Tag Archives: Cologne

adventure, BeNeLux, Brussels, Champagne Bucket trips, Cologne

Pardon My French: Brussels and Paris 2026… (part one)

Well, hello out there in Internetland. Long time, no read. It’s been over two whole weeks since my last travel post. We didn’t even do anything special for St. Patrick’s Day this year… although since that’s the day we lost our sweet beagle, Arran (in 2023), March 17th is now sort of a “day of infamy”.

The good news is, Bill and I just got back from our latest trip, so this blog is about to “spring” back to life. Well, it’s good news if you like reading about other people’s vacations, I guess. For me, it gives me something to remember when I can’t do this kind of stuff anymore. As our world gets more complicated, that day could come sooner, rather than later.

If you follow my main blog, you might remember that we had a really hard time deciding where to go for this trip. In fact, I even “lost” a family member over planning this vacation. That’s a really stupid story– how I got publicly “disowned” by my cousin over our decision to go to Belgium and France– so I’ll spare you the details here. If you really want to read about it, follow the link. My main blog needs the love.

I think I wrote at least three posts about the ridiculous fight I had with my alcoholic cousin over planning our spring vacation. 🙄 Yes, I know it’s “personal business”, but sometimes people enjoy reading about that kind of shit. If you don’t, though, no worries. I’ll understand completely!

Anyway, on with my story about Brussels and Paris, 2026!

This trip to Brussels and Paris was decided by a “champagne bucket drawing”. Regular followers of my blog might know that many times, Bill and I decide on where to go for our vacations by drawing slips of paper from our champagne bucket.

For this trip, we had initially drawn Croatia, which would have been amazing! But I didn’t think we had enough time to do what I really want to do in Croatia. So, we drew again, and picked Belgium. I was cool with Belgium, because I always have a good time there. I remembered how much fun we had in Brussels, when we went there in 2008. I wanted to go back there for more beer, frites, and chocolate. We added Paris, because we also enjoyed that city, last time we went there in 2009.

Although we often drive when we take our European trips, for this one, we decided to go by train. The main reason we opted for trains this time is because driving in European capital cities can be a huge, expensive, pain in the ass. The trains in Europe are usually very efficient and comfortable, especially in first class. However, using trains can also be problematic, our personal story of which I’ll get to in the course of writing this series.

In any case, on the morning of Saturday, March 21st, Bill took our dogs, Noyzi and Charlie, to their favorite Hundepension. Then, that afternoon, we took a taxi to the Frankfurt Airport train station to catch a mid afternoon high speed Inter-City Express Train (ICE) to Brussels. The taxi driver remembered Bill from a previous booking. I think he’s a local guy! He wanted us to book him for a ride back to our house yesterday… and kept talking about how he could drive us to Brussels. After what happened yesterday, maybe we should have considered doing that. But again, I’ll get to that part of the story later.

The taxi driver dropped us at the Frankfurt Airport train station and, as usual, we were pretty early. So we stopped for a coffee break… something I very rarely do.

I had a caramel macchiato… first time for me, I think!
Bill’s cappuccino. It looked like a well spanked ass.
What, me worry?

The first time we went to Brussels, back in September 2008, Bill and I took an ICE train from Stuttgart to Cologne (Köln), then quickly caught a French/Belgian Thalys train from Cologne to Brussels. Thalys, as a brand, is now defunct; it’s since been merged with Eurostar, the folks responsible for the English Channel Tunnel (Chunnel).

Because we used Deutsche Bahn’s ICE train, we were able to take a train directly from the Frankfurt Airport station to the Brussels Nord station. Our convenient jaunt ran for just under three hours and included stops in Cologne, Aachen, and Liege before arriving at the Brussels Nord station at about 5:00 PM. Bill booked us first class seats at a four top table, with seats facing each other. He did that so that I would be assured of not having to ride backwards. My husband is remarkably considerate. 🤭

First class seat…
First class husband…

Below are some photos from the ride. It was a little bit rainy, and I was on the wrong side of the train for the best photos… I took these at the Cologne stop, which is where we were joined by a very tall man who was apparently a hacker. He kept looking at what I was doing on my iPad. I don’t know why the guy sat next to us. The car had plenty of empty seats, as well as a totally unclaimed “four top” at the front of the car. But he sat next to me and typed away while we made our way to Brussels.

I wish we’d gotten one of these “two tops”… He was too slow on the draw.
A European river cruise ship I am going to investigate.
Locks of love
Always a provider!

We have been to Cologne ourselves a couple of times. It’s a great city! I wouldn’t mind going back there someday, if the fates allow. It’s not a long trip from the Frankfurt Airport station, but it has a different feel… plus, I enjoy their local beer.

As we passed the Aachen station, I was feeling a little wistful. I’d actually considered booking a hotel in Aachen, because we’ve never been there, and I have heard it’s an interesting city. But it had been so long since we last left Germany for any reason, and I was eager to go somewhere that felt different. Although our last trip to Belgium was in the fall of 2024, our last trip to France was in March 2022! We were way overdue for a visit!

I didn’t take pictures of the Aachen or Liege stations, because I didn’t see anything worth photographing from the train. However, both cities are places I hope to visit someday.

