Our 34th day in Germany (Friday) was actually pretty light on social commitments. Stilla met with a couple folks, but I just hung around the house and got caught up on posts. In the evening, we went over to Stefan & Annerose’s for Pizza.
We pre-ordered pizzas from the local Gasthaus in Meckenhausen called “Stafros”, that I’ve written about in previous posts on Christmas day and New Years day. William picked up the pizzas and delivered them to Stefan & Annerose’s house.
And what good pizza it was 🙂
Annerose updated her chalkboard in the kitchen to reflect our upcoming departure on Monday:
Yah, Yah, thanks… we’ll miss you guys too. See ya again soon Stefan & Annerose 🙂 And thanks for everything!
Saturday (day 35 in Germany) was a big “farewell” party day at our house in Sindersdorf… Wolfgang fired up the Kesseltopf wood-fired stove that I helped him repair on our 18th day in Deutschland (Click HERE for that post). He hooked up the stovepipe in his wood workshop and fired it up in the early morning so the kesselfleish would be done by mid-day.
All the neighbors and friends that were invited to the party started showing up in the early afternoon.
Stilla greeted the Bayer’s and Herbert.The woodshop started filling up…
Wolfgang did a great job converting his workshop into a party room. He lined up his work carts and tables in a row, and used temporary wood panels to even the surfaces out. Then he covered them all with a nice bavarian motif table cloth.
It wasn’t long before all the family and neighbors showed up for an absolutely awesome meal of kesselfleisch and sauerkraut.
Eli, Erich, and Ludwig.
Wolgang cut the meat into individual portions and placed it on the plates while Stilla dished out the sauerkraut. I delivered the finished plates to the guests at the table.
Yummm… no complaints from anyone. You don’t this kind of good chow everyday, and certainly not in the states 🙂
All the neighbors and family showed up at sometime during the afternoon/evening.
The steam from the boiling water in the kesseltopf made the workshop warm and very humid. I wrote “Hobden Hau ab Party (Hobden ‘Go away’ Party) in the condensation on the door 🙂
Erich, me, and Ludwig.Gunter & Marion.William, Wolfgang, Richard.Eli & Erich.Eli, Erich, Ludwig, and Wolfgang.Werner.
There were also others in attendance… sorry if I didn’t get your picture 🙁 Our thanks to Wolfgang for setting things up and the meal! It was a very nice going away party 🙂 It’s been an awesome visit!
We hope to just relax on Sunday and pack our bags… Our flight is at 9:45 AM on Monday.
Stay tuned… I’ll probably post again before we leave… if not, my next post will be from Casa Grande, AZ.
Our 33rd day in Germany was Wednesday the 6th. And another good day it was 🙂 We only have 5 more days to go before we fly back to the U.S.
Stilla’s sister Anneliese invited us for lunch at her house. She made one of my favorite dishes, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Yummm 🙂 I drove over to her house in Meckenhausen with Opa because Stilla was out and about early in the morning visiting with friends. One of the neighbors had taken her to see their kids that used to live next door but moved away. She didn’t make it back in time for lunch and showed up late – it’s a good thing sister’s are forgiving 🙂
Anne’s famous meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Cheese covered brussels sprouts (Rosenkohl) side.Anneliese posing by her Christmas tree.
After Stilla showed up (mid-afternoon) and had her re-heated meal, we then picked up William and we all drove to the town of Berching to enjoy the Berchinger Erlebnisbad “Berle”. This is a super-nice indoor pool complex situated in the scenic Naturpark (Nature park) Altmühltal right next to the canal.
Stilla, Anneliese, and William at the entrance to the indoor swimming park.
Entrance fees were paid at the automated kiosk. You choose the number of hours you want to stay and pay accordingly. You have to use your ticket again on the way out. If you overextend your stay, you’re trapped until you pay the machine more money. We paid for four hours, 5 Euros each, for a total of 20€.
View of the pool and super-slide in this picture (below) that I swiped from their website. I didn’t take any pictures inside because I left my phone in the clothes locker. We also enjoyed some good food at their in-house Italian cafeteria after we worked up an appetite again.
We had a nice relaxing day at the pool. The water was nice and warm except for the separate olympic type pool that is kept at a lower temperature. In one section of the pool, at certain times the water jets kept a strong current running around in a circle that was hard to swim back out of. Pretty cool. And the slide was awesome too 🙂
When we all got back from the pool, it wasn’t long before it was time for our next social commitment. We were invited to go over to Barni & Silvia’s house in Sindersdorf for Brotzeit and drinks. Anneliese picked up Stefan & Annerose and then drove us the two blocks over to their house since it was raining.
Annerose, Stilla, Barni.
Silvia brought out lots of Brotzeit-type meats for us to spread on the many different breads, rolls, and pretzels.
We had a great time (as usual) and said our sad goodbye’s and ‘see-ya-laters’. Thanks for the hospitality Barni & Silvia! We hope you can visit us again in the states sometime soon. 🙂
On Tuesday (5 Jan), we started out the morning by finishing up the attic clean-out that I described in my last post. We made quick work out of the rest of the attic work and got cleaned up so we could keep our commitment to meet Stilla’s brother Ludwig and his wife Christa for lunch in Hilpoltstein.
Christa & Ludwig
We borrowed WIlliam’s car to meet Ludwig & Christa at their motorcycle dealership, Rothsee-Choppers. Then we followed them to a super-nice Greek restaurant in Hilpoltstein; Restaurant Delphi.
Another great greek meal. They just don’t have comparable restaurants in the states, at least none that we’ve found out about yet.
You may recall Ludwig from one of my previous posts (HERE). We had a great meal and great conversation, hopefully we talked Ludwig & Christa into taking a trip to the states soon for a visit… we’ve tried to get them to visit for years 🙂 Thanks for the great lunch Ludwig & Christa!
On the way back home to Sindersdorf, we had some free time, so we stopped in the village of Mindorf to visit Stilla’s Uncle Michael. He passed away last year and we were unable to make it back here for the funeral.
