Today was a little too hot and humid for me so the kids and I stayed in the hotel all day. I decided to organize some photos and play around on Photoshop. I learned how to create a Quicktime movie in Photoshop from one of the tutorials in the Adobe Design Center Video Workshop. Of course the next step was for me to figure out how to embed Quicktime movies on my blog. I am learning that I love WordPress more and more as I use it and learn more about it. I think pretty soon I will migrate my entire website to WordPress instead of just my blog.
Compiled here are pictures I’ve scanned from a photo album from my youth. There are pictures of my sister, my cousins, and of course me.
So cool! Since I’ve discovered Google Translate I’ve been surfing the web like crazy! It automatically translates any website. Today, I was searching for dog obedience schools in our neighborhood. I found one that is a few blocks from our house, Hundesportverein Gärtringen. Of course, the website is all in German… no problem, all I had to do was copy and paste the URL to Google Translate and like magic its all in English (see here).
Any way, the best part of this is that I was able to send an email to the school in German! Check it out! Of course, if you want to know what I said Google Translate it.
Bieten Sie auch Schulungen für Englisch sprechende Hundebesitzer? Wir haben zwei erwachsene Hunde, ein Yorkshire-Terrier und ein Zwergschnauzer-Mix. Ich würde schätzen, eine Antwort per E-Mail. Wir leben in Blücherstraße, Gärtringen. Können wir stoppen, indem mit unseren Hunden zu sehen, die hundeschule?
Ich entschuldige mich, wenn mein Deutsch Grammatik ist nicht korrekt. Ich benutze einen Übersetzer. Ich freue mich auf Ihre Antwort. Sie können auch rufen Sie mich an 0170#######, aber ich spreche kein Deutsch, ich spreche Englisch.
Danke,
Meldeine Sipes
I don’t know what I’d do without the Internet! I hope they respond and I hope we are able to get the pups enrolled.
Yesterday we decided to go to the BX/PX at Panzerkaserne. That really isn’t much of an adventure right? Wrong, not if you do it the Sipes’ way! I wanted to get from the hotel to Panzerkaserne using public transportation instead of taking the base shuttle from Kelley. It seemed easy enough. Psyche! We got on the U3 toward Vaihingen Bahnhof to get on the S1 to Böblingen. When we got to the Vaihingen Bahnhof we missed the S1 by a minute, we saw it leave! So the next train wasn’t coming for another 30 minutes! It was ok, I had to get a snack anyway.
So 30 minutes is up and the train came. We got on and a few minutes later we get to Böblingen to get on the 721 bus, which of course… doesn’t come for yeah… another 30 minutes. So we sit there patiently. Curious that the bus sign has Panzerkaserne in parenthesis. Whatever, we just shrugged that off. Ok, 30 minutes done the bus arrives, we get on, we’re on our way to the BX/PX. It was a nice ride through Böblingen, we got to see many shops and restaurants we’d like to visit, then we see a familiar intersection… our stop must be comming up next. Nope, it stops at a nice hospital, drives by a really nice pool/spa, ah there’s frog road the bus stop is on that road. The funny thing is that we’re starting to see the same places we were just at! Shit! We’re back at the bus station! Turns out the reason Panzerkaserne was in parenthesis was because the bus doesn’t go to there on weekends… we find this out as we’re getting off where we got on asking the bus driver about Panzerkaserne. Argh!!
Ok, now we decide to get back on the S1 to go back one stop to get off at Goldberg. We decided to do this because we remembered from last week that we could get on a bus from Goldberg to Panzerkaserne. Guess what?! Yep, another 30 minutes before the S1 arrives so we can ride it for less than 5 minutes. 30 minutes up, S1 arrives, we get on for a couple minutes, get off at Goldberg to get on the bus. We climb up the hill to the bus stop and realize the buses there don’t run on Sundays! Fuck! So we go back down the hill to catch the S1 again. Walking down we decided we should just return to Möringen; where the hotel is so we can walk to Kelley to catch the base shuttle.
You must be catching on… yeah we get down the hill to catch the S1… and wait another 30 minutes! WTF! Well, we had to wait we were stuck there was nothing else we could do. We get to Vaihingen and finally catch a break… only a 9 minute wait. We get on ride for 30 minutes, a little more or less, and get off a stop after the hotel, walk to Kelley to catch the shuttle.
