Conclusion - (Germany) Day 526

During our last visit to Frankfurt...The Myzeil Shopping Mall...has a pretty cool hole in it!

This weekend we are staying at the Sheraton hotel which is connected to the Frankfurt airport. We'll have a lot more available to us including a short train ride into downtown Frankfurt instead of being trapped on "PHV island" without a car for our last weekend here in Germany.

As for my thoughts about my time here….

I had been to Germany as a young lad as part of our high school exchange program and had a blast, so I was excited to come back and visit as an adult. I was also very excited to be assigned to an actual signal unit, I figured I'd be doing my actual job and getting involved in all kinds of high tech information technology…geeky stuff. I figured wrong.

Germany and Europe were a blast as far as being a tourist goes. My wife and I made the most of our time here. We explored as much of Germany as possible and also made our way to England, Holland, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece. I loved being able to see all the history and my wife and I really enjoyed our time here. Our hometown of Heidelberg is a great city. The food and beer in Germany is amazing. The people we met were awesome and I was able to visit all three of the German exchange students that had lived with me in America as part of our exchange program.

Professionally my time in Germany was a real bust. Even though I was in an actual signal unit, I ended up being a ComSec clerk…which is actually a glorified librarian that only needs to make sure customer's paperwork is in order and all the signatures are in the correct places. A computer is not even needed to be a ComSec clerk. On top of that there were so many special duties and training that we had to do which had nothing to do with the job I signed up for…an Information Technology Specialist. Truth be told the only I.T. work I did was when I worked on my home computers. When I vented my frustrations via this blog, I ended up in all kinds of trouble. Free speech was thrown out the window. One does not simply shine a negative light on what's going on in the army. If a high ranking someone gets butt hurt, then there is going to be hell to pay. Even without getting in any official trouble, I had to deal with a lot of unofficial punishment…special duty, verbal assaults, and being alienated. Even though I never received any official punishment, my life was a living hell for a while. Ironically during my year and a half in Germany I received 3 AAMs (Army Achievement Medals) and the Good Conduct Medal.

I eventually ended up working as the chaplain's assistant, which helped him out and got me out of the sergeant major's bullseye. It worked out and my stress level went down considerably. During this whole process I did receive my clearance and I also ended up getting recommended for the medboard. So now I will move on to the next and last chapter of my army career as I go through the medboard process. The good news is that I'll be stationed at Ft. Lewis during the process which is only about 40 minutes from my hometown. I'll have the support of friends and family. I'll also be able to be a bigger part of my kids lives.

All the posts in Heidelberg closed down about 3 months after I left. The local newspaper had an article along with a video showing the Germans checking it out for the first time. (The page is in German, but if you use the chrome web browser it should offer to translate it for you. The video is also in German, but you can watch it as it shows you around Campbell Barracks where I worked)

Check out the video here: http://www.rnz.de/heidelberg/00_20140215163000_110629844-Video_Rundgang_durch_die_Campbell_Barracks.html
Edit: Unfortunately the newspaper has since removed the article :(

We did make one last trip via train from the airport to Frankfurt...

Street performers in Frankfurt...I love watching street performers, they

give a city some personality

Taking a break and posing for a picture

Me posing under the giant Euro sign in Frankfurt

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Germany) Day 347 & 348

A view from the Frankfurt Christmas Market

Saturday: This morning after getting ready we headed to the post office once again to mail out some Christmas packages. We then headed off to Frankfurt to check out their Christmas Market. As I mentioned yesterday, each town has their own Christmas Market and we basically just picked a city and left.

It was pretty cold, so I'm glad we headed out and spent the day there instead of going at night. We walked around and checked out all the vendors. The setup was huge, it just kept going and going with vendors everywhere we looked. We not only checked out the vendors and ate our lunch there, my wife also had to check out some of the traditional stores in the mall. It was a good day, it was nice to get out of the house and spend time in the big city.

Sunday: Today was a day of rest…if you don't count the shopping trip we made to the commissary, we seemed to be out of everything. Usually we use the self checkout because it's easy and you don't have to spend extra money tipping the baggers. Today was not one of those days, we had so much it was just easier to have a bagger give us a hand. Other than that we just sat inside, cleaned, cut my hair, and watched TV shows and the snow come down outside. It was a nice day of just hanging out with my wife.