Uncle (Onkel) Michael’s gravesite in Mindorf.Kirche (church) in Mindorf.
The Kirche (church) in Mindorf was built in 1400.
Uncle Michael visited us in Colorado Springs back in the late ’90s. I think it was the first time he traveled anywhere. Rest in Peace Onkel Michael.
On the way back to Sindersdorf, we decided to stop by the RV dealership that I mentioned in an earlier post. This dealership just opened here in 2014 on the Autobahn 9 exit to Sindersdorf / Hilpoltstein.
I thought it would be neat to check out some of the German RV’s and accessories but it turns out that this dealership only has used motorhomes, no accessories in the building, and all the rigs were locked up.
We were able to wander around the lot. Here’s a few pictures of what used motorhomes look like in Germany for my RV friends:
Most of the rigs are what we’d call Class C or B in the states. As I’m sure you can imagine, the RVs here have to be small in order to maneuver on most of the European roads. Although, it never ceases to amaze me how the big passenger buses get around.
It would sure be great to have the Urban Escape Vehicle over here, but I’m afraid we’d probably get stuck trying to get around the first traffic circle we’d come to. And you can forget trying to pull a ‘towed vehicle’ here, the polizei would probably pull you over in the first couple kilometers 🙂 I get a lot of questions from our German friends here about how we tow the Silverado… it’s completely foreign and unknown to them.
A box truck conversion.
Here’s an ‘almost’ Class A from Hymer® with a golden gate bridge motif.
Now, here’s an unusual one (below). I think the car is an Opel Kadett. I couldn’t tell if the camper was permanently attached or not. I wonder how they got this one through the stringent German annual vehicle inspections (TÜV).
I had to wonder if this one was a 4X4, if so, that would be pretty neat.
Here’s a decent sized Class C. It even has a double axle. Do we have those in the states?
There was even a Winnebago Brave® hiding in the back. I wonder if someone imported this from the states because as far as I can tell, there’s no market for new U.S. model sales here.
There was one relatively new model Class C on the lot (below). It had a SOLD sign on it. It looked pretty nice.
An older Mercedes Sprinter® model conversion.
This one just looks odd to me… it’s hard to see in the picture but the steering wheel was about 4-5 feet back from the windshield.
Mini Class A’s ?
Hope you enjoyed the tour… I wish we could have checked out a couple of them a little closer, but as I mentioned before, they were all locked up.
In the evening, we were invited to attend the annual Volunteer Fire Department (Freiwillige Feuerwehr) party which was held at Stilla’s uncle’s Gasthaus. You may recall that this is the Gasthaus where we also had Opa’s big birthday party. Sindersdorfer Hof.
Menu for the evening.
Once again… good food and good times…
SalatSchnitzel mit PommesWurstsalatCurrywurst
A lot of the usual crowd were in attendance; William, Rita, Xaver, Werner, Wolfgang, etc.,
The former Captain for the Volunteer Fire Department (FFW) got the evening started by saying a few words and telling a few jokes.
Herbert Dotzer.
Everyone bought tickets for the evening’s raffle. Each ticket cost 50 Euro cents. Stilla and Wolfgang bought 20 tickets each. William, and I each bought ten tickets.
Wolfgang sorting his raffle tickets.
William did it the smart way and wrote down our numbers for easy reference when the numbers are called.
The prizes were stacked on the tables at the end of the room. All the prizes were donated by local businesses.
The children showed off their musical skills and played some tunes for us.
After everyone had eaten their meals and listened to the children’s musical composition(s), numbers were called for the raffle.
As raffle numbers were pulled and called off by the ‘Activities Director’, the children would run a random prize over to each winner as they yelled out or raised a hand.
Stilla and I each won about four prizes. William didn’t win anything until the very end. Stay tuned to find out what he won…
Raffle prizes. WD-40 type spray and ice scratcher mitten. Can’t use the ice scratcher and don’t want to pack the spray.Raffle prize. Work Gloves… could have used these in the attic the other day.Raffle prize. Pocket knife.Raffle prize. Emergency warning triangle for car trunk and a meter stick.Raffle prize. Gym bag. This came from Reifen-Walter our friend Barni’s business.Raffle prizes. Bottle of wine, coffee cup, meter stick, cap, jar of jam.Raffle prize. Painters set.
Wolfgang won a baseball cap and wall clock. Yoo Hoo 🙂
The raffle went on for quite a while until all the prizes were handed out.
Raffle prize. Gift Certificate (Gutschein) for a bed-bath & beyond type place.
Someone even won a house plant.
I didn’t win this cap (below) but it was given to me by our neighbor and friend. Thanks Claudia!
Nice cap… but if I need to wear this, I’m probably too far north in the Urban Escape Vehicle.
We packed all our winnings into the gym bag that we won. Actually, everything will be left here for William anyway… maybe I’ll keep the gloves for the times we hook up the Silverado behind the Coach.
And the last ticket called for the night William’s. He hadn’t won a thing all night until the last number was called. The big prize for the evening was the town’s May Pole (Maibaum)! He got a symbolic branch as his gift until he picks up the May Pole.
For those of you that don’t know about a May Pole (Maibaum) here’s a link for more information. Basically, it’s a german tradition (for the 1st of May celebration) for the townsfolk to go out and cut down a long straight tree. It’s transported back to town with much fanfare and liquid refreshment. The pole is trimmed, and decorated with rings of branches and design are often cut into the bark. Then the town has a May Pole ‘putting up’ party where the pole is lifted into the air and then another big party is held (usually all night long) in order to guard the tree. Another tradition is for people from one town to try to cut down another’s pole if it is left unguarded. I was lucky enough to be able to attend many of these events when I was here over the years’ past.
Here’s some pictures (below) that I borrowed from William of the Maibaum being put up on the 1st of May 2015. He was here to help put it up.
Basically, the May Pole is only good for firewood now. It’s already been taken down and cut into logs. So really, what William won was a bunch of firewood. It’s probably worth about a hundred Euros ($100) in just firewood.
After the raffle event was finished, Stilla went from table to table visiting with old friends and neighbors… we only have a few more days before we head back home.
