Exploring Stuttgart, Germany with Jetta <3

After the going-going-going of skiing and Castle touring, Jetta and I were more than ready to take a more casual day to pursue Stuttgart… As anticipated, the day had finally come for me to face “pay the piper” and make the obligatory trip to the famous “Porsche Museum” in Stuttgart… Haha :) See… I just knew that one day Jet would insist we go, so I waited till it was absolutely no longer avoidable…

After a morning of looking at ridiculously fast, fancy, and expensive cars… We headed into the Haptbahnhof and window-shopped along Konigstrasse before meeting Melissa and Robert for an amazing German lunch in a little hide-away cafe. As always, Robert makes friends everywhere he goes with his bigger than life, meant for the stage, personality… an before we knew it we’d made friends with all the locals in the restaurant… :)

With Love from Germany… Mary Elizabeth <3

Hohenzollern Castle!

After our wind-shield washer fluid debacle, it was a miracle Melissa signed on to join us for another Bird outing… But apparently she was a glutton for punishment! (which we love in this family! Haha) So on the Tuesday after Christmas we set out for a day-trip to visit Hohenzollern Castle…

The Castle, at its earliest, dates back to the 11th century! And was rebuilt (at least in parts) no less than three times due to sieges and war. It had quite the impressive history… And needless to say, it was absolutely gorgeous covered in winter snow! <3

With Love From Germany… –Mary Elizabeth <3

Yet Another Bird Debacle… :)

My family should really come with a warning label… “Engage in activities with these people at your own risk”… And the funny thing is, my mom did warn the Garrison Pastor’s wife that her niece was, of course, more than welcomed to join us for a fun day of skiing adventures in Germany’s famous Black Forest, but we were known for some rather unorthodox “Bird debacles”… Little did she know we weren’t kidding!

It would be an understatement to say that my crazy military family has had some wild travel adventures (the best of which always seem to occur in the back of a minivan on one of our classic “Beverley Hillbilly” trips across country… Ha!) I could tell stories of engines smoking on empty country highways, my little sister puking on our dog (which then led to my mother vacuuming the poor Jenny off at a roadside carwash), and the trail of underwear (from suitcases on a trailer) we left flying behind us while traveling down a highway somewhere in eastern Texas… Yet we’ve always been somewhat confident, that despite the many debacles of the “Bird Crew”… We had never actually landed either ourselves or our pets in a hospital. Until the day we met Melissa.

The day started like the beginning of any other Bird adventure… With an early start, frantic picnic-lunch packing, and 5 very excited kids (myself, Drayton, Carolyn, Jet, and our new friend Melissa), one very funny German-translating, opera-singing cousin (Robert), and of course, our ever-so-wonderful “up for anything” mother… We were off for a day of skiing in the Black Forest!!… We arrived in the mountains to find ourselves overrun by little European kids that whooped our butts on the slopes, but we all had a fantastic time! Poor Jet took a few good face plants (Her first time skiing turned out to be more falling than actually skiing… Haha But she was a great sport about it all!), but Drayton, Carolyn, and I picked it back up pretty quickly (considering we hadn’t been skiiing in several years!).

View of the Black Forest from the top of the ski—lifts… Gorgeous! <3

Jetta at the top!

Ready to take the plunge!! So much for a “bunny hill”… Haha

On Feldberg Mountain at sunset! <3

By about 5pm that night we were all happily exhausted and had had an amazing day… So we loaded up for what should have been an uneventful car-ride home… Except that a “Bird Family” adventure is never uneventful… :) About 30 minutes into the 2 hour drive home we were absolutely parched, so we coaxed Carolyn to dig around in the back of the pitch-dark van to find a bottle of water. She finally produced a large gallon bottle… We eagerly produced plastic cups and divided it up, when Carolyn suddenly realized (and declared to the car) that the bottle was oddly greasy… BUT not before poor Melissa took a giant gulp…. of WINDSHIELD WIPER FLUID!

