Heading South on 911

I got up late this morning for a drill weekend.  Because my unit is based out of Fort Custer it is nearly a three hour drive to get there.  So the usually Army Saturday begins at 4 a.m.   But not today.  All I have to do is stop by the armory and turn in some equipment before heading south to Little Rock, Arkansas for two weeks of logistics training. 

Most of the drive down was through heavy rain.  When I arrived at Custer I headed out to the ranges where the troops were qualifying with their weapons this weekend.  I kind of hesitated, thinking momentarily like a civilian, it is raining, they won't be shooting.  There they were, firing their weapons with rain dripping off of their helmets and the barrels of their M-16s smoking as each drop of moisture made contact.  I thought to myself, "What a fitting tribute to 9/11, soldiers training in a cold rain in preparation for their next deployment."  That is what it is all about.  They had that grimace that is so familiar with a troop who is miserable yet loving it.  You have to love the irony.  Sadly, I could not stay to join in the fun.  I had to head south.

Tonight I am staying at McCormick's Creek State Park at an inn that was build in 1918.  It is pretty cool and the park is great.  So I checked in, dropped my bags, put on my PT gear and went for a run to check out the trails.  I was a little disappointed at first.  It appeared that they were going to be the flat, unchallenging type that walk you through the woods.  On the map I had selected the trail marked as "rugged" so I could work off the whole sitting on my butt and eating chips while I drove all day slog.  After about 1/4 mile the trail lived up to its label.  It wound down through a gorge, across a creek several times and up to a waterfall.  Very cool. 

I stopped to check out the falls and when I did I heard a lady yell a question to me from to top of the gorge.  She asked it the way I had just come was easier than the way she had seen everyone else getting to the falls.   I really hadn't paid much attention, but looked around and told her it was pretty easy except for the 15-20 feet of slippery logs she would have to cross.  I felt kind of bad about the advice in just a few minutes.  She and her husband worked their way down the trail and gave it a try.  They were almost immediately on their butts and wet.  The logs were slippery, and now they are even wetter.   After making sure they were not hurt, I continued on with my run.  I had to get back to the inn restaurant before it closed at 8.

I think there must be nothing more pathetic than a guy showing up to dinner all alone.  The girl at the desk put me out on the porch by the bird feeders so I would have some company with my meal.  So I ate south Indiana food while I looked out into the forest.  Very relaxing. 

I am tired.  Good night.

Knuckle-heads, Hohenfels and a German Bakery

Today was supposed to be a pretty easy day.  Get up at 0530, run a few miles, then meet with a few troops at 0700 I was taking down to Hohenfels to enbed with an Engineer Battalion.  Well, you know how it goes, nothing really ever goes as planned. 

When we went outside for PT it was raining - again - 15 days in a row and counting.  But rain can not stop our dedication to fitness, or the fact we need to run off last night's snitzel, pommes, and two slices of struedel.  Running in the rain is all good anyway.  It keeps you cool.

At 0700 when the troops were supposed to meet me.  They were not there.  The Sergant Major was and he was a perflexed as I.  We were told they had driven down to the mini-PX to get some coffee.  Bad Move.  At 0645 every morning, every road on that side of post is barricaded by the MPs for mass formations of PT and no vehicle is allowed to move until PT is over.  They were trapped.  We had to be 100 miles south at 8.  This was not a good start to the morning.  To make matters worse, they had left thier camera equpiment on the other side of post - the side that was barricaded.  I was mildly pissed.  I will leave it at that.

We finally got our crap together and headed south through the rolling hills of southern Germany.  We rolled up to the back gate of Hohenfels and drove across the countless ranges covered with tank, artillery, and engineer units training.  This is always an impressive sight to see finely trained units training. 

When we got on main post we pulled up to "the flagpole"  the post headquarters, dare I say an uncomfortable place to be, but in my job a regular place to be.  We met up with the post PAO (public affairs officer) and his deputy to coordinate the embed of our soldiers. 

It ended up they were to be put sent out with  a recovery team that was pulling a stuck tank out of the mud.  That takes some doing.  And when they were finished they were then joining an EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) team to blow up some munitions, and then they were being attached to a sapper team to complete the day with some Hooah crazy army training. 

Only in public affairs are you continually placed in the seat of the action on post. Every commander wants us to report on the exciting things that are happening in his unit, so he works his staff to ensure our soldiers are there to report. on it.  I told my troops this at our end of the day briefing.  I told them they are the luckiest people in the army.  They get to experience the most exciting things that are happening all of the time and then walk away to write the story.

