We had nice weather today. It was the first nice, warm, sunny day in about a week. Or, at least the day started out nice, anyway. We have clouds right now. At about 11:30am, I asked Bill if he’d like to go do something. He said he would. I’d been wanting to visit Worms, a well touristed city in Rheinland-Palatinate, maybe an hour’s drive from Wiesbaden. So we beagle proofed the house, got in the trusty Volvo, and headed to the city of slimy critters.
Crossing the Rhein River into Worms… this is the Nibelungenturm, built by architect Karl Hoffman’s, whose handiwork can be spotted all over the city. It’s pretty cool!
By the time we got to Worms, I was hungry. It was about 12:45pm when we parked, and then because Bill parked in an outdoor parking spot at Das Wormser, he only got an hour. It was long enough for me to take this photo of yet another one of Germany’s provocative ads. Well, it would be provocative in the United States, for sure…
Netto is a discount market… I guess the wardrobe budget was cut for this ad. 😉
So we made a quick trip to the Wormser Dom, the big Catholic church where Martin Luther was condemned as a heretic. More went on there, of course, but since I am neither a Catholic nor a student of history, I can’t write authoritatively on the cathedral, except to mention that it had a lofty history before it was reduced in status to a parish church. When you come to Worms, you’ll see it easily on the horizon, and it begs a visit. I got a few photos, which I noticed made Bill tear up.
You can see a “dragon” in this photo. My German friend says Worms has a bunch of dragons around the city. They’re very cute.
And a few shots of the other side, which is where the main entrance is.
Quite a sight… especially in person!
After we took a walk around the cathedral, Bill moved the car into the inside of the garage at Das Wormser, and we headed back into the city in search of lunch. By that time, I was pretty hungry and getting a bit grouchy. But I still managed to take a few more pictures, which because of Apple’s latest update, Catalina, are a bit of a pain in the ass to upload.
There were lots of people in the city today… This looked like an interesting barber shop. I wonder if they give happy endings there.I snapped this photo next to a big group of Africans, some of whom appeared to be members of the clergy. I zoomed in to give them some privacy.
Finally, we ran across a restaurant that was still open, even though it was about 2:00pm. Die Pfälzer stays open for lunch until 2:30pm and they were able to help us out with some tasty, high quality food. I was definitely feeling better after a healthy lunch of salmon, spinach, and boiled potatoes washed down with wheat beer, although this restaurant is known for its wines. Bill had grilled wurst with sauerkraut and fried potatoes. There was a table full of Americans in there and I was reminded of how loud my countrymen can be. But overall, it was a nice, economical experience…
This place hit the spot!My handsome old fart, Mr. Bill…The Lachs Filet is a good bet…But so is the Wurst…This was about 36 euros worth of food. Well worth the price!
After lunch, we headed back toward the Marktplatz and stopped into the Evangelische Kirche– that’s the protestant church in town. It was impressive on the outside, but looked a bit refurbished on the inside, circa 1960 something.
Nice, but not so soul stirring as the Dom…I dug the pipe organ, though.
We walked out of the church to discover a wine bar set up outside. Naturally, I couldn’t resist a glass for the road. I drank most of Bill’s too, since he was driving. I love this about this part of Germany. You can go to any town and find neighbors socializing over wine. I don’t remember seeing this in the Stuttgart area. Down there, it’s more beer and less hanging out… but I like Stuttgart too, for many other reasons.
Lots of convivial people enjoying wine on a Saturday… And this was right outside the protestant church…No one cared about the wine near the church.And there’s Bill, always a provider.I thought that deserved a cuddly selfie.I guess this was the source of all the clergy.On the Dom… we spotted a nun here, too.Walled city…The gate on the way out.The mighty Rhein River.
Last night, we went to our neighborhood wine stand. I got a few photos of that, too. We ended up chatting with our neighbor, Uli, who speaks English fluently and has a horse and a cool dog named Levi that she adopted from an American soldier who went to Iraq. I love Levi… and Uli says if we’re ready for another dog, she can help us get one. Something tells me we might not be a three member family for the rest of our time here.
Photos from last night’s fun… one of our neighbors who had seen us at earlier wine stands came over, welcomed us in German, and said it was wonderful we were hanging out with them. Americans could learn a few things from Hessians.
