Our Trip to Germany - Day 4 - Part I

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Jan. 26, 2010

Mom woke up this morning to the sound of ice being scraped off of cars . . . the rain had turned to ice over night. With a 6 inch ice scraper, which is all Hertz had left us, she scraped off enough to be able to see out the windshield. She then woke me up and we drove back over to the main check out and head out to Rodenbach. I waited in the car with anticipation of seeing my parents home in Rodenbach (and caught a few more “Zzzz.”) About 10 minutes later Mom comes back, “I have bad news.” All cars and aircraft at Ramstein have been grounded. There were more pilots than civilians - all trying to get rooms for the night. The Autobahn is now closed. The travel agent we spoke to said they are ticketing anyone who drives on Base. No one can come on to Base and no one can leave - Code Black.

So we are sitting here writing this blog together because we are stuck in the Food Court on Ramstein Air Base. Our tentative plan is to hopefully return our car to the Hertz Rental Car here and take a train back to Frankfurt. It is disappointing that we will not see Rodenbach but at least we are safe (you can’t feel much safer than we do -we are surrounded by military) and together.

This has been an unbelievable trip . . . Germany is such an endearing and picturesque country. I only hope I can come back in the near future . . . definitely with Sean and hopefully with both my parents one day.

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Photos

Ramstein
Leaving our enormous room in Ramstein.

Leaving Ramstein
Waiting for Mom to check out . . . about to hear the bad news regarding Code Black.

Code Black
Waiting to hear if Code Black will be lifted . . .

Ramstein
Nothing like hanging out in the Ramstein Food Court on a Tuesday afternoon . . . good times!