Bruckberg, Germany

When we first arrived in Germany we were living in an Army lodging hotel called the Franconian Inn.  From there, we had to go visit the housing office and they had a couple places set up for us to look at.  Luckily, because I was stationed in Korea for the year before I arrived here (which is a hardship tour) I was bumped up to 1 on the housing list for company grade officers.  We looked at the two places that they had ready for us, but didn't like either one for different reasons.  One was too small and the other didn't have high speed internet available.  The housing lady, Kathryn, pulled us aside and told us that there was a really nice 3 bedroom house available if we didn't mind waiting until July and that we'd have to accept temporary housing in Bruckberg until we moved in.  (Bruckberg was one of the places that we looked at, but didn't have the high speed internet).  So, we moved in and that's where we've been spending our time waiting for the place in Obereichenbach to open up next week.  They're just cleaning and painting it right now. 
 
Oh yeah...funny story about that.  The telephone and internet have been hooked up in Obereichenbach, but we can't get in yet because the contractors are signed for it at the moment.  So....I made up a story that we needed to get in and measure one of the bedrooms because we were going to IKEA to buy some furniture yesterday.  Once the housing office lent me the key, I went and had a copy of it made and returned the original, so...in the evening, we let ourselves in, hooked up our computers and phone and we've been chilling here getting reconnected to the online world.  We even met our neighbors who are from Costa Rica and they're very nice.  He's a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and we had pizza and beer yesterday.  The weird thing is...they also looked at the same place we did before they moved in...they have a 3 year old daughter named Sophia that gets along with Collin famously....they even have a Labrador retriever like us, lol, although she's a yellow lab.
 
Anyway, here are some random pictures from Bruckberg.  It's a really nice little town with 2 brewery's in it, both in walking distance.  They have little beer gardens attached to them and they both serve excellent food.  The best part is that you can buy a bottle and then get it refilled as often as you like for only 3 Euros, about $4.50 for 2 Liters of beer.  It's awesome!  It's only about 5 kilometers from Obereichenbach, so I'm sure we'll be back here often.
 
Collin has a preschool DVD Blues Clues game that he likes playing.  I can't believe the control he has with a mouse, clicking, dragging and all kinds of stuff...it's impressive. 

Malisa talking to her folks back in the states...

Collin doing the same...

Going for a walk around Bruckberg

Collin was playing with Gunner and napping in the backyard.

A cool thing that's pretty common in Germany are the little "honor system" flower gardens.  You'll be driving along the road and see these really nice gardens, usually on the edge of a bigger farm with different kinds of flowers growing...from Roses to Sunflowers and you can just stop and pick them and leave your money in a box.  Malisa likes to go down and pick the sunflowers for the house. 

Kissing a booboo on naked-bottom boy

Bruckberg is on a hill and it's nice to go for walks after dinner.  The cool thing about little German towns is that the houses are all close together and once you walk past the last house, that's it....there's nothing but land until the next little town. 

Collin was trying to stomp some ants, but we stopped him before he could do any harm and then he found a slug (pronounced: schyugg) that he was fascinated with.

Collin was doing his impression of Gunner, particularly the lolling tongue part.

Some shots of Bruckberg, our house is in the background of the first picture, the blue one.

We walked down to the brewery for dinner one night and Collin found a little kitty (He named it little Emma, like Grammy Pammy's).

There was a nice beergarden outside the brewery, but we ate inside (okay...don't judge!) because there's also a mental hospital in this town and they happened to be eating outside too....which is fine, but they were all in love with Collin and a little too aggressive about showing affection, so we moved inside.

Germany's version of the Growler.  14 Euros to buy the bottle...refunded if you ever bring it back and then 3 Euros every time you want to fill it...it's amazing.  I enjoy the Hefenweizen the most.

Collin demonstrating how heavy it is.  I love the pewter handle...

Our street...Petersdorfer Weg