Home R&R Travel News Space-A Air Temporary Military Lodging USA Travel Overseas Travel Web Store About Military Living
Bill & Cynthia Ware's Trip to Germany, France, Switzerland & Austria
Bill and Cynthia at 10,000 Mtn. Schilthorn, south of InterlakenOur itinerary for our annual trip to Europe this year included stops in Germany, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Austria. On this trip in May we were able to enjoy lush green valleys and meadows highlighted with all kinds of flowers and blooming plants, bushes and trees. Our senses relished in the sweet smells of lilacs, jasmine, wisteria and many flowering fruit trees.
Our annual military Space-A trip planning began with finding the Affordable Travel Clubs (ATC) members' homes that are in the parts of the countries we wanted to visit. In traveling by rental car we had the flexibility to get off the beaten tourist path and stay in Affordable Travel Club (ATC) members' homes for only $30 U.S. per night, breakfast included. Cynthia and I enjoy the quiet towns in out-of-the-way places where you can really experience the local culture. Our fondest memories now are of the friends you make in the ATC homes. It is like visiting a distant relative who enjoys your company and acts as tour guide if asked. (www.affordabletravelclub.net)Our trip was to include time in eastern France - Verdun, Colmar and Eguishein, in western Austria - Feldkirch and Salzburg, in Liechtenstein - Vaduz, in Switzerland - Gimmelwald near Interlaken, and the rest of the time in Germany - south of Munich, near Karlsruhe and at Ramstein AFB.
May 1 Monday We departed the Jackson-Evers IAP/ANG, MS, on one of their many C-017 flights to Ramstein AFB, Germany with a short stop at Dover AFB, DE. I had signed up at Jackson and Dover in April for the trip over. The sign up at Dover did not prove to be necessary since we were manifested all the way to Ramstein. I also remotely signed up three weeks later at Ramstein for the return trip. I signed up on the Space-A signup website ( www.spacea.info) and printed a copy to take with me in case they did not get it. I had reserved a discount Hertz rental car thru Annmarie for pickup on 3 May and a turn back three days after we planned to fly home. Before leaving the house, I called Gateway Inn on Ramstein AB to reserve a room for two days on base. I use an old MCI/Worldcom prepaid phone card to call even when within Europe. We left our car at Jackson ANG base.
May 2 Tuesday After a two hour flight to Dover and about an hour and a half on the ground there, the eight and one-half hour flight to Ramstein AFB, Germany was uneventful. We arrived about 1600 and took the base shuttle to the Gateway Inn north side office. The shuttle runs every 30 minutes. At other times the office will send their bus to pick up passengers. We checked into our room and walked to the BX food court for supper.
May 3 Wednesday A rest and recovery day. In the morning, we went the Hertz branch office in the Gateway Inn to ask them to call their Ramstein village office to come get us. You can reserve a car at the on-base office but most of the cars are now stored in the village. After getting our little Fiat car at Ramstein village we drove the few miles to Landstuhl to revisit the village and castle ruins. We ate lunch at the castle café. That afternoon we rested, checked e-mail and ate at Taco Bell in the BX food court. Back at the base I stopped at the visitor center at the main gate to get a temporary vehicle pass and was surprised to find that they did not issue them anymore. We only needed a military ID card to get by the German military controlling entry into the base.
May 4 Thursday After a quick breakfast at Burger King on base we headed to Verdun, France. In Verdun we followed the signs to the city center and found the tourist information office near the river. We got information about visiting the WWI battlefields and memorials. We asked them to make reservations for two nights at a small hotel in town as the B&B's were not in town.