We arrived in Brussels right on time, and made our way out of the Nord station to find a taxi to our hotel, Le Fleur de Ville. This hotel happened to be a block away from The Dominican, the hotel we stayed in when we visited Brussels in 2008. I remember really liking The Dominican, which is a former abbey turned into a “design hotel”. I also remember watching Barack Obama and John McCain debating on the television in our suite… Wow… those were the days!

We stayed here for Labor Day weekend in 2008.

I decided not to book The Dominican again, though, because I wanted to try a different place. Hotel Le Fleur fit the bill nicely, although we didn’t get the greatest first impression. The hotel itself is in a very beautiful building: according to it’s official Web site– it was once the “Caisse Générale d’Epargne et de Retraite, an 1850s national savings bank.” But when we arrived in the late afternoon of March 21st, we found the front desk completely unmanned. We waited several minutes before two swarthy men in suits arrived to check us in. Unfortunately, one of them also really needed a breath mint. Sorry… I know that’s kind of a rude observation, but it did make an impression.

I booked us in a room they called The Beyaert Suite, which was on the fourth floor. It was a very large and well appointed room. Below are some photos from the hotel lobby and our suite, which offered everything but a great view. The window was too high up to see out of, but that was okay. We weren’t in a particularly scenic area, anyway.

Bill was excited by these books.

We were very happy with the room, although it wasn’t cheap. I think for four nights, we paid roughly 2,000 euros, which I’ll admit is a lot of money. But that’s still not as much as what we paid in Paris. I’ll get to that part later. 😬

I know some people would be shocked by the price of the hotel lodging. We certainly didn’t need such a grand room. But when I go on vacation, especially now that I’m well into my 50s, I like to spoil myself a bit. We’ve spent many years staying in inexpensive places, so I figure we deserve a splurge now and then. We also really needed a proper vacation, since our most recent travels were for specific things like visiting our dentist, getting Bill into the Jung Institute, and traveling places for Bill’s work. Our last pleasure trip was in June 2025… which I know is more recent than a lot of people’s most recent pleasure trip has been.

Anyway, enough disclaimers and explanations from me. I do want to state for the record, though, that there are cheaper rooms at this property. And it is a very lovely hotel, convenient to Brussel’s most popular tourist sites.

After we got settled in our extravagant room at the hotel, we went for a walk around The Grand Place, and got some dinner. That story is going to be a lengthy one, so I’ll put that in part two.

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Swarming with insect protein…

Bill went to the store earlier to get some provisions for the weekend. While he was there, he noticed an interesting product for sale– protein bars made of insect protein. He said, “I think I have a potential blog post for you.” as he held up what turned out to be two protein bars made by a Cologne based company called Swarm. What made them so special? They’re made of crickets… (do I hear crickets now? Shocking!)

Swarm bars come in three flavors: Raw Cocoa, Red Berries, and Chia Hazelnut. Bill brought home one each of the Red Berry and Raw Cocoa bars. He’s already tasted the Raw Cocoa bar and says it’s kind of crunchy… which somehow doesn’t surprise me.

Why would a person want to eat a protein bar made of crickets? Because insects are nutritious. They are a great alternative source of protein, since they contain all essential amino acids and many important micronutrients like vitamin B12, zinc and iron.

It’s also more environmentally friendly to use insects as a protein source, and Germans are famously environmentally conscious. It’s illegal to kill bees here, for instance, and you won’t find a lot of pesticides for sale. Although there are plenty of farms and lots of natural fertilizers used in Germany (and believe me, the nose knows this, especially in rural areas), Swarm Bars are made from crickets from Thailand, among other natural ingredients. The crickets use fewer resources to process than more traditional protein sources from animals need. Compared to cattle, crickets only need 8% of the feed, 2% of the water, and they produce almost no greenhouse gases.

Swarm is a very new product, as in it’s only been available to the public for a very short time. Reading the company’s “About Us” page, translated by Google Chrome, I learned that in 2015, company founders Christopher Zeppenfeld and Timo Bäcker went to Thailand to eat insects. They had the goal of introducing them to the Western diet. The two guys bought a couple of motorcycles and traveled around Southeast Asia, tasting as many edible insects as they could. They had become accustomed to eating insects and realized they could turn their new interest into a business… if they could get Europeans and probably eventually Americans to take to the idea of eating bugs.

Christopher and Timo came back to Germany, teamed up with an expert in sports and nutrition named Dani, and started working on developing their protein bars made with Thai crickets. They launched a crowdfunding project and got cooperation from the University of Cologne, and voila, a new product was born! Here’s a review in German by some people who had the chance to try Swarm before it was made available at our local and newly remodeled Rewe.

I must admit that I didn’t try the bars, which are made with cricket flour, oatmeal, linseed flour, dates raisins, agave syrup, pear juice concentrate, and honey. I watched Bill eat half of one. He enjoyed it, although he only ate half because he didn’t know if maybe he’d be allergic to crickets. I think it’s safe to say that Bill can safely eat and even enjoy products made from cricket flour.

Here are some photos from his taste test… he definitely enjoyed himself.