After we dropped off the troops we refueled the vehicle and headed back to Grafenwoehr.  But we had noticed on the way down this morning, there was a little bakery in a little village in the middle ofnowhere.  Now who am I to pass that place up.  Fresly baked goods every morning.  Cakes, struedels, and assorted foods I have never seen the likes of. 

I don't spead German so well and in these little villages they don't speak a word of English.  So I just smile, point and politely say, "Eine struedel bitte".  It works.  They appreciate the effort and laugh at me at the same time.  Hell, this morning I was bold and said, "Auch, caffee milch bitte".  You know what, I got a crazy delicious slice of heaven and a robust cup of European coffee for like two bucks. 

Ok, so it was'nt such a bad morning after all.  I had to deal with some knuckle heads, but in the end there was a beautiful drive through the German countryside, some great conversation, and a visit to one of my favorite places, a German bakerei early in the morning. 

I can't wait for tomorrow when I head for Stutgart. 

Waiting All Afternoon for the Churchbell to Ring

We released the troops after lunch today so they could enjoy some of the local German culture and because it is a four-day weekend for the military.  Apparently yesterday was a German holiday - Assumption Day - Yeah, you got me.  The post is pretty much deserted, so it is a bit difficult to produce news stories about training that is not going on. 

So we cut the troops loose.  They were happy of course.  Most of them anyway - some soldiers bitch no matter what, but that is part of being in the military.  But for most, they are happy when they are free.  But little do they recognize, that I am free too. 

Let me take you back a little.  Yesterday I headed over to Bamburg to check out the city and especially to eat at a gesthaus that has been operating since the 15th century.  Now a place that has been serving food for that long must have their food down.  Besides, they still brew bier the way they did back in the 15th century.  Now a lot of breweries claim to hold onto the ancient ways, but this place goes so far as to dry their hops over coals they way it was originally done.  The result, smokey bier.  It sounds kind of gross, but again, they have been doing it for 600 years and they have it down.  It was smooth, with a smokieness, that was like a liquid bar-b-que.  Kind of a strange drink, but intersting all the same.  So since I had ordered what ended up being a huge chunk of pork, the smokiness went quite well.  Good meal.  And the couple of biers that followed were quite nice too.

Having a smokey rauchbier in Bamburg.

On the way to Bamburg we had deciede to take our time and enjoy the German countryside insead of rushing at 120 mph down the autobahn.  Don't get me wrong, driving as fast as you want is pretty cool, but we wanted to see something more than a blurrrrrrrr today.  The road we headed down went into a gorge with houses and castles build into the rocky crags that protruded from the mountains.  We decided that tomorrow we had to come back.

A rainy day in farming village of Pottstein.

Today we did.  Of course it rained.  It has rained for 15 days straight here.  It is some kind of Monsoon season in Germany.  They tell us it has something to do with the the crazy high temperatures and fires in Russia that is driving the rain this way.   I don't know about all of that but I do know we get soaked every day. 

But I digress -  We headed into Pottenstein to a brewery we had read about.  We walked into the brewery, but there was no one in there.  We just stood in the middle of the empty room.  We have learned that German's aren't real big on locking their doors when they are closed so we often find ourselves walking into closed German businesses, restaurants, and on a couple of occasions -  people's houses.  Damn rude Americans.  We realized the restaurant was closed and went to another gasthaus, and another, and yet another even going so far as to drive to another town just trying to get a bier at 5 p.m.  I asked in a couple of places and was told in fluent German, which I don't understand very well, that they don't serve meals or bier until after 6 p.m. and then went on to elaborate, in German, something about the church.   

Now this is crazy.  Every store closes at 5, and every restaurant does not open until at least 6.  What are you supposed to do with that hour.  Talk to people; who does that?  As we walked up to restaurants, people kept pointing to the church.  At first I thought they wanted me to go there to pray or give a donation.  Once we got to the second town, Grossweinstein - still seeking food and drink - we actually did go into the church. 

Grossweinstein is a tiny town, in the middle of a gorge in the middle of nowhere Germany and they have one of the most magnificent churches I have ever seen.  Wow!!  We walked around, took a few pictures, and even dropped all of our pocked change into the donation box.  Money well spent. 

Inside the Cathederal in the village of Grossweinstein.

As we walked out of the church, the bells began to ring.  It seemed the holiday was officially over and the gesthauses opened.  That was what the locals had been trying to tell us all afternoon, "We don't open until the bell rings".  So many rules in Germany to learn.  Who knew they  paid such attention to such things.  But we were happy - we could get some food.

