My Favorite Winding Road

Back in our glory days of residing in Germany, we lived in a teeney little village (seriously small) and we were surrounded by many more teeney little villages.

The scenery there was ah-mazing.


There was one little winding road that was just outside our village, that I drove quite often.

Especially when I was missing “home”.

When leaving our village of Rohrbach, and then taking a few curvy turns, this sign always greeted me:


Go a little further, and then you would see this crazy-looking building, which is actually someone’s home:



Just across the street from this house is a field, and here’s what you’ll find there:




Pretty cool, huh?

Here’s the story...

There was an Austrian soldier who was shot down over Germany in WWII. He was rescued and befriended by U.S. soldiers.

This house and land belong to him.
You see, he never forgot his American friends, and he has spent the past 60+ years (his lifetime) showing just how much their kindness meant to him.

I’m really bummed now that I can’t remember his name, but I do know that it’s possible that you can still see him walking the streets of Baumholder and neighboring villages, posting his signs.

When you do see this Austrian soldier, he is always (always) dressed in his full WWII gear and toting flags from the nations that he loves most.

I always felt so blessed to see him and his signs.

You see, I never realized what an amazing country America truly is, until we were living thousands of miles away from it.

Of course the locals there think he’s looney, but I think he’s passionate.

So here's to my far-away Austrian friend.
We never met, but his devotion to My country is one of the sweetest things I've ever seen.




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