To make a long story short… Poor Melissa ended up in the ER with blood tests (which turned out to all be fine), and we ended up with a new page in the “Bird Adventure Book”… Haha There was no harm done in the end… But if you can just imagine the hilarity and slight panic in the car when my poor mother realized that one of her children had accidently poisoned the preacher’s niece…. There were calls to the German Poison control (thank goodness for having a fluent German speaker in the car!!!), Melissa’s family, military doctors… And, of course, my Dad… Haha It was, needless to say, a memorable end to an already thrilling day… :)

Apparently we didn’t scare poor Melissa off too much, though, because she’s joining us again tomorrow… This time for a trip to Hohenzollen Castle in southern Germany… YAY! :) More to come soon on the always exciting “Bird Adventures”…

With Love from Germany… –Mary Elizabeth <3

Christmas in Germany! <3

We definitely had a full house this Christmas! And we loved every minute of it… :) Jet came in from the States on Christmas Eve and later that day our ever-so-wonderful cousin (and unanimously voted as the “4th child of the Bird Crew”) came in from Hannover, Germany by train… Just in time for our magical “white Christmas”… And boy did it snow, and snow, and snow! We were literally buried in for the next two day, which gave us a wonderful excuse to lounge around and do nothing but play Canasta, build puzzles, tell tall-tales, and watch movies! I even had a wonderful Christmas Eve visit from an old friend from highschool, whose parent’s just happen to now live one block away from us! Gotta love the “small world” of the military! :) Visit from DJ and Chris Gordon! :) Nothing like dragging them into a neighborhood snow-ball fight! Haha

Christmas Eve… Mom with the kids! <3

 

Christmas morning!

 

Robert got Raisin Bran!!! :D Haha

Making Crepes with Carolyn’s new magic “Crepe tools!”

Modeling the crepes… And the new snuggie… Haha

All in all… It was yet another perfect, quiet Bird-family Christmas…

With Love from Germany… –Mary Elizabeth <3

German Weinachtmarkt and Gleuwein <3

What may you ask was my first stop upon arriving in Germany from England?? A visit to the famous Weinachtmarkts (Christmas Markets)! They had an amazing one going on right here in Stuttgart… Talk about food, and decorations, and more food, and Gleuwein! YUM! Mom and I spent an entire evening just wandering the streets, enjoying the delights of Germany at Christmas. And after Drayton arrived, we made a day-trip to Esslingen for a Medieval Weinachtmarkt! Very cool and realistic! Mom even had some very strange man invite her into his “warming closet” (whatever that means?!) and Drayton learnt some interesting uses for a archery fore-arm guard… Haha :)

It was a perfect way to kick off the season! <3

{Mom told Carolyn she couldn’t have a waffeln unless she ordered by herself in German… Needless to say, it took a little pep-talk! Haha :)}

With Love from Germany… Mary Elizabeth <3

Oxford vs Cambridge Rugby Match!

So it’s official… I now understand why the Brits always laugh at the mention of American football… It’s a pansy sport. And really, who can blame them when they’re used to watching rugby all the time!

And what caused this sudden change of heart you may ask… I finally saw my first rugby match!… But not just any match… I went into London for the annual Oxford versus Cambridge Rugby Match! And Oxford won 21-10, which was just icing on the cake! It was a lot of fun despite by naiveté about the game rules (which thanks to a very sweet Oxford alum and his Dad who sat in front of us, I eventually started to get the hang of)… The day was yet another surreal wake up call that says, “Yes, you are really going to grad school in England… It wasn’t just a dream.” :)

So now I know all kinds of new vocabulary, like scrum, try, conversion, and drop goal, that makes me feel rather self  important… Haha  Just kidding… I really didn’t understand half of the game, but I was kept entertained by the constant medic timeouts! (Hence my new formed opinion that rugby is way more interesting than football!) The medics took the field in a flurry of red coats no less than 4 separate times… One of which ended with a Cambridge player being wheeled out on a stretcher! I mean really! At times, I wasn’t sure if there was even a ball in the game or if it was just one gigantic dog-pile wrestling match! And with no helmets/protection what-so-ever… Which brings me to my next point for my gals back home… Yes, in fact rugby players are  much more appealing to watch (Yet another perk to not having all that padding/protection!) Haha ;) Apparently one Cambridge student felt that the players were actually monopolizing everyone’s attention a little too much, because he decided to streak the field in the middle of the game for several minutes before he could be  caught… And you know, sadly enough we all agreed that we knew exactly what was going through his head… We just sat there and thought "Oh look, that's what happens when an Oxford/Cambridge grad student discovers their thesis has been rejected... They go raving mad, freeze to death, and their team still loses..." Haha ;)