There are many hotels and pensions but few are listed with tourist offices. The room we got was only 40 euros with a 10 euros deposit at the tourist office and the remainder at the hotel. One euro cost about $1.28 this trip. We walked across the bridge through the medieval tower into the old town. After a light lunch we walked to the old church and around the waterfront. We drove to the small hotel and checked in. We declined five Euro French breakfast for the next morning. The rest of the afternoon we visited the battlefields of WWI. Because of the strategic high ground of the area just north of Verdun, some of the fiercest trench warfare battles were fought there. Hundreds of thousands soldiers died there in a few months. The Ossuary of Douaumont monument contains the remains of 130,000 unknown soldiers and a cemetery of 15,000 French soldiers. Since we saw all we needed to see of the battlefields that day, we decided to only spend one night in Verdun. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at a large discount store. We shopped for a map of Switzerland, bread, cheese, breakfast rolls and cheap gasoline. That night we slept for the first of many nights with the window open. It was always very peaceful except for the occasional church bells and morning song birds, which were great.
May 5 Friday On the way out of town, I used my prepaid phone card to call a B&B in Eguishein, France just south of Colmar, France. I had gotten toll-free access numbers for using the card in all the countries where we planned to travel. Eguishein is located just a few miles south of Colmar's suburbs. According to Rick Steves "this circular, flower-festooned little wine town (pop. 1600) is almost too cute." We arrived in the early afternoon after our first of many picnic lunches on the road. Madame Bombenger's B&B was very nice. It was nestled in the vineyard overlooking the village. We toured the medieval village with its narrow streets and alleys before having a wonderful meal on the covered terrace at a small restaurant.
May 6 Saturday We drove to Colmar after breakfast at the B&B. It is a famous well preserved town because the British and American bombers avoided hitting the medieval buildings in the center town. Since it was Saturday, we were able to find a free parking lot near the old city center. After checking in at the tourist office we rode the small tourist train thru the narrow old streets to get a flavor of the city. The city is beautiful with its old buildings, canals, and churches. That evening we attended a concert featuring ancient instruments in the Church of St. Michaels.
May 7 Sunday The B&B owner suggested we visit the castle of Haut-Konenigsbourg which sits on a high hill above the plain of Alsace. The castle was begun in 1147, occupied for several hundred years, lay in ruins for one hundred and fifty years, and restored to its medieval splendor in the early twentieth century. It is well worth a visit. After a picnic on the forested mountain side we returned to Eguishein for more causal touring and dinner. I called the next ATC host in Feldkich, Austria to tell them when to expect us and get their advice on which day to go the Gimmelwald, Switzerland. I also called the mountainside small hotel in Gimmelwald to reserve a room.
May 8 Monday After breakfast and goodbyes we drove the forty miles to Basel, Switzerland. At the border you find one of the few borders where you are stopped. They sometimes check passports but mainly sell you the Swiss motorway driving sticker for your windshield. It costs about $35 and without it on a motorway you will receive a heavy fine. We continued our 150 mile trip through northern Switzerland to Feldkirch in western Austria just outside the country of Liechtenstein. Our route took us though Zurich and along to Zurichsee, lake of Zurich. We met some men at a small closed lakeside cafe who spoke perfect English. They were eating doner sandwiches they had purchased at the nearby rail station. We went up the hill and got some and enjoyed another picnic beside the beautiful lake. We were running early for the next ATC home stop, so we stopped a few miles before there in Valduz, the capital and only city in Liechtenstein. We took the tourist train again and it was a nice overview of the country. Later we arrived at the home of Dieter and Hildegard in Feldkirch-Tosters just out from Liechtenstein and the largest city in the western tip of Austria. They provided us with a private suite of rooms. They drove us to a local gasthaus for supper and then downtown for a moonlight walking tour.
May 9 Tuesday Our hosts suggested a day road trip around the Bodensee (Lake Constance) to see the many historical sites and pretty lakeside villages, but the forecast was for light rain all day. We decided to just drive to the town of Landau, Germany on the eastern end of the lake. That was only about thirty miles away. On the way, we passed through a two mile long tunnel. It was one of the longest of twenty or so tunnels we experienced in the Alps of the three countries. Landau is a beautiful old town built on a small island a few hundred yards off shore. We parked in a lot and walked around with umbrellas. We saw the old harbor seawall, many blooming shrubs and flowers, and a church built in the year 1000. Back in Feldkirch that evening the hosts suggested a nearby gasthaus for wiener schnitzel (veal cutlet).