Will I try a Swarm Bar? Maybe if I have enough German courage. Actually, I don’t really enjoy protein bars much, even if they aren’t made of crickets. I’d rather eat chocolate, and unfortunately, it shows. Here’s the link to Swarm’s Facebook page if you want to know more.

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Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia

The Eagles sure didn’t stink in Cologne… part 6

Finally, it was Wednesday morning, time to head back to Wiesbaden.  We were blessed with glorious weather and checkout wasn’t until 1:00pm.  After another breakfast at the hotel, we hung out in the room until about 12:30pm.  In retrospect, we probably should have gone to another museum, but I kind of didn’t feel like it.  We checked out and left our bags at the hotel, then took a walk down to the Rhein River, where we caught a one hour cruise.  The descriptions of what we were seeing were in German and English.  I wished we had a little more time to take a longer cruise, although the one we took was very nice.  I got lots of pictures as well as ideas of what to do and where to go if and when we visit Cologne again.

A couple of shots of Bill as we cruised.  I noticed several big name river cruise companies, like Viking and Scenic.

 

I took a lot of these photos with my Canon Power Shot camera, which is kind of big and bulky, but has some cool artsy settings.  I don’t use it as often as I should, mainly because it’s so bulky.

The chocolate museum.  I’m really sorry we missed this.  Well, maybe not sorry in that I didn’t eat chocolate, which is a good thing…  But I do want to go there sometime.

Interesting turquoise lights under the bridge.

A female bagpiper was playing “Highland Cathedral”, which was our wedding march.  We dropped a few euros for her.

This airship was going back and forth over the train station.  I heard one German man yell out, “Die Hindenburg!” as it passed.

We stopped by a brewery restaurant called Früh am Dom.  It had a vibe somewhat similar to Gaffel am Dom, and a somewhat similar menu, as well as very reasonable prices.

I had Haxnfleisch, which is meat sliced from a pork knuckle rather than the whole knuckle (which I can never finish).  It came with green beans cooked with bacon and a side of fried potatoes, pictured below.

Bill went with a big sausage.

One last look at the hotel…

One last Dom pic.

Goodbye, Cologne.

A couple of shots of the countryside as we sped toward home.

We picked up the car at Frankfurt Airport after a totally painless train ride back from Cologne.  When we got to the Tierpension Birkenhof to pick up the dogs, they were in a pen with a few other beagles. Arran saw us first.  I think he wanted to make sure it was us before he started bugling.  I didn’t say anything this time, so it took him a minute to make sure.  I’m sure the familiar aroma gave me away, anyway.  He started howling, which got Zane going.  As we were waiting for the lady to get them for us, more people showed up and watched as Zane came barreling to me and jumped on my new white pants.  Oh well… they’re basically glorified sweatpants, anyway.

Although we were only gone two nights, the boys both insisted on sleeping with us last night.  It was kind of crowded in the bed, since Zane was on my feet all night.  Still, I’d call this trip a success.  We really enjoyed Cologne and will have to visit again, even if we don’t see another show.  And if we get another chance to see the Eagles, we’re definitely there.  They are among a few acts I’d pay to see again.

I’d say it was another exciting trip.  Now to prepare for our next trip– from Goethenburg, Sweden to Leipzig, Germany, then back to Wiesbaden with our new Volvo!

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Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia

The Eagles sure didn’t stink in Cologne… part 5

Tuesday night was the night we’d been waiting months for.  I was finally going to get to see the Eagles play live.  Yes, I was going to do it without Glenn Frey, who was a founding member and co-wrote so many of the songs.  Fortunately, I’m a big fan of Vince Gill’s, and he and Frey’s 25 year old son, Deacon, have joined the band and kept it awesome.

I managed to score us 5th row seats, which was even more amazing to me.  They were expensive, though not as expensive as our tickets to the Rolling Stones were last year.  For that show, I got 13th row seats and still couldn’t see so much, thanks to all the tall people around me.  It was an amazing show and well worth the 1200 euros I shelled out for two tickets close up.  I spent about 800 for the tickets to the Eagles and enjoyed the show a lot more.  In fact, I’d say that for many reasons, it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.

For one thing, we got really lucky and sat near considerate people.  The lady to my left had the good sense not to wear a tank top (like the guy at the Stones concert wore) and there was no smoking allowed.  There was no one sitting in the seat directly in front of mine, although the guy sitting in the next row to the left was a bit tall.  I still managed to get lots of pictures.  Since the Eagles asked us not to video the show, I didn’t.  I noticed some people ignored the rules and videoed anyway.  I guess they’re never going to be able to stop people from doing that.

I don’t do that many selfies, but somehow Bill manages to make me look pretty contented.

 

The view before everyone showed up.  I could see it wasn’t quite a sold out crowd, but it was a very well-attended show with most seats filled.

 

There they are!

The band was about ten minutes late getting on stage and I could tell some of the natives were getting restless.  But when they came out and began with “Seven Bridges Road”, everyone loved it.  Below are some pictures I got of the show.  Here’s a link to the setlist.

I got a huge kick out of Joe Walsh, who is always entertaining, gregarious, funny, and super amazingly talented.

 

It also wasn’t lost on me that Joe and I have the same hairstyle and color.  However, you will never catch me wearing leather pants, faux or real.

