I have had a request...

I have had a request from a reader of my blog to tell a bit about the many wondrous places I have been blessed to live in my life.

Of the 16 years I have been married I have been blessed to spend 10.5 of them here...in Europe.

The first 3 years of my marriage, the honeymoon years, we lived in Hanau Germany. Not known for it's great beauty being an industrial city located near Frankfurt, but it was home for us for a while. We could see passed all the factories luckily and were able to enjoy the area and all it's wonders.

We returned back to the United States for about 5 years and were once again able to relocate back to Germany, this time in the Schweinfurt area.

Not at all like it's name, Schweinfurt, located along the Main river is a picturesque locale. We lived in two different towns in the area, but settled for 4 years in a 850 year old village called Hesselbach. Many of our German friends described it as "the end of the Earth", but to me...it truly was HOME. We were living there during the terrible attacks on September 11th,and this little village just wrapped it's arms around us and made us feel safe when the world was living in fear. That was a real gift.

I can go on and on about this wonderful area....Würzburg, a beautiful Baroque city, located at the foot of the US Army base, a city of wine and culture. Bad Kissingen, with it's rose gardens and spas. The various wine villages with their views of the hillsides spilling over with vineyards.

We spent many a weekend riding our bikes along the Main from one quaint wine village to another, enjoying the wine and song. The people of this area I found to be the most open so far in Germany. We were able to just slide up on a bench along side the Franken people and feel like we were really apart of it all.

Our next adventure, we were given the opportunity to move to the French speaking part of Belgium, Communauté française de Belgique OR Wallonie. We lived about 30 or 40 minutes from Brussels (depending on who was driving), in a small farming community near the Flanders or the Flemish region of Belgium. The village was called Ollignies.

Living in Belgium was a totally new and wondrous experience. Not only learning a new language, but the culture is so completely different from the any we had known before. Each new place has their own unique challenges. It is always what you make of them that propels you forward.

I will try in the next few blogs to discuss the many adventures each place held for us and include some photos. I fear Hanau was before my digital adventure began so I do not have many digital images available of our life there, but perhaps I will fire up the scanner just for the event. Oh the things I do for you...

Perhaps I will write in retro-spective timeline as that is the freshest memories. I am hoping you will enjoy my reminiscent blogs to follow.