Landstuhl & Downtown Kaiserslautern

For our first actual weekend in Germany, Isabelle and I were still struggling with jet lag, so we decided to stay close to home and explore the villages closest to where we live.  I was anxious to get a good look at my surroundings and didn’t want to sit at home, even though I couldn’t keep my eyes open.  

Along with the pictures of our apartment and of Kindsbach, these will also give you an idea of the area that we live in.  I’m sure that there are parts of Germany that are prettier than others, but all of Germany is beautiful to me, and all of Germany is so different from anywhere I've ever seen in the States.

Landstuhl (Lawn-Shtool) is only 3km from Kindsbach and is where the largest Army hospital outside of the United States is- if a soldier is wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan, this is where they bring them.  We have access to excellent medical care here!  Landstuhl's population is 9,000 so it is much larger than Kindsbach.  

Kaiserslautern is where Eric is stationed and is located in the Palatinate Forest, and is known as "mini-America."  The population is 100,000 so it's a good sized city.

We went to the market in downtown Kaiserslautern- I'm sure everyone thought I was nuts for bringing my camera- hey, it goes where I go.  We had a blast just people watching!  This is where Isabelle had her first ever taste of gellato!

And I made my first purchase on the economy...

I think every kitchen needs a rooster and we didn't have one....perfect excuse to buy one, if you ask me. {Eric sees absolutely no function or reason for a rooster, but I think this little fella is adorable!}  I was so proud of myself for going into a German store and making a purchase with Euro....maybe it doesn't sound like a big accomplishment, but for only having had been in this country 6 days, I thought it was pretty brave of me...