Gimmelwald by cable carMay 10 Wednesday We left early for Gimmelwald, Switzerland, and our reservation at an inn on the side of Swiss mountain. The four-hour trip was to the heart of the country which took us on the autobahn back near Zurich. Then over a two-lane pass road to Zug and Luzern. We passed through several long tunnels at 100 km without slowing. At Lungern at an overlook we met a nice couple from Scotland. Then up and over the pass on nice mountain roads with great views. Then down the other side passing many crystal clear (blue-green) mountain lakes. We turned south at Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen and the cable car station. On the way we visited the Trummelbach Glacier Waterfalls where the water falls about 300 feet within the mountain. You can view it in the lighted passageways in great vaults that the water has carved since the last ice age. On up the road we took the large cable car up the 1500 feet to Gimmelwald. From the station there we walked up to our inn, Walter's Hotel Mittaghorn, a rustic mountain lodge with squeaky floors. The room cost was only 92 Swiss Francs or about 45 Euros. (Swiss Francs are the currency in Switzerland) They had had few guests lately because there had been no sun for four days. We were in the clouds and could only see about seventy five yards at 1530 hours. While Cynthia read and rested, Bill walked to the next village and cable car stop, Murren. It is a mountain condo/retreat village and not a farming village like Gimmelwald. It takes 35 minutes to walk the 800 foot elevation change. Bill returned to the inn for the communal supper of soup, salad, and dessert. The only other guests were a nice young couple from Fargo, North Dakota who were traveling around Europe by RailPass. We decided to take the cable cars to the top of Schilthorn Mountain the following day. The weather was supposed to be clear. It costs about $45 dollars per person, but what the heck, we don't have mountains in Mississippi.
May 11 Thursday We awoke to a cloudless sky and sunrise on the mountain peaks across the valley. We had a breakfast of rolls, jam, cheese, coffee or tea. Tim, Walter's helper, suggested that we leave our bags at the hotel, take the cable cars to the top, get off at the Murren station, the last stop before Gimmelwald and then walk down to the hotel and the station. We already had a return tickets from the Gimmelwald station to the valley floor station. So I planned to do that and Cynthia would go on to the Gimmelwald station and wait for me. There are a series of three large cable cars to reach the top of Schilthorn from Gimmelwald; Murren, Brig and the top at 10,000 feet. It had snowed six inches a few days before and the temperature the day before was 32 degrees. That morning it was about 42 and sunny at the top. It was marvelous. A 360 degree view of nothing but snow covered mountains. One of the best things about being there was seeing that the revolving restaurant and observation terrace was not blown up in the 1960's James Bond movie, "Her Majesty's Secret Service." There was even a theater showing excerpts from the movie. We met a nice couple from Dallas and stayed at the top about an hour and a half. We took the cable cars down, passing some skiers on the way down and watched some parasailers making a quiet descent. I got off at Murren and watched Cynthia descend to the next station. I enjoyed a delightful stroll down the 800 feet paved path on the edge of the mountain meadows and cliffs. After collecting our bags we rode the cable car down with the young couple from Fargo. Stacey kept her eyes closed on the descent as it comes down quite rapidly. Back at our little car, I collected the parking coupon and took it to the Kasse (automatic cashier) to pay the fee. We drove back down the flat valley to a park bench by a stream and had a picnic. Back on the road, we did not stop in Interlaken, but drove to the small town of Brienz at the east end of the Brienzsee lake. We saw a swan on a nest beside a lake house. The next stop after the high pass at Zug was on the Zuricksee at Cindy's Diner, at a motorway service area. Back at Feldkirch, Austria, our hostess had prepared a fresh fish dinner as a treat after our trip from Switzerland.