Well I think that’s all for now! I’m back in Oxford… Any chance that I was going to make it into London one last time this week, for a day of museum perusing has been completely dashed thanks to the university-fee riots… They haven’t caused too much trouble at Oxford, other than locking themselves in the Bodleian Library a few weeks back (which was a little stupid because the only people they inconvenienced were grad students like myself who were just trying to finish the Term essays that we also paid an outrageous price for)… But all the same, it seems that I’ll be staying in Oxford for the next few days now… Just running errands, catching up on pre-thesis research, and packing to head home to Germany this coming Thursday! I can’t wait! :)

With Love from Oxford… –Mary Elizabeth <3

A Day in Bath… <3

I can finally declare, as so many of my favorite characters have done in Jane Austen’s novels, that I have officially spent a wonderful “day in Bath.” To say that I was thrilled to finally walk the streets I’d read about in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey for so many years, would be a complete understatement. As soon as Michaelmas Term let out here at Oxford, another gal in my programme, Valerie, and I began plotting a trip to Bath in southwestern England… We took the train over from Oxford bright and early, and stayed the entire day touring and wandering the picturesque streets… For any who aren’t familiar with Bath thanks to Jane Austen, the city is best known for the “Roman Baths” that actually originated centuries before Georgian Englishmen and women (like Austen) decided to make it a mecca for London socialites during the summers… The city of Bath is located on a natural hot spring that was discovered by the Romans sometime around 800 BC! And the ruins of the Roman baths and temples (once dedicated to worshipping the goddess, Sulis)  are still incredibly well preserved for the most part….

In Jane Austen’s era, Bath was known as the place to go for rejuvenation, especially in the summers when the heat of London became unbearable. The hot water produced by the hot springs beneath the city is rich with minerals and was thought to have healing properties. Hence, many of Austen’s characters “retreated to Bath” when they needed to recover from illnesses or the stresses and strains of unrequited love. Haha :)

I absolutely loved touring the Roman baths, and thought it was so cool to get to actually drink the spring water in the famous “Pump Room”… But that' wasn’t all Bath had to offer! Later in the afternoon, Valerie indulged me with a trip to the Jane Austen centre… We toured the architectural hallmarks of the city (the Royal Crescent, the Circus, and Bath Abbey), walked along the garden path where Austen staged one of my favorite “proposal scenes” between Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot in Persuasion, and spent the evening wandering through the Christmas Market! :) We ended the day with an amazing dinner at Sally Lunn’s, the self-proclaimed oldest house in Bath, whose owner, Sally, was famous for her homemade buns… Haha I could continue telling stories, but a picture speaks a thousand words… And Bath is definitely a place you have to see to appreciate!

With Love from Oxford… –Mary Elizabeth <3

Bath Pump outside the Abbey (and Christmas Market!)

   The Roman Baths! The steam is heat, but the bubbles are the natural gases that are also released, infusing the water with minerals and its famous “healing properties"…

 

The Roman bath ruins with Bath Abbey in the background…

The pump in the famous “Pump Room”… The water really was warm and had a distinct taste from all the natural minerals… In Austen’s time, men and women would come to the pump room every morning to drink the water for their health and socialize...

The Circus!

 

And the famous Royal Crescent!

With my new friend in front of the Jane Austen Centre… Yes, it’s official… I’m a nerd… Haha :)

I mean really! Any city with Mr. Darcy mugs is alright with me!

Bath Abbey at sunset…

Pulteney Bridge… Modeled after its “sister bridges” in Venice and Florence.

The Pump Room and Roman Baths (left) in the Abbey square…

Christmas Market!