There’s still a little snow on the ground here in Sindersdorf this morning (Monday, 4 January).
This is the view from the upstairs window (below), towards the main street and the Volunteer Fire Department (Freiwillige Feuerwehr) house.
The next door neighbor was out shoveling his Hof (driveway). Hi Xaver 🙂
On Monday morning, we got put to work here at the house. Guess we have to earn our keep, right? 🙂 Stilla’s brother Wolfgang has been cleaning out and working on the attic. There used to be a room at one end of the attic that was built out in 1974 with cinder block walls and heavy-duty paneling and plaster. William and Wolfgang had already broken down most of the walls prior to us getting here and now there was a huge pile of debris that needed to be cleaned out.
Here we are taking an old metal door down the narrow stairwell from the attic. I supervised most of the heavy-lifting as you can see from the pics 🙂
Wolfgang, William, and Stilla carefully maneuvered the door down two flights of stairs to the front yard. Wolfgang will probably re-purpose the door somewhere else around the house.
That was one heavy door, or so I was told 🙂 How do you like the ’70s-era poster still pasted on the door?
The remnants of the cinderblock walls were strewn all over the floor in the attic. Now how should we get all this cleaned up?
Well, the solution was a giant transport container and a construction debris chute that Wolfgang had delivered from a local business:
Here we are stringing the chute in place up to the attic window:
The plastic debris chute got heavier and heavier the higher up we pulled. Here I am tying off the debris chute to one of the attic timbers. Hope it holds 🙂
We finally got the top piece of the debris chute in place.
And now it was just a matter of tossing all the debris down the chute…
… we used our hands and shovels to toss chunks of concrete and plaster down the chute and into the container.
Even Stilla got crazy with the sledgehammer 😉
Go Stilla, Go! Whew… we haven’t worked that hard in awhile 🙂
We got most of the debris cleaned out by late-afternoon when we finally called it a day. We’ll finish up tomorrow morning. We had to get ready to go to another birthday party!
But before we left the attic for the day, Stilla snapped some pics from the seldom used attic windows. Here’s some views (below) from the attic window on the west-side of the house:
Sindersdorf church steeple in the background behind the neighbors house.View to the west.View to the southwest. The house next door used to be a Gasthaus, now it’s just a rental unit.
And here’s the view out the other side of the attic on the east-side of the house (below).
The family yard (Hof). View to the east.Front driveway and the old barn which is now a B&B run by Wolfgang. View to the north out the west-side attic window.
After we got cleaned up, Stilla and I got picked up by Maria (Stilla’s older sister) who drove us over to Wolfgang and Verena’s house in Hilpoltstein. Wolfgang is Maria’s son, who recently got married to Verena.
It was Verena’s birthday! Happy Birthday Verena 🙂
Wolfgang & Verena.
Wolfgang & Verena visited us in Colorado back in 2012. We took them with us on a short trip in the Urban Escape Vehicle through Utah.
Here’s Wolfgang & Verena (below) at Goosenecks State Park in June 2012.
We enjoyed the evening with close family and lots of Wolfgang & Verena’s friends who showed up to help celebrate her birthday.
As usual… lots of good food and liquid refreshments :
Wolfgang demonstrated his espresso making skills with his commercial grade machine. It didn’t know making coffee could be so complicated 🙂
We held out late into the evening and were the last ones to leave. We thanked Wolfgang & Verena for another wonderful evening and caught a ride back home with Martin and Maria.
I’m way behind again on my posts. We’ve been on a busy schedule ever since the New Year began with lots of commitments to keep and people to visit. Stilla has something scheduled for us almost every day with family and/or friends. So, here we go, I’ll try to bring the blog a little more up to date:
Friday was a do-nothing kind of day… We just hung out around the house and took it easy after the New Year’s celebration(s). A good number of relatives and friends that didn’t get a chance to stop by on New Year’s eve, did so today, in order to wish Opa a Happy New Year and/or Stilla a happy belated birthday. We closed out the evening with some pretty darn good ‘take-out’ pizzas that William picked up.
On Saturday, we borrowed William’s car and drove to Weiden for the weekend to visit some old friends from Colorado.
We took Bundestrasse 299 almost all the way… a route I became very familiar with during my time with the Army here because it’s the most direct route from the house to the major Army training areas (Grafenwoehr, Hohenfels), and the 1-1 CAV’s border camp in Weiden (Camp Pitman).
Stilla snapped pictures along the route:
Rhein-Main-Donau Kanal by Meckenhausen.Church in Freystadt.Castle near the town of Kastl.Frost on the treetops.Green fields.Grazing sheep.Abbey in Kastl. Klosterburg.
Church in Hutten.Biergarten in Weiden.
We finally arrived at Eddy & Sonja’s house sometime in the early afternoon.
Eddy & Sonja are good friends that we came to know while living in Colorado Springs. Eddy was in the Army stationed at Ft. Carson and Sonja was good friends with Stilla through her group of German friends.
Meeting up with old friends Eddy & Sonja.
I dug up this old photo (below) of Eddy & Sonja from 2011 when they went camping with us. We had a lot of fun riding around in the Colorado mountains on the quads. Here they are on our Can-Am ATV.
Sonja & Eddy going on an ATV ride in Colorado (2011).
After we got our hugs and hello’s out of the way… we jumped into their car for a trip onto the Grafenwoehr Training Area where Eddy now works. He is stationed with one of the units here.
We got through the security gate (below) and onto the Grafenwoehr Training Area (GTA) with no problems, unlike our earlier experience in Katterbach last week.
We drove around the main post area and did some sightseeing. It was fun seeing some of the old sights again. Here’s some pics that might be familiar to a few of my old Army buddies that read the blog:
Tank on display in Grafenwoehr Training Area (GTA).Some of the old buildings on main post in Grafenwoehr Training Area (GTA).Another tank on display.The walk-thru gate to downtown Graf.Road towards the old PX and snack bar area.The old water tower.GTA HQ (?)The road to the old PX and snack bar has been blocked off and routed to the right.