May 12 Friday Our host, Dieter, offered to drive us on a day trip into the Austrian mountains north of Feldkirch. We went to high mountain villages, saw school kids visit the fire station and had them spray water on our car as we left. They loved it. We saw villages and farms that seem to be stuck to the side of thirty and forty degree mountain sides. Everywhere was green grass, blue sky and flowering plants. We had lunch at a small village hotel. We had the cheese soup which is a local favorite. Afterwards we took a walk thru the beautiful countryside. Our tour lead us to Bregenz, Austria on the eastern, end of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) on the Germany border. Dieter knew we were into medieval sites so we visited the old walled town with its fortified church. Amazingly, most of the thirty-foot walls are still there, but some have been incorporated into houses. Back in Feldkirch, we walked to a local gasthaus for good wiener schnitzel again. We ate outside on the terrace. It was very pleasant.
May 13 Saturday Our plans were to visit King Ludwig II's fairy-tale castle, Neusch-wanstein, on the way to our next ATC home in Rottach-Egen, fifty miles south of Munich. Dieter, our host, suggested our route to Fussen, Germany over the mountain passes that separate Austria and Germany. It was the most direct route. It was up and over the mountains and it was truly breathtaking. There was almost no traffic thru the snowy mountain sides. We traveled thru many tunnels, galleries, and hairpin cliff roads, mostly without the benefit of guard rails. As we neared Fussen, Germany, near the famous castles, we had to contend with the tourist traffic and the maddening crowds. You must purchase a timed ticket to visit the castles. You can then walk the 30 minutes to the castle or ride (bus or horse drawn carriage.) The famous view of the castle is from a spot high up on a hiking trail. You can get some good shots from the visitors' center but it is not the same. The castle is a must see, but a disappointment for us since it is unfinished inside and was never really ever lived in. Before leaving, I called the next ATC hostess to tell her our new ETA. We enjoyed the three-hour drive to Rottach-Egen, Germany on secondary roads as it passed through small villages. By the way, you may ask how we navigate to these small town ATC hosts homes. I use the mapping and directions found on the Michelin travel website, www.viaMichelin.com. I print out maps of several scales from city size to neighborhood. It is also helpful in finding towns by simply entering the postal code. European post codes cover smaller areas. It works great. After arriving in Rottach-Egen, we asked out hostess, Inge, where we should go for supper, as the area has a resort feel. We told her somewhere not too fancy with simple German food and we asked her to go with us. She went with us up the valley to a hillside restaurant overlooking a beautiful meadow. We ate wonderful food on the terrain without a tourist in sight . . . ha!
May 14 Sunday Today was our day trip to Salzburg, Austria—seventy-five autobahn miles away. We planned to take the four-hour "Sound of Music" tour, which visits many of the locations used in filming the famous movie. Our Feldkirch hosts found a free concert at the downtown cathedral following mass. It was an overcast day with occasional light rain. Approaching Salzburg, we took the wrong autobahn exit and in our effort to locate a street to take us to the city center we passed a United Methodist Church sign. Since the Sunday morning service was about to begin we decided to attend. We were greeted by several English speakers and made to feel welcome. The service was in German but we were acknowledged in English and many of the hymns were familiar. It was an enjoyable and moving experience for us. After the service a very helpful lady gave us a map tothe city center. We missed the concert after the mass but that was okay. We parked in the underground garage beside the cathedral across from Schoss Mirabell, where the tour would begin. After buying our tickets for the 1400 tour, we walked to a nearby coffee shop for lunch and a warm drink. The Sound of Music bus tour was wonderful, even for those who are not too familiar with the movie. The rain diminished later in the afternoon but it was still overcast. After the tour we returned to the coffee shop for a coffee and free WC. We retrieved our car and headed back to Germany. By the way, there were no border crossing checkpoints anywhere on our trip except leaving and entering Switzerland.
May 15 Monday After breakfast we walked the block to the main street to sightsee and buy Cynthia some sinus meds at a apotheke (pharmacy). Later we sat outside in the sun and had some creamy Italian ice cream. That afternoon Cynthia read and watched TV and Bill went on a hike along a mountain stream towards the next village. That night our hostess prepared supper for us. We sat on her backyard terrace, and enjoyed pork tenderloin, fresh white asparagus and boiled potatoes. Afterwards Cynthia played the piano and sang. Our hostess said it was the first time anyone had played some of her father's notes (old sheet music). She was so moved she gave Cynthia a hard bound book of Mozart sonatas.
