It happens to be June 12th now but for all practical purposes it is still the 11th. Today began with a key leader rehearsal on the parade grounds here at Grafenwoher. Today marks a milestone in the 172d BCT deployment schedule. As each battalion assembled on the parade field and cased their Colors, they truly began the cycle of deployment, redeployment, and retraining. The Colors will be uncased in Afghanistan in the next month or so and the unit will do its duty over there for as long as it takes as as much as it costs.
After the ceremony I offered to take one of the other officers to the train station. On the way there he convinced me to ride along to Nurnberg and at least eat lunch with him. So we left the Vilseck train station at 1340 and arrived exactly 40 minutes later in downtown Nurnberg.
For anyone who hasn't been to the former Roman city.....that the allies happened to utterly and completely destroy during WWII; it is a great place to visit. Nurnberg comes with all of the trimings...torture museum...red light district...brotwurst stands...an opera house....a castle that sits on top of a hill...and a moat.
What really captivated me today was the statue just inside of the walled area of the city. I felt I could relate to this statue because of a past experience I had on the water a few years ago when my brother tried to teach me to sail by simple trial and error. The scene in this statue is captivating. A woman is clearly terrified of the skeleton in the boat who is towering over her. There is also a dog in the boat who is unhappy and a child who is clenching a dagger. Check out the picture below.
So after I enjoyed the work of art, I decided to look for some trinkets for the kids or something nice for Karen. The first store I walked into had a snow globe that I couldn't resist. Inside of the globe was an iceberg and the Titanic.
Evidently my brother is going to look at a sail boat tomorrow with the intent to potentially purchase the boat. Duane, if you read this, you were on my mind today as I came across two warnings from the hereafter that seemed to be steering me away from the boat.
The final treasure I found today was a picture of Jesus. I found this picture at an antique shop. The backing that is used to frame the picture is a 1921 newspaper. The picture itself is not in great shape but I think my family will enjoy this picture for many years to come. I hope you all like it.
That is it for now. Things are a little boring right now so the pace of writing will have to slow down until we get further into training. The first week of Pashto went well. I can now write and say the Pashto alphabet.
Good nite my friends.
Steven
Love the picture! Good job on language study! I am always envious of people who can speak multiple languages...I have tried to learn another language but can't get my mind to think that way!
ReplyDeleteHey Steven,
ReplyDeleteNuremberg is a great city. I remember traipsing through there as a young adult in college. There was so much history there, but the big things that I remember was a statue in the middle of town, with a boat and some characters carved in it. As well as one of the stadiums from the Nazi rallies that were held there. It is still there to my knowledge, it reminded me of a track field or foot ball field with the grassy area about 5 times larger and a large stadium podium, on one end. It was raised up and my Prof explained how the Americans had come in there and destroyed all physical signs of the Nazis to include a giant swastika.
If you look throughout some of the German cities, you can still find architectural features from when the Nazis did the construction. Kind of interesting mixed in with all of the classical and historical buildings.
Jason
Dersha! (which is very good if you haven't heard it yet) I really like that picture, it's very nice! I don't remember Nuremberg but it's great to live vicariously through your travels until we start ours. Have a great weekend! -The Gina family :)
ReplyDeleteI found that picture, it is called the ship of fools. Here is another picture of it on flicker if anyone else is interested. (The picture above is really small when I click on it.) It was from some one else's trip to the city.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/alexras/3446133975/in/set-72157616752608889
I really enjoy reading your posts Steven, feels like we can kinda go a long with you!
ReplyDeleteThe sailboat did not work out for Duane. It was not in good shape. So, the statue and snowglobe were good premonitions of what may have happened had he purchased the hunk of junk.
ReplyDelete