Germany

We got back from an eight day trip in Germany yesterday. Andy had to go to Stuttgart for work and Claire and I decided to tag along.

We spent the first weekend visiting friends in Weisbaden, touring the cute town, and going to two "fests", the summer fest and the wine fest.



We spent the rest of the trip in Stuttgart visiting the downtown area, hanging out in the town square, going to the zoo, and playing tourist.

Claire is really starting to love animals, too. From the pigeons in the square (which she calls "buh") to the polar bear in the zoo.

We also visited a town just north of Stuttgart called Ludwigsburg, which has a beautiful palace and an amazing garden.

We didn't have a chance to go in the palace itself, but the garden had all kinds of neat things for kids. Many of the displays were nursery story themed, but it also included a small boat trip and a few pettable goats!

Unpacked and settled...

July has come and gone and it was a busy month. We celebrated the 4th of July at Carney Park which held it's annual fair/concert/carnival/fireworks event. Everyone told us it would be overrun by Italians, and there were certainly many there, but we didn't feel like it was too crowded. We had a great time.

We spent our 4th anniversary on the island of Ischia which is a quick ferry trip from Pozzouli. We had fun swimming in the Med for the first time and we were able to sit on the deck of our hotel room and enjoy a bottle of wine and our view of the Med while Claire slept.

On Andy's birthday, July 17th, we finally moved into our house. Both of our shipments and our appliances were delivered, so it was quite a busy day. We spend the rest of the month trying to unpack and organize. We were fully organized by this past Saturday when we had our first BBQ. The weather has been hot, but we have been enjoying being in the house. Claire is loving the outdoor space and she really enjoys picking (ripping) the flowers in our front yard.

Our first trip into Naples

We finally made it to downtown Naples today and we had a great time. Claire came away a bit sleep deprived and perhaps a bit jostled after being pushed in the stroller over cobblestone streets for several hours, but other than that, things went very well.

My first impression is that it reminds me of parts of New York. Not the shiny, fashionable parts, but it seems to be a slightly dirtier, crazier, and bigger version of Little Italy (ironically, enough) and Chinatown. Many of the buildings also feel like some of the older buildings of New York too with similar architecture. It certainly has more of a New York vibe than we thought Rome did and in some ways it is more like New York than London is. London is a bit more like the nicer parts of New York, while Naples seems to parallel the grittier parts of The City.

But, in my opinion, gritty is good.

My favorite part that we visited today was the market section of town where the small, narrow streets were filled with individual vendors selling fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese, toys, clothes, lawn furniture, and just about anything else you can think of. We didn't buy anything, but I definitely plan to return on a regular basis because it seemed like there were some great deals.

We also made it to the Castel Nuovo (New Castle) which was very old (but apparently not as old as the "Old Castle") and beautiful.

Then we wandered through some of the narrow streets of the neighborhoods of Naples on our way back to the subway.

Naples is a very interesting, hilly city with very narrow cobblestone streets. The streets are densely packed with small apartments and laundry hanging from every balcony and Italian flags strung across alleyways. It was just fascinating to walk around and look at things. There is certainly a lot more to see, and I can't wait to go back!

Movies on the Support Site

Andy and I have decided that the Naval Support Site here in Italy is kind of like an eerie utopia of an American community, a "Mayberry" if you will. It seems to have everything an American town would have, but in a smaller, cheaper, and more uniform package. The housing is clean and uniform, the grass and the parks are nicely mowed and well maintained (well... for Italian standards), and each little store in the mall is different and useful.

This includes the movie theater.

The movie theater has two theaters and it shows first run movies for $3. You can even get a punch card so your 11th movie is free, and you get free popcorn every time you come. It cycles through a number of movies, so I think you can see virtually every movie that is out in the states.

So, last night, Andy and I decided to take advantage of the cheap seats before we move out of the Navy Lodge, so we arranged for a babysitter and went to see Pelham.

Thank goodness we were pre-warned, because had I not been, the start of the showing would have shocked me. Before they show every movie here they play the national anthem and everyone stands respectfully, just like before a baseball game. The thing that made it even more odd was that along with the anthem, they showed a little "yay Navy" music video film reel complete with aircraft carriers, soldiers at attention, and a huge diving submarine.

Intense. Certainly an odd start to any movie.

Slow Moving Italy....

It seems like I haven't really gotten this blog up and running yet, but my limited access to the internet has truly slowed my progress. It certainly seems to match the pace of things here in general, though. We've been here for nearly three weeks and we've spend much of our time on the Support Site, which truly feels like a little Utopian slice of America. It seems like there are a lot of obstacles to overcome here in order to get anything done, but Andy is doing a great job trying to wade through everything.

We have decided on a house in Lago Patria, which we are excited about, however it looks like the process is going to be extremely slow. I'd be shocked if we were in the house in a month from now... it will probably be more like 6-8 weeks. I'm determined to be the squeaky wheel, however and I vow to call the housing office every day in order to keep things moving along for us! Hopefully they'll just get sick of me and move us through!

Claire is having a great time at the playground and the pool interacting with all the other kids. She has become a much more confident walker, even though she only took her first independent steps just under four weeks ago. She has also taught herself to crawl up the stairs and go down the slide by herself. Yay!

We are starting to meet some great people here too. Everyone is really friendly and very helpful, especially when they hear that you've only been here for a short period of time. It seems like people are really willing to reach out, which is great.

Our last night in the states...

Well, the long anticipated night has finally come. Tonight is our last night in the states. Andy, Claire and I are staying in a hotel in Downtown Silver Spring and we are spending our time hanging out, planning our day tomorrow. I was sad to say goodbye to my good friend Ashley and her son Cole today and hopefully we'll get to see Andy's Dad and brother Matt tomorrow before we go.

Claire is learning to use her walker and she really enjoys walking outside! We'll certainly try to bring this with us so she can walk up and down the halls of our hotel in Italy.