Weekend fun around Ktown

I think the winter has dragged on just as long in Germany as it has in the Midwest.  We have been doing our best to convince the weather gods to change their ways on the weekends by getting outside and doing some hiking.  Toni and Warren have taken us on a couple different day trips, we went on a wine walk in Bad Durkheim and we have attended a couple soccer games here in Ktown.

Our first trip was down to Dahn which is about 45 minutes southwest of Kaiserslautern.   This hike was about 10K and made our way up to some very cool locations.  Toni and Warren have told us that the best views in Germany can't be reached by car.  We're really starting to believe them as we go on more hikes.  Some of the highlights on this hike were castle ruins, some really cool rock formations, a beer hall, and some awesome views!  Here are some pics:

The second hike that we went on was to Vorderweidenthal.  Again, we were about 45 mins southwest of Ktown.  This hike was quite a bit longer, but was honestly a little bit easier.  There weren't as many hills, so I was happy!  Here are some of the pictures from the Vorderweidenthal hike.  I think you can understand Toni and Warren's theory by now!

Another weekend highlight from the last few months was the Wine Walk in Bad Durkheim.  We live in the "Napa Valley of Germany" so these events occur pretty frequently.  This event was a tasting festival where they had a bunch of stands set up throughout the vineyards just outside the town.  There were 13 tents that had two or three different companies serving samples of their wine.  We were given 15 tickets at the beginning, and were able to turn 1 ticket in for a sample at any of the booths!  We had a blast wandering around and trying some delicious wines from the region.   We already have our sites set on a return trip to Bad Durkheim to build up our wine supply.

Growing up, I (Brandon) never saw myself as a soccer fan at all.  I really never gave the sport a chance to be quite honest, but "when in Rome, do as the Romans do".  Kaiserslautern has a soccer team that is in the Bundesliga II.  It is basically the minor leagues of German soccer.  A co-worker of mine has season tickets and wasn't able to go to some games, so he offered his tickets to me for a couple games and I thought I would give it a chance.  Let me start off by saying that these people are nuts when it comes to soccer.  The perception that I had is completely true when it comes to Europeans and soccer.  THEY LOVE IT!  I have really started to enjoy it, and look forward to following FCK for the remainder of their season.  The way that the German leagues is set up is pretty cool.  The top two teams in the Bundesliga II automatically advance to the Bundesliga I for next year's season, while the bottom two teams in the higher league, get demoted to the minors.  Along with that, the 3rd place team in the minors plays the 3rd from last placed team in the majors to see who gets to play in the Bundesliga I next year.  FCK is having a pretty good year and is currently in 3rd place in the lower league, so there is a good chance that they will make it into that playoff game to possibly get promoted.  Here are some pics from the games that we have gone to so far:  

That almost catches us up....one more post about Dublin will be coming your way soon!