We went to visit old friends, the Karls, today, people whom we met through the Parrs at a New Years Eve party at their home in the 70s. When we arrived the American flag was flying.
Willy and Hildegarde Karl are both very artistic in all sorts of mediums. I kidded them they ought to charge admission to their Art Gallery, starting in the yard. When they go camping, they have a Class C camper, they find things to bring home. Most recently they spent time in Italy, too. They found driftwood which became birds and other "statuary" for their yard. Hildegarde has a friend with a kiln, so she does pottery and she has beautiful paintings in their home. Willy does painting too and works with metals to make inventive things. They both like to experiment with different cooking styles, too. So this was a visit full of many oohs and ahhs. They have a coi pond in their yard and many different types of plants including figs.
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| Driftwood birds |
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| Ceramic fish and whatevers! |
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| There's a pond in the back corner of their yard. |
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| Witch vane is ready for Halloween which Germans do celebrate. Willy crafted this metal sculpture. |
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| More wooden creations |
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| Lunch in a covered nook in Willy and Hildegarde's side yard. |
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| One of Hildegarde's many paintings |
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| And then there is kuchen and coffee |
Our afternoon engagement was with Matthias and Sabine Lange and their daughter Therese, Gabi and Robby's younger daughter and her family. Therese is nine, but rather reserved, very much like both parents. She loves to play Rummykub with her Oma (grandmother), so it didn't take long for the game to come out when we told her we had been playing it a lot. Therese won the first game almost before the other five players got many tiles on the table!! Sabine showed us around her home, which is pre-fab home they built several years ago. She has done incredible things with the yard which she designed on the computer.
Sabine and Matthias served unique cheese fondues served in wooden bowls which went directly into the oven to heat. There were two varieties which were served with two varieties of bread, too. Delicious!!
There was an almost full moon as we drove home. That warranted a couple more games of Rummykub and a Jagt Bitter schnapps before bed.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014--rainy
Ann did some laundry today and hung it in Gabi's Waschekuche (laundry room), but it will likely need drying outside. We got some done in her dryer, but it stopped heating. Gabi seldom uses it and she said it is very old.
After lunch the rain was misty, so we went in to explore Babenhausen, the town near where we were stationed from 1975-78. We drove past the kaserne (military base) which has been shuttered since about 2002. To date the state has done nothing with the property. Some of the land, referenced at the beginning of this travelog, has been sold for a horse pasture, but the buildings continue to deteriorate. Germany has many foreign immigrants for whom they face challenges regarding housing and benefits, much like in the US. Locals can't believe the kaserne's housing wasn't put to use as housing for them.
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| Home of the 41st Field Artillery Group--Babenhausen Kaserne, shuttered since 2002 |
We wandered Babenhausen on foot after having lunch in the Deutscher Hof, a restaurant which was in business in the 1970s. The food was just as good as we remembered it!
Babenhausen was established in1383 and was a walled city with towers. Some of the wall still exits and the Hexenturm (Witches' Tower) is undergoing renovation. We saw many old factwehr buildings which have been restored and renovated at great cost according to Robby.
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| Sign says established in 1383. |
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| Crest of Babenhausen on display at the Deutscherhof |
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| A bit saggy wouldn't you say?! |
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| Lots of buildings with the original factwehr (wooden beams) are being or have been restored. |
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| The Evangelisch Kirche--Protestant Church in the middle of Babenhausen |
We went to Anette's home in Dieburg, the county seat for Kleestadt. Anette, the Parr's older daughter, lives with her son, Marvin, who is about 16 and daughter, Elena, who is an active 7. Anette's significant other is Alex, who is a classic car restorer. He used to be an estimator for Opel and decided to go into business for himself. He does incredibly beautiful work, judging by some of the photos we saw and the various stages of cars in his shop. He does everything from engine to upholstery to body work. He is very fluent in English having lived in England a number of years and has a very easy-going personality, a good match for Anette who seems to be quite "unscheduled" in her approach to life. We had a very enjoyable visit with them, sharing afternoon coffee and kuchen and other sweets.
