Kate (finally) joined FaceBook last year and re-connected with some old friends, including a girl she grew up (and hasn't seen since high school) currently living up in Germany, 3 hours away. Small world! Her husband is in the military and works at Ramstein Air Base. We coordinated our schedules and this last weekend we drove up to visit her and her family. They live in Hütschenhausen, which is amusingly referred to as "the Hooch". Their house was big, so we had a bedroom and bathroom downstairs all to ourselves, nice! After a small detour we were warmly greeted by Adrien, along with her husband, all 3 kids (ages 6, 4 and 2), plus the dog! It was fun for Kate to catch up with her friend on the past 20 years and also for both of us to learn about military life generally and what the Finnans have been up to. Our gracious hosts also gave us a welcome package of several American sundries including Fritos, frosting, cake mix, Oreos and Chips Ahoy cookies! And if that wasn't enough, they also sent us off with a 6-pack of Sam Adams winter lager. Woo hoo!
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| Pretty sunset on our drive up! |
On Saturday we took the family's minivan (yes, we all fit!) to visit Burg Eltz, an 850-year old castle on the Moselle River, partway between Koblenz and Trier. It's perched on a small hill and is only one of two castles in this area that's never been destroyed. It was a very picturesque setting but the castle was "closed" until the end of March so we didn't go inside. We took a bunch of photos and then loaded back into the car to hit the romantic town of Cochem.
Cochem was quite cute. It had narrow alleyways dotted with half-timbered houses topped with slate roofs. The Reichsburg castle is perched high on a rock hill overlooking Cochem. It was kind of sleepy for a Saturday, but we wandered around and had regional fare for lunch (käsespätzle and the uber thin Pfannkuchen pizza).
Sunday we headed to Ramstein Air base, with Adrien's husband kitted out in his flight suit (yep, just like "Maverick" from Top Gun!), so we felt quite privileged of our insiders tour. This area has the largest American community outside of the U.S. After getting our Visitor's Passes we started at Base Exchange ("BX"), a huge retail complex found on U.S. military bases and apparently this particular one is the largest. It has everything you can think of! Wowsers. Hearing American English, seeing all the familiar products, brands and smelling the food court was somewhat nostalgic. And you can pay in dollars here! It really felt like you were at a regular mall anywhere in the U.S. No wonder they call it "Little America". Funnily, we ate at a German restaurant in the mall. Big portions, reasonable prices and very tasty! We also had a few "dampfnudel", which are fluffy white bread rolls with a crisp buttery crust - a sweet and salty pre-lunch treat.
We then headed to the Control Tower where Adrien's husband provided insight on how the base functions and what he does specifically (fly C-130's). The Tower was fully operational during our visit and there were a few guys working.
Our next stop was a fleet of C-130 Super Hercules planes, and we got to go explore inside (they look just like in the movies). It was all very informative and pretty cool! We had a wonderful weekend hanging out with a very fun couple and their cute kids.
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| Lt. Col. Sean, describing all the gadgets |
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| The Finnan family, our wonderful hosts! |
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