 

Check out that facial expression.  Joe Walsh is entertaining if all you do is watch his face contort.

Timothy B. Schmit was pouring his heart into it.

This guy, Steuart Smith, is a fucking genius on guitar.  I read that he took Don Felder’s place when Felder was fired from the Eagles.  He toured with Don Henley during his solo projects.  He was an excellent “straight man” to Walsh’s wild guitar licks.  He was also technically brilliant, although he said nothing to the crowd.

 

Dreamboat…  too bad I’m old enough to be his mother.

Glenn Frey’s handsome son, Deacon, sang a couple of his dad’s songs.  He has a very nice voice, although it didn’t remind me of Glenn’s.  Some children of rock stars end up “cursed” with their rock star parent’s sound.  Ben Taylor, son of James Taylor, comes to mind.  Actually, I hear his mom, Carly Simon, in his voice too.  And Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son, also sounds a lot like his famous dad.  On one hand, it’s awesome to sound like someone famous.  On another, it makes it hard to carve out your own niche.  Deacon’s voice is warm, rich, and actually reminded me of a much less twangy version of Travis Tritt– who covered “Take It Easy” by the Eagles back in 1993.  Deacon sang “Take It Easy” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” on Tuesday night.  I’m glad he has his own sound, too.

The crowd was loving it!

I knew about Vince Gill from his 90s country hunk days.  He’s married to Amy Grant and, I’m sure, always dreamed of playing with the Eagles.  He probably would have been about Deacon Frey’s age during their heyday.  I was delighted when they played “Don’t Let Our Love Start Slippin’ Away”, which was a big hit from his solo days.  It was great to hear it done Eagles style.  The Germans seemed unfamiliar with it, though.

 
 

Here’s an illegal video from a show they did in Oklahoma.  I knew all the words, but no one else around me did.  I love this song!  And Vince Gill is an amazing choice for the Eagles.  He has a beautiful tenor voice, plus he’s a kick ass guitar player.  I’m getting goosebumps just listening to it now.  Joe Walsh doing a guitar solo… hot damn!

And here he is… Don Henley.  I have a love/hate relationship with Don Henley.  I think he’s an amazing singer, a fantastic songwriter, and I even appreciate his famous crankiness.  He seemed to be in a good mood on Tuesday night, probably because he’s in Europe.  He quipped that he’s happy to be Europe… and given his political leanings, I think we know why.  He said they were going to play 2.5 hours, commenting that 2.5 hours is a long time for guys their age to play.  It’s a long time for women like me to listen, too.  But the bladder gods apparently blessed us all and we made it without a potty break.

 

These guys played horns on several songs and they were bloody awesome.  One guy played an epic trumpet solo for “Hotel California”, which was the first of three encores.

Final bow!

Easy going crowd.

The stadium was almost full by the time the show got going.

A selfie with Don Henley in the background?  Why not?

At one point, Timothy B. Schmit occupied the crowd by having everyone cheer as we looked up at the monitors over the stage.  I’m glad I didn’t see myself up there.  They probably did that to give the roadies a chance to set up for the next song and/or allow one of the band members to whiz.

“He’s cool!” (because life’s been good to him so far…)

Big crowd!

Nice tribute to Glenn Frey.  I think he was with us in spirit.

Everyone got out their phones for “Desperado”, encore #2.

Pre-flighting before the show?  Not us. 
 

I’d definitely go back to the Lanxess Arena for another show, even though I prefer concerts in smaller venues.  It was super easy to get to the venue and I thought the facilities were very good.  There were plenty of toilets and plenty of food vendors, so people had a choice besides wurst.  We didn’t actually eat at the concert, but it was nice to see we could have if we’d wanted to.  The security wasn’t obnoxious and the seats were quite comfortable, which is more than I can say for both the Paul Simon show and The Rolling Stones.  I also like Cologne and the Excelsior Hotel Ernst… so if we stay in Wiesbaden, I think we’ll be back for more.  I’d also see the Eagles again.  The tickets were worth every penny!

We got back to the hotel at about 11:30pm.  The piano bar was still open, so we went in for a night cap.  The same bartender was there and he remembered what we drank on Monday night.  We had a couple more cocktails, some barbecued potato chips, and almonds while a different piano player played.

The barman was impressed by Bill’s knowledge of libations.  It’s hard to believe he was a Mormon when we met.  However, he’s also quite Irish– though not as Irish as I am.

Nice piano player!

 

I think I finally drifted off to sleep about about 1:00am.  I was very excited about the show.  The Eagles are playing in Munich tonight, having taken yesterday off.  I’m sure the Munich crowd is in for a big treat!  I hope I’ll get another chance to see them play again before I (or they) die.

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Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia

The Eagles sure didn’t stink in Cologne… part 4

I’ve noticed that as I age, some mornings I wake up hurting.  Tuesday was one of those mornings.  I had really bad lower back pain.  I don’t think it had anything to do with the bed, which was very comfortable.  Anyway, because I was hurting, I popped a couple of Advils and we decided to have breakfast at the hotel.  Naturally, breakfast wasn’t included in the rate.  I don’t think I had the option to add it.  If I had, I would have.  It’s probably because there’s a choice between continental breakfast or just eggs at a lower price, or the whole shebang.

