Kaiserslautern - Blogged by N8 and JME

N8 got to drive the van for the 'Wounded Warriors" on their weekday trip a couple Tuesdays ago to downtown Kaiserslautern. First they went to the Kaiserslautern dungeons. You had to crouch down to get into the tunnels. Here is a picture of N8 next to one of the tunnels to give you an idea of how small they are. Someone with claustrophobia would not do well here.



Here are a couple pictures of Chaplain S, who is about 5'4" or 5'5" walking through the tunnels. These tunnels are escape routes for the royalty that lived there.





When archeologists were excavating the tunnels, they found many graves. This is a picture of a real skeleton that they found while excavating. It was kind of creepy to see this actual open grave. The stone that makes up the walls of the grave were chipped away so that they could fit the body into it when they buried this person.



After they went to the dungeons, they went to the Protestant church in the city. It was big and very pretty.







This is a memorial inside the annex of the chapel. The statue for this memorial that N8 is standing by is a statue of Martin Luther.



This one is of Johannes Gutenberg.



His is a picture of outside of the chapel.



This is the oldest restaurant in Kaiserslautern. This restaurant has been there since the 1640s.

Burg Frankenstein - Blogged by N8 and JME



Burg Frankenstein is the actual castle where Mary Shelly had the inspiration to write the novel of Frankenstein. The weekend before, the weekend of, and the weekend after Halloween they decorate it and make it a haunted attraction. The actors there don't follow the same rules as they do in the states. They ARE allowed to touch you. They were picking some people up, throwing them in coffins, closing the lid, and jumping on top of it. They would grab people and take them away from their groups. The chainsaw guy would put the motor of the chainsaw right up against people. N8 got chased after by the wolfman. He kept grabbing him and tickling him and would not leave N8 alone for about 10 minutes. By the time he was done with N8, N8 felt like he needed to pray and go to church.

Here is a video that was on YouTube that someone posted that will give you a better picture of what it was like. It is all in German but it is still fun to watch.




In the picture below, they have taken one of the girls from her group and tied her to a torture device. They have a whip out and they are cracking it right next to her to scare her. The other picture is of one of the torturers.





The atmosphere was perfect. The group that went with N8 was perfect. From left to right: Silvia, Chaplain S, Chaplain M, RP3 B, N8, RP1 N. Taking the picture was Master Sergeant R.



This is probably the most fun N8 has had on an outing since being there. Here N8 is having dinner with RP3 B. They are having bratwurst.



This zombie was like one of the guards at Buckingham Palace. She didn't move or blink or anything. It was so creepy!



A guy dressed like this guy was following everybody out and hitting them with a rubber arm. He hit N8 upside the head and he hit RP3 B on the shoulder. He continued hitting people and the whole time Sylvia was saying, "Ha! Ha! Ha! He is hitting people with a rubber hand and they can't get mad at him because it is not his hand." Just as she finished that sentence, we heard a loud SMACK! and she grabbed her bottom and went "Ooowwww!" She then turned around and started to curse the guy out in German.



The next few are some fun pictures of the castle and the characters there.