We started moving around 9:30 PM Sunday night, but we didn't taxi far--just over to get de-iced. That was fortunate because the Super Bowl was almost done, and there were quite a few people who had not put their phones on airplane mode and were giving everyone around them play-by-play details of the game while we waited. When we were finally ready to take off, the game was SO CLOSE to being over. As we sat there, with the engines revving, the final timeout was taken, and literally the last seconds of the clock ran out right as we were speeding down the runway! Everyone was cheering for the Eagles as we took off--a very festive way to start off!
They served us a nice meal of sandwiches (turkey or roast beef, with fritos, a fruit cup, oatmeal raisin cookies, and a kit-kat), which really hit the spot for us, since we hadn't technically eaten dinner. But eating around 10:30 definitely did not make anyone want to fall right to sleep! Micah was sitting pretty next to Caleb and Jonathan, and they helped him watch a Thor movie on his screen in front of him. I did not start anything for Drew or Verity, but they excitedly played around with stuff in their backpacks for awhile while I read more
Freakonomics. Eventually they did fall into a restless sleep in uncomfortable-looking positions for a few short hours, as did the rest of us. We woke up around 8:30 local time (so maybe 2:30ish AM at home?) when we were served breakfast--a typical meal with a choice of chicken and vegetables or pasta and red sauce, along with cole slaw and carrot cake, lol. So that was interesting, but at least filling.
We landed at Ramstein a little after 11:00 AM local time, which was 5:00 AM Eastern. A German official got on and made a very mumbled customs briefing where he mentioned something about meat not being allowed in, even beef jerky. Well, I was very disappointed to hear that, since I had made a ton of beef jerky the week before for the kids to eat as snacks, and our homemade jerky is vastly better than anything sold in stores! I had no idea that you weren't supposed to bring in meat (or dairy, as it turned out)! I had actually packed a lunchbox (one of those insulated ones with ice packs--it's from Costco, and it is AMAZING! It keeps everything cold for forever!) full of lunch meat and cheese for us to eat for a few lunches until we could get our bearings, and that was in one of our suitcases, so I assumed we would have to throw all that away when we went through customs.
View of our 747 as we walked along passageways to get to the passport check
When we de-planed, we waited in a huge line to get our passports stamped. We had a very nice German gentleman who thought our big family was great! After that, we waited for our suitcases and car seats. When we got all those, we walked through some hallways to get out. I kept expecting to see customs officials who would go through our suitcases--but no, none every appeared, and we walked out. We actually headed into the main terminal instead of outside, since we needed to sign up for space-a for the trip back (poor Air Force guy who had to enter all our passport numbers and expiration dates, dates of births, etc.--only to have his computer crash so he had to do it all again).
Next on the agenda was exchanging money to euros (you can do that at the ATM machine in the terminal) and then getting rental cars. There is only one place on base that can rent to retirees--and it is not right by the terminal, unfortunately. So we all set out on a forced march of about a mile to the Hertz office. It was pretty nippy out, but fortunately I had packed a bag full of gloves/mittens/hats for everyone, so I distributed all those, which helped. We used those all throughout the trip! We straggled along, looking like refugees or something, while people on buses passing us took pictures, and a nice lady stopped her car to see if she could help us. But we made it, and Drew only melted down when we were just getting ready to cross the street by the office.
The big answer to prayer was that they had cars to rent to us! If they didn't have any, we would have had to go off-base, and I really wasn't sure how we would get all of us and all our stuff anywhere else. So we rented two 5-person vehicles, both of which actually had 2 extra fold-down seats in the back. We never needed them, but having them there made it so that we had enough space for all our luggage! Bob drove a tallish bright blue Ford (something--Tourino??)) van-like vehicle that is not sold here in America, and I drove a Citroen station wagon thing. Both were stick shift vehicles. I have driven stick shift cars before quite a bit--but it has definitely been probably 12 years since I last drove one regularly!
The blue Ford
The black Citroen
I got in and confidently started the car and tried to back out. I went about 2 feet and couldn't go any more. Caleb was my front seat navigator, and we deduced that the parking brake was on--but we couldn't actually find any sort of parking brake release. The guy who had given us the keys was nowhere to be seen, so we kind of fumbled around for awhile, while Bob and his car load (Jonathan as navigator, plus Grace, Drew, and Verity) waited for us. Eventually they realized there was a problem, and Bob came over to help. But he couldn't find a release either. We were glad to finally see this older gentleman reappear, who had been washing down the other cars. He came over, and after some difficulty himself, showed us the button on the dashboard to press. Oh. Then he wiped down my window and some other spots while my car beeped a danger warning that someone was close to the car (very nerve-wracking!). Eventually he moved away again, and I tried to back out again, but I still didn't get anywhere. The guy came back and showed me that to actually put the car in reverse, I needed to pull up on this plastic ring under the knob of the gearshift while simultaneously putting the gear into the reverse position. Oh. And then, once I finally backed out, I had to call him over AGAIN to help me lock the steering wheel back in place, since in my fumbling around for a parking brake release, I had somehow unlatched the steering wheel so it just flopped up and down. It took a good 20 minutes for me to get out of the parking space, which was just a tad embarrassing. I am sure he was wondering why they rent cars to such American idiots! Ha!
But finally we got onto the actual road, and I was relieved to see that I did more or less remember how to drive a stick. I only stalled once, as I was coming into a roundabout not long after we left the base. I had forgotten to downshift, so of course I stalled when I tried to start up again from 4th gear! Oops! The tricky part was that the parking brake always automatically resets itself when the car turns off, so Caleb and I had to scramble to press the button the right way to make it go off again. Embarrassing, but fortunately we were able to get going again quickly. Happily, I can say I never stalled again on the trip!
The real miracle was that both cars had built-in GPS systems. We had not asked for this; this was truly the Lord realizing what we would need! I was able to just enter the C's address in, follow the map, and we got there with no problems. Whew! It was hard enough remembering to be in the right gear, paying attention to the speed limit signs, etc. without having to worry about maps or anything else. It took a little over hour to get to the C's house, and we were so relieved and happy to be there! It still seemed completely surreal that we were actually in Germany--but now we were also absolutely exhausted. We struggled to stay awake until 8:00, at which point we all crashed into bed. It was a very long, but good day!
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