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| This says it all about Anette. |
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| Elena was doing rubber band art, similar to our grandchildren! |
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| Marvin was showing his grandpa an electrical gadget he'd made. |
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| Chatting around the table with Anette and Alex. |
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| Elena showed Ann her room. |
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| Marvin demonstrated the motorized window shades in his room. He also has a cool lamp which closes in on itself. |
We left Anette's flat about 5:30 so Robby could get ready for his tennis match. Gabi made munchies for us to eat while we played Rummykub. We quit at 9:30, each of us having won two games.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014--Overcast
I told Gabi I wanted to take my bed with me as I have been sleeping very well.
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| Our bedroom in the apartment downstairs. |
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| The living room/kitchen of the apartment. |
As it didn't look like it was going to warm up enough to dry the rest of our clothing outdoors, we turned on the oil-based heater in the dining area of our suite and hung the remainder of damp clothing near it. Robby reported he won one match and lost the second after two tie-breaker sets. And he had a substitute player to match with, but at least there were four players. David is congested, but was still game to go for a walk after we did some more shopping trying to find gifts for the grandkids. We walked a different area, there are so many opportunities, and stopped for an ice cream treat at Tivoli in Gross Umstadt. Ann called it our fruit course!!
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| The fourth eis was like the one on the top right. We all had a fruit course!! |
We came back to the house and played four last games of Rummykub, with David becoming more and more feverish. After some acetaminophen, Gabi served some delicious soup and by 8:30, we went to bed.
Thursday, October 9, 2014--Rainy, upper 50s.
Sometime during the night, David's fever broke, and he awoke feeling much better. The Parrs insisted on driving us to Ramstein Air Base, rather than us renting a car. It was a fast trip and we got to the gate by 11:10. Unfortunately we could not get passes for the Parrs to come on base with us, so we called for a taxi and bid our farewells in the rain and quickly. We had the taxi drop us at the PAX (Passenger Terminal) and we checked in for a flight later today going to Baltimore/Washington. After waiting for three hours, we didn't make the cut for BWI, but there were a couple of flight possibilities on Friday. So we checked into hotel across from the PAX and went to dinner at Macaroni Grill where we could spend $$ instead of Euros for the first time in three weeks. It was a delicious meal, a bit pricier than in the US, but tasty nonetheless. We were very tired and called it a day early.
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| The Ramstein Air Base flightline. |
Friday, October 10, 2014--overcast, misty
Following breakfast at a bakery in the mall which serves croissant sandwiches, we went to the PAX to check in for a flight to Andrews, where our car is. They made it into the Category VIs, but not to us. We checked on commercial flights out of Frankfurt, but at over $3.5K, we can afford to try for a few more days to get to the US space-available. There are flights tomorrow to both Dover AFB in New Jersey and Pope Air Field, adjacent to Ft Bragg which look hopeful. So it was back to the hotel for another overnight. We have been talking to a lot of Space-A-ers and getting lots of tips. One is a retired Major General Marine pilot who has lots of interesting stories and who has travelled a lot of places with his wife. They live in McLean, Virginia, which is in the Washington, DC area.
We had lunch at a chinese take-away in the mall and supper at Chilis--variety in our menu. Ann had brought Ken Follette's "Whiteout" from Kleestadt after Robby finished reading it . He reads English-language books to keep up his skills. So Ann went to the USO to find some more reading material before we retired early as roll call tomorrow is 4 AM for the possible Dover flight. Robby, we left your book at the Ramstein USO where other Americans may pick it up to read.
