Life: Idiotropic

Arianna is growing up
Lately (for the last 6 weeks) we've had a little rain (a lot). But, it comes fast and leaves almost as quickly, so we do see sun here and there. On Sunday we saw a bit of blue sky and decided to go out. With no plan and less motivation, we gathered up the herd and programmed Stella for Rheinmein, the British base just north of us.

We'd heard that they had some good restaurants and that we had privaleges at their shopping centers, so I was curious to see what was there hoping to find some fabulous British fare. The drive was only 30 minutes. During the first 15 the water came down in buckets with occasional hail. I felt bad for the poncho laden people stooped over in the fields working with the crops. One field must have had at least 20 workers in it. That was the area with the heaviest rain.
The base seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, but it is actually not far from Dusseldorf. We drove onto it and were immediately amazed by its enormity. The base seemed to go on forever and it had all of the niceties including some very nice "base houses", several clay floored tennis courts, and a very nice swimming pool. We saw both Dutch and Italian detatchments there and an American base exchange. Eventually we found the NAAFI which is our equivalent of a commissary and base exchange - basically grocery and all other goods. The prices were in Euros on most things and pounds for others. The commissary had a very nice selection of Indian sauces and some Twinings tea that I can't get at my local stores, so I'll definitely go back for a little shopping on occasion.

Although it was a nice little shopping center, I had expected more - something special and very British. There wasn't really anything that screamed Britain - certainly nothing that I couldn't live without. And, all of the toys were American toys that I could pick up at any ToysRUs (yes, they have those over here too). I think that's one of my biggest disappointments here. I had thought I was entering a modern, yet older continent. Yes, Europe is older, but all around us are things that are new and modern. It seems the appreciation of the old is not here anymore. Craftmanship is being sent out to other Eastern block nations that have cheaper labor, and, just when I think may be I can find that really special item somewhere, I usually just come across the same ol' American stuff. "Made in China" is everywhere.

Starving, we looked for "all the really tasty restaurants" that we'd heard about from friends. We only found one and it was closed. So, frustrated and starving with little ones clamboring for food in the backseat, we drove to Heinsburg for dinner. Kirk took us to a Turkish place he'd been to before. It was the typical German Turkish restaurant offering Doners (Gyros), pasta, pizza, and schnitzel. All the food was great though I've yet to be to a German restaurant.

I'd been to Heinsburg, but never to the Centrum. They have a remarkably nice Centrum with streets packed with quaint shops stemming from the very center like fingers. In the center was an ice cream shop at the base of a large hill. The hill was hard to miss. We saw it driving in with a beautiful green spired church on top of it and an old castle ruin to one side. So, after dinner we all took a walk. The church was closed, but the hill has walking trails all around it and up on top by the ruin, so the girls enjoyed the time to run and play. The church itself was beautiful especially with the backdrop of blue and fluffy white clouds. On each corner of the tower was a statue. Two scary looking gargoyles guarded the front two corners while an angel and a lion stood on the other side.


On the other side of the church along the path playground equipment was scattered around. They weren't traditional things like slides. Traditional playground toys exist here, but there are a lot of other, more creative toys here too. A lot of spinning things. The big blue disk at one point had all 4 girls on it, all shrieking and laughing and worried that they were going to fall off. My middle two lasted the longest and Luci was the fearless one smiling no matter how fast Kirk spun it. The girls played until 7 when it was time to head home.

The drive home was beautifully sunny with all the fields shimmering in the sun still wet from the rain.