No, it’s not a urine sample. A neighbor makes apple wine. This five liter bottle, which included the bottle, was six euros.Arran loves it when Bill is home.I will miss the wine stands…And the Spundekaese, which I learned to love at them.Wine stands are a great social lubricant.And you can’t go wrong with any wine up here.The Breckenheim church.
I really hope I get the hang of Catalina soon… or they do something to fix the many glitches in the new system. Otherwise, future posts might be lighter on photos. But so far, our holiday weekend has been good. It’s hard to believe a year ago, we came to Wiesbaden for the first time to look for a place to live. Time flies when you’re still having fun!
In the spring of 1998, I was 25 years old and living with my parents in Gloucester, Virginia. Six months earlier, I had come home from a two year stint in the Republic of Armenia, where I had served as an English teacher with the Peace Corps. While I will never regret spending those years in Armenia, I came home with a pretty serious case of clinical depression. I was broke and having a hard time finding a job that would pay enough to get me launched out on my own. I also came home to some significant family issues, which made my living at home a burden to my parents.
I spent the first few months home working as a temp, mostly at the College of William & Mary in various capacities. In the spring of ’98, I found myself working in William & Mary’s admissions office. That was an eye-opening experience, but it didn’t pay enough and the work was incredibly tedious. My parents were eager to have me get out on my own and I was eager to leave. I didn’t get along with my dad, who had his own issues with depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and alcoholism. My mom was at her wits’ end trying to keep their business going, which they ran out of their house. Dad had gone to rehab the day after my return from Armenia. Dad’s rehab ultimately wasn’t successful. He and I fought a lot.
One day, after a terrible row with my dad, I marched myself over to The Trellis, at that time one of the best restaurants in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was then owned by renowned Chef Marcel Desaulniers, who has written many cookbooks and used to have cooking shows on PBS. His partner, John Curtis, owned several businesses in Williamsburg and had himself been a Peace Corps Volunteer in the 1960s. My mission was to get a job that would pay more so I could GTFO of my parents’ house and get on with my life.
My eldest sister had worked at The Trellis in 1980, when it first opened. She graduated from William & Mary in 1981 and had gone on to do bigger and better things, including joining the Peace Corps. She went to Morocco from 1984-86. I had followed in her footsteps, but unlike my big sister, I wasn’t finding success. Although I had never worked as a waitress before, all three of my sisters had waited tables. I figured if they could do it, so could I. I liked working with food and was giving some thought to going to culinary school. When I was in Armenia, I had done a number of food related projects and had even once been employed as a cook.
The Trellis had a reputation for being a great place to be if you wanted to make bank, but it was also an extremely demanding work environment. I had applied to work there once in 1994, but the manager passed. I worked in retail for a year, then went to Armenia. In 1998, I was determined to get a job at The Trellis. I was mostly motivated by my rage at my dad and the need to stop living in his house. That must have been the magic that was missing the first time I applied, because that time, I got hired. Or, it could have been that they simply needed warm bodies. In 1998 and throughout my time working at The Trellis, they were always hiring because they were chronically short staffed! A lot of people were hired, only to quit or be fired in short order.
I had a really hard time learning how to wait tables at The Trellis. Marcel Desaulniers had been a Marine and he ran his kitchen with military precision. It didn’t matter that I didn’t have experience waiting tables, though. In fact, the management preferred people who were brand new to waiting tables. That way, there weren’t any bad habits that had to be remedied. But it was difficult getting the hang of the job. I remember it took a few weeks before I was finally at ease with the job itself. And then I had to learn about the food!
The menu changed seasonally, and all of the wait staff had to demonstrate their knowledge. There were daily specials, which we had to recite from memory. We were tested on the menus and learned about wine and liquor. Everyone started working at lunch, which was fast paced and required a lot more work to make cash. As a waiter’s skills improved, he or she would be promoted to “Dinner Cafe”, which was even worse than working lunch. It was basically a hybrid menu that included certain lunch and dinner dishes and patrons were seated on the terrace or in the “cafe” area. The money was nominally better, but the work was just as hard. Finally, when menu tests were passed and table maintenance skills were high enough, the waiter would get dinner shifts and start making good money.
It was a lot to take in, and I felt like I was back in college. In those days, I was strictly a beer drinker and I knew nothing about wine, fine food, or liquor. I remember fumbling with the wine tool, trying to get accustomed to opening bottles of wine with style. I got yelled at all the time by the powers that be, which was hard on me. The job was physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding. There were a few times when I felt like giving up and trying something else.