GTA has grown tremendously from the time I was last here back in 2003 or so. Many units have transferred here from the various Kasernes (bases) that have closed down elsewhere around Germany.
New barracks… lots and lots of new barracks.The Tower Theater.
We ended up at the new Post Exchange (PX). They have a huge building here now that combines both the PX and Commissary. I heard it’s now considered the largest one in Germany.
Stilla, Sonja, and Eddy in front to the GTA PX/Commissary.
After Stilla did a little shopping at the PX/Commissary, we drove through a couple of the old troop training barracks areas; Camp Aachen and Camp Algiers.
PT area and rappelling tower on the right.Old troop training area barracks.Camp Algiers barber shop and snack bar.The old phone call station next to the theater.
It started to get dark as we finished our little tour. It was another nice trip down memory lane for me.
We drove back to downtown Weiden to a nice local restaurant that our friends knew about. We parked and walked into the main downtown market area/pedestrian zone.
Sonja, Stilla, and Eddy in the scenic fußgänger zone, downtown Weiden.
We enjoyed a superb Italian-style dinner with Sonja & Eddy.
Ravioli dish.Spaghetti.Pizza Diavolo.
We walked around and explored the scenic fußgänger (pedestrian) zone after dinner.
Pig and chicken sculptures were situated in the square.
Historical old building in the middle of the square with a pedestrian walk-thru.
We found a nice coffee shop while walking around and enjoyed some espressos.
Stilla and Sonja.
After our enjoyable evening in scenic downtown Weiden, we spent the night in Eddy & Sonja’s guest room. Government-leased housing has sure come a long ways since my day… their house has 4-levels, heated floors, 110V & 220V outlets, and a garage!
In the morning, Sonja made us a nice continental-style breakfast.
And we also woke up to our first snowfall since we got to Germany on the 4th of December.
I had to sweep the snow off William’s car before we headed back to Sindersdorf. Haven’t had to do that in a long time 🙂
It was great seeing Sonja & Eddy again 🙂 Thanks for the hospitality! We said our sad goodbye’s and headed on back to the house.
Before we left the town of Weiden, we drove around a bit and tried to find the old 1-1 CAV border camp (Camp Pitman) with no luck. Camp Pitman is where we used to spend a month at a time (every few months) each troop (company) took turns guarding the border between Czechoslovakia and West Germany during the Cold War. Things (landmarks) had just changed too much over the years. The Germans probably tore everything down and built something new in its place so it was unrecognizable to me.
We took the same route back on Sunday, but this time, instead of dry roads and green fields; we had slushy roads and snow-covered scenery.
We made it back safely and just hung out at the house for the rest of Sunday evening.
Next update coming soon… we worked at the house on Monday and went to another birthday party. On Tuesday we finally made it over to the used German RV dealership; check back for another exciting blog update 🙂
In other news: We got an update from my Mom in Casa Grande, AZ on our little dog. She says ‘Coach’ had to spend the night at the vet, but he’s back home now and eating on his own.
Happy Birthday to my lovely wife Stilla! And a Happy New Year to all!
It’s now our 28th day in Germany and it still hasn’t snowed. It did rain a little in the morning and it got cold enough for Opa to fire up the kitchen wood stove.
Stilla was up early and getting all things ready for the steady stream of well-wishers that will be by to congratulate her today. German tradition dictates that family and friends stop by for a handshake, hug, coffee or bier, and cake on someone’s birthday. 🙂
Stilla had some fine looking desserts set out. I think Annerose helped out with this one.
All day long, family members and friends came and went… most just came though 🙂 What a good day for Stilla! Luv U babe!
Wolfgang
For a while, it was standing room only in the hallway for some 🙂
Stilla’s brother Ludwig showed off his (new to him) Jaguar. I got a test ride while we picked up our son William from the next village over where he was hanging out with the younger crowd taking part in pre-new years eve activities. Nice ride 🙂
By 7PM or so, we finally cleared the house and headed over to the Gasthaus in Meckenhausen. Most of the family (and friends) decided to bring in the New Year at the local Gasthaus Bei ‘Staffi’ or “Stafros” that I wrote about in THIS post.
The evening meal started off with some Greek-style appetizers. Various cream cheese-like spreads on bread, breaded goat cheese, a filled (with something) biscuit and a meatball. It almost looks like a dessert, but trust me it wasn’t. Yumm.
For the main course, the guests formed a line through the kitchen to choose from; Gyros, Schweinehaxe, Kalamari Rings, Tzatziki, Reis, Pommes, etc.,
Man, I have to go on a a diet after this trip 🙂
For my American readers: As in all German restaurants/gasthauses, the waiters and waitresses keep track of everyone’s drinks by writing the amounts on your beer card. So don’t lose your beer card! – and that’s my German tip for the day 🙂
After dinner aperitifs; Ouzo. I was the designated driver for the evening so I didn’t get to partake.
Some of the younger guests started comparing and trading some of their fireworks before the big finale.
There was plenty of practice fireworks going off outside in the street throughout the evening.
And finally, the clock creeped closer and closer to midnight…
The fireworks were all lined up in the street:
The crowd got larger and larger as folks came out from the gasthaus and nearby homes…
And a loud and colorful Happy New Year !!
Even way down the street, a second fireworks show was going on…
And a third show was going on up the street…
The aftermath… at least things got swept up quickly.
Unfortunately, we had one casualty in the evening. And it wasn’t even one of the kids. Someone, who shall remain anonymous, didn’t think a firecracker was lit when it was…. and well, you know how that ends.
He’ll be alright, but sustained injuries to his hand and face. It’s a shame that anyone got hurt, but I guess its inevitable with so many fireworks and so many people. We wish him a speedy recovery.
It was probably 45 minutes worth of fireworks show in the streets. Then most gathered again in the gasthaus for a nightcap.
The Gulaschsuppe was right on time after all the fireworks were over.
After a fun-filled evening at the gasthaus, some of us went over to Stefan & Anneroses’ house to check on the younger crowd that had taken over the garage. they even put an E-Z-Up tent in front of the garage door to keep the warmth inside. Good idea.