There is always plenty of good food at the Christmas Markets!

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Germany) Day 277 & 278

A view down the street during the "Heidelberger Herbst"

Saturday: We slept in and took our time getting ready this morning, then we made the trip to Frankfurt airport to pick up my wife's cousin. He's in the military and going on a deployment, but as luck would have it, he has a one night layover here. We jumped at the chance to pick him up and have him stay with us for the night instead of a hotel. He was going to have to take a taxi from the airport to Ramstein Air Base on Sunday. We wouldn't have that, we said we would just have him stay with us and we would take him there ourselves.

After getting home we unloaded the luggage from our car, then took him out to eat at a local restaurant we've both heard a lot about. Everyone calls it the Schnitzel House, so we found out the directions and checked out the reviews on the web. It's a little off the beaten path, but was worth it. The food was awesome and it was the least we could do to treat family to a nice meal before he leaves for his deployment. He'll be away from his immediate family for a while. I may not have been deployed yet, but I do know what it's like to be separated from family. When you're on your own, it just sucks.

We headed to downtown Heidelberg to check out the "Heidelberger Herbst" (the Heidelberg Fall Festival). The place was packed! While the streets usually have plenty of people on them, they were completely packed everywhere we looked. There were vendors all over the place selling everything from wonderful smelling food to various items or services. There were street performers all over as well. I wish we could have stayed longer, but our guest wanted to be able to video chat with his family.

We came back to the house and he was able to video chat with his family before turning in for the night. It broke my heart watching the video chat, his daughter was getting ready for homecoming and he wasn't able to be there for that. He'll also be missing the upcoming holidays as well as birthdays. All I can say is that it really sucks.

Sunday: We slept in again, then after getting ready we headed to the Rammstein Air Base. We ate lunch there and then shopped around a bit before seeing my wife's cousin off. It was emotional seeing him off. Knowing that we're the last family he's going to see for a while. He gave us both big hugs, then we headed out.

After we got back to the house, I had to use my little portable shock treatment kit that was issued to me during my follow up session with my doctor. This little device can attach to my upper back and neck and give me the same treatment I received while in physical therapy. It really helped a headache that was killing me, as well as the pain that I had in my neck. All this from a little 9 volt battery!

We just took it easy the rest of the day catching up on all our TV shows that finally started up again. I'm at the tail end of a cold, and my wife seems to be just starting hers…so we were both happy to just cuddle up on the couch and relax for the rest of the day with some tea and then soup for dinner.

Weekend Wrap-Up (Frankfurt & Heiligenberg) - (Germany) Day 222 & 223

A view from the Main Tower of Frankfurt and The Main River

Saturday: This morning we got up with the plans to head to Frankfurt for a day trip. My girls have been staying up late watching movies and texting with their friends back in the states, so when I tried to get them up and they didn't budge, so we just left them. We took my son and headed off to Frankfurt. I've told my girls over and over again not to stay up late, they can chat with their friends all they want when they are in the states…why not take advantage of everything they can while here in Europe?

So my wife and I headed off with my son to Frankfurt, which is about an hour drive from Heidelberg. We first headed to the "Main Tower" in the middle of the city. This skyscraper is 200 meters, the building is pretty high and is very "visitor friendly". We purchased tickets for 5 euro each to take a ride to the top via an elevator. We were granted spectacular views of the entire city of Frankfurt and the Main River.

Our next destination was the Frankfurter Dom (the Frankfurt Cathedral), but along the way we ran into an Italian festival in full swing. There were plenty of vendors and music going on, so we stopped and had lunch. We then proceeded to the cathedral and checked that out as well as the Roman ruins outside of it.

After that we headed down to the river where they had a sort of carnival going on. There were vendors and rides all along the river. We checked everything out, my son played a few games and we all went on the ferris wheel. After that, we called it a day and started to make our way back to the car and then back home…a fun day had by the three of us.

