I absolutely ADORE Germany and would go back in a heartbeat.
Two of my babies are buried in the Fuerth/Bayern Cemetery.
German Cemeteries are GORGEOUS!!
Each gravesite is like a little garden.
There's a Colorado Blue Spruce planted on the site
in honor of my background.
I honestly had plans on staying in Germany,
but life doesn't always go as you planned.
My first tour was in BAUMHOLDER, FRG!!
Baumholder itself is/was basically a military town,
but Idar-Oberstein is a gorgeous town not too far away.
Idar has a castle literally carved out of rock in the side of a mountain!!
While in Baumholder I went to Berkenfeld's Winefest!
If there's ever a chance for a young GI to be stupid
it's at a Winefest or Beerfest!!
From Baumholder, courtesy of the Commander of the
17th Finance Section,
I went to Paris, London,
Luxembourg (I could also live in Luxembourg forever),
and Spain.
In 1979 I was stationed at Monteith Kaserne in
FUERTH, BAYERN!
Across the street from the Kaserne was the Texas Ranch.
A small "Gasthaus" where I spent a lot of time drinking.
The man made the best porkchops on the face of the earth.
I never did learn how to duplicate them;
I just know they took a LOT of paprika.
(Drooling at the thought of those pork chops.)
I married a German, and had every intention of staying in Fuerth.
His family is so wonderful!!
Unfortunately, he isn't and I ended back in the States.
The Kaup family took me under their collective wings
and made ME their family.
I miss them a great deal.
The German people were wonderful to me.
I made a complete idiot out of myself
more times than I care to count,
but they treated my "faux pax's" with humor.
For those of you who don't know, Germany has a little shop for everything.
The Bakerie, the Fleisheri, und so weiter, und so weiter.
We had a standing order for a loaf of onion bread
on a weekly basis at the Bakery across the street.
I was late getting home from work one night,
and the daughter brought the loaf over to the house!!!
I was stunned. For less than a buck??? Wow.
I have SO MANY wonderful memories of Germany and Germans.
Going mushroom hunting with the entire family
at o'dark thirty in the morning.
Taking mushrooms back to "Oma",
who was the only one who knew edible from inedible mushrooms.
The men went to the local Gasthaus
and the women off to Oma's apartment.
Then all gathered for the feast of scrambled eggs
and those hard-found mushrooms.
Me, a young American in the middle of all this
with only a vague understanding of the language,
brought right in the center of the family.
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