The kids were doing fine… but I needed to get to bed, this designated driver stuff is hard 🙂
Annerose’s chalkboard again:
We probably made it safely back home by 2 or 3 AM… who can remember?
Ich wünsche Ihnen, liebe Leserinnen und Leser, einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr und ein glückliches, gesundes und erfolgreiches Jahr 2016!
Bis bald…
In other news: We just heard from my Mom that little ‘Coach’ may have eaten something that didn’t agree with him back at the “dirt farm”. Had to take him in to the vet… will know more tomorrow. Hope he’s all right 🙁
On Friday (the 30th), Stilla, William and I drove to Schwabach.
The plan was to spend the day sight-seeing around some of my old familiar U.S. Army workplaces. Schwabach and then Katterbach. I was in the 1st Armored Division, 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry, 1st Regiment of Dragoons or 1-1 CAV for short, from 1981 to 1989. Most of those years were spent at O’Brien Barracks in Schwabach until the unit moved to Katterbach in ’87 or ’88. I can’t remember for sure exactly when without digging up some old paperwork, which I’m not in a position to do right now. Anyway, follow along:
Here we are driving up to the main gate to O’Brien Barracks (below).
There’s a traffic circle there now right in front of the old entrance with a giant ‘push-pin’ stuck in the middle. I guess that’s what you call ‘art’.
Here’s what the entrance used to look like back in the day (below). Photo courtesy of www.nbg-mil-com.de/Obrien/ob-kamienski.htm.
We drove around the old base… only a handful of the old buildings are left. I believe that the U.S. Army turned the base back over to the Germans back in ’92. Now it’s a mixture of non-military residential and industrial buildings.
There’s only a couple of the old barracks buildings left on the back side of post (above). The 1-1 CAV actually switched sides of the base sometime in the mid-80’s with the other tenant unit which was 2-59 ADA (Air Defense Artillery) back then.
This old picture (below) was taken in the same area as seen (above). The big green fence in the background was meant to be a sort of sound barrier for the German houses on the outskirts. Wish I knew what happened to this old pal (below)… his last name was Collins. Never heard from him again after I drove him to the airport.
Collins, O’Brien Barracks, circa. 1986-87 at the back side of the Kaserne.
This road (below) used to be the back gate to the base. Kind of strange seeing it all opened up like this. We only used this gate when we took the tanks and tracked vehicles out.
Here’s a few more buildings that some of my old Army buddies may remember:
The chapel:
I think there used to be small swimming pool in this open area (below) in front of the Chapel and Gym.
This was the old Gym entrance (below).
First building when entering the main gate (below). This was also my very first barracks as a young private. View is from the street heading north, main gate is to the right at the end of the building. There used to be two of these barracks buildings, end to end.
Same building, looking south.
Old motor pool doors on the north (right) side of the road after entering the main gate. I remember when they built this.
Same view (below) from the same spot as above back in the early-mid ’80s. I owned this ’72 Nova for a short time.
Another view (early ’80’s) of my old Nova with the old 1-1 CAV motor pool in the background. This was immediately to the right after coming through the main gate.
This is what those motor pool bays (above) look like now (below).
And this picture (below) shows what used to be the old Recreation Center building.
Here’s the same view (below) from the early to mid 80’s. By-the-way; you can just make out Stilla sitting in the orange BMW behind the Nova 🙂
Here’s looking back at my old barracks building from the same vantage point (below). This is the first building on the left when coming in the main gate… it also happens to be the Museum now.
Once again, same vantage point (below). I guess I was trying to capture all the bondo work on the old Nova back then with my pictures 🙂 You can just make out the main gate guard shack in the left background below. The barracks was clearly undergoing an external renovation as it appears from the scaffolding.
Here’s what the main gate looks like now as viewed from the inside looking out. That white framed doorway on the right used to be the Provost Marshall (MPs) office back in the day.
We drove back out the main gate to get something to eat before visiting the Museum. Anybody that’s ever been to O’Brien Barracks remembers the Mike’s Pizza Shops outside the gate. At one point in time there were as many as three of them. I remember that one of them even had a dirt floor for a time before they put up a new building. They made a lot of money off us GI’s back then and were everyone’s stopping point before coming back on base after a night out on the town.
We pulled around and parked on the road just outside the gate to go visit one of the two remaining Mike’s Pizza Shops.
I remember walking down this street to go downtown. There used to be a big chain-link fence along this walkway. I think I’m standing where the old telephone booth used to stand.
Here’s a sign that references the Stadtmuseum that we’ll go into shortly. But first we gotta get some food…
We walked into Mikes Original Pizza (←link) for a little taste of times gone by. Hope I got the link to the right Mike’s 🙂
William and Stilla in Mike’s Pizza Shop, Schwabach, GE.
I had the good ol’ toasted Submarine Sandwich. Tasted just like old times 🙂
William had a pasta dish, and Stilla tried the schnitzel.
After filling up, we walked over to the Museum. Which, as I mentioned earlier, is in the same building as my first barracks room.
We paid the 5 Oreo (er… Euro) per person entrance fee.
The payment counter (above) doubles as an espresso counter, it appears this entrance was added to the side of the building along with an elevator shaft. Immediately after the counter and the new construction, I came upon the old entranceway (below) I used as a private back in 1981. Sure brings back memories.
There was a small toy train display just after the entrance in the new area (museum extension) that was built in 2009 onto the outside of the old barracks. We checked out the trains and displays before going upstairs.
More north stairwell pics: I had to wonder if the paint was still from my time.
I remember walking up these stairs many, many times:
We didn’t spend much time on the 1st and 2nd floors. The first floor had some history on Schwabach with a lot of displays about gold and metal processing, wire/cable making, and needles. All of which had a lot to do with the historical growth and industrialization of the old town.
The second floor consisted of artwork and lots of fabergé eggs on display:
1st and/or 2nd floor hallways in the museum.1st and/or 2nd floor hallways in the museum.1st and/or 2nd floor hallways in the museum.1st and/or 2nd floor hallways in the museum.
