Weeks 12 & 13: Lots 'o Luxemburg

You can tell I am living in Germany from how I spelled Luxemburg. The French add an o before the u in burg.

We spent the last two Sunday afternoons in Luxemburg. The first Sunday there, July 24th, was a bit of a serendipitous event. Our intent was to go to Beaufort Castle, but when we arrived, they were having a "Rock the Castle" music festival, which had an admission fee. So, instead, we drove back the way we came and stopped at a pretty cool rock formation that we had passed on the way in.

A car, a rock and Jason

That was pretty neat, but we did some more driving around and found some more amazing formations, again, right next to the road. This included a few trails that went to the top of big rocks and others that went into large cracks. As someone who grew up with only a single little rock in our yard (it was between the roots of a tree and about the size of a basketball--or at least that was what stuck out of the ground), the rest being sand, I still love climbing around on rocks. (I seem to remember that I might have asked for a big rock to climb on for a birthday present at some point.)

Jason in a crack

As we were driving out of that area, known as Little Switzerland, we saw more and more cool looking places to stop, but decided we would save them for another trip to the area, as it is very close to us (about 45 minutes away). We also wanted to look into where the good bouldering spots are, as it looks like it could be quite a lot of fun to get on the side of those rocks with the right shoes on.

Now, this weekend's Luxemburg adventure was less on the naturalist side. As Jason and I are both *terrible* at meeting people, we tried forcing the issue by joining a Meetup group. We found an expat group in Luxemburg city and figured we would try hanging out with them a bit to see about meeting some folks outside of the base. The group turned out to be quite mixed--a Briton, an Amerian, a Spaniard and an Ecuadorian by way of NYC.

The destination was Echternach, which Jason and I have visited a number of times before, but this trip was specifically for the balloon festival. I have never seen a hot-air balloon up close, so though they didn't get far into the air until just after Jason and I left, I enjoyed watching them fill up the balloons and getting things floating. The highlight was getting to step inside a balloon that was being inflated. Very cool.

It was a Paulaner balloon-- unfortunately no beer inside

I would be completely remiss if I didn't also mention our activity from this Saturday. The base had it's open house, where it invites Germans to visit and check out the planes with lots of airshow like activities. While we were there, we got to see an A-10 and an F-16 fly in formation. Jason was saying that the F-16 pilot probably had a hard time matching the slower speed of the A-10.

They also had a large number of static displays of planes and plane parts. I particularly liked the view of the A-10's gun outside of its packaging. Man, that thing looks like it can pack a wallop. They had the whole plane on display as well, but the interesting parts of the plane (other than the gun) are all in the redundant design features that are far more interesting to read (or hear) about than to see in person.

A-10 Gun

Oh, and we had some fantastic food while we were at the airshow. The different groups on base each had their own booths. The one that was selling hamburgers and hotdogs and another selling ribs had the longest lines. We instead chose to eat from the Filipino booth. And it was a good decision. On a final note, Jason heard from one of his colleagues that German teens caused his group's booth to sell out of Mountain Due and Doctor Pepper. Evidently, teens are the same everywhere. 

Week One: On Base

The view of base from our hotel room.

I arrived in Germany about a week ago, joining Jason in the temporary lodgings on Spangdahlem Air Force Base. My exposure to base life and the military has been quite limited in the past—only a few trips to the Naval Station in Newport, RI, and stories from active and former service member friends and family—so I didn’t have a great idea of what to expect. Additionally, as I commonly tell people, I am liberal enough to be boarder-line communist and thereby have no great love for the *idea* of military action, but with that, I am practical enough to understand the *need* for it and fully appreciate those that serve. With that background in mind, here are some of my initial impressions of the base:

1. I’m really into Taps being played at 9pm. The base plays revelry at 7am, and the German and US national anthems at 5pm. This gives a nice flow to the days (though I have been rarely awake for revelry). And there is really nothing better than Taps to end the day. (Though, the tape played over the loud speaker has a bit at the end where it plays a touch-tone sequence, which distracts from relaxation of the tune.)
2. The atmosphere feels like a college campus on ROTC day. Most of the Airmen are young—I’d say under 25—so to me—at 31—it feels like there are just a bunch of kids in uniforms around, with campus just happening to be very close to an airport. There are bars, places to eat and activity groups, much like my undergrad experience (minus the problem sets, I assume). The base, though, is much cleaner, quieter and orderly than any college campus where I have set foot.
3. The gym is really nice. I guess that is to be expected when one part of your life revolves around being in very good shape, but I was impressed nonetheless.
4. Generally, things run pretty well. Again, I guess this is to be expected as the government does this all the time, but the whole process of getting on base and getting in the system was generally painless. I did have to go to a number of different offices and Jason needed to accompany me for the first day or so, but when I generally think of anything run by the government, I assume it is going to be a Kafkaesque experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find that to not be the case.
5. The mixture of German and American culture on-base is interesting. The majority of the beers available in the bars and stores are German and a number of the employees on base are German, but all other people around you are Americans, which makes for a strange mind shift when you have spent the day out in the countryside speaking bits and pieces of German and now need to order in English.

We do have an apartment and will be moving off base on Monday. We’ll be far enough away to not hear Taps, which is too bad, but we will be able to interact more easily with Germans, which will be welcome. We’ve done some exploring off base, especially after our car arrived on Thursday. The area of the country we are in is beautiful and rural. There are plenty of places to hike and go on bike rides and there are cities a short drive away. My first impression is that it looks much like up-state New York or Vermont. I think we will be at home here quickly.

Next week I am off to Norway on a work trip, so my next post will be regarding that adventure.