Who gets up at 3:15AM? Not me! A free flight to Germany was definitely a little motivation to get up much earlier than normal. After picking up my friend that was traveling with me it was 4:15 and we were on schedule to be on base, parked and in the passenger terminal just before 5:00. Slight problem – the main road to base, and the only way I know how to get there, is closed until 6:00AM for construction. TYLER, I need help! Good thing he is fantastic with directions and gave us turn by turn directions, including landmarks, directly to base. Not sure what we would have done without his photographic memory! Nicole was amazed he gave the directions while lying in bed. For as detailed as he was she thought he had to be looking at Google maps. The funny thing about this situation is that Tyler and I had just talked about me not knowing any other way to get to base. Little did we know that we would run into that situation so quickly!
Nicole and I Waiting to Takeoff
The flight we took arrived at Ramstein AFB, Germany about 10:00AM and we immediately got a taxi to the nearest train station to go to Frankfurt. Traveling by train can be easy as long as you know the system you are working with. So far each time I have traveled by train has been a different system. Some tickets have very detailed information about the platform you will be arriving at, along with the time and the platform for your transfer and departure time. Our tickets were printed with a starting location and an ending location, made no notes of the two stops we needed to make on the way or any of the times. Luckily there was another woman purchasing tickets that spoke English and helped us print off the full itinerary. Without that I am not sure we would have ended up anywhere close to Frankfurt. Traveling in a country where I do not know much of the language makes everything a little more interesting! Unfortunately I did not take the two hour train ride to view the beautiful country side, I napped! Being up at 3:15 took its toll once the train started moving!
Downtown Frankfurt
All rested and ready to go – we arrived in Frankfurt around 1:00, checked in to our hotel and set out to find some lunch. We asked the woman working at the reception desk for a recommendation on a good local lunch spot and she highly recommended a great Greek/Mediterranean restaurant called Panino. With a map in hand I led us to the street she highlighted on the map and found we were in the middle of the sex district, full of strip clubs, flashing neon signs, and no restaurant called Panino in sight! There were plenty of kabob spots, but there was no way I was eating anything in that area! We ended up finding an Irish pub that was close and decided that would have to do. As with most restaurants we have found here, the food was bland and overpriced. We spent the afternoon walking in the direction of old town Frankfurt. Overall, I was surprised that Frankfurt is a pretty modern town. There was a small area that was “traditional German” looking, but most of the area we saw was new shopping centers and large high rise buildings. Most of our walk was done along the waterfront. There was a great walking path that seemed like a great idea until the wind picked up. The picture of Nicole by the water really shows how windy it was along with the true color of the water. It was so brown and most of the photos are pretty deceiving on how brown it really was. Definitely not the beautiful blue water I was used to in Seattle.
Windy Day by the Nasty Water
Since we did not have any type of German food for lunch, we were in search of a great German restaurant for dinner. We took a chance and asked the woman at the coffee shop for a recommendation and she did not disappoint! We walked in and the small restaurant was packed with locals. It was a 30-60 minute wait, but we decided it would be worth it. Wow, was the food ever good! I had a schnitzel covered in cheese and ham with chips. Best part of the meal was paying 5 Euros (about $7) for a bottle of water. We didn’t know how much it was until the bill showed up. From my experience traveling around Europe you will pay a good amount for a bottle of water, but I obviously forgot how expensive bottled water really is. 
Townhouses that Reminded Me of Coeur d'Alene
After dinner we were pretty tired from our long travel day and decided just to head back to the hotel for the evening. Good thing it was good walking weather, somehow we went about a half mile in the wrong direction before we realized we were going the wrong way. Oops! Guess that is what happens when two women travel together whose husbands usually deal with the map and directions. The good part of our detour was that we found Panino, the restaurant we searched for lunch. I quickly pulled out my map to make sure I wasn’t just completely horrible at reading a map and sure enough, the restaurant was nowhere near where the lady told us. That made me feel slightly better about my map reading skills.
Frankfurt at Daybreak
Luckily our hotel was directly across the street from the train station. Once we were ready in the morning we just walked right over and took the first train back to Ramstein. We have heard great things from other spouses about the big “mall” at Ramstein and wanted to have some time to look around before our flight home. The train ride home was one of the most interesting travel experiences. We had a few scares of being on the wrong train. The first problem was when we got on a train and the town name listed was not what we were expecting to see. We asked a gentleman if the train we were on was going to stop at the destination we needed and he pointed out and around the train. Apparently we were on the correct train, just needed to be in one of the front cars instead of the back car that we were on. At the next stop we had to quickly get off the train and run two cars ahead to be in the correct place. We were lucky enough to be on a train that split at some point during the route and if we would not have gotten on the front car we would have taken a completely different route. The other problem was getting on the very last train to take us to our final destination. We had a very short amount of time to get off our train and find the correct platform for the next train. Once we made it to the correct platform we hopped on the train and we started moving. In a moment of panic that I had just lead us to take an incorrect train I took out our tickets to match up the train number and they didn’t match! When our tickets were checked a few minutes later we found out that all was okay and we would shortly arrive at our stop. Phew! One of the exciting finds through our train travel was Duff Beer. One of the convenience shops carried it in 6 packs and singles. I picked one up for Tyler hoping that he would appreciate my find. Well, I learned a bit of a lesson instead – next time, don’t come home with just one!
Mmmmmm Duff Beer
We didn’t see a lot of the base at Ramstein, but from the small area we did see it is a pretty nice base. It is the largest AFB in Europe. The passenger terminal is directly across the street from the hotel, which connects to the mall. After walking around the entire mall we were left wondering “Is this it?” The BX was huge and sold a lot more products we are used to finding in the States; Philosophy, Victoria’s Secret, and Origin were a few of the things that stood out that I haven’t seen at any other base. The building is newer and looks very nice; it just didn’t live up to the hype we were expecting. There is a spa that I plan on checking out if I go again. The mall also offered a Macaroni Grill. Highlight of my trip! I was able to order a pomegranate martini. Mixed drinks are hard to come by in England, so this was a real treat! It was great to get out of England for the day and explore around Frankfurt. The strangest thing was that I left Tyler home by himself. I don’t think that has ever happened before. Normally it is the other way around! The flights to Ramstein happen pretty regularly and I hope to take one again. Maybe next time I will go to Luxembourg! The best part about the flight home was watching another refueling. I took plenty of photos that you should be able to see in the web album. There were four F-15’s from one of the other bases in England that we refueled. Nicole and I were able to be in the boom pod and watch each plane approach. It was amazing watching the planes line up just right and be so close to our jet. Not sure if I will be lucky enough to see this every flight!
F-15 Upclose and Personal
We are posting this from our trip to Ireland. Stay tuned for more updates from our current trip!
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