Last Day

We woke up thinking that Saturday was fairly likely to be our last day in Germany.  There was scheduled on Sunday a flight to McGuire mid-morning, and a flight to Dover in the late afternoon.  There had actually been a flight to Andrews with roll call early Saturday morning (as in 0300).  We had been debating whether we should try for the Andrews flight, but then it came out with 0 seats being released, so we figured we shouldn't even bother.  As it turned out, it ended up releasing 10 seats, but only 2 people were there to get on, and we *might* have been able to get on (sometimes they will release another seat or 2 if there were just a few more needed), but it was a pretty big risk and would have messed up the entire next day if it hadn't worked, so I was glad we didn't worry about it.

We had been planning to visit the ruins of Nanstein Castle Saturday for one last hoorah of sightseeing, but when we woke up, it was cold, gray and snowing.  So walking around ruins sounded particularly miserable, lol.

Instead, we decided we should go out to a German restaurant, since we had never actually done that.  It was intimidating with such a big group, which is why we had never done it before.  I got to work googling restaurants in Ramstein, and we decided on "Maxi's".  There wasn't a huge selection right in Ramstein, but neither of us really wanted to drive into Kaiserslautern.  We ate a big breakfast and went for a late lunch--around 1:00.  We figured the restaurant wouldn't be busy then, and we were right.  We were pretty much the only customers, except for a big table of what looked like regulars right by the door!

We ordered 2 plates of wienerschnitzel and 4 plates of jagerschnitzel.  They all came with salads, so we divided those up among us all.  We got fries with the wienerschnitzal and yummy potato croquettes with the jagerschnitzel.  Everyone tried some of everything, and they were big platters, so we had plenty!  Everyone like the croquettes a lot.  I think it was Jonathan who said they tasted like pierogies with a crunchier outside!  The only bad thing was paying 3.50 euros for each carafe of water.  I had a water bottle in my backpack, which I used to refill glasses so we didn't need to buy anymore carafes.  I love my free water!

You can see the snowy landscape outside.  The restaurant was all windows--very bright and airy, even on a really cloudy day!

Afterwards we drove further into the small town of Ramstein to Venezia Eiscafe, which got great reviews on yelp.  And it definitely lived up to the reviews!  One scoop of amazing gelato in a cup or a cone was just 1 euro!  There were lots of different flavors including strawberry (which was SO delicious--like a fresh strawberry but even better!), hazelnut, coconut, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, and chocolate (and more that I can't remember, lol).  With so many of us, we were able to taste a wide selection of flavors. 

I personally had chocolate, which was also absolutely delicious.  The older boys went back for another scoop since they had brought their own money!

That night we went back to a grocery store Bob and I had been to by ourselves--Globus.  It was definitely the biggest grocery store we had been in over there.  It was more like a Super Walmart or something because it had more stuff than just food.  It also had some little shops like Super Walmarts do in front of the cash registers, as well as some food places.  We bought pizzas there, and Bob also bought half of a rotisserie chicken. 

We also bought a beer!  Since the legal drinking age in Germany is 16, Caleb had been dying to try some.  Here was his big chance!  He was not impressed.  We actually let all the kids try a sip, and none of them liked it.  They were actually astounded that some people struggle with drinking too much it  I guess it is an acquired taste, lol.  I think we left it 3/4 full on the table when we left.  But it was an experience!

Then we headed back to the TLF to finish packing our stuff up (again)!  Maybe for the last time??