Blogs from Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Europe

Today, hopefully our last full day in Germany, Manoli remembered the statues of soccer players (football or fusbol in Europe) that we'd seen a couple times on our way to the base, so we headed in what we hoped was the right direction. Along the way, we passed a General Dynamics European Land Systems compound. I'd worked for General Dynamics 22 years before retiring last year. I knew they had offices around the world, but was still surprised to find one here. Since it was a different division than mine, Information Systems, I just sort of gawked, took a photo, and continued on. We found the first set of statues called Fussball ohne Grenzen, which means Football without Borders. It is a sort of reenactment of a soccer game with players from all around the world ... read more

Well, today started like most days, but didn't stay that way very long. We ate breakfast, packed up, and went down with our luggage to the nearest tram station, Bellevue. We caught the No. 4 tram to Wildbachgasse, close to where our car was parked. From there, we walked the 2 blocks or so to our car and .... couldn't find the car key! We both looked "everywhere" for the key, but neither of us remembered where we'd put it or seen it last. This was the start of a major fiasco, with a happy ending, Manoli stayed with our luggage near the car, partly to make sure that if the parking police came she could tell them we'd misplaced the key and would be gone soon. I walked back to the tram station and took ... read more

Freinsheim is a small, quaint, walled, village located in the Palantine vineyards. Freinsheim has been continuously inhabitate by humans for about 5000 years. Throughout the years the village has sustained substantial damage most notably in 1689 in the Nine Year' War when only the foundations of the Wall were left standing. Every July they host the Stadmauer or City Wall Festival. The narrow streets along the Wall are lined with vendors offering regional specialties and local wines. We attended this festival through the USO tours available to military families. Typically, we would have a couple of beers but this particular festival celebrates wine so we tried a Weinschorle which is mixture of 2/3 wine and 1/3 sparkeling water(basically a spritzer). According to Maria, our USO guide, the good people start off consuming Schorles in ... read more

Let’s just say the Frankfurt airport is gi-normous. It puts DFW to shame. There is one train station attached to part of the airport that is, literally!, the size and shape of a cruise ship. Our son Barry had given us great detailed instructions about finding him in the “meeting area” (yes, that is what it’s called) if he didn’t meet us outside the baggage claim. Going through Passport Control was very quick and efficient. We went to the baggage area to collect our checked baggage, and then found our son right outside. Our final destination was to be a train station so we could ride the train to Kaiserslautern. We walked for what seemed like miles in and out and in and out of the airport, until we came to an airport mall with an ... read more

On Friday, 1 August, we board the train to Kaiserslautern to link up with some old friends. The train ride from Interlaken requires four transfers to get us to our final destination. We meet Dan at the train station and proceed to his house. Let me begin this post with a little background. I first met Dan and Marianne in Denver, Colorado in late 1987. These two special folks became great friends from the start. They are two of only a handful of people who knew me during one of the dark periods of my life and are still dear friends today. As I had stated in a previous post about heroes and friends “Your heroes will help you find good in yourself, your friends won't forsake you for somebody else. They'll both stand beside ... read more