I had my first non-medical adventure Sunday. One of the other NCOs made me get out of my room and spend the day with her. She’s my Warrior Companion, because she says they no longer use the term Battle Buddies! (You learn something new every day!). Anyway, after a day of shopping at the Ramstein Air Base BX, (which is more like a mall connected to a hotel…the Army would never be able to compete!), we walked to a festival and heard a castle wasn’t too far.

So this adventure started pretty good. We were on track and following the few directions we were given. It was so much fun just taking in Germany. I had never been to Germany in the spring, so it was so nice walking and smelling the sweet smell of lilacs and other fragrant bushes covered in flowers. Everything was just so green after being in Iraq for 6 months.

So, since this is a blog post I promise not to write a book about it! Long story short. Germans do not know the word castle. What would have taken the normal traveller 10 minutes took us two hours! Two days later, my calves, hamstrings, shoulders, and abs are very sore, but the good kind. The abs hurt from all the laughing we did when we came down from the castle and it took us 8 minutes and we saw this sign.

Below is the path we were supposed to take…

Below is the path we took!

Below is a castle that seems to be everywhere in this area of Germany. There are a bunch of them around here I guess. This one was on someones home. Just thought I’d throw this picture up for the 1ST Engineers!