Even though I was crippled by depression and anxiety, I was determined to succeed. I just thought about how much I needed to have my own apartment and reminded myself that waiting tables is a very portable skill. After many weeks of hard work, I did eventually make it to a venerable dinner waiter position and even trained some people. But there were many meltdowns along the way… and at first, quite a few people thought I might be one of the many people who didn’t make it through the first week of training. I worked at The Trellis for about a year and a half before I left to go to graduate school.
One of the captains working at The Trellis in 1998 was a guy named CW. I was immediately impressed and inspired by him. He was hardworking, funny, and kind. However, he was also very detailed oriented and task directed. I liked and respected him immediately, especially when I learned that when he started at The Trellis, he took the bus all the way from Norfolk, Virginia to get to work. There were times he missed the last bus home. Still, he showed up to work every day on time and busted his ass to provide great service and make money. He was tough when he needed to be, yet compassionate. CW was a fine role model.
CW left The Trellis a few months after I started working there. I remember his farewell at line up one day. He announced that he was going to work at Kinkead’s, a legendary (and now defunct) restaurant in Washington, DC. I remember the kind send off he received from the restaurant’s more senior staffers. Years later, when I turned 30, Bill and I celebrated at Kinkead’s because I remember CW talking about it. He didn’t wait on us, but I remember that birthday dinner as one of the first of many great meals Bill and I have had together.
CW still works in DC, and has had the opportunity to work at a lot of great restaurants with some amazing chefs. He is now studying to become a wine expert, specifically in German wines. Last week, as part of his sommelier training, he came to the Rheingau to work at a winery. We had the opportunity to meet up in Mainz last night. Even though I hadn’t seen him since 1998, he was easy to spot and there wasn’t a moment of awkwardness all evening.
We had a lovely evening at a Weinstube called Weinhaus zum Spiegel. It’s a charming place in one of the many “alleys and alcoves” in Mainz, a city Bill and I are still getting to know. Over several glasses of wine and small plates, CW, Bill, and I talked for several hours. Here are a few photos from our evening. I do mean a “few” photos, because we were so focused on chatting that there wasn’t much time for picture taking.
I’ve taken a photo of this cool fountain before. It’s called the Fastnachtsbrunnen “Carnival Fountain” and it was built in 1967.A few weeks ago, I wrote about finding these bronze plaques in our town. We found three more in Mainz. I’ll have to look up these names to find out their story.I enjoyed the bric-a-brac on the walls. This wine house was very charming and traditional…The menu is mostly wine… with lots of “small plates” and snacks. I had Spundekäs with pretzels, a Mainz speciality. Bill had ham with Paarweg (rolls that are attached), pickles, hard boiled egg, and tomato.CW had the housemade cold cut platter, with wurst, Paarweg, pickles, and vegetables.You can’t miss the sign.
Weinhaus zum Spiegel is in a super charming timbered building. I wish I had gotten a picture of it when the sun was still shining. We’ll have to go back to Mainz so I can get a proper photo of the historic looking edifice. I can’t say I was terribly impressed by the food, especially since I had originally wanted smoked trout and they were out of it. I did see a lot of people enjoying Federweisser (new wine) and Zwiebelkuchen (onion “cake”, which looks more like a tart). Although Zwiebelkuchen is a famous dish in southern Germany and popular this time of year, I still have yet to try it. I wish I’d had it last night, although I did like the Spundekäs.
Anyway, we weren’t really there for food as much as we were the company, and CW is excellent company. It was exciting to hear about his plans to break into the German wine industry. Who knows? He may soon join us over here… if we don’t end up having to move again. He has many tales of working in Washington, DC and dealing with some major high maintenance folks– politicians and their ilk– as well as some surprisingly down to earth celebrities.
We finally called it a night at about 10:30, when it was becoming clear that the Weinstube was winding down its service. As Bill and I made our way home, I was musing about how special the memories of working at The Trellis are to some of us. It was a place where I went through many different levels of hell. I remember “shitting Twinkies”, as CW once put it, on the terrace on beautiful spring and fall afternoons and major holidays. I lost a lot of weight working there, and also found myself in therapy and on medication to finally deal with the depression and anxiety that had hindered me for so long. I made enough money to get health insurance, and gathered the resolve to seek the help I desperately needed. I socked away money for the day when I would finally move out on my own. Finally, when I was ready, I launched into graduate school, which led to this “overeducated housewife” lifestyle I currently enjoy.