May 16 Tuesday After a giant breakfast in her kitchen, we left for our next ATC home in Konigsbach, near Stuttgart. We stopped in the city of Ulm along the way to visit the Ulm Munster. Its steeple is the tallest of any cathedral in the world and the Ulm Munster itself is second only to Cologne Cathedral in size. You can climb to nearly the top of the 530 foot tall steeple. The church was cool inside. We were able to hear a noontime organ recital, but the sound was distorted with overtones in the vastness of the high stone nave. After collecting our car from the underground garage, we returned to the autobahn to continue our trip to the next ATC host home in Koningsbach. Arriving in Koningsbach, we had a little trouble finding the house. We were on the street but could not find the number. We saw a family leaving a house and I asked them. They said the family we were looking for lived in the castle- yes, a castle or chateau in yellow stucco. The house and grounds are located in the center of the town. It was given to the present family in the sixteen century by the King of Sweden. It is in trust now but the family lives in a large section of it. We had an apartment wing with high ceiling, exposed beams amd parquet floors. It had period furniture and a new bathroom. The grounds were beautiful with huge blood-red beech trees, mourning beech trees and daisies along the gray graveled paths from the period gate house. We were staying in a castle for $30 a night! That evening the hostess let us use her phone to call Ramstein Gateway Inn and reserve a room for the next three days.
May 17 Wednesday We had a wonderful breakfast—a variety of breads, meats and cheeses served on antique china dishes. After finding out our interest in medieval life, the hostess, Bettina, suggested we visit Maulbronn Monastery a few miles away. It is a very large fortified monastery built in the 13th century and was an active monastery for four hundred years. It is still a large church and seminary. Unlike most medieval structures, this one had not been modified much from the original construction. We both felt we had gone back in time—we really got a feel of how the monks and others lived and worked. We attended a short service at noon and heard beautiful music played on a larger recorder. After cheese and bread on a park bench, we continued on to Ramstein AB.
The route from Karlsruhe to Ramstein lead us on secondary roads through many small villages among the hills. Arriving back at Ramstein, we felt very much back at home in building 306, but this time on the second floor. I made a quick trip to the terminal to check on flights home since we were nearing the 'get-out-of-school-early dates'. A C-17 air evac was scheduled for Friday. Actually there were several C-17 aircraft from Jackson scheduled to head to the east coast in the next few days. We decided to skip trying to get a flight on Thursday and start on Friday the 19th. We needed a rest. That afternoon we visited the library to check e-mail and the food court at the BX. Remember as retirees you cannot buy anything from the BX in Europe except from the concessionaries.
May 18 Thursday We slept late (0730). Cynthia washed clothes and I went to the terminal again to check on flights. Not many, so we decided to try on Friday for the C-17 air evac or anything else which might come along. Sometimes planes come in as a surprise to the passenger terminal folks. We had a relaxing day. We ate lunch at the German workers canteen on base, checked our e-mail at the library and visited the base thrift shop. Later we exchanged our last euros into dollars and ate at Taco Bell on our way to a jazz band concert at the high school on base. It was called a dessert concert and cost three dollars. Both the homemade desserts and musicians were outstanding.
