Well, if you've been paying any attention to this site, you'll know that I deployed to Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq for all of 2005.  So, when I got back to Germany and to my lovely wife, Kelly, I was ready to spoend some quality time traveling around Europe with her.  And that's what I did.  In addition to finding a lot of castles and traveling to Belgium and Luxembourg, we've taken some other good trips around Germany and the rest of Europe.  Here they are.

München (Munich), Salzburg, Neuschwanstein, and Ulm

    In April, my parents came over to see us and to do some traveling.  And travel we did.  We had a great time driving around southern Germany, took a little train excursion into Austria, and even managed to find some snow.  Later, we went back to Oktoberfest in...September.
 
 

Die Altes Rathaus, München	Die Neues Rathaus
Schloß Nymphenburg
	Salzburg
		Schloß Neuschwanstein
		Ulmer Rathaus
		Ulm Münster, the tallest church spire in the world
The Hacker-Pschorr fest tent - "Himmel den Bayern" (Heaven in Bavaria)

Mannheim

    Mannheim means "man town."  (I just think that's neat.)  Until recently, two of our best friends, Angie and Bailey Brown, lived down the road from us in Mannheim, about 45 minutes away.  After Bailey got back from Afghanistan, he received orders to go to Korea, so of course we had to go back to Mannheim one last time to tour the town and say goodbye.
 
 

Darmstadt

    After returning from deployment, I changed jobs from trial defense attorney in Wiesbaden to trial counsel (prosecutor) and admin law attorney in Darmstadt.  After I got my new DSLR, I spent some time getting to know the new town.  (And some time playing around with myCanon 5D and  Lensbaby 2.0.)  Also, in September, I found out that there was an outdoor art exhibit on the trails in the forest right behind Cambrai-Fritsch, so of course I had to go shoot it.  Finally, my office had the opportunity to tour EUMETSAT, the European Meteorological Satellite Agency, so of course I took the cameras along.
 
 

Wiesbaden

    Literally, "meadow baths." Wiesbaden is known for its natural hot springs; it's been a spa town since the Roman days.  It's not much of a "travel" to go to Wiesbaden; after all, we live here.  But this first part of Wiesbaden isn't one that folks see too often: the heavily spraypainted Wasserturm (water tower) by the Hauptbahnhof (main train station).  Also, early September is when the 2-week long wine festival takes over downtown, and since we live downtown, well, it'd be downright unpatriotic not to go, wouldn't it?
 
 

	Marktkirch