I only worked at The Trellis for about 18 months, and much of the actual job was hell, but I left there with so many friends I can still count on today, even twenty years after my last shift. We’re all scattered around the world now, but we have the camaraderie of that common experience binding us and, through the magic of Facebook, can stay in touch. And, just like CW, when it was time to leave, I got a warm send off, complete with a signed cookbook from Marcel, and a song from the resident harp guitarist, Stephen Bennett, whose music got me through so many horrific Saturday night dinner shifts. I learned about good food, fine wines, table maintenance, hard work, and even great music. Not only did I discover Stephen Bennett at The Trellis, I also made enough money to invest in voice lessons for myself! And, as difficult as it all was, working at the Trellis absolutely changed my life for the better. In fact, working there might have even saved my life, given my mental state at the time. 😉
The Trellis still exists in Williamsburg, but it now has different owners and is no longer a fine dining establishment. I haven’t been there to try its new incarnation. I’m not sure I could bear it. I think I’d rather remember it the way it was back in the day.
Cheers to all of my former Trellis colleagues who once shat Twinkies in the weeds with me!And cheers to CW as he continues his path to bigger and better things!I have a feeling our paths could cross again on this side of the Atlantic.
A little birdie told me that today would be the last sunny, warm day for awhile. So Bill, Arran, and I decided to go to Mainz to the annual apple festival at Appel-Happel. I had not been to this place before, but it appears to be a big apple market that also hosts events. I see on their official Web site that there are other events happening into November. There’s also an on site restaurant.
We didn’t stay long at the fest because there were a lot of people and Arran isn’t used to hanging out with us at fests. However, I am very proud of the way Arran behaved. He was mostly a perfect gentleman, with only a couple of loud outbursts. At one point, he even made a friend with a long haired American who drove a German car with Kaiserslautern plates. The guy clearly thought we were Germans, because though we spoke perfect English, he said danke schön after he petted Arran. He also said he has basset hounds. As we were headed to the car to leave, we encountered the same guy driving out and he leaned out the window and said, “Bye, Mr. Beagle!”
The festival had food and lots of apple inspired treats to include cider, juice, and wines, as well as apple cakes, strudel, and chocolate dipped apples. There was also entertainment in the form of dancing and music, bouncy house and playground equipment for the kids, and the opportunity to pick apples in the orchards. We already have a tree that dumps more apples than we can possibly eat, so we were content to just enjoy the libations. Here are some photos from today’s outing.
Come one, come all…Lots of people biked, took the train, which stops just outside, or drove…There was plenty to do.I got a kick out of this sign in the portajohn.As well as this seat… clearly perfect for the venue.Apple lovers would be in Heaven here.I tried cherry Sekt. Bill had apple cider. Both were delicious.Then I had this grape Federweisser, made from new pressings and about 4% ABV…This flying, stinging creature stopped in for a sip and was pretty drunk. It flew away once it recovered.Chocolate dipped apples.Pumpkins…And a place to dine…A parting shot of the orchard as we left.
I was very pleased by how well behaved Arran was. He doesn’t go out much because he gets overwhelmed, but he was so good this time, maybe he’ll take him out more often. There were other dogs there, too, along with many children. We decided not to eat there because most of what was offered was wurst and pommes and we have better stuff here at home. But it was definitely a nice festival. We’ll have to go again next year, if we’re still living here.
The fest ends at 6:00pm, but I can see there are a lot of chances to visit Appel-Happel. Maybe we’ll get another opportunity soon.
We had amazing weather yesterday. It was so nice outside that I couldn’t bear to stay at home. I thought maybe we’d hunt for a festival or something, and we would have found one if we had gone to Frankfurt. There are several going on right now. But, for some reason, we decided to go to Mainz. Bill missed a turn to go to the downtown area, and we ended up in a part of town we hadn’t seen before.
As we were passing through, I noticed an interesting looking bar called Sixties. It advertised a lot of craft beers, which is kind of an unusual thing in Germany. So, although our plan had originally been to go downtown, we wound up parking and trying out Sixties, which also advertised music. When we walked into the bar, there was no music. Instead, all of the televisions were tuned to football– aka soccer– and the waitress warned us that pretty soon, a bunch of people would be crowded in there to watch the game.
