Ok! We have everything we need for those weekends of travel and adventure! We are starting to get weary of hotel living (even though the breakfast is amazing!) and look forward to moving in just down the street. Yup, we're in walking distance from the hotel to our future home. We have picked up a few yardsale items plus we have both been issued our enormous load of military gear (back packs, cold weather gear, sleeping bags, more boots, etc.) so the room is starting to get cramped. As soon as I have pics of the inside of the house I will post them.

We have wheels! And we have German driver's licenses! I have never seen so many different road signs in my life!! When we were told to "really study" for the exam, they weren't kidding. We both, however, passed without incident.

So, this is my really cute BMW 316i compact. I won't go into a long discourse about it except that Eric had to teach me to drive a stick really fast! But, I took it on the autobahn and I'm still alive. It was quite the ordeal to get it (and very confusing) as the seller was an hour away and we had to go back and forth between the seller, the German DMV and the military registration and inspection center several times, but it was worth all the trouble. Eric has a BMW also picked out, we are just waiting on a cashier's check to arrive. More on his car later....

First Impressions....

The first and only house we looked at turned out to be "the one." Built in 1904 and occupied by the French and the Americans at the end of WWII, the Americans will take posession of it again on 1 April 2010. (That's us for anyone who didn't get that.) Actually, the Neutkens family will only occupy the first floor, while two other families reside above us, but our living space is about 1,900 sq. ft. with a garage, wood floors throughout and 11 ft. ceilings. It's located on the main street that runs through Landstuhl's downtown district, with a great view of the Landstuhl castle on the hill behind it. The landlord and his wife speak very little English so the process has required an interpreter to be present each time. But the couple are really wonderful and the house is really glad to have us, we are sure. "The house wants to be lived in...." Jane of Lantern Hill