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Jan, 1, 1960

Hello My Darling,

This is my first real letter from the Burg and also my first to
you in the new year. I hope it's one of the best of many which we shall
share with each other. I got your note yesterday which you mailed
on the 27th (5 days time - not bad at all) and it was swell to see your
words even though they were written before I left. I can hardly wait
for your first letter for real. I've read and reread your special
letter which I brought with me (which almost got left behind at
the airport!) and I can't tell you how much it means to me. I
hope you can feel as you read this, darling, how much I love you!!
Golly there's so much to tell you already - where do I start? Fortunately,
I have nothing planned all day (it is now 1 pm - I got up just in time
for lunch, having gotten to bed at 3:45 a.m.), so I can spend it all with
you (that is, If I can afford the stamps to mail what I write.). I think I'll begin
chronologically and tell you what has happened.

We arrived in N.Y. after flying over clouds since about Denver - to find it
snowing! After about a 1/2 hour layover we took off on sabena DC7 for Brussels.
Had dinner and breakfast on this leg, and tried to get some sleep, but even with
a sleeping pill I only slept about 3 hours. After about a 1/2 hour stop in a beautiful
Brussels airport, we took off again for Stuttgart, with lunch on the way. During the
whole trip Sabena we saw relatively little land, being either over coean
or clouds. We got a good look at southern England - Wales, Bristol, etc.
toward London, but London itself went by before I could get to a window.
Then we saw a little of France and of course the Brussels area as we
dropped through the clouds. The country was cut into small sections,
and looked sort of like a stained glass window in varying shades of
green. It was must greener than in the U.S. (even the San Joaquin valley) where
everything looks brown. [Just took time out to visit with a young boy from Beutelsbach
who was visiting with the fellows in the room next to ours.]

We drove from the airport to the Burg on chartered busses, passing through the
residential areas of Stuttgart. Most of the houses were quite large, 3 stories, basically
square (not ranch style for sure), with fairly steep, red (usually tile) roofs. They are