I took a look around and noticed that the bar looked kind of “Irish pub-ish”, with low tables and stools, stained glass windows, and booths. We found a table with no reservation card on it and ordered a couple of beers. I had a Leffe Blonde and Bill had a Eulchen Marzen made in Mainz. Then we ordered snacks. Sixties has a rather limited menu. They have bar food, pizza, a couple of pasta dishes, and schnitzels, but it’s really more of a place to drink rather than eat. We had chicken strips, jalapeno poppers, and pretzels with Spundkaese.
One thing I noticed was that the waitress brought us wet glasses, complete with a little bit of water in the bottom. I can’t say I liked that very much, but at least the glasses were clean. We were impressed by how many beers they offered, too. They even had a beer from Sweden, as well as a number of British and Irish beers. I was surprised they didn’t have more Belgian choices other than Leffe, but a lot of German bars don’t even have that, so it was cool.
Here are a few photos from our visit:
Not much to the food part of the menu.Irish pub design.I was expecting a large, soft pretzel to go with the local cheese spread.The “poppers” consisted of a split mild red pepper rather than jalapeno. But they had some heat to them. The chicken strips were okay, too.Marc’s Chocolate Bock.Lots of people were enjoying the weather and the game… including the cops.
After a couple of hours at Sixties, we paid the kindly, English speaking waitress, and headed down the street to our car. On the way there, we stopped in a fancy looking grocery store that appeared to have all natural “whole foods”. Of course, we were there to buy wine and look for Calvados, since the neighbor’s apple tree has been dumping apples in our yard and we need to do something with them. We didn’t find Calvados in that store, but we did pick up some wine.
We also passed the local sex shop…I used the ladies room at the department store where the car was parked. I couldn’t help but notice the door. Wonder what happened here…
We enjoyed Sixties. I don’t know how often we’ll visit there, since there are a lot of other places in Mainz we haven’t yet tried. It did look like a popular hangout for the locals. If you want to watch football and drink beers that aren’t German, it’s a good bet. I can’t comment on the music, but I did notice that there was a lot of memorabilia on the wall, particularly regarding the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. So it does look like they have good taste when it comes to music, anyway…
After last week’s trip to Eppstein to see the castle, I thought maybe we might want to go to another castle this week. But Bill had other plans. Elton John is going to be playing a concert tonight in Wiesbaden and since we saw him in Stuttgart and have no desire to sit in Staus from Hell again, we decided to avoid the city. Remembering a lovely day we spent in the Rhein-side hamlet of Bacharach, back in 2014, Bill decided we should visit there again. I was game. Bacharach has the distinction of being the very first German town I ever laid eyes on, back in 1997. It’s an adorable place, even if there’s not a lot to it.
On the edge of town.
We didn’t really do a lot in Bacharach other than wander around, take pictures, eat lunch, and have beer at a Biergarten. We were blessed with wonderful weather– much better than what we had when we visited in 2014. I don’t have much to write… but I do have lots of pictures. Feast your eyes on this cute little historic town, located about an hour away from Wiesbaden. It’s nice to be so close!
If castles are your thing, you could do worse than visiting Bacharach or any of the other cute little towns near it, like St. Goar. There are many castles around the area. I caught these photos on the ways in and out of town.
Lots of pretty vineyards, too. Bacharach’s Schloss is now a youth hostel that sits majestically on a hillside overlooking the town.
You can see the hostel in the background. I stayed in a lot of hostels during my 1997 epic train trip through Europe, but I didn’t stay at Bacharach’s. I think I was intimidated by the climb up the hill. Bacharach’s hostel is in the historic Burg Stahleck Castle, which dates back to the 12th century.
When I stayed in Bacharach, I stayed at the Hans Dettmar B&B. I was excited because the room came with a shower and a WC. My standards have changed a lot since 1997, but so has my budget.
Our first order of business was to find something to eat. Bacharach was busy with tourists today, most of whom were sitting outside. We didn’t necessarily want to eat outside, although on a warmer day, it’s nice to be in the open air. I have to balance wanting to be cool and wanting to stay out of the sun. We ended up having lunch at a garlicky smelling place called Pizzeria Pippo (or Pippo Bistro, depending on what sign you’re reading). Based on the decorations on the walls, I would guess it’s owned by Sicilians.
Cheers!
They had lasagne on the menu that looked tempting, but they weren’t offering it today. I had spaghetti with “Lachs”– salmon and onions. It was okay, though I have had better.
Bill went with the daily special, housemade tagliatelle with tomatoes, herbs, and cream sauce. He seemed to enjoy his dish more than I liked mine.