Upstairs window view on what used to be an open quadrangle where we held formations, had PT (Physical Training), and even parked our cars. For the few of us that had cars back then in the early ’80’s.
This used to be the Schwabach Recreation Center. I remember there used to be a really great snack bar upstairs that served awesome egg McMuffin type sandwiches. Yummm.
This old picture (below) shows the same building from the other side of the quadrangle. This pic was on the wall upstairs in the museum (timeframe unknown).
Anyway… on to the third floor…
The military display was to the right at the top of the south stairwell. Exactly how I remembered going to my old barracks room! Although, the museum had the south stairwell blocked, we had to go up and down the north stairwell only.
Some signs tacked on the wall from the old Community Club and the last Army unit (I guess) that occupied the building.
Some of the old alcoves in the hallway still have the rifle butt indentations (below) from the original 1935 building. Of course, we never used these as weapon racks because we had an arms room in the cellar, but they always served well for sitting around on while talking in the hallways.
Same old floor… I remember cleaning this waffle floor during GI parties.
The museum put up a partition in the middle of the hallway on the south side so traffic would have to go through the rooms. The museum cut doorways between rooms on the inside.
You have to enter the first room on the left after turning right at the top to the stairs. I’m telling you all this for a reason… the second door on the left was my old room! What are the odds that after ~35 years, they would turn my old barracks room into a military museum!?! My door was one of only two or maybe three doors that were still in place and had the old numbers on them.
Same old floor tiles from 1981…
This is the first museum tour room.
And after you pass through the displays set up in the rooms on the left, you come out in the last room on the left by the window (below). I walked back up to the hallway partition and voila! My old room door is here on the left!
Room 306. We used to have 4 people per room back then.
Alright guys… you’ve had your fun. Let me back in now 🙂
Here’s what the other side of that door looked like back in 1981 (below).
Rick Lauer and David Hobden, circa. 1981. Anyone ever hear from Lauer?My barracks room in 1981 or ’82. 1-1 CAV, Room 306.My barracks room in 1981 or ’82. 1-1 CAV, Room 306.
Entrance to the bathrooms and showers on the other side of the hallway at the south end by the window.
Apparently, the bathroom stalls have been removed and it was transformed into some sort of medical office display.
The sinks have also been removed and displays put up.
Looking south from the 3rd floor window at the end of the building. There used to be a second barracks building here. The HHT CDR and 1SG offices were on the 1st floor.
New construction going on in the old quadrangle (below).
The old flagpole (below) from 1981 or ’82 used to be about where the construction crane is in the pic above.
This was the view (below) looking out the third floor barracks window onto town circa. 1981-82. That’s the street we parked on earlier when we ate at Mike’s Pizza Shop. These windows are now blocked with the museum extension that was built in 2009.
Back inside my old room (below). The door is just behind the partition on the right. That cut out door on the left didn’t used to be there… that’s where my bunk was.
Looks like they didn’t keep up with the floor polishing over the years 🙂 I’m positive these are same tiles I polished with a buffer in ’81. No telling how long they were there before that.
Here’s the museum display in my old room:
The inside of my old door is hidden behind that cupboard (below).
I spotted some of the old pink wall color behind the radiator. Don’t ask me why our room was painted pink… it was that way when I got there. I think we can thank an old NCO buddy of mine who should probably remain nameless; Gary Blackburn 🙂
Here’s some of the other rooms museum display(s):
Yup… I remember the old coat racks, dial phones, and metal key boxes.
Period correct desk. One of these used to be set up in the 1st floor hallway at the top of the stairs for CQ duty.
Remember these? Field desk (below). The cover comes off the front to cover the drawers and sets up on the side for a table surface.
And a good old field table. These folding table could sure take some abuse.
If you don’t know what these are, then you probably shouldn’t be reading this blog post… or maybe you’ve read too far already !?! 🙂
MRE’s Meals Ready to Eat. Amazing how good the spaghetti can be after heating on an engine exhaust header for a while.
Model of the old Kaserne was in one of the alcoves in the hallway.
Historical photos (below) posted on the wall in the museum:
We finally continued our tour after spending a long time on the 3rd floor around my old barracks room. What a treat that was 🙂
We walked on up to the attic. I’d forgotten about these sinks that were at the top of the stairs… we used to clean the mud off our boots, etc., at these sinks. The metal guard flips up when not in use.
The museum turned the entire attic into a Fleishmann Toy display:
The museum was well worth the 5 Euro entrance fee. Lots of memories… most of them good 🙂
We drove on to Katterbach next, to see if we could drive through the Army Air Field there.
Stilla and I moved to Katterbach and lived in Government housing in nearby Ansbach after the 1-1 CAV moved there sometime in 1988 before I went to Warrant Officer School in 1989. And then once again, I had the opportunity to be stationed in Katterbach in 2002-2005 after a tour in Schweinfurt. The last time I was here, it was with the 601st Support Battalion and I was a Chief Warrant Officer 3 and then promoted to 4. (CW3/4). When I left Katterbach previously in 1989 it was as an E5, Sergeant. I finally made the cutoff score for E6 Staff Sergeant just as I was accepted to go to the Warrant Officer School. The School, I remember, was like basic training all over again (on steroids). One could probably liken it to the movie ‘Officer and a Gentleman’ 🙂
My old unit motor pool (601st SPT) was just on the left in the pic below.
Here’s a throwback picture of me in my office there (below), circa. 2004.
601st SPT Bn Direct Support Maintenance Tech Office (ca. 2004)
The old 1st Armored Division NCO Academy building (in the 80’s):
Main gate to the aviation-side of the base.
Main gate to the administration and wheeled-vehicle side of base. The gate guard turned us around and told us we have to enter the base from a back gate. He gave us directions.
We found the back gate but still couldn’t get in because our ID cards weren’t registered in their system 🙁 We’d have to go back to yet another gate and into an office to register. We decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.
I snapped a few more pictures as we drove down the main road that separates both sides of the Army base:
Gasthaus next to the Katterbach Army Air Field.
