We’ve only had a layover in Spangdahlem before, not as a destination. And once when I flew by myself, I came to Spangdahlem to try to catch a flight and didn’t get on.
But, one military base is much like the others. The process is to get a taxi to the train station, if there is no shuttle, and then the train to wherever you want to go. The first step is to figure out which train station was closest to the military base. We landed in Spangdahlem (pronounced Spang-dul-lem) and deboarded fairly quickly.
Once you enter the terminal, it is the same as a regular airport: you go through border patrol/immigration and get your passport stamped, then get your luggage, and then go through customs. Some countries have rigorous agents. And others, not so much. But given the current situation in Italy, we decided not to say that Italy was our destination. We opted for the standard retiree response of “travel around Germany.” Since you are Space A, they never really ask how long you plan to stay. The immigration agent was nice and he joked about the weather being so crappy. It has been raining in Germany for several days straight.
Once in the terminal, everyone was trying to organize taxis. The taxi stand phone number on the courtesy phone was wrong. So people started to get annoyed because the terminal crew, who were in civilian clothes but clearly military, were unhelpful and unconcerned. Yes, they acted like nobody was even in the terminal let alone needed assistance. I never panic when there is coffee. Jason got me some coffee and we let things play out in the terminal until one of the crew announced that there would be a bus to lodging for the active duty guys but would take other passengers if needed. Lodging was closer to the gate and hopefully the staff there would be more helpful.
The family of four, us, and a couple of the single guys ended up at lodging. The airman and the hotel clerk were very nice and very helpful.
Rewind: When I knew we had made the flight to Germany, I used the wait time in Dover to look up the details on Spangdahlem. So, I already knew that the nearest train station. Speicher (pronounced Spy-ch-er), was only 15 minutes away. I also knew that even though Munich (a 4.5 hour train ride from Spangdahlem) was our technical first stop, we needed to get to a place somewhere closer and travel to Munich the next day. So, we had already decided to go from Spangdahlem by taxi to Speicher to Kaiserslautern, a fairly big train station. I booked a place to stay on Booking.com for Kaiserslautern that was accessible by a key box and not a traditional check in because we would be late.
Back in Spangdahlem: When the airman called the taxi, it was going to be an hour. No one is ever in a hurry in Europe—that’s a thing.
Yes, it can get annoying if you are not ready for that.
Still, we had time but about 15 minutes to make the train. I knew that Speicher was a small train station with no ticket office. I was fairly sure that there would be a ticket machine, but I took advantage of the secure wifi to buy tickets on the Omio app.
There are several great apps for traveling by train. Trainline and Omio are both good. Used in conjunction, they are nearly flawless.
The hardest thing to do when traveling by train is to estimate how much time you need to get to your train.
Omio has the option to purchase tickets, but Trainline doesn’t always offer the option depending on where you are going.
And then….the taxi was late. So I had to rebook for the next train and we were out $38.00 for the tickets.
Frick’n, Frack’n, %$#%^! (and not the only time)
Still, no big deal. While in the lobby, we met the family that was traveling. They decided to book a room in the lodging and start their trip tomorrow. They were from Vermont and they were trying to go see their daughter who was studying in Berlin. They had wasted two days in Dover trying to get a flight out and only had 6 more days for their trip to get back to the Space A terminal to fly back.
Hope it works out for them.
Jason had walked outside and ended up chatting with the young guy with the limp. So, he joined us in the taxi to Speicher but his destination was Frankfurt to try to catch a flight to Morocco. He was on terminal leave before being medically discharged.
Terminal (now called transitional) leave is when you are getting out of the military and you use all your vacation days. Yes, you can cash some in, but if you did it right, you have way more days than you are allowed to cash in. You also get what is called permissive TDY, up to 20 days depending on your situation. For example, when I retired, I had 75 days leave (vacation) accrued and got authorized 20 days of permissive TDY. So, I got paid by the Army, and was still “in,” but did not have to go to work for 95 days.
And we used that time to get priority on Space A flights and went to Europe for two and half weeks and did several amazing trips to France, Amsterdam, and traveled along the Rhein. Thank you, Army!
The Speicher train station is a typical small town station in Germany.
It is exactly how I remember Germany. Train stations always look exhausted in a romantic kind of way.
Looking down the tracks at the trees on a chilly, gray, wet day is exactly Germany to me.
Our destination was our room in Kaiserslautern, which is near the big air base, Ramstein, where we have been several times. Military call it K-town. But the train stops first in Trier, and our new little friend…did we get his name?
Of course not, even if we did, I would not remember it!
