Gremlins are real!

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw how torn up the insulation under the hood was on our car. One of the German guys close to me said, "Oh, that's a Marder!" "Yeah, a long skinny thing with fur...I don't know the English word for it." I looked it up and read all about Martens...a ferret-like animal. Apparently, they like the warm engines and love chewing on insulation, rubber hoses, and wires. Not good for us. They do worse damage if you park in different places at night and a different Marten gets up in the engine because it is more destructive as a way to mark it's territory. So, more on this saga later!

-Collin

Our vehicle was attacked!

Collin discovered today that the engine of our vehicle was attacked by a Beech Marten. It chewed through the insulation on the underside of the hood. Nasty German weasel!

Apparently, Beech Martens are really common in Europe and are "noted for their habit of damaging vehicles by biting through ignition leads and brake hoses and pulling apart insulation boards." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beech_Marten

We are looking into preventative measures to keep them from doing more damage. Until today, we had never heard of this kind of pest. We learn something new everyday.
-Marisa

German Alps and Neuschwanstein Castle

This past weekend we took our first road trip in Germany. We drove to Bavaria and spent the night in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the Mercure Hotel Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We saw the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany. It took us 6 hours to get to Garmisch on Saturday. October Fest started in Munich this past weekend so traffic was slow.

Our hotel was nice, it had an indoor pool and spa. When we arrived we checked into our hotel, then went to the Edelweiss Resort and then shopping and bought some very nice winter coats. After our shopping trip, we ate dinner at a nice Bavarian restaurant and then went back to our hotel to swim and get a massage. From our hotel window we had a wonderful view of the German Alps.

Sunday morning we went to the Olympic Ski Stadium and then walked to see the Partnachklamm Gorge. Both sites were amazing. The 1936 winter Olympics took place at the Olympic Ski Stadium. After eating lunch at the restaurant facing the ski stadium, we took off to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. It is a 45 minute hike up to the castle so we decided to take a carriage ride up the mountain. That was a nice treat. We took a tour of the castle in English. It is a beautiful castle. Then we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant and headed home. We had a wonderful weekend.

You can see pictures of our weekend below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/GarmischNeuschwansteinCastle

We are not in Texas anymore

It is getting cold. It seems like overnight the weather changed from being able to wear short sleeves to needing to wear a sweater. I keep thinking we will wake up one morning and the weather will be warm again, just like in Texas. But that does not seem likely. I have been told that fall has officially arrived and the weather will stay chilly for the next several months before it gets really cold. 40 and 50 degrees is cold to us, especially in September! We need to start looking for some good winter jackets.

Vehicle Update

We went to the dealership and they spoke English. Thankfully, it only cost us 40 Euros for them to do a diagnosis and reset the computer. There was nothing wrong with our vehicle.

Trouble with Mechanics

When in a foreign country, make sure the mechanics speak your language before paying them to look at your vehicle. Our vehicle arrived last week and the check engine and cruise control lights were on. We took our new vehicle to a mechanic to do a diagnosis on Friday. Collin now knowing just enough German to communicate with the mechanic was able to see if they had the right kind of machine to hook up to our vehicle to see what the problem was and find out the cost. However, when we received the diagnosis it was all in German. Come to find out the mechanic could only speak German. We paid 20 EUR to have a diagnosis done on our vehicle only to discover that we still do not know what is wrong. Thankfully, there is an English speaking dealership we can go to on Monday that we can take our diagnosis to and they will hopefully be able to fix the problem.

Our tip for you, when going to a mechanic or a doctor, ask if anyone speaks a language you know fluently before seeing someone. Or else you could have tests done and have no idea what they are talking about afterward.

Heidelberg Castle Illumination

Saturday night we went to dinner with some friends at the Schnitzel Haus, a restaurant that boasts to have over 100 different kinds of schnitzel, then we went on a river boat to see the Castle Illumination.

The castle illumination originates in 1613 when Prince Elector Frederic V welcomed his young wife, English princess Elizabeth Stuart, to Heidelberg. Every year Heidelberg continues to light up the castle with bright lights as if it was burning. After about 10 minutes or so the lights around the castle disappear and it looks like the castle burned to the ground. Then they have a big display of fire works over the old bridge. It is quite an event.

Unfortunately for us, it was raining and our boat was very crowded. Our river cruise lasted for about 3 1/2 hours. Next year we plan on taking a nicer boat that includes dinner, we did not know what to expect. We saw some boats with bands and people dancing. Our boat was so crowded Collin and I had to sit in an aisle in order to sit together. People watch the castle illumination from all over, the shorelines of the river, in boats on the river, and from bridges and houses looking out toward the castle and old bridge. Overall it was a nice event.

The lease has been signed!

We signed the lease today for the home we like and will move in on October 1st. The landlord agreed to replace the carpet on the second floor with wood floors. We are so glad - neither one of us really likes carpet. The only negative thing is we will not be able to sleep upstairs for the first week because he did want the house to be vacant for that long.

Signing the lease took almost two hours, that's about how long it took us to close on our house in Texas. We are looking forward to moving out of a hotel and into a home. It may sound funny, but eating out gets old after a while.

We are licensed drivers

Marisa got her German driver's license today. Collin took the test several weeks ago and passed. It was a difficult test. We can now both drive our vehicle in Germany, when it arrives. =)

We found a place to live!

We found a place to live! It is 4-stories, 3 bedrooms and around 2,100 sq. ft. - which is a nice size home in our area. The house has a nice layout and a yard. The Heidelberg strassenbahn is just a short walk from our front door, which will make traveling by train very convenient. The family currently occupying the house will not be moving out until the end of September, so unfortunately, we will not be able to move in until October. We are looking forward to no longer living in a hotel. You can view some pictures of the house below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/NewHomeInGermany