Excelsior Hotel Ernst has a nice spread at breakfast, which one would expect when they charge 34 euros a person.  There are many breads, pastries, cereals, sausages, smoked salmon and smoked trout, and even a shrimp salad.  You can order eggs done any way you want them, or get Eggs Benedict with truffles.  You can also have pancakes or French toast made to order and champagne, if you want it.

The first morning, we went with the buffet and lingered over breakfast while I waited for the ibuprofen to kick in.  I never eat enough to justify the high cost of a buffet and I often end up taking more than I want or need.  Still, I was happy to try some of the vast choices at the buffet.  We could hear our new American friend in the next room, talking to other English speakers.

Bill looks at the menu, then decides on the buffet.

 

The hotel offers high tea for lunch, so we decided to book that with some champagne.  The staff prefers it if you book the tea 24 hours in advance, but they were able to accommodate us for 2:00pm. I figured that was perfect, since our concert started at 8:00pm, and I didn’t want to go there hangry, like I did for Elton John’s show.  Of course, we were supposed to get access to a buffet before Elton’s show, but we got stuck in Stuttgart’s hellaceous traffic, which made us right on time for the show.

After breakfast, we decided to go for a walk, which took us close to Cologne’s Colonius TV Tower.  Yes, like most German cities, Cologne has a TV tower with an observation deck.  Colonius, which is owned by Telekom, was finished in 1981; however, the observation deck and restaurant are not currently open to the public and evidently haven’t been since 1992.  Why?  Because they lack a vendor.  This information comes from Wikipedia, which I’m so glad I consulted before we wasted the energy walking to the tower itself.

The forever closed to the public Colonius tower, which I suppose is still a place of business for some people.  I guess it’s interesting to look at from the ground, anyway.

I did read that the powers that be are trying to find a way to reopen the tower at some point.  Every year, the discussion ends because of the cost of the renovations that have to be done to make it safe.  They’d have to upgrade the fire protections and build another elevator.  According to the article I linked, no one has the 15 millions minimum it would take to make those improvements, nor does anyone want to raise the money.  Given how much Germans seem to enjoy observation decks, I’m kind of surprised Colonius hasn’t been reopened by anyone after so many years.

My back was still hurting, so we headed back toward the hotel and stopped by the Cologne City Museum, a really cool art museum I noticed the first time we visited in 2012.  This museum is memorable because there’s a car with wings on the roof and it has bright red and white shutters, like one sees in The Netherlands.  Adult admission is 5 euros and, though it didn’t take long for us to see the whole museum, we thought the exhibits were interesting.  They all seemed to be done by young artists.

I took these photos a couple of days ago, but I have similar ones from 2012.  

 

The first exhibit was a showcase of postcards the artist got.  Some were rather startling.  They were displayed on tablets mounted on the wall.  I thought the message directly above was the most interesting.

 

There was an exhibit about Native Americans in Montana, faced with living on reservations.  It was both interesting and very sad.  Native Americans have faced many cruel challenges thanks to the invasion of us European types.

I was very moved by this exhibit that focused on a young woman with Down’s Syndrome named Sofie.

Look carefully at the faces in these photos…  I once knew a woman with two different colored eyes…

There was even a video exhibit about the Masons.  Very interesting to me, since I have uncles who are Masons and a husband who used to be LDS.  If you know anything about either group, it’s not hard to see how similar they are in some respects.

By the time we were finished with the city museum, it was raining.  We walked back to the hotel, getting soaked in the process.  While we probably could have fit in another museum before our high tea date, I kind of wanted to rest for awhile.  Also, Cologne’s sidewalks are often cobblestone, and I swear I almost fell at least four times, stumbling on the uneven pavement.  So we went back to the hotel for a rest… drying off in the process.

At 2:00pm, we went to the piano bar and waited for the lady who is in charge of high tea.  We did high tea at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin last year.  It was a rather fancy thing to do.  At the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, it’s a bit more laid back.  That was a good thing, since I didn’t bring any nice clothes with me.

Well, it beats working, right?  We enjoyed a nice glass of champagne before the tea and snacks were brought out.

We had four kinds of sandwiches: egg salad, smoked salmon, ham, and cream cheese and chive (or something similar).  We had brownies, little fruit tarts, and blondies with nuts, as well as macarons, caramels, nougats, and chocolates.  We also had warm scones with jams and clotted cream.  I think the scones were my favorite part.

Bill picked out a tea for me and a tea for him, and we sat there sipping it with our pinkies out…  I’m kidding about the pinkies.  

Before the tea service started, we had creme brulee made with tea.

I really liked this custard.  It was creamy and the tea gave it a very interesting and pleasant herbal flavor.

 

I think I enjoyed the Merrion’s version of high tea more than the Excelsior Hotel Ernst’s version.  It was still enjoyable, though, and held us through the evening so we didn’t have to eat wurst at the concert.  I think the high tea with champagne ran about 44 euros a person.  I’ll have to double check.

