Typisch deutsche Dorf ................

......................... or, in English, typical German village!!

Here I am in Germany doing my country's duty (drinking excellent German beer and eating great German food - lol) and remembering, once again, why I loved it here so much.

Bigger onion ....... see bottom of narrative!!

For those of you that do not know (probably about 99% of you!!) I lived in Germany for almost five years in the late 80's/early 90's .... I met Himself in Harrogate in 1983 and in 1987 I took the plunge and rented out my UK house, gave up my job and moved lock, stock and barrel to Germany to be with him - it was all very complicated (and the details are not particularly important here) so the decision was a risky one - and it was all decided and completed in the space of a month!!

I sailed from Hull to Rotterdam with my little car packed to the gunnels, my Mum waved me off, both of us crying buckets, and I remember she held up a set of signs saying "I love you and will miss you" as the ship sailed - many more tears shed!!!!
I drove from Rotterdam to Lippstadt (where we had rented a 9th floor apartment) and couldn't go above around 45mph (72kph) all the way as the car was so full!!!!

I didn't speak any German when I left England but had a series of teach yourself German tapes so, by the time I got there, I had a few words and phrases!!

We lived in Lippstadt for a year and made some wonderful German friends and then Himself got promotion to SSgt and we were posted to Nienburg (near Hannover) ..... in order to be eligible for Army housing we had to be married .... from notification of promotion to arrival in Nienburg (about three weeks) we organised a wedding and got married in May 1988 in Soest (where I worked as a squadron clerk) ............. and that's the story of how I ended up in Germany ..... in 199o Himself went off to Iraq (Desert Storm) and I didn't see him for almost 8 months ...... he came out of the Army in 1992 and we bought our current house.

Wow - all that info started from me saying how much I love Germany - sorry folks, got a bit carried away there ..... more personal info than you probably wanted or needed.

Enough ................. maybe another time I will tell you why I think Germany appeals to me so much and why I loved living here!

Hope you all had a great Tuesday - I have had a lovely day driving 250 mls (400kms) in the hot sunshine (in a very smart, brand new, white VW Golf - top of the range - got a free upgrade!) through the German countryside (as seen above)!

Thanks for reading to the bottom - or for skipping all the personal stuff and getting to this bit anyway!!!!! :-))

By the way .... this kind of Church dome is called an Onion Dome and they are seen throughout Europe and in Germany .... especially in Bavaria.

If you have time please take a quick peek at last year's daisy - the centre has a gorgeous pattern ......... thumbnail on the right!