May 18 Friday That morning we left the room ready to fly but we had one more day of our room reservation remaining. We stopped at Burger King for breakfast. We parked in the new free parking garage again. At the terminal we checked in and found the C-17 air evac was the only flight scheduled to the states. We decided to stay in the terminal all day as did about a hundred other folks - about half of which were Cat VI's. As a note of interest, Ramstein AFB uses a little different system in tracking the passengers waiting to fly as well as their category and date of signup. The results are the same. You still check in at passengers services and get a slip of paper verifying your sign up date but you do not have to turn that in when the flight is called at show time. Each passenger is listed in the computer as present. Beginning a couple of hours prior to show time and continuing about every thirty minutes, they announce that the list of those present is posted on the information board. The list has everyone interested in that flight listed in order of category and date of signup. It also shows the number of dependents so you can count and see your chance of making a flight with the announced number of space a seats. At show time they announce that if you want to go on the flight and are not on the present list to come to the counter. Then they simply go down the list telling the lucky ones to go directly to check in your bags and get a boarding pass. As result of this Ramstein cannot accept ALL as a destination on the Form 140 Space-A Sign Up form. Also in addition to not allowing open toed shoes, they do not allow open heeled shoes on the AMC flights. Again most everyone chose to remain in the terminal until about 1700. No one was lucky that day as no Space-A seats were released on the C-17 air evac to Andrews AFB. We read, checked e-mail at the USO, had lunch at Subway, visited the other retirees until about 1600. We checked out the pizza place and carpet shop on the south side near the post office, then ate Chili's Restaurant in the all ranks club building. It is a large family restaurant. The all ranks club also has gift shops, slot machines, a family sports bar. When we got back to the quarters I checked out another movie from the office.
May 20 Saturday Back at the terminal we found the only flight to the states was a C-17 going to Dover AFB with twelve Space-A seats. It did go but no Cat VI's made it. I dropped the key to the car at the Hertz drop box in the locker room. (By the way the lockers are not in service now.) The schedule for Sunday was showing a C-5 to Dover with a show time of 1030 and another C-17 to Andrews. We hung around most of the day and took the base shuttle back to our room. It passes by every thirty minutes, or you can call the Gateway Inn and they will send their minibus to get you. On the way back several retired couples decided to eat supper at the Italian Restaurant in the basement of the O' Club. When we arrived there it was closed for a party so we went to Chili's Restaurant in the all ranks club building. The food was good and we had a fun time with new -found friends.
May 21 Sunday We took the Gateway Inn minibus back to the terminal with several other retired couples. The flight schedule now showed Dover bound C-5's at 1030 and 1340. Also a C-17 to McGuire at 1400 and C-17 air evac to Andrews at 1745. It looked like everyone in the terminal should be able to leave today. We did not make the first C-5 but since we had an early signup date (50 days old) we made the second C-5. We turned in our checked baggage, purchased two in-flight meals and settled in for the three-hour wait for boarding. The flight to Dover AFB, DE was uneventful - just long. We arrived at Dover AFB about 1900 and found fellow passengers with a car willing to take us to Andrews AFB, MD. We had hoped to catch the scheduled air evac C-17 coming from Ramstein later which would be heading to Jackson, Mississippi. The nice folks were going to Virginia to visit a son and dropped us off at the billeting office at 2330. While still at Dover I had called the Andrews Inn and they said they had no rooms. Since we had to get to Andrews we chose to go anyway, as we would be there to catch the C-17 home the next day. At the office the clerk did give us a room but we had to check out by 0800 the next morning.
May 22, Monday After a snack in the room, we checked out and took the base shuttle van to the terminal. That morning at the terminal we watched President Bush board Air Force One for a trip to Chicago. The C-17 air evac we had expected did not show as it must have flown directly to hospitals in San Antonio. Fortunately another C-17 was leaving that day for Jackson. It had been there for the Armed Forces Day Air Show the weekend before. Back at Jackson ANG Base, we retrieved our car for the short trip home with our heads full of the many happy memories of the sights we saw and the people we met while traveling the past three weeks in Europe especially the ATC ( www.affordabletravelclub.net) members.
We don't dwell on the inconveniences, life is too short. My advice is to travel light, know the system, sign up remotely, relax and treat Space-A travel as an adventure which begins when you leave your home. Remember you fly free so don't complain about small inconveniences.
Happy travels!Bill Ware, LtCol, USAF/ANG, Ret Cynthia Ware
biware@bellsouth.net
Brandon, MississippiBill Ware is retired from the 172nd AW (ANG) of Allen C. Thompson Field/Air National Guard in Jackson, MS. He volunteers one afternoon per week at the Space-A information desk, and enjoys promoting Space-A travel.