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Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia

The Eagles sure didn’t stink in Cologne… part 3

On thing Cologne, Germany is known for is its Kölsch (or Koelsch) beer.  This beer is very light, crisp, dry, and refreshing, and it’s usually served in a tall, cylindrical, 20 cL glass called a rod or a spike.  The server, called a Köbes, carries twelve of the “rods” in a caddy known as a Kranz.  It looks kind of like a crown or a wreath.

Kölsch bars are plentiful in Cologne, but there’s one that is right in the thick of things.  The Gaffel am Dom restaurant is next to the Excelsior Hotel Ernst and across from the train station.  When we visited Cologne in 2012, we ate there, so we decided to do it again in 2019.  As we walked into the large building, we were invited to sit wherever we wanted.

There are two entrances… one across from the train station and the other around the corner.

 

The inside of the restaurant.  It’s actually pretty huge.

Neither Bill nor I were very hungry, thanks to a filling lunch at the airport.  We just wanted to drink some beer and maybe have something a little light.  Well, I’m here to tell you that finding something light isn’t so easy at this restaurant, but I did manage to go vegetarian.

Our waiter carries a Kranz full of beer.

The waiters will keep bringing you beer and mark how many you have on a coaster.  

 

When you’ve had enough, do this.

 

Prost!  It’s definitely not like a Weizen.  Kölsch beer is different, because it’s warm fermented with ale yeast, then cold conditioned like a lager.

 

Bill used his beer to wash down beef goulash, which came with a little potato dumpling.  He had this the first time we visited and wanted to try it again.

 

I was happy with my three fried potato fritters with black bread, butter, and apple sauce garnished with cranberry sauce.  This was surprisingly hearty and filling.  They also had meat versions of this dish with the potatoes, which sounded good, but I honestly wasn’t hungry enough for them.  I had been eyeing a chicken salad, but noticed another woman got what I’d been looking at.  It was HUGE!  She actually cried out in surprise when she got it.

 

The waiters at this restaurant are very professional.  The one who took care of us had a great sense of humor and looked dismayed when we stopped at ten beers (five a piece).  Remember, they’re small glasses.

I meant to call attention to Cologne’s love locks.  I’ve seen this “fad” all around Europe and it’s really popular on Cologne.  You get a lock with your name and your lover’s name engraved on it, then lock it to the fence by the train station near the Rhein River.

The love locks were everywhere!

I’ve read they had to cut off the locks in Paris because they were so heavy they were ruining fences.

I’m sure this refers to a politician…

You can buy these locks at souvenir shops.  There is one right across from the train station that sells and engraves them.

Aw… what a charming fad…

Lots and lots of people have hooked their love locks in Cologne.  Bill and I didn’t.

We weren’t quite ready for bed when we finished wandering around the train station, so we decided to try the hotel’s piano bar.  Every night, from 7:00 until midnight, a pianist plays in the hotel’s wood paneled bar.  There, you can listen to music while you sip pricey cocktails, beer, wine, or something non-alcoholic.  Bill loves to try new cocktails, especially since he usually has to drive when we go places.

I started with an expertly prepared Sazerac, served in a lead crystal glass…

Bill’s cocktail… I am hard pressed to remember what it was.  I guess drinking cocktails will do that to a person.

The bartender was great.  He made excellent recommendations in English and made some fantastic drinks for us.

The little baby grand…. Smallest one I’ve ever seen.

White Lady.

A fridge dedicated to Dom Perignon!

While we were sitting in the bar, another couple came in.  The wife was American and her husband was Swedish.  It turned out they had come to Cologne from Malmo, Sweden to see the Eagles, too.  We ended up talking about other concerts we’ve seen.  We have similar tastes in music.  In July, we are going to see Mark Knopfler.  She said they’d wanted to go to that show, but won’t be there.  We ran into those people everywhere except at the concert hall.

Her husband didn’t say anything, while his wife did the talking.  I got the sense that maybe she missed talking to fellow Americans or something.  She was a bit forward, but friendly enough, I guess.

After a few drinks in the piano bar, we headed up to bed.  It was expertly turned down and the air conditioning was cranked, even though it’s not been hot here.  I am no longer used to air conditioning, so I was a bit chilly.

Each night, the turn down person leaves you a little card with a quote on it…

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Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia

The Eagles sure didn’t stink in Cologne… part 2

I didn’t used to be such a hotel snob.  In my almost 47 years on the planet, I have stayed my share of nights in “no tell motels”.  I’ve done my fill of hostels, where guests are locked out during the day, but pay dirt cheap rates.  Bill and I have also stayed in some very inexpensive self catering places in Europe, which we tend to do a lot when we travel with our dogs.

Now that I’m getting old, when I’m not traveling with my dogs, I like to splurge as much as possible.  I like staying in cushy hotels with character.  I found that in spades at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst in downtown Cologne.  This hotel is privately owned, and has a long history in the city, having been founded by Carl Ernst in 1863.  Though the hotel has changed hands since it was founded, it remains unaffiliated with a chain and maintains its unique charm.  It also has a Michelin starred restaurant called Taku, which served Japanese cuisine.  Unfortunately, Taku isn’t open on Mondays and Tuesday, we had our concert.  We were not able to try Taku on this trip, but if we ever get back to Cologne, I’m sure we’ll make the attempt.  I’ll probably book the Excelsior Hotel Ernst again if it’s available and we can still afford it.  We had a wonderful stay.

