awesome to see!  We hiked back down to the Domplatz which is an area of downtown that still holds it's medieval character.  We toured the Neue Residenz which is a huge palace still decorated with 18th century decor.  This palace was amazing.  All of the ceilings had elaborate paintings and amazing stucco detail.  We toured a few different local breweries and called it a night.

Monday morning we got up and headed about an hour and a half down the road to Rothenburg.  This is definitely my favorite town we have been to so far.  Rothenburg is a preserved medieval town that is situated within old stone city walls that still stand today.  When I think of a postcard of a downtown setting in Germany, this is what I think of.  We spent the day walking around and visiting some little shops.  They have a medieval torture museum that was really interesting as well!  It is crazy to see the different things that they used to torture criminals and all of the artifacts in the museum are original.  I was scared I would dream about being tortured and publicly humiliated :).  It was funny to read the different things you could be publicly humiliated for.  If you had a fight in public with another girl or with your spouse you could be put in neck violins that bound your neck and hands and forced you to stare at each other until you settled your differences.  People were also forced to wear different cast iron masks for "acting like a pig," being a gossiper or even making bread loaves too small.

I downloaded an awesome iPad app (thank you Stacey!) and made a few little videos during our trip.  We actually made a few videos, but I tried to upload them to YouTube and found out that I used a song in one of them that is protected by copyright and now you can't see it :(.  I may be able to email it if anyone is interested, just let me know. It is a video of our day in Rothenburg.  The Bamberg video works though...follow the link below :)

Bamberg Germany Trip


Well, on to news that isn't travel related.  We got some good news today that our household goods have arrived and our house is done.  We will be moving into our new house on Friday!  We are so excited to finally put down roots and have a place to call home with all of our stuff from home.  I can't wait to sleep in our own bed that we haven't slept in for almost two months!  I also had a job interview today for an educational aide position that I am hoping to get.  It can be difficult for a civilian spouse to find a job here because veterans or active duty spouses get preference for most jobs regardless of qualifications.  However, I feel good about this one, so we will see!