The night consisted of "cosmic bowling" at the PHV bowling alley. By this time my girls were up and about and came with us. We met up with SPC Whirlwind and bowled from 2100 until after midnight. I say we, but most of us quit after the third game…then everyone except my son quit after the fourth game. My son continued to bowl six more games before we finally left!

Street performers in Frankfurt

Sunday: Today we slept in, then had a big breakfast before heading out to "philosopher's way" in Heidelberg. This trail is long and offers many scenic views of the city of Heidelberg as well as the castle and the old bridge. We hiked up to "Thingstätte" the Nazi amphitheater at the top. This was built in 1935 by the Nazi party and was used for rallies and festivals. It's an amazing structure still and has great acoustics. We broke out our picnic basket and had lunch, but the most requested item was water…everyone was pretty thirsty after the long hike.

Not too far above the amphitheater is the ruins of St. Michael's Monastery. This place was built in 870! The place is pretty cool to walk around, and you can still climb up a couple of the small towers that are still standing to get an aerial view of the ruins. The top of the tower seemed to be the place to hang out and relax as there were a few German kids just hanging out up there talking on the phone and relaxing.

We made the trek down the hill (which is called Heiligenberg) and back to our car parked in a garage back in the altstadt (old city) of Heidelberg…of course on the way we stopped for ice cream and enjoyed the various street performers along the way back. I love just walking around the altstadt on the weekend….lots of people and things to look at.

A view of the Heidelberg Castle along with the old bridge 

and altstadt from Philosopher's Way

A view from the top of the "Thingstätte" a Nazi amphitheatre

A view from one of the towers looking down at one of my 

daughters and my wife exploring the ruins of "Klosterruine St Michael" 

(Monastery of St. Michael)

The Kids Arrive - (Germany) Day 190

This morning's PT was muscle failure. I was able to do a lot of the exercises, so I got a pretty good workout. We went from one exercise to another and the only things I couldn't do were sit-ups and jumping jacks, but there were plenty of others such as push-ups and such that wore me out.

At work I checked my email and surfed the net a bit until 1100 when I finally got up and left for the day. I headed home and ate lunch, then headed off to the Frankfurt airport to pick up my kiddos. I think I was just a little too excited because I ended up getting there a good 2.5 hours before they landed. I spent the time reading my book and pacing back and forth waiting for them at the gate. Finally the plane landed and I continued to pace back and forth at the gate like a caged lion. Every time I saw a blond person my hopes would rise, only to be dashed when I realized it wasn't one of my kids.

At last they all came out…almost the last ones. We paid 90 euros for a chaperone that never came, so my kids kind of wandered around eventually figuring out where to go. I'm going to have to see about getting my money back on that one. Right now I'm not mad though because I'm just so happy to see my kids. I haven't seen them for 6 months now and it was an awesome reunion.

We took off from the airport and they were a little amazed (like I was when first driving in Germany) about how fast people drive on the autobahn. Once back at the house we all went out for dinner at The Village Grill (the restaurant here on post). One the way though I had to stop at my supervisor's house. Since we have a two day holiday in the middle of the week, I had to sign a counseling statement stating that I will not get into trouble. That's too bad because I planned on getting in all sorts of trouble on my days off, but now that I signed a silly piece of paper I'll have to be a good little boy.

We didn't plan a lot for the kids first night here, just the dinner out and watching a movie to wind down the night. My kids love movie nights with me, the only problem is picking one out that everyone agrees on…tonight's flick "X-Men: First Class". You can't go wrong with an X-Men movie. My oldest was asleep before the movie started, my middle child was asleep within the first few minutes and the youngest stayed awake for a good hour before succumbing to jet lag.

Weekend Wrap-Up (4-Day) - (Germany) Days 53-56

A picture of some of the many tombstones at the American Cemetery and Monument in Luxembourg

Friday: We woke up and had an easy going morning, drinking some coffee and having breakfast together. Then we all got in my car and we headed off to the Frankfurt airport. My wife's cousin brought their GPS which made everything very easy. Ours is in the mail being sent from back in the states. This is something I would recommend to anyone traveling Europe, it makes everything so much easier and gives you a sense of security knowing that you will not be getting lost in a foreign land!