He was catching a connection to Frankfurt. When we boarded the train, there was an old German woman and three dogs on the train. Along the way we learned a little about her. She was very well educated and she teachs English, German, and French. She was traveling to Trier to take one of the dogs to the vet. They had already driven two hours from where they lived to the train station in Köln (that’s Cologne) and the three hour train ride to Trier to get on a bus to the vet. The young dog had some sort of awful growth on his face. She said her vet in town had already said there was nothing they could do and she was going for a second opinion. I was stunned. This lady was clearly in her 70’s, had a cane, three bags, two coats, and was traveling by herself all day on public transportation with her three dogs. That’s not something you would EVER see in the states.
It was impressive she was travelling so far.
We shared a nice conversation with her about how hard it is to lose fur family. I even showed her a picture of our girl Eris and our Titus. She couldn’t believe how beautiful our girl was.
As we pulled into Trier, everyone was focused on getting off and making connections, so partings were quick. I will always remember that lady when I think about resiliency.
We missed our train to Kaiserslautern—we found the track but our train was really far forward and by the time we matched up the numbers of the trains to the platforms our train was pulling away. So, trusting…
More like guessing
…we had regional train tickets, which meant that we could catch any regional train that day as long as we got off at our stop and not a later one. We decided to not purchase new tickets.
So, we had to wait about 35 minutes until the next train. The great thing about train stations in Europe is the beer. Well, I should say…the best thing is public drinking. Beer or wine or whatever.
I am in my element at this point. Besides dragging luggage, I love this. I am such an energy junkie that I love train stations, airports, cities, busy cafes, taxis, tickets! We had been traveling for 26 hours at this point. We hadn’t eaten a meal, or had any real sleep. But I wasn’t worried, frustrated, or exhausted. I took advantage of the free wifi (the mobile hotsport SIM I had purchased was for Italy, so it needed some tech attention to make it work in Germany) and sent some texts to the boys and others.
This is why Space A travel is not for everyone. There is no guaranteed arrival time—so you can’t make any real plans un advance. I’m okay with that. And you seem to be too…
Missing plans you made due to unforeseen circumstances can be especially frustrating. This is why I like not having set plans and enjoy Space A… the key is if you have the time.
So, it means that you can have a very long day of traveling—and this was turning out to be one. Here is a screenshot of our train details to Kaiserslautern. In Trier, we had missed our train so we wouldn’t be getting to our place in Ktown until really late.
We had a transfer in Saarbrücken. A short one. So, I stayed on the platform while Jason headed to the shop to grab two more beers for the two hours train to Ktown. As we waited, a guy approached us and asked if we were military. Turns out, he was an Army Ranger who had been medically discharged years ago. He and his girlfriend were in Germany visiting an old friend and visiting where he had grown up because his Dad was also stationed here with the military in the 70s and 80s. They were headed back to Munich tonight. Munich is a four hour train ride from Ktown. Which means they had at least six more hours of traveling tonight. Munich was our destination too—but I was so glad we were stopping in Ktown.
We would not have gotten settle into Munich until like 2 am if everything else went according to plan.
In hindsight, we should have exchanged info and met up with them in Munich for a drink. But, I like the mystery of knowing those people exist but not getting involved in their lives. At this point in the day, we had met three interesting people: the little Airman who traveled with us from Spangdahlem, the nice German professor and her dogs, and now this Veteran. This is something that only happens when you travel.
We made our train and arrived in K-town for the short walk to our room. I had jumped on Booking.com to get a room back in Dover. I choose Booking.com instead of AirBnB when we are only staying one night somewhere.
Why? AirBnb began with the philosophy of a homestay experience with a host who could provide you with the comforts of home without the standard hotel amenities. It was designed to be an experience, so I avoid them on one-night stays. (Check out the next blog for a ProTip).
Once in our room, all we could think about was food and it was already after 2100. Things close early in small European towns. I googled places around us and found that there was a “pizzeria with take away” at the end of our street. It was a beautiful night and I was ready for a little walk without luggage. Once we got to the pizzeria, I realized the info was wrong—this was not a take away joint. We were road weary and disheveled but hunger overtook us and we went in.
Uh, I was still in pristine shape, not disheveled!
The pizzeria was a lovely Italian-themed restaurant. Mouths watering, I asked if we could still come in because the sign said they closed at 2200. I think it was just after 2130. The man spoken a little broken English and smiled and showed us to a table. We were the only ones there and we started to feel bad that they might have to dirty something they had already cleaned. But, again, hunger.
I was happy to see Montepulciano on the wine menu and got a glass of that and Jason got a beer. At first we said we’d just get a pizza so we weren’t any trouble. But the sight of so many great dishes won us over and we opted for pizza and lasagna.
You will notice I get beer a lot because Europe is like having about 400 micro-breweries around you at all times so I try many different variations. In general, each smaller region (especially in Germany), make their own beer. It seems to be a bit more commercialized than I remember, but still way better than in the states.
(Follow Jason on the Untapped app). https://untappd.com
A welcoming smile, great wine and beer, and an excellent meal restored us in this little pizzeria.
And we headed off to bed.
SHE AND HE WANDER 