Well, That's a First!

Day 10 in Germany... These 10 days have been full of our very own firsts.

We visited our first castle. High on the hill that overlooks our valley, is Landstuhl Castle, circa 12th century. There are walking paths all around it that we explored, but mostly we oggled that the structure was still so much intact; even with ancient cannon balls lodged into its walls. 

We explored our first village hometown. It literally took us between 20-30 minutes to walk the one main road from one end of the village to the other. On either of those ends are expansive fields that in the summer will be full of wildflowers, corn, and other crops. When the skies clear at night, the star gazing is absolutely incredible.

We watched it snow together for the first time since we left Russia. Fortunately temperatures have held out and it hasn't dipped below low 20's yet. Here's hoping that will continue!

We had our first Roman baths experience. Not too far from home is the city of Baden Baden, home of the ancient Roman baths, and current setting of Caracalla Therm. We got to spend four hours relaxing in numerous different pools, aroma-saunas and brine rooms. The spa resort is 'bathing suit friendly' thankfully, but the upstairs with its endless arrays of saunas, is the real Roman experience. We managed to be brave and kind of cringe our way through a half hour upstairs, just to say we did it. Yet another first. Public nudity... Joy.

We ate our first schnitzel! After months of eating out of necessity and rarely out of enjoyment, we've really indulged here and splurged on some good eats. Schnitzel was remarkably delicious, and even though we were warned the portions were huge, we each managed to devour our own plates, leaving my mom and step-dad slack jawed with awe and a little fear.

Lastly, I drove stick for the first time! Since pretty much everything in Europe is stick, I was going to have to learn sooner or later. This week we get to volunteer at my mom's work so we definitely had to practice with the car. Even though I was [needlessly] terrified, Ray guided me through the steps and patiently explained through my shrieks how to start, stop, slow down and speed up again. I only stalled twice, no big deal. And not even on my first try, thank you very much!

With all of these firsts, beginnings, starts, etc... Germany is building up to be a fantastic, character building, life changing adventure. Though still a little shaky (like my stick driving skills) we can't wait for what is in store.