Chocolates, Baskets and Shoes, OH MY!

I am amazed another week has come and gone and it's time to write another blog entry.  I am beginning to believe what many have been telling me.  They say "Your time here in Germany will fly by!"    It's true!   There is so much to see and do! 
  
Mike is in Turkey for four days.  Travis and I took him to the Landschtul Bahnhoff  to catch his train to the Frankfurt airport this morning on our way to church.  He is so adventurous and willing to figure out how to do things "on the fly".  That puts me WAY out of my comfort zone.  I like to be in control and know what I am doing.  That is something I am trying to get over because this is certainly a time to be adventurous!


Speaking of adventurous...this week I went on my first USO tour.  I asked Barbara, whose husband works with Mike to come with me.  They have only been here a few weeks longer than we have.   
We met for the first time just before we got on the bus and I could tell right away that we were going to have a great time getting to know each other.  

There were about 35 people on the tour.  We left from Vogelweh and headed south toward Pimasens. Our first stop was the Wawi Chocolate Factory.  We could watch through the windows and see them making the chocolate and then we shopped in the the store.  They had a lot of Christmas candy and advent calendars.  Their specialty is called Schoko-Reis.  It's just puffed rice covered with either milk or dark chocalte...yummy!


We loaded back onto the bus and then headed to Hauenstein.  This is an area of Germany that many years ago in the late 1890's was a thriving shoe factory area.  There were lots and lots of shoe factories that employed thousands of workers.  Then the factories all closed and the area became like a ghost town.  Josef Seibel grew up in Hauenstein and opened a shoe factory.  His factory is the only one left and although most of his production is in other countries now, he does keep this one open in his hometown.  This one town is now known as "Shoe City"  It consists of two streets with nothing but shoe stores.  It was fun! 

 We went on a tour of the small factory and saw them hand stitching the soles on to the tops of the shoes.  Barbara and I had a nice lunch at a little bistro next to the factory.  I had flammekuchen ( a very flat crispy pizza with amazing white creamy cheese ) with green olives, garlic and fresh diced tomatoes on top)  It was soooo good!  Then we shopped for shoes.  Here's where I had a little mishap.  I was walking along and suddenly I stepped into a hole in the street, felt my ankle twist and before I knew it, I was going down!  I fell pretty hard, but managed to catch myself with my right hand and land on my left knee.  I jumped right up, but I was so embarrassed!  Nothing was broken, just a little road rash on my hand and my knee (even through my jeans)  


For our last stop on the tour, we went to Dahn to shop for locally made baskets and seasonal decor.  Sounds fun and it was!   On our way home we stopped and took pictures of Teufel's Tisch, which means "Devils Table"  It is really nice picnic area and you can hike up to it and  there is slide you can ride down if you want to.  We didn't have time, but I would love to go back and do that one of these days.


So as you can see, I had so much fun on my first USO tour and I plan to do many more!


Weather report:  No snow for us and of course Mike and T.J. are jealous to hear about all the snow you are getting in Utah, Idaho and Montana.  We are hovering around 50 degrees most of the time.  We get a lot of this misty, drizzly stuff and a lot of grey clouds.  I still think this is such a beautiful place and I'm anxious to see all the changing seasons.


love and miss you all!
-corri