While we were sitting there, an English speaking group of 7 showed up. They were making special requests. Kudos to the waitress for handling it so well. I think if we go there again, I’ll try a pizza. They have a stone oven and the sizes looked manageable. As it was, I managed about half of my dish, while Bill finished his. We spent 37 euros.
After lunch, we wandered around… toured a church, strolled by the river, and wished we had more time to take a cruise. The breeze coming off of the Rhein was lovely.
Check out those pipes!
This is different. I probably would have kept going to church if we’d had one of these where I used to attend.
Literature lovers will enjoy this…
Another shot of the hostel/castle.
Boat schedule. We’ll have to make a point of coming up and spending more than a couple of hours.
The town itself is super cute. And if you want to buy some wine, you can easily accomplish that.
I would actually love to find a little vacation apartment and come up for a long weekend with the dogs. Bacharach is not that far from Wiesbaden, but it feels like a world away… this is the kind of place we love to visit on weekends. The Black Forest area is chock full of them, but we’re still trying to make discoveries up here in Rheinland.
We stopped at a Biergarten– the Kleines Brauhaus at the Rhein Theater— where we had a memorable afternoon in 2014. We happened to visit on German Father’s Day, and there were many fathers and sons at this Biergarten, getting loaded and singing songs… It was such a special memory for us that we decided to go back.
They had a full house. We had to wait for someone to vacate a table under the carousel canopy. One young lady– looked about seventeen or so– was bravely handling all of the orders. She was remarkably chilled out.
I had a Bacchusweizen Krug. When it arrived, the Germans at the next table looked at me with bemusement. Maybe it’s not very ladylike to order a liter of beer. Maybe it’s not smart, either, since it will get warm if you don’t drink it fast enough. Believe me, I’m up to the task. This beer was a little bitter. I liked Bill’s 1489 Dunkelweizen better.
In the foyer of the theater. I took this same photo in 2014, which you can see on the post I linked at the beginning of this post. I see they’ve added a safety vest.
Someone started up this calliope. Pretty cool!
I do like the Rhein Terrasse. We didn’t make any new friends here this time, like we did in 2014, but it was still a pleasant place to kill an hour or so, before we decided to go home and feed the dogs.
We’re supposed to have similarly beautiful weather tomorrow. Maybe we’ll visit that castle I was thinking about. Or maybe we’ll do something else entirely. I’m just glad we aren’t sitting in traffic.
Bill and I have now lived in our house for almost seven weeks. We’re mostly settled, although until today, there were still a few things that needed to find homes. Bill had some text books from his latest master’s degree program that had nowhere to go, and the small collection of actual books I have in Germany had taken up all of the space on the one bookshelf I had allotted to our shared office.
I always buy cookbooks at Christmas, but only a few of them get much action in the kitchen. The matching bookshelf to the one in our office was, until today, located in our dining room. It was holding all of the cookbooks we never use. This past year, because I bought a couple of extra books, there were a few cookbooks that needed a home. Also, we had some kitchen gadgets that needed storage.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been looking for a nice bookshelf for the downstairs. What I found on the local Amazon site wasn’t thrilling me, and I found nothing at all at the Wiesbaden AAFES. German mod style doesn’t excite me, either.
Then I realized that Bill’s desk chair would probably scratch the brand new flooring in our office if I didn’t find him a rug. Our Wiesbaden AAFES does not have a Turkish rug guy like Stuttgart has (and I’m actually pretty happy with the rugs we bought in Stuttgart in November– they’re much nicer than the ones I bought a few years ago). I thought maybe Ramstein would have a permanent rug guy at their PX, the way Heidelberg used to and Stuttgart still does.
Finally, I realized that my skin is no longer taking makeup like it used to. I have dry skin and when I apply makeup, it collects in my pores and makes me look even freakier than ever. I need to start using primer under foundation so it doesn’t get all cakey and gross looking. That meant a trip to the Lancome counter was in order.
Chili’s was also on the agenda…
With all of these items on my list, plus the prospect of getting some Southwestern Egg Rolls at Chili’s, I told Bill maybe we should go to Ramstein to see what was at the huge PX/BX there. We now live about 80 minutes from Ramstein, quite a bit closer than we did when we were in Stuttgart. Bill hates going there, but conceded that maybe it would be a good idea to see what the largest AAFES in Europe has to offer.