Saturday, October 11, 2014--cloudy, upper 50s
The Dover flight, originally listed for 4 AM, slid to possibly 2 PM, so our early rise was for nothing. But the Pope flight now was up for 8:50 AM. So we got breakfast in shifts to not have to lug our baggage back and forth. We continued to converse with the MG about possibly renting a car together, since we'd both be heading the same place if we got on. Ann tried to make car rental reservations on-line, but we ran out of time when we were confirmed as booked on the Pope flight. We lifted off at 11:00 AM Germany time which is 6 hours ahead of EDT. We were flying on a C-5 which is the biggest cargo plane the Air Force flies. There are standard seats fitted into the upper story of the C-5, but the seats are actually more comfortable than commercial planes because they are further apart. Ear plugs are issued upon boarding because it is not as well sound insulated as a commercial airplane. It was cool, but not as cold as the C-17 had been coming to Germany. It seemed like we taxied for a long, long time. The sensation of movement is lessened because it is such a huge aircraft and there aren't many windows to look out. Finally there seemed to be a bit of angle and we seemed to be airborne. Since it was daytime, we didn't have the urge to sleep, so we read and relaxed. We'd purchased boxed lunches, and once again, it was enough for two meals each. This was a 10-hour flight, though, so we needed the food.
We arrived at Pope about 3:45 PM, NC time. It seemed like it took forever to taxi and then for anyone to deplane. A customs person came on board and looked at the active duty on board and they deplaned and we were told the rest of us would be screened by another customs person. Well, in short order, the MG and his wife, who were sitting further back than us, were being escorted toward the door by an active duty LTC in uniform. As he came past our seat, the MG said for us to come with him. We were together. So we tagged along, which surprised the LTC and airmen who were giving him the VIP service. We heard one say, we were only expecting two people. They put us in two separate vehicles and took us to the Base Operations Headquarters and a civilian protocol woman joined us. She had made arrangements for the MG's lodging and quickly adjusted and got lodging for us in the same place. It so happened the lodging was at the same Ft Bragg IHG motel David had stayed at with our grandson, Jimmy, when they visited the 82nd Airborne at Ft Bragg. By now the MG, who must be in his mid-80s, was sagging and we were all very happy to settle in for the night. We walked down to the nearby bowling alley and had burgers and fries for dinner. Ann got on the internet and arranged a rental car for the morning which we were to pick up at the Fayetteville Airport. To bed by 9 PM exhausted!!
Sunday, Octoer12, 2014--overcast with intermittent rain
The hotel has a buffet breakfast which we all ate and were airport bound in our taxi by 8 AM. We were on the road to Joint Base Andrews by 8:30 and arrived there about 4 PM. We had lively conversations with the MG and his wife the whole way. He seems to be able to converse on almost any subject with a lot of literacy for historical and social/cultural events. It was a good drive which David and Ann shared. The MG complimented both of us for our driving skills.
We picked up our car at Andrews and, using our GPS, got ourselves in tandem to their home in McLean. After farewells we headed to Dulles to turn in the rental. By this time it was nearing 6 PM and we were both dead tired. We found a Holiday Inn Express motel at Woodstock, Virginia, along I-81, checked in, had dinner and were in bed by 9 PM. Possibly because it was a holiday weekend and there were special events going on, this was the most expensive lodging of our whole trip.
Monday, October 13, 2014--rainy then sunny nearer Knoxville
The high cost of the motel was somewhat ameliorated by the full breakfast buffet. The attendant actually came around to tables asking if there was anything else we needed. She was kept hopping, too, because a tour bus was departing at 7:30 and everyone was eating at the same time.
We were Knoxville-bound at 7:45. It continued to rain off and on while David was driving. Ann didn't have much rain, but she is a much more tolerant driver, so she wished she'd had the rainy stretch!! We pulled into our yard at 4:15 PM, very happy to be home.
We have sooo many memories and writing this travelog has helped to solidify many for posterity. We will only be able to repay a small portion of our gratitude to the Parrs if they can come to the US. We'd love to show them the south. Gabi had a brother who lived in Tecumseh, MI who passed away last year. But during his healthy days, they toured the southwest with him. So now the Parrs must see the southeast!!
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