A Wiesbaden Weekend

To start:
Jon and I got the apartment we were looking at downtown! We move in October 1st and are super excited about it. The hotel life is starting to get old quick. The house is perfect because it is close enough for Jon to ride his back to and from work. I also love the we have a balcony both in the front and also right outside of the master bedroom. This is the outside of our apartment, we are on the second floor.



Jon and I really couldn't wait for this weekend. Every year Wiesbaden has a wine festival, 100's of vineyards come to this fair to promote their wines. We were super excited to attend. There were also vendors selling bratwursts, pork sandwiches, pizza, etc, of course we couldn't wait to eat some German food.
Friday Night Jon, myself and several auditors along with their spouses went to the fest. Here are some pictures of our evening.

Of course I had to take another picture of the church.

Jon and I in front of one of the vendors

The Festival





A live band! They were singing songs from Dirty Dancing! lol

He was dancing like they do in the movie


Look at this pretzel, isn't that crazy huge.

Shannon, Randy, Don, Jon and I


Saturday, James and Heddy, two of Jon's co-workers came to our hotel and took us on a little outing. If you don't already know, Jon and I are huge wine connoisseurs in the making. We love trying new wines and have taken classes in the past to learn about grape growing, harvesting, the chemistry behind wine making, etc. It's our dream to have our own vineyard someday! Wiesbaden is filled with vineyards, so James drove us to some nearby crops. I honestly have never seen so many in all my life. It was incredible. Anywhere there was a small plot of land a vineyard would be growing there. It is actually quite comical at the size of some of the smaller vineyards. And on the other hand it is unbelievable how large most vineyards are.
They took us to a restaurant overlooking the Rhine River and Rhinegau, (the wine region in Wiesbaden). What an experience this was. The view was fantastic and unbelievably romantic! I can't even being to explain how amazing it was. So I'll show you pictures instead ;)


The view from the restaurant

Our Late Afternoon Walk

Yesterday Jon came and got me for lunch and we walked a couple of blocks down to a nearby restaurant. It is a very small restaurant with a very small buffett ;)
In Germany if you ask for a bottle of water, they give you a bottle of carbonated water (like Perrier) so you have to specify by saying "May I have a bottle of water with NO GAS"
Isn't that funny. But yesterday we drank the carbonated water and it really wasn't too bad.

From the buffett we pointed at a couple of things we wanted since there is such a speech barrier! This is what we got. The meat balls were amazing, there was some sort of cheese inside them which made it even more tasty, but the potatoes were actually a potato salad with pineapples. This is something I've never had before and will definitely have to acquire a taste for!! But all in all it was a pretty nice lunch and since the weather is nice right now mostly all restaurants have seating outside.

After lunch Jon went back to the office for a couple of hours, but as soon as he got off we put on our walking clothes and headed out. We walked the opposite direction than we normally walk to another part of the downtown area. As you can see I love architecture so I took several pictures of buildings I thought were pretty.

This is another picture of the church





Jon and I stopped at an apartment that is for rent that we are interested in looked at. It is fully refurnished and we are actually on our way to see it at 2:45 today. It's normal here in Germany for the landlords to come pick you up and take you to see their apartments. So we thought that was wonderful for the fact that we don't have a car here yet. I'm excited to see this place. It looked unbelievable from the pictures we saw. Here are some pictures of the outside of the building. The apartment we are looking at is on the second floor. It has 5 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, a terrace in the back and a balcony in the front. These apartments remind of brownstones and they have such an artsy feel. I'd love to live here. It's funny because Jon and I didn't want to live in the city but once you find something like this it is hard to pass up.





This picture is of the brownstones along the street.

More apartments



My mothers name is Mona Lisa, I thought she'd
like to see her name on a sign in Germany!






For dinner Jon and I went to Vapiano. (Vappiano)
It is a really great pasta shop. They make your food in front of you. All of their pasta is fresh and they actually make it at the restaurant. A couple of nights ago I had pasta with mushrooms and a cream sauce. It was wonderful. Last night I thought I'd try something different. On the menu I saw "beef tenderloin sliced into thin pieces," so I ordered it only to get this. I was completely wrong and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. It literally was very very thin slices of uncooked beef tenderloin. I thought what the heck and ate it anyway, it really wasn't too bad. Luckily Jon helped me eat it because I wanted to finish it so as not to be rude.

Jon and I really enjoy a nice beer every every once in a while with dinner.
He loves Hefeweizen so we both had one. It really is tasty, with a nutmeg finish.

More pictures to come ;)

Wiesbaden

Well, I finally was able to connect to the internet. We don't get internet service in our hotel room, I have to go down into the lobby to actually have access. Everything is absolutely wonderful here. The first day Jon and I arrived we walked around the downtown area for hours just soaking it all in. There is an incredible market here on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The streets are filled with vendors who sell fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads, wines, etc. It is like something you would see in a movie. We were a bit overwhelmed the first day at how different it is here, but are adjusting well. We are still struggling with the time difference! It is a 7 hour difference, and we find ourselves waking up at 3:00 a.m. wide awake lol. We've talked to several people who work at Jon's office and they say it takes a week to finally adjust. On Sunday we woke up early, grabbed brunch at a nearby restaurant and afterward walked to a nearby park. This park is amazing. There is a large duck pond that is just beautiful. They have benches lining the pond so we sat at the park for over an hour just enjoying the weather. In the mornings the weather is perfect, its a little chilly but the sun is out so you don't even need a jacket.

We have been very busy the last couple of days getting sorted with Jon's office and becoming German citizens. ;) There is a lot to be done. Today we went to the housing office to start looking for a home to live in. I was really looking forward to this because the hotel life isn't that great. Here in Germany, they don't have air conditioning in places of residence. It has been pretty warm since we've been here, so we have fans running 24/7 in our room. At night we open the windows which really helps cool everything down. One of Jon's co-workers just moved back to the states from here and he rented a house on the Rhine River. Supposedly it is a beautiful house with a large deck. There is a view of a castle and the backyard is on a vineyard! What more could Jon and I ask for! We are going to see the house Saturday! I am praying it hasn't already been rented to someone else. Jon and I have always wanted our own vineyard. How amazing would it be to actually have one!

We have been to several restaurants and for the most part everyone is nice here in Germany.
This weekend there is a wine festival that Jon and I are really looking forward to. It begins the 8th and lasts through the 17th. There will be over 100 vineyards at this festival. I can't wait to experience a little bit of German Culture and taste some good wine! I will be blogging more later. I just wanted to share our pictures with you all.

The Theather

A more detailed view of the theater

The largest cuckoo clock in the world! or so they say :)

A picture of Steph downtown

Downtown

This is what each street looks like

Another beautiful building

A Natural Hot Spring downtown

Starbucks made it all the way to Germany!

The Casino which is actually connected to the theater

The church at market square

Downtown Wiesbadan

A smart car of course! You see them everywhere

Downtown Wiesbadan

Downtown



I thought this picture was amazing

The amazingly beautiful duck pond and park

Jonny D





I loved the weeping willow

Dinner at a German restaurant, seating is outside

A local irish pub with a live band!