We drove on into Ansbach to a little sightseeing.
Ansbach didn’t seem to have changed much. Of course, it’s only been ~10 years (2005) when we were last here.
We drove by the old government housing buildings we lived in back in 1989 but they have a gate guard there now as well. So we just snapped a picture as we drove by outside the fenced in area. We used to live in the white building in the middle, although it was only for a short time.
We stopped for a short visit with an old friend while we were in Ansbach and then headed on back home to Sindersdorf. It was a nice day going down the old memories trail.
Check back for New Year Celebration activities… then it’s only 11 more days before we fly back to Arizona to get the Urban Escape Vehicle back on the road 🙂
Authors note: I was tempted to not even publish this post because it’s kind of boring, but thought my American friends and family might find shopping in Germany to be interesting. Sorry (my German friends & family) if you’re bored – you can skip this one 🙂
Not a whole lot happening here on Tuesday. We just did a little grocery shopping to get ready for the New Year celebrations and Stilla’s birthday. Her birthday is on the 31st of December and everyone celebrates with fireworks 🙂
We drove to nearby Freystadt with our son William and stopped first at the German equivalent of a Dollar Store®.
Do we have arrow-shaped sponges in America?
How about round sponges on a stick?
I wonder if customs will let us bring back this giant-sized doggie sausage back with us for little ‘Coach’?
This one (below) is for my cousin Phil… bet he’d like to play with this.
Dollar (er… Euro) wall art.
How about some Star Wars theme party plates, napkins, etc., ?
We checked out at this German version of a Dollar Store® and then drove over to a grocery store called LiDL®.
Now here’s a concept we need to institute in the states… shopping carts that require a 50 Euro Cent piece to be placed in the handle to release a lock. You get your coin back when you put the cart back and connect to another cart. Cool… no more dings in your car door from carts left in the parking lot, and probably not as many stolen carts being driven around town by bag ladies and bums 🙂
Of course, they all require a little extra drivers training (on my part) because the back wheels aren’t locked in the forward position like the ones in the states. These seem to have a mind of their own.
Baked goodies:
Now, this is interesting…
… put your fresh loaf of bread into the machine, set the thickness, slide the window closed, push the start button, and voila! It slices your loaf in seconds.
But you still have to bag it yourself… guess you can’t have everything 🙂
You won’t find milk in the refrigerator here. Only on the shelves.
And the grocery stores here have well-stocked liquor aisles.
And lots of fireworks for the upcoming new year celebrations:
Fireworks at the grocery store.Fireworks at the grocery store.Fireworks at the grocery store.Fireworks at the grocery store.
Anybody know what a Litschi is?
Me either… but you can buy them here (below).
Most (if not all) stores in Germany, do not provide grocery bags when checking out. If you want a grocery bag, you’ll have to bring your own or pay a fee for a fabric / cloth-type bag. This store puts it’s empty cardboard boxes near the register in a large wire basket for customers to use (below). That helps the store get rid of their cardboard while at the same time – helps the customers that forgot to bring their own shopping bag(s).
Loading the cart.
Loading the car.
Next, we stopped off at the Getränkemarkt (Drink Store).
Anyone want a beer (bier)?
You can even get a Corona® here.
How about a nice mini-keg?
If you buy this six-pack (below) you get a free trash can 🙂
Beer lovers paradise:
Nice varied assortment of holiday biers, only 9 Oreos (er, Euros) 🙂
ChristkindlesMarkt Glühwein in a bottle… in case you don’t want to go to a Christmas market.
Original Budweiser® from the Czech Republic.
Even my favorite – Pyraser Bier®, next to the other local biers; Spalter®, Tucher®, and Winkler Bräu®.
This is a ready-mixed beer and limo (below), called a Radler, it’s kind of like beer and Sprite… pretty popular over here for those times you want a refreshing drink without getting tipsy on the high alcohol content of German bier.
And this is a ready-mix Hefeweizen bier with Cola. Also popular here.
Checkout counter at the Getränkemarkt (Drink Store).
Our final grocery store stop for the day was at Edeka®. We went to multiple grocery stores because the last one didn’t have a particular item that Stilla needed to get for Opa.
Bakery at the entrance to the Edeka® grocery store. Tempting eh?
The frozen foods aisle(s).
Impulse buy… frozen thin-crust pizza. Yummm.
The yogurt aisle.
The soup aisle.
William decided to stock up on some soup.
The cookie aisle.
The chip aisle.
The alcohol aisle.
And the chocolate aisle.
Darn it… we didn’t get out of here without getting another cart load of groceries 😉
Hope you weren’t too bored with the shopping trip. Check back for my next post on my old Army barracks in Schwabach. We did a day trip yesterday (Wednesday) to a museum at O’Brien Barracks and also drove by Katterbach Army Air Field – both were places I was stationed at with the U.S Army for many years. O’Brien Barracks was turned back over to the Germans in ’92 I believe, but Katterbach is still going strong.
I mentioned at the end of my last blog post that our neighbor and old friend, Werner got me to commit to help out on a project of his…
He had taken on the task of building a new stage for the Theater Club (Theatergruppe) in the village of Meckenhausen and today (Monday) was the day we were to meet and finish assembling the pieces along with the help of a few other volunteers he had gathered.
But first, we needed some more parts… so I walked over and met Werner at his house and we drove to a tool store in nearby Thalmässing.
Cool place… I guess I’d liken it to a Harbor-Freight™ store but with quality tools. This place is called Dorner™ (←link here) and is just chock-full of manly ‘get-r-done’ type tools and equipment. The only problem (for me) is that they’re all 220V.
How do you like these window displays? Dewalt® power tools…
Stihl® chainsaws and related items…
and Bosch® power tools…
Inside the mega-tool store:
They even had mini-size toy chainsaws for the kids next to the Stihl® display 🙂
After purchasing some fastening hardware and then tearing ourselves away from the cool tool store… we drove back toward Meckenhausen.
