Hello again!  Back to the blog I am,  The furnace in my house decided to not work but it will be sorted out tomorrow- till then its space heaters.  Its still plenty cold outside hence the picture above. In this blog I would like to take you back in my life- to when I was 6-8 yrs old.   I lived in Germany for 3 yrs.  It was the first overseas assignment that my father had  ( that I was alive to be apart of)  My older brother Joe was born in Germany on a previous assignment in Augsburg

This is Garmisch and it is where my father worked at the Russian Institute, and my brothers and I went to school at the American school. There was and still is an American base there.  We did learn German but I can only remember a few words. I know much more Spanish.  It's a beautiful place, with green mountains in the summer and snowy ones in the winter.  Its the last place I skied at too ( when I was there)  The houses are very picturesque and  a lot are painted with various scenes.  We didn't live in Garmisch though. We lived in a small village not far from it though Farchant,

 This looks very much like the house I lived in when I was there. ( In fact I think it is)  We didn't live in the whole house. It was divided into apartments, We rented the bottom part of the house. While in Germany we did a lot of traveling when we had school holidays or weekends .   

Neuschwanstein Castle is easily one of my favorite castles and I remember going there as a kid. One of a few built  by "Mad" King Ludwig II.  Its a bit of hike to get up to it but worth it.  It can be debated  but I think Disney may of taken its likeness for inspiration for Cinderella's castle.( the one in the logo)   When I was seven, We went on about a month long trip one summer and went all the way from Austria to Spain.  One of the places we went to was this place- 

This is Carcassonne which was a medieval city and its located in France. This is the Château Comtal, a 12th-century castle which is apart of that city.  Right outside from the city is a huge aqueduct  which at night when its lit up is pretty spectacular. Another one of my favorite places on that trip was  The Alhambra. 

The Alhambra is a palace and also a fortress. It is located in Granda Spain.  It is one of the most famous examples of Islamic architecture. 

The property of the Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada, stands on two adjacent hills, separated by the river Darro. Rising above the modern lower town, the Alhambra and the Albayzín form the medieval part of the City of Granada, which preserves remains of the ancient Arabic quarter. (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/314/)

Another favorite place of mine that we visited was: 

The Leaning Tower of Piza Tower of Pisa is more accurately referred to simply as the bell tower, or campanile.

The Pisa tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex in Pisa, Italy, called Campo dei Miracoli or Piazza dei Miracoli, which means Field of Miracles.- (https://www.towerofpisa.org/ )   I still have the miniature Piza I got at the time,  We travelled to all these places in our VW van. Like this one: 

My parents and I my three brothers and also my grandma who was living with us at the the time travelled in this this bus. The seats in the back could fold down to a bed and most of the time we had it down like that. ( seatbelts were not that enforced it seemed in Europe in 1982-83)   It also had a small sink and a stove- its the only vehicle I have ever have been in since which had these features, it lasted us a good while till it finally couldn't go anymore. We went to the VW factory by train overnight shortly after and got ourselves a newer model.   

More adventures with that car in an upcoming blog..