Could you look into it?

I was thinking on getting away for the July 4^th weekend—cheaply—so the best place to look for such flights is Southwest Airlines. Hmm…what happened to the $49.00 one-way flights? And no, I’m not talking about flying from Chicago to Cleveland. Southwest was the savior of the skies for budget seekers, and now they seem to be flying at the same cost as other airlines. I feel like the American people can’t catch a break at the gas pump, grocery store, and now getaways. We NEED mental health weekends and Southwest used to be our answer.  

During my months in Europe, we were able to experience different places because of the budget airline, Ryanair. I was able to buy two round trip tickets to Bologna, Italy from Dusseldorf, Germany for 28 Euros, approximately $35.00. If it wasn’t for Ryanair, I wouldn’t have been able to go and enjoy different countries in Europe.   

Why can’t Southwest or another airline look into what makes Ryanair successful? Americans should be able to fly to Boston or California at reasonable costs. We can’t even blame flight increases on gas costs because Europe’s average gas prices are anywhere from $6.00 to $11.00 a gallon. 

Nowadays there are more people relocating to other states, which mean low cost fares would help them see family from time to time. People aren’t utilizing their full vacation time for the “what if’s” and “costs”. If an airline started providing low, reasonable fares, they’d be constantly booked because more people would fly. And if more people fly, it would boost the economy allowing them to spend more during their travels. It’s a win/win situation.

Could you look into it? I mean, it would be awesome to fly to California (round-trip) at a cost far less than flying to Europe.

Whatcha thinkin'?

Take the Long Way Home

Since the Bears ended their season leaving fans with weeping hearts, I thought I’d move on and look to the future. Besides, I can always hope “Big Ben” crushes Green Bay at the Super Bowl.

Change in script: We’re still committed to our daily walks—yesterday being our longest—6.7 miles. We walked more miles than we drove the car since we arrived back in Germany, which is much better when you consider the price of gas. This helps us save money and lose weight at the same time. It’s so easy walking around here that I’m usually surprised at how many miles we’ve done.

Sometimes I’ve taken my camera along so I could share with you.  This first one I took of a car for sale because I thought this tiny car was so cute.

These two pictures show how much it’s flooded in Hattingen. The first picture is from June 2009, and you can see the green field in front of the house. The second picture is from this past week, and the field in front is under water. I couldn’t believe the path we rode in 2009, where the picture was taken, was gone too.

I thought this was quite interesting. When we started into the forest, we came upon a little shack that you can see in the background. Here are steps and a locked fence for the shack. I think it was built to keep the thieves out...then I asked myself, "Why?". 

We exited part of the forest for a little bit that opened up, and I was able to get a shot of the sun starting to dim and an airplane path in the sky.

This picture looks like a field of amber.

We finally made it up to the castle ruins, but then my camera died out. 

On another walk though, I did capture this picture of a broken tree. I thought it was cool the way the tree branch rests right next to the trunk.

Hope you all have a great week.

Sprechen Sie Englisch? (Do You Speak English?)

I’ve learned to pronounce the above phrase very well. So far this week, I’ve become accustom to how things work in Hattingen, such as no grocery stores are open on Sunday, and gas prices average around $7.00 a gallon. Germany uses litres and it’s 3.8 litres = gallon. Here are some pictures of our flat (European term for apartment).

Below are outdoor pictures of the area where our flat is located. 

  

This is the hallway going toward the front door, and to the right is the kitchen.

 

The kitchen is small and cluttered due to the fact we have FIVE—count them—FIVE small garbages to juggle; organics, paper, regular, glass and recycled. Also, we have a freezer, dishwasher, washing machine, refrigerator and stove/oven setup in the kitchen. When you leave a flat in Hattingen, you must gut everything out—meaning take down wallpaper, take down kitchen cabinets, and all appliances, therefore, you need to set them up in your new living space.

This is the living room where we spend much of our time. Meine Liebe (my love) has his desk to do his work, and I sit on the couch with my laptop to work on my writings.

And then there’s the bathroom. Yes, it’s an adventure showering on one side of the bathtub. Because we are in the attic area of the flat, the ceiling slants as it does in all the rooms.

Another thing that is very unique about Germany are cemeteries. The burial grounds are decorated like little gardens. When we were walking through town, I saw some beautiful arrangements. I wanted to buy one, but meine liebe said those were for burials. I’m posting a few pictures of these burial arrangements that are added to the burial gardens.

Well that’s it for now. Was denken Sie? (What do you think?)

Tschüß (Good bye)