We survived the transatlantic flight, and that tough first day of sleep deprivation and jet lag. Now, today Wednesday, we're awake and well-fed from our yummy German-style buffet breakfast (good breads and spreads, cheeses and ham, cereals, yogurt with granola and honey, coffee with real cream, yes I had to try it all).
We're staying in a small hotel in Ramstein, a town that is also the site of a large Air Force base. It seems that most of the guests here are Air Force-related American families. Yesterday Neil started his marathon of trying to jump the hoops for Army inprocessing, as the kids and I napped and played. Today Neil again gets to enjoy the wonder of Army bureaucracy, while I think that the kids and I will go exploring on foot into Ramstein village. They have been troopers, even through the overnight flight with no sleep, and are raring to practice their German vocab and check out the area. (We have an incentive that they earn an Euro for every complement from a stranger, a tip that I picked up from the Rick Steves' web sites. We are practicing hard our bittes and dankes.)
So far the assessment is: cute villages, good breakfast, good food in general so far say D, very comfortable bed says S, odd design to the toilets (don't ask, either you understand, or we don't want to get into the explanation), D likes Smart cars and European license plates. Unfortunately the weather is rather moderate, cool today (probably upper 60's and overcast).
This week will be somewhat complex, as Neil tries to do the impossible-- work through the Army system efficiently and quickly. I am planning to get a driver's license Friday, and then maybe we will buy or rent a car shortly afterwards, which will open up our opportunities. We hope to look at a couple of rental houses this week, but that may just not be possible. We are heading out for Paris on Sunday, hooray!
More later... Suz