This was my second time driving on the autobahn since arriving here. The first time was following my boss back from when we picked up my car. Now I was driving solo…not following anyone. Many people don't realize that the autobahn does have many places that have speed limits. Some are reasonable like freeway speeds in the US around 60-70 mph…others are 130 kph which is about 85 mph or so. There are portions…large portions that don't have any speed limits. I kept it around 85 to 90 mph because I had a car full of people and I wanted to keep it pretty safe. I was still amazed at how many cars passed me like I was standing still. One thing the drivers here are good about is staying to the right unless you are passing others. Unlike the states where you have "parade makers" that stay in the left lane no matter what…causing a long line of cars behind them. I found a couple of times I'd be passing someone and way back in the distance I would see lights flash a couple of times at me…by the time I passed the car in front of me and moved over, a car would already be caught up and zooming by me. It would be really fun to drive a high performance sports car here and just let loose!

We arrived at the airport and picked up my wife's niece (her cousin's daughter) who happened to be on a field trip with others, but instead of flying back home to England she just came with us since we were there. We went to the altstadt (old town) of Frankfurt and did a lot of walking around checking out the amazing architecture and scenery. It's amazing seeing such old buildings with modern skyscrapers in the background. Among some of the interesting places we saw were some ancient Roman ruins as well as a very old church called Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus. The building was amazing as was the art and sculptures inside it. It's awesome to think about all the history here.

I then had some Spaghetti Eis (Spaghetti Ice Cream) one of my favorites from the last time I was here 20 years ago. It's vanilla ice cream with raspberry topping made to look like spaghetti. :) We then drove back home and hung out for a while. We were introduced to a new game (for us) on the iPad…Family Feud…and we ended up all playing it together for a while before turning in for the night.

Saturday: We woke up a bit early today in order to start the day. Once everyone was ready we drove to Luxembourg, which I'm ashamed to say I didn't even realize is another country. It's one of the smallest countries in Europe, so I guess it's easy to miss. It's located to the west of Germany and was a strategic location for the Germans in WWII. They invaded and took over Luxembourg so they would be able to invade France. There were some great battles fought by the Americans during WWII and there is a US cemetery and memorial that we visited. The place beautiful, everything was well maintained and beautiful. Walking around looking at all the names and ranks on the tombstones was pretty sad. It's hard to think of all the young PVTs and PFCs that died there. It's strange to see an American memorial in another country, but Luxembourg is very grateful for the soldiers that died liberating their country.

In contrast we went to a Nazi cemetery about a mile away. The mood there is totally different and the fog just added to the very gothic…almost haunted feel to the area. Instead of one name on each tombstone, the Nazi tombstones have 4 (two on each side). It was a very interesting experience indeed. (You can check out more photos from this trip on my flikr site here)

We then drove back to Germany to a town called Trier. We headed straight to the altstadt portion of this town and entered through the "Porta Nigra" a very old gate that was used back in the day. There was a lot of shopping and such, but the highlight of the stop here was an ancient church called the Cathedral of Saint Peter. Like the church in Frankfurt, this one was full of amazing art and sculptures.

We had dinner at a place called Big Emmas which is close to Rammstein Air Base on the way home. This place was just plain crazy. Every "normal" dish served looked like something you would see on the show "Man vs Food". I laughed out loud when I walked in and saw a guy's hamburger in front of him. The dude was looking at this thing that was literally much bigger than his head trying to figure out how he was going to eat it. My wife and I ordered 1/4 sized meals and were unable to finish them. I then ordered ice cream for dessert not realizing that the desserts were the same gigantic portions. I choked when I saw them bring out this huge bowl filled with multiple scoops of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream, whipped cream, and vanilla wafers. I was able to finish it with a little help from the others at our table. (You can check out more photos from this trip on my flikr site here)

Sunday: This morning we said goodbye to our guests as they left in their car for the drive back to England in their funny backwards car. After they left my wife and I just took the day off and hung out in the house the entire day. We watched a movie called 50/50 which was pretty funny. It's about a guy who gets cancer and how it changes his life. Not a funny subject, but some of the situations that come up are funny.