Ramstein’s Exchange is absolutely humongous. It was opened on September 23, 2009, which was just one week after we left Germany the first time we lived here. At the time it was opened, it was the largest AAFES in the world. I would not be surprised if it still is. It’s enormous, especially compared to every other AAFES I’ve ever seen.
By the way, we never did visit Ramstein during our first Stuttgart tour. Our first time visiting Ramstein was in 2012, when we took our very first Space A hop from Baltimore. We flew in and out of Ramstein on that trip, as well as the Space A trip we took in 2014 to Germany and France. I remember sitting at the bar in the now defunct Chili’s Too at the AAFES mall, talking to a soldier who had basically been forced to move from England to Germany due to mental health issues. It was an interesting and disturbing conversation. I wonder how that guy is doing and hope he’s okay.
During our 2014 visit, I recall being sad to be leaving Germany to go back to Texas, where Bill would then retire. I was worried about what would come next. We didn’t know at the time that we’d be moving back to Germany just weeks after that trip; we’d taken our vacation thinking it might be our last chance to enjoy Europe before Bill left the Army. Little did we know…
I remember visiting the PX during one or both of those Space A trips, but we didn’t buy anything there, since we were not stationed in Europe at the time. Back then, I noticed that half of the shops were vacant.
The next time we visited Ramstein was in June 2017, on our way to Belgium. We stopped by to gas up the car and had horrible burgers from Johnny Rocket’s. I didn’t go inside the mall because we had our dogs with us.
The vast food court at Ramstein. It’s probably got twice as many vendors as other AAFES food courts have. They had Chinese food and even Anthony’s Pizza, which used to have a location at Patch Barracks when we lived in Germany the first time. Anthony’s is long gone from Stuttgart, but Ramstein still has one, along with a Pizza Hut Express. There’s also a Ramstein “Hofbrau” restaurant that looked somewhat lame, but probably has good food.
I had to take a picture of the tiny sewing/knitting area. When I was growing up, AAFES had a decent sized sewing section, but not so much anymore. I don’t sew or do needle crafts, but my mom owned her own business selling knitting and needlepoint supplies. She taught many people how to knit. I was not among them.
Spotted at the Birkenstock Outlet… I think they’re pretty tacky, but I’m sure someone else loves them. My dad, rest his soul, would probably wear these. I noticed all of the store space was taken at Ramstein. I don’t think I saw a single vacant space yesterday.
Bill makes it a point to avoid Ramstein when he can help it. He says it’s too much like being back in the States. After today’s visit, I’m inclined to agree. It’s a shock to go to that base and see just how much American stuff is there. It really does feel like “home”. As crowded as our local AAFES can get on the weekends, the one at Ramstein kind of puts it to shame. It’s just huge– it looks like a legitimate American style mall. And besides the Exchange, there’s also a Birkenstock Outlet, a spa, a Swarovski store, and several fast food joints in the food court I’ve not seen in other places.
So… today, we went to AAFES at Ramstein, braving the nasty January rainy weather. I found the primer for my face. Then, we located a bookshelf for the cookbooks. I looked at the rugs offered by the Turkish rug guy, who appeared to have a temporary station under the escalators, but he didn’t have what I needed. The rugs were either the wrong color or size, or they were way too expensive. I found one really nice looking rug that would have worked for the area next to our bed that needs protection from our dogs’ toenails (they take flying leaps onto the bed, and that can cause scratches). It was priced at 1149 euros, which is way more than I wanted to spend on a rug that shares living space with dogs.
Bill’s area sporting AAFES’ finest… I probably wouldn’t have bought it under normal circumstances, but it works for now.
I did, however, find a rather psychedelic looking tie-dyed looking rug that would do the trick for Bill’s office chair. It was tucked away among a pile of cheap rugs at the Exchange and came a bit closer to matching the colors in the much nicer Oriental rug on my side of the office. Next time we visit Stuttgart, we’ll hit up the rug guy on Panzer. Hopefully, he’ll still be there.
After we shopped– and Bill traded gossip with a former co-worker he ran into who now works at Ramstein– we went to Chili’s. The Chili’s Too we visited at the PX in 2014 is now a Macaroni Grill. It’s just as well that the Chili’s Too was closed, since I don’t remember liking it much when we visited in 2014. The bartender had pissed me off for some reason. Fortunately, my memory fails me now. Also, I recall that location only had a limited menu.
The Chili’s we went to today offers the whole menu. To get to Chili’s, we had to drive to the Enlisted Club on Lawn Road. It’s right next to the bowling alley. When we arrived at the restaurant, which is in a building that also hosts a P.F. Chang’s, we were confronted by a crowd of people waiting to be seated.
I noticed a rather strange, sour aroma in the air that made me wonder if we should abandon our plans to get Southwestern Eggrolls and go somewhere else. But the hostess said the wait was only ten minutes, so we stuck it out.
Bill checks out the well-used menu. I found a piece of a straw wrapper in mine.
The noise level in the Chili’s was really high. I felt a little like I was having lunch in an elementary school cafeteria. Babies were shrieking; toddlers were crying; kids were yelling; and adults were talking very loudly. I had forgotten how loud Americans can be in groups. I don’t say this to be disparaging. It’s just that I’ve noticed that since we’ve lived in Germany, Bill and I find ourselves speaking in lower voices when we’re in public. I think it’s partly because we don’t want to be too obviously American. I guess I paid close attention to all of those AFN OPSEC PSAs I used to see when I was in the Peace Corps in Armenia.
Anyway, it was extremely loud in there and very busy. I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be a quiet lunch, but there was definitely a lot more noise than I’m used to or had anticipated. But then, we were there in the afternoon, which is probably prime nap time for a lot of young kids. Some of them really sounded like it was time to nap.
I took this message to heart…
Although the ear splitting din in the restaurant sorely tempted me to get a Margarita, I decided to have a beer. Good thing I did, too, because our food got to us before our beers did. And when they arrived, they had, as my Irish friend Chris would say, “shitty wee heads” on them. Quite disappointing.
We decided to split the “Ultimate Dipper”, which is a platter of fried stuff… but it includes Southwestern Eggrolls, which is really all I wanted, anyway. Besides the eggrolls, you get Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers, Crispy Cheddar Bites, Signature Wings, and (Regular) Chicken Crispers. You also get six “dips”– basically different salad dressings like honey mustard, blue cheese, avocado ranch, and ancho chili ranch. Oh, and there are also a few celery stalks for all you health nuts out there. The two kinds of Chicken Crispers, by the way, weren’t really like each other. One was like beer battered chicken and the other was like crispy chicken drenched in sweet, spicy maple syrup. It wasn’t unlike General Tsao’s Chicken.
I’m glad we shared this. We didn’t finish it. Chili’s also offers fajitas, burgers, ribs, soups, and Tex Mex stuff, as well as steaks, salads, and at least one pasta dish. I mainly go there for eggrolls.
I think the waitress was surprised to see we didn’t need any refills on the “dips”. Neither of us likes to use a lot of condiments. A little dab’ll do ya.
Our waitress was very friendly. I have no complaints at all about her service, especially since the place was a bit of a zoo. For some reason, it took awhile to get our beers, so she brought us water in the meantime, which I appreciated. It was even still tap water, like you get in the States (although I like mine fizzy). However, I was kind of disappointed in the appetizer. The Cheddar Bites tasted like they’d been sitting awhile, and didn’t taste that good. Actually, the whole thing looked a little wilted and tired, like it wasn’t quite as fresh as it should have been. It reminded me of something I might extract from a box that came from the frozen food aisle at the commissary.
Also, I was a bit grossed out by the ladies room. At least one of the bathroom stalls had a broken lock, and another had the remnants of someone’s dump on the toilet seat. It didn’t exactly make me feel better after eating all that fried stuff.
Still, I did get my Southwestern Eggroll fix, which was really all I wanted. It was also a pretty cheap lunch. I think we paid about $26 and still had leftovers. And after that trip to Ramstein, I feel pretty certain I won’t need to visit again for awhile. In fact, it was kind of like a vaccine against visiting the States. It’s been four years since I last set foot in America. I don’t know when I’ll be going back, but I think I’m definitely content to stay in Germany for now.
I’m sort of kidding. There are certainly good restaurants in the States, and I do still have many friends and loved ones there. But every once in awhile, it’s good to be reminded why one should savor their time abroad. I remember missing Germany something terrible when we moved in 2009. I pined for it for five years, even though some good things happened during those five years away. I know not everyone feels this way. Some people cannot wait to move back to the States. Me? I think I love Europe. It really suits me. And while Chili’s is okay for the occasional Southwestern Eggroll, I think I’ll stick to European restaurants for now… There will surely come a day when I’ll be missing them again, too.
And now, perhaps it’s time for a Margarita in my nice, quiet, dining room.
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