We stopped briefly at a historical marker near the village of Mindorf:
The Rhein-Main-Donau-Kanal; also called Main-Danube Canal, RMD Canal or Europa Canal, in Bavaria, Germany, connects the Main and the Danube rivers across the European Watershed, running from Bamberg via Nuremberg to Kelheim. The canal connects the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, providing a navigable artery between the Rhine delta (at Rotterdam in the Netherlands), and the Danube Delta in south-eastern Romania and south-western Ukraine (or Constanța, through the Danube–Black Sea Canal). The present canal was completed in 1992 and is 171 kilometres (106 mi) long. (ref. Wikipedia®)
These bridge foundations (below) were laid by Polish POW’s during WWII when the Rhein-Main-Donau-Kanal was planned in 1938, for the so-called Mindorfer Linie south of Nuremberg. As early as 1939 the first preparatory work began at Thalmässing in Landkreis Roth. However, after the war this route was dropped and the canal (where the river boats cruise) now runs just north of Meckenhausen.
We also passed by the Pyraser Bier Brewery (below). My personal favorite German bier.
Here’s the administrative building (below) for the brewery and also the subject of the breweries’ logo (←link).
We finally made it back to Meckenhausen and met up with other volunteers at a Woodworking shop called Maget Schreinerei which is where we spent the rest of the day putting the stage platforms together.
These aluminum frames (below) were already pre-made to specifications and delivered to the shop.
The ingenious locking mechanism (below) is for the platform legs. The intent is to have multiple (12) platforms than can be easily torn down and set back up again whenever the Theatergruppe needs them.
Stefan and Werner test fitted the platform legs.
These are the pressed board panels that we still have to mount to the frames.
But first, we had to cut the sheets to size.
The machine (above) cut off the smallest of slivers (below) with exact precision.
Then we pre-drilled the holes in each panel to fit each respective frame.
Then it was time to counter sink the holes and place bolts, nuts, and washers through the assembly to tighten.
Only 9 more to go… Uggh.
After a while, we got a sort of assembly line going. Here’s Alfons drilling the holes.
Michael sanded down the edges while Werner, Stefan, and I placed and tightened all the fastening hardware.
Michael, Werner, and Stefan admiring their handiwork.
(L to R) Michael, Alfons, Stefan, and Werner posing in front of one of the new Meckenhausen Theatergruppe’s stage platforms.
We even built a platform with wheels to store and transport all the stage platforms on. Here we are loading up the finished products to take over to the Sportheim.
We had to make two trips to get all the platforms over to the sport halle.
And then we had to take them up the stairs at the Meckenhausen Turn & Sport Verein (TSV). This is the village sport hall. Link HERE. This building houses a club house with bar area, locker rooms, and showers. It also accommodates tennis, fussball (soccer), gymnastics, aerobics, theater, etc.,
This is the theater groups room (below) where the platforms will all be set up and connected together to make a raised stage for performances. Nice room, eh?
The downstairs bar area.
View onto the fussball (soccer) field.
The fussball (soccer) field.
We finally got all the platforms upstairs and placed them on the cart we made.
Unfortunately, the wheels didn’t stand up to the immense weight.
Guess we’ll have to go get some more heavy-duty wheels at that cool tool store 🙂
We ended up just stacking the platforms on the floor in the upstairs storage room.
Luckily, we had a couple more volunteers pitch in at the last moment to finish stacking the platforms in their final resting place.
Then it was ‘feirabend’ (closing time) finally 🙂 We got together at the local gasthaus ‘Stafros’ for liquid refreshments and food. You may recall that this is the place we had our Christmas day dinner.
Pyraser bier goood 🙂
Currywurst mit pommes (with fries) goood 🙂
That’s all for now folks… I have to rest up now after all that work 😉
On Sunday, after spending a lazy morning at the house, we went over to the nearby Rest Area/Truck Stop for lunch with our son William.
The Hilpodrom Restaurant (←link here) is part of a rest area and truck stop next to the autobahn at the Sindersdorf exit. Most of this area was just open fields when we lived here in the ’80’s and again in the late ’90’s to early 2000’s. Now there’s a large number of businesses and even a Burger King. I also noticed a new (to us) RV dealership which we’ll have to find time to check out and report on.
Our oldest daughter Jennifer even worked here for a short while back in 2003 (pics below).
(December 2003) Jennifer at the Autobahn Rest Area/Truck Stop “Hilpodrom”(December 2003) Jennifer at the Autobahn Rest Area/Truck Stop “Hilpodrom”
(Starting from the top right and then counter-clockwise in the pic below): William had the Gulasch mit Nudeln (Goulash with noodles), Stilla the Burgunder Braten mit Kloß (Burgundy Roast with dumplings), and I had the Champignon Schnitzel mit Pommes (Mushroom Schnitzel with fries). Pretty darn good food for a truck stop 🙂
In the afternoon, we had an invitation to stop by and visit with our good neighbors and old friends, Werner & Claudia. We walked over to their beautiful house around 3PM with William & Jasmin. Stilla’s sister Anneliese was already there.
Werner & Claudia were the first Germans to visit us in Colorado back in 1991. Here’s an old pic (below) that I pulled from the archives of them on top of Pikes Peak.
Werner & Claudia (1991)
Claudia went all out with a couple of tasty cakes. Yummm once again 🙂
A Bratapfelkuchen (roasted apple cake).
And one of my favorites; a Himmlische Torte (Heavenly Cake). Stilla used to make this often.
After the awesome cakes and coffee, Werner & Claudia brought out their collection of homemade liquers and schnapps…everyone sampled these except for myself, I have to be careful what I drink since my bout of acute pancreatitis last year. I heard they were good.
I did sample a good local bier though:
And just when we thought the evening couldn’t get any better – Claudia brought out platters of Pizza Brötchen! These were great. Stilla would often made these at home when she could get the correct German bread rolls. Double Yummm 🙂
The family Christmas tree.
What a great evening with great friends! We talked and enjoyed each other’s company until late in the evening… Thanks for the hospitality Werner & Claudia! We made plans for me to join Werner in the morning to help work on a project he took on. Check back tomorrow to learn more…