Monday: We finally got to sleep in for once this four day weekend! We spent the morning drinking coffee and having a pretty laid back time. We watched some college basketball and then my wife went for a drive for the first time here in Germany. She is starting her job tomorrow and will have to drop me off and pick me up from work. So we drove the route she'll be taking a couple times so she would feel comfortable. By the time we finished she felt good, we gassed up the car and headed home. Gas is rationed here for us in Germany, but unlike many posts that have a gas station on post…we have to gas up at Esso stations located all around Germany. Our posts do not have gas stations here, so we're given a gas card which also acts as our ration card. It works just like a prepaid debit card. We put money on it and then we can use it at the Esso station. It is so nice because gas is very expensive here, but we only pay the average US gas price. So I filled up for 69 Euros today which would be $91…but I only paid around $45. Gotta love that!!

You can check out my main flickr site and see the albums with descriptions, or just browse through the slideshows below: (Edit: I've moved much of my flickr content to Google Photos since flickr is no longer unlimited free photos)

Altstadt Frankfurt:

Created with flickr slideshow.

Military Cemeteries in Luxembourg:

Created with flickr slideshow.

Trier:

Created with flickr slideshow.

Germany Starts Here - (Germany) Day 1

I guess they got tired of people asking where 

the bathroom is at the Frankfurt airport

The last 30 days has rushed by as I knew it would. A month off seems like a lot of time, but I had to make sure all my household goods were picked up and shipped, and also had my car shipped off to Germany. During the time my wife and I both got sick for a good two weeks which really put a damper on my whole leave…so much for the flu shots they forced me to get.

The morning started off with yet another sad good-bye. It seems like I've had a number of these since joining the army, but this one was especially emotional because my wife was leaving with me. We had breakfast together with her family as well as my mom. I did pretty good until I was hugging my kids and saying good-bye. It just sucks having to leave them once again.

My father-in-law drove us to the airport in Seattle where we almost ran into a nightmare while checking in. Since we are moving to Germany for 3 years we packed quite a bit into our luggage as well as our carry-on baggage. My orders stated that we could each check in two bags at 70 pounds, but it turned out that one of my bags were over weight. The carry-on bags also had a weight limit we were unaware of. They weighed everything and it turned out that we had to actually check one of our carry on bags and pay extra for that as well as the overweight bag. The guy working at the counter for Lufthansa asked if I was PCSing to Germany and said he was former military and served in Iraq, then proceeded to tell me that he's going to waive all the charges which would have been $450! A great way to start our new adventure.

The flight was straight through…long and uneventful. We left at 1500 on the 26th and arrived at 1000 on the 27th. We both only grabbed some cat naps during the flight so we knew this was going to be a long day. Getting off the plane we weren't sure what exactly to expect. My orders said if there was not a liaison waiting then head to the USO and check in. When we found out how to get to the USO, we headed there with our cart full of bags and a guy came walking up in civilian clothes asking if we were PCSing. I said yes…and we followed him to a special check in area where he signed my leave form and we then waited for a bus to Heidelberg. Unfortunately we just missed the last bus so we had to wait 3 and a half hours. We hung out in the USO using their free Wi-Fi and my wife was able to slip in a quick cat nap.

At 1300 we then headed to the special check-in area once again and waited in their waiting room until 1330 when they accounted for everyone, then told us to wait some more. Our bus finally came around 1445. There was only my wife and I as well as one other fellow on our bus to Heidelberg. The bus ride was about an hour and we were dropped off at the lodging office in Patrick Henry Village. As they were checking me into temporary housing, they kept asking me if my sponsor was there. He wasn't at first, but then he arrived about 10 minutes later. He had a small van that he loaded all our baggage up and gave us a mini tour of the post with a stop at the commissary before dropping us off at our room. The room is much like a hotel room. It has a small bedroom, a living room, with a small bathroom and kitchen.

We were so tired. We tried to stay up watching a show, but it was a struggle for both of us. By about 1845 we gave up and went to bed. Being up for so long and unable to sleep on the flight finally took it's toll. We went to bed and both were out within seconds…hopefully we'll be able to sleep for a long time.