We spotted a remote little hotel bakerei down the hill, walked in and were greeted by a German grandmother looking lady.  The entry of the restaurant was shelves of cookies, candies, and struedel.  I was thinking, who needs dinner and a bier.  But I am in Germany, so I ordered a nice snitzel, complete with pommes and salat.  A healthy meal as they go over here.  Grandma was happy with my choices, smiled and patted me on the shoulder.  This was a small place that apparently she and her husband owned.  So the cooking was "homemade".  Oh yeah.  To go with the meal I ordered a fantastic Weissbier made by some local monk.  Not a bad choice either.  Both the meal and the bier were excellent. 

Tonight's very German Cook.

To make it all perfect, we headed to the dessert counter and ordered a struedel.  One of my buddies ordered two.  Grandma laughed and said something in German about him getting fat.  After dinner we took the struedel back to the barracks.  I just finished mine.  Good stuff.

So today was another success.  We made some good contacts with training units, and even better we learned something new about Germany.  On a holiday, don't even think about dinner until the bell rings.

And what is Assumption Day you ask: It is the day that celebrates the rising of Mary into the heavens.

Calling the Day Short

We worked pretty late again tonight.  We are covering quite a few training events that are happening here at Graf.  Today the major event involves the U.S. Army training the U.S. Marine Corps on how to train the Republic of Georgia to fight in Afghanistan.  The Army and Marines are enough of a clash, throw in the Georgians, who we are struggling to break their use of American Civil War tactics and you have the recipe for a long day.  I will post some of our product from this event and others in the coming day.

So I must be getting old, because when the day was over, I simply returned to the barracks and went to sleep. 

But to keep you interested, here is a picture from a few days ago.

A Frothy Mug of Kulmbacker

European Time

Something was lost when our ancestors immigrated to the new world.  They left something behind in the old. 

As Chuck and I were walking through the streets to 14th century Wieden last night looking for a place to grab a bite to eat it was a remarkable sight to see thousands of Europeans sitting in their sidewalk cafe's casually chatting away with one another.

Now I have noticed ever since I arrived that any German restaurant would immediately go out of business in America.  To us the restaurant business is all about turning over customers, to the Germans this is a foreign concept.  Last night we sat down for a couple of locals brewed beers and a bowl of soup.  The people at the tables around us looked as through they had been there for quite some time when we arrived.  When we finished our meal over an hour later, there had been no movement at the tables around us.  These men and women continued to casually have thier drinks and quietly converse.

Germans in Bayreuth talk  for hours while enjoying their local bier.

This is the next difference I have noticed.  Background noise and the need to talk loudly. After hours of consuming some pretty stout drinks, the conversation does not get loud, there are no obnoxious drunks.  Hell, I have yet to see a drunk in a country that regularly consumes alcohol every evening.  The only drunk people I have seen are American soldiers stumbling in the back gate of the post around midnight every night. 

So I have to wonder why the difference.  These people are our ancestors and we still hold many of their traditions.  Yet somehow our lives are far more frantic and stressed.  I hope that our young soldiers can learn at least this much on this training mission: slow down and enjoy life.

Yet Another Birthday "Away with the Army"

Twenty of the past 25 birthdays I have found myself somewhere with the army.  It has ranged anywhere from the CQ desk as a private, to the back of an M-1 Abrams tank in the middle of the forest, to Baghdad Iraq, to Grafenwoehr Germany this year.  This is not to complain; it is simply a fact that I accept and have to come to expect. 

This year I did not even realize it was the 9th until I opened my email account and saw the 30-40 birthday wishes from people all over the world.  Facebook is a pretty cool thing.  There was even a pretty cool, though slightly pornographic, video from Laura.  No perverts - it was not of Laura - just log onto Facebook and watch the song.  Good stuff.

Here are a few pictures of how a few of us celebrated this evening after work:

Bayreuth, Germany for a mug of swartze bier

A plate of Franconian Ribs, Saurkraut, and a potato dumpling.   It went nicely with the bier.

A Few Photos From Berlin

This restaurant near the Bundestag is scared from the final
battle for Berlin between the Germans and the Soviets.

"The Wall" has been replaced by cobblestone throughout
the city so no one can forget how they were once divided.

Berliner Mauer (East Side Gallery) this is an art gallery
that has been painted on the former Soviet side of the Berlin Wall.

Checkpoint Charlie complete with McDonald's and actors.