If you’ve been doing the math we left at 12pm and got to Kelley around 3:40. Steve thought the shuttle comes every 47 minutes past the hour. Nope, it was 05 after the hour… how appropriate… another 30 some minutes. Finally we get on the shuttle which took 2 hours to get to Panzerkaserne.
Oh by the way… we had to go to the BX/PX for nail clippers.
You’ve seen the photos, now here’s the blog. Yesterday, Steve and I went with a group of people on a tour of downtown Stuttgart. We started the day at 6am, breakfast at the hotel and a 15 minute walk to Kelley Barracks to catch the bus to Panserkaserne where we met the group. We got to Panserkaserne around 7:30am, we were early so we grabbed some super coffee from the bakery. It was happy coffee! I woke up with just one sip!
At 8am the grouped headed out the gate to begin our journey through public transportation. We got on the 721 bus to Böblingen. Then from Böblingen we get on the S-Bahn S1 to Plochingen which will took us to the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. The Hauptbahnhof is the main station for the trains; we spent about an hour there because the tour guide wanted to explain every little bit about purchasing tickets from the kiosks and also the ticket center. Argh! I was so frustrated, it was a waste of time for us because we knew enough to get around.
Finally, we moved on to go outside where she took us to an information center. Holy crap! She kept half of the group there for 30 minutes! WTF? Was she telling how to ask for information or something? Any way, once she finally started to walk us around we had a good time. Downtown Stuttgart is awesome there is so much shopping and food! The best part is that everything around is so beautiful and clean.
We walked past all the shopping and went to a museum where I experienced the strangest elevator. You can see in the photo album (the photo that looks like some guys are in a coffin because the photo displayed landscape instead of portrait). Any way, the elevator just kept going, we had to hop on and off just perfectly or else we’d get caught. It went in a loop so when we reached the top it just slid over to the side to go down and vice versa. Insane! I was totally claustrophobic.
We went to lunch at Gaststätte zum Ochs’n Willi where Steve had the Stuttgarter Kräuterpfännle and I had the Hausgemachte Käsespätzle. They both had cheese-Spätzle (cheesy noodles), mine had small slices of fried pork and beef and Steve’s had pork medallions. Yes, I’m disappointed too… we’ve kicked the vegetarian lifestyle… for now.
We walked through this open market where they sold flowers, plants, herbs, fruit, and vegetables. It was amazing, the photos I posted didn’t cover half of it. The open market was only for mornings, they packed up around 1:30pm. Around this time Steve and I decided to break off from the group to walk around and explore on our own. We went back to the indoor market and back to the Schloßplatz where all the United Buddy Bears were.
We walked around and took photos all day and by 3:30pm we were beat. It was time to head back to the hotel. We stopped at a bakery to get some pretzels and pastries for dinner. Then we were off to catch the U-Bahn U6 to the Möhringen Bahnhof where we jumped on the U3 to take us to Salzäcker, the stop right behind our hotel. Ahhh, finally back in the hotel. My legs were burning! I needed a shower to be refreshed to post the photos.
We had such a great time that we went back to the Schloßplatz today to share the experience with the kids and the puppies. The experience today was as good as yesterday’s, I took more photo (click here to see). Saw more and yet it still wasn’t enough… we’ll be back.
July 11, 2008 at 7:33 pm
· Filed under dogs, germany
Yay! We’re here and the best part is that we had no problems getting the dogs on board with us. Initially, they told us about the pet embargo for summer but when we asked them about sitting in with us it was a breeze. A huge sigh of relief came out of me, I was almost in tears… finally all the trouble the past couple weeks trying to get them ready to come here has finally come into fruition.
Kookiis and Vandy didn’t really like the little Sherpa bags, tight squeeze compared to the kennels. They were whinning a bit in the airport. They would calm down when we stuck our hands in the bag to pet them. I really didn’t like that we couldn’t take them out, because I knew that they would just lay on our laps quietly. But, I was still happy because we were all together on the plane. Once we got in the plane in LAX Kookiis was whinning up until we took off. Initially I thought she calmed down but when I reached in to pet here she was really tense and shivering, I think she was the entire flight. I couldn’t check on Vandy because we were all seated rows away from each other. We didn’t realize they seated us apart until it was too late.
The flight from LAX to ATL was a little over 4 hours, take off and landing was on time. When we got to ATL we had a short layover. Well it was supposed to be only 2 hours but it ended up to be 4. The worst part about it was that we boarded on time, but we had to sit on the plane for an extra 2 hours to wait for 26 late people who missed their flight to Munich. Arghh! Poor dogs. The good thing is that we finally sat next to each other, the kids were a row behind us. Finally we were off, the dogs started to calm down (thanks Benadryl), I think they slept a lot through the entire trip.
We landed over an hour late. The dogs were ready to get out, just like the trip from Japan to Los Angeles 3 years ago Kookiis couldn’t hold it any longer, she peed in her bag while we were waiting for the bags. Vandy was fine, she was able to hold it till we got to the hotel. Alex felt a little queezy when we landed, but shortly after we exited the airport he was fine.
Our sponsor, Sonya, is great. She was at the airport waiting for us and thankfully brought a van large enough to accomodate everyone and everything. She dropped us off at the hotel at 11am and came back for us at 3pm to check in on base and grab some food. The entire time we were with her we were all dragging ass. The kids and I slept in the van and also fell asleep on the couch while waiting for our turn at the IACS (check in place). I hope we weren’t snorring or drooling!
After she took us to a few check in spots I asked her if there was a McDonald’s close by. Yeah, yeah, we’re in Germamy why in the hell would I want Mickey D’s? Well, since we found out we were coming here I remembered that I really enjoyed the milkshakes from German McDonald’s, plus they have the McRib which they don’t serve in the the US. Any way, we wanted fast food so we could get back to the hotel and crash.
Got to the hotel around 7-ish, scarffed down food and went to sleep. Now I’m up at 3:30am checking email and writing this blog… for a whopping 179 euro internet fee for 7 days! I just hope we find a house soon!
Its currently 12:33AM, yeah, I’m still awake. I tried to go to sleep at 11 like everyone else but I couldn’t. So much has been going through my head; my mind is going all over the place. I couldn’t help but be stressed about the dogs’ getting on the plane with us. Silver lining, I think they’ll be able to fly in the cabin with us if they can’t get in as baggage or cargo. The worst thing is that the airlines won’t actually confirm anything until the day of!! WTF!! So, we’re going to have to deal with this then and go to LAX sweating until we board.
Anyway, since I couldn’t sleep I decided to get online. What else is there to do? At first I checked to see if Delta had any flights at night… of course not… that would be a gift from the travel gods. So I decided to check Friendster, MySpace, and Multiply. No not in that order, don’t really remember. I looked at a bunch of pictures of friends. How cool, I found out that one of my girlfriends from high school is now married.
I didn’t really think of writing a blog until the kids started making noise in their sleep. The cutest thing, Gabby began singing and talking in her sleep. Then she stopped, a few minutes later Alex started to talk too. How funny! I couldn’t really make out what they were talking about but it was cute. Then just moments ago, the funniest thing one of them (I know which on but I’m not going to say) started farting! So loudly that Kookiis popped her head up to see what the ruckus was! I never knew what interesting things happen when we’re all asleep. Vandy, she’s sleeping between Steve and I snores it’s just a bit of heavy breathing and it’s so cute too. OMG! Gabby is humming again. They’re so cute… I wish I had a voice recorder to capture this nocturnal orchestra.
Today, we’re four days out to our departure. Of course there have been a lot of snafus. Last week we had a vet appointment on Wednesday to get the puppies health certificates to board the plane. Turns out the vet had to go on a business trip; we didn’t find this out until we got there. We had to scramble and find another vet who was able to give us the appropriate health certificate. Since, this whole ordeal got me paranoid I checked our airline reservations to make sure the dogs are actually good to go on the flight. Guess what? Hell no. Turns out England does not allow pets to enter their country at all, even as layovers! The best part of all this was that it was a long weekend so it was really tough to get hold of anyone. I was reading up everything I could online and found out through DEFRA that England only approves British Airways to carry pets into the country. We were booked on American Airlines from LAX to London, and then British Airways from London to Stuttgart. Yeah, that doesn’t fly with the dogs. So, Steve calls American Airlines to confirm this… and behold they don’t accept pets on the flight. Omega Travel totally missed the mark on this reservation. Now we’re freaking out.
I decided to post our problems and ask for help from a group in Yahoo! called StuttgartNewcommers. I am so happy I did this; I got so many replies and a lot of advice. The best advice I got triggered me to go to Delta Airlines. They have the best pet travel, without using a pet travel agency. They give you so many options to fly. So, Steve calls Omega Travel to get us booked on Delta. The lady was really helpful; she got us reservations to fly from LAX to ATL, and straight on to Stuttgart. The key is to get our flights confirmed tomorrow with the base Omega people. Wish us luck… 3 ½ days to go.