I booked a Grand Deluxe room, which is about the mid-range category at this hotel.  It was located in what appeared to be the newer part of the hotel, which was built in 2007.  I tend to upgrade when the price increases are modest.  I was very pleased with our accommodations.  Below are some pictures.

Excelsior Hotel Ernst.

Dramatic spiral staircase near our room.

Little fountain at the bottom of the spiral staircase.

Nice sized sitting area.  Naturally, WiFi is free of charge.  I remember as recently as ten years ago, hotels were making people buy access.  I’m glad to report that this hotel doesn’t do that.

King sized bed with split duvets.  I had to explain the concept of the duvets to an American friend of mine, who has not been to Europe.  I kind of like the split duvets.  Each occupant of the bed gets his or her own cover.

Marble bathroom with a tub and a rainfall shower.  I didn’t use the shower head, though, because I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on the first time I used it.  Bill figured it out, but the glass paneling on the tub didn’t do a good job of keeping the water from getting all over the floor.  I used the handheld sprayer instead, which still got water on the floor.

We never did turn on the TV, but we enjoyed the free minibar, which was stocked with water, juices, Coke, and beer.  There was also a coffee and tea service.  I think free mini bars are a really classy touch.

Separate WC with bidet and toilet.  I loved the toilet, since it had enough water and pressure that I didn’t have to scrub it after each dump.  Seriously, that’s a problem with German toilets.  When I find one that doesn’t require that, I get excited.

Little corridor to the door.  We even had a doorbell, which a housekeeper used when it was time to do turndown service.

Nice sinks with high quality toiletries.  The towels were huge and plush, too.  

 

I spent just under $600 for two nights in this room.  Yeah, we could have stayed somewhere else for less money, but this was a very comfortable room.

The hotel and the cathedral are right by the train station!  So convenient.

After we checked in, we walked over to Cologne’s beautiful cathedral, which has a history dating from 1248 and was completed in 1880.  The last time we went in there was in May 2012.  Bill cried over how beautiful it was.  This time, there weren’t any tears, but I did get plenty of photos of the inside.  Here are a few of them.

My favorite of the stained glass windows.  This picture doesn’t do it justice.

Good luck getting the whole cathedral in your pictures.  I think I might have succeeded yesterday.

Yeah… so pretty!

Even the floor is beautiful.

The cathedral has a tower you can climb.  It’s over 500 steps to the observation deck, which rewards you with beautiful views of Cologne.  Although we are usually game to climb the church towers, we didn’t get around to it this time.

I actually took more photos than I’ve posted here.  I also took some in 2012, when we visited the cathedral the first time.  It’s definitely one of my favorite cathedrals so far.  It costs nothing to visit, although you’ll see some red robed men walking around with donation boxes, as well as a couple of them in the cathedral itself.

After we walked around the Dom, we stopped by the Gaffel Koelsch restaurant, which is a huge restaurant we visited the first time we were in Cologne.  It specializes in Koelsch beers and hearty German fare.

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Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia

The Eagles sure didn’t stink in Cologne… part 1

Last October, as Bill and I were preparing for our big move from Stuttgart to Wiesbaden, I found out that the Eagles, one of my favorite bands of all time, was going to be playing two dates in Germany in 2019.  2018 was our summer of concerts.  We saw The Rolling Stones in Stuttgart, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, and James Taylor (all at one show) in Dublin, Roger Hodgson in Stuttgart, and the Irish Folk Festival in Stuttgart.  I also knew we were going to be seeing Elton John in Stuttgart in May 2019.

Given that we’d already spent so much money on shows and knowing that a move always requires more spending, I hesitated slightly before I bought the tickets.  When we go to concerts, they usually turn into major spending events.  I usually book us a nice hotel, so we don’t have to worry about driving far to get to the venue or trying to park (although we made the mistake of driving to the Elton John show).  I also don’t bother with “nosebleed” seats.  There was a time when those were the best seats I could afford, but now I want to sit closer, which always means more money.

I asked Bill what he thought about seeing the Eagles, even though the band’s legendary frontman, Glenn Frey, passed away in January 2016.  After some thought, Bill was okay with attending the show.  Now it was time to choose a city.  I had a choice between Cologne and Munich.

We had been in Cologne once before, back in May 2012, when we took our very first Space A military “hop”.  I remember we stayed at the Ibis in the train station, which was fine for a night when we were totally exhausted, but probably wouldn’t do now that I’m older and richer.  I also know Munich is expensive, since we did a blind booking out of Cologne on Germanwings (now known as Eurowings) during that same Space A hop and got Munich.  Don’t get me wrong– Munich is so much fun; but it’s super pricey.  Even average hotels down there cost a mint.  Munich is also further away from us, now that we’re in Wiesbaden.

Both of the shows were on work nights, but the Cologne show was the day after Memorial Day, so we decided it would be easiest to go to Cologne.  Bill would use up one less vacation day, and both the concert tickets and the lodging were less expensive than Munich.  Now that we’ve been back to Cologne, I can say that we’ll probably go there for more shows.  Not only was it super easy to get to the concert venue, it’s also super easy to get to Cologne from where we live.  And, as a bonus, we discovered an amazing hotel in the Excelsior Hotel Ernst!  As long as we can afford it, I think the Excelsior Hotel Ernst has effectively ended our Ibis days in Cologne.

This trip was also important, because it provided an excellent opportunity for our dogs to try out a new doggy pension.  When we lived in Stuttgart, we used Dog on Holiday, which I would absolutely recommend to anyone.  In fact, we’ve decided that anytime we need to go to or through Stuttgart with our dogs, we will try to have them stay with Max and Christine.  But it wasn’t practical to take the boys to Dog on Holiday from Wiesbaden, so we needed to find a place for them closer to our new town.  In February, we visited the Tierpension Birkenhof, and arranged for our boys to have their first stay during this quick trip to Cologne.

 

I got us fifth row seats!

 

With all of the arrangements made, we set off for the “city of pleasant smells” on Monday of this week– Memorial Day.  Since our hotel was super close to the train station and the train station had a stop near Cologne’s Lanxess Arena, which was where the Eagles would be “crying”, we decided to take the Inner City Express (ICE) train from the Frankfurt Airport.  The Tierpension Birkenhof is fairly convenient to the airport, although not as convenient as Max’s pension is to the Stuttgart airport.

 

 

 

The Tierpension Birkenhof was recommended to Bill by one of his co-workers.  It’s always interesting to see the differences in the “doggy hotels” in Germany.  When we were in Stuttgart the first time, we used to use Hunde Hotel Haase, which was a beautiful facility in Bad Niedernau, a very country hamlet south of Stuttgart.  Kiersten, the  lady who ran it back in those days, was absolutely awesome.  But, when we came back to Stuttgart in 2014, she’d left and took the hotel’s good reputation with her.  We used the Hunde Hotel Haase a couple more times, but kept hearing horror stories about dogs that were left there.  That’s when we switched to Dog on Holiday, which has been universally great, despite it’s somewhat urban location.

 
 

Tierpension Birkenhoff is a rather large facility that cares for dogs and cats.  It’s located in a somewhat suburban area, yet it’s near farmland.  The owner doesn’t accept VAT forms, and we haven’t yet met him.  We have met two of his employees, both of whom seemed very kind.  

 

I have noticed that each German dog facility has its quirks.  At the Birkenhoff, you’re not allowed to bring your own dog bed.  I’m not sure exactly why this is… I think it’s because the other doesn’t want to have to worry about the owners’ beds getting dirty.  Nevertheless, it does make things somewhat more convenient for us, since we’re about to trade in our RAV 4 SUV for a Volvo SUV and will probably have to bring the dogs in my Mini Cooper next time they stay.  Mini Coopers are small.  Dog beds take up a lot of space.

 

Frankfurt Airport train station to Cologne Messe

 

Once the dogs were dropped off, we made our way to the Frankfurt Airport.  Bill had reserved parking with ACS at the airport, which turned out to be very convenient, once we figured out where P4 was.  The reserved spots are reasonably priced and located near the terminal, so there’s no need to haul heavy bags long distances from far away lots.  Frankfurt Airport is a bit more confusing than Stuttgart Airport is.  It’s huge, and finding parking can be super confusing and annoying.  But now that we know where the ACS parking is, I’m sure we’ll use it all the time.  It really made parking super easy.

 

Frankfurt Airport also has a big train station, making it easy to access a lot of cities.  If we had left from Wiesbaden, it would have taken a lot more time, required us to park in the parking garage from Hell, and we would have needed to change trains at least once.  From Frankfurt Airport, it was a straight shot to Cologne.  

 
 

I like how, in Germany, “bullshit” isn’t a bad word.  You’ll even see it on billboards.

 

We had time for lunch, so we stopped at a restaurant called Little Italy, not to be confused with the Little Italy in Wiesbaden, which has become one of our favorite Sunday lunch stops.  The Little Italy at the airport is in the shopping area called The Squaire.  It’s not long on ambiance, but the food and service are good.

 
Mmm…  food!
 
 

Bill went vegetarian with spaghetti and fresh vegetables, tossed in a little olive oil and washed down with a tempranillo.

 

I had a very lovely tagliatelle salmone.  The salmon was cooked to perfection and melted in my mouth.  I love salmon that isn’t overcooked, and they did a really good job with this.  However, I probably would have preferred about half this much food.  

 

With lunch sorted, we headed down to the platform where we’d catch our train to Cologne.  But then, about ten minutes before we were to depart, our original train was cancelled due to some people on the tracks.  Don’t ask me what that means.  I have no idea.  Bill ran up to the Deutsche Bahn (DB) information kiosk, where he was advised that we should take another train. 

 

Instead of dropping us directly at the Cologne Hauptbahnhof, would go to the Cologne Messe stop.  That would require us to take a city train one stop over the Rhein River.  The nice thing about the train we took was that it went directly from Frankfurt to Cologne, with no stops.  It was also practically empty, which was a good thing, since changing trains also erased our seat reservations.  Within an hour, we were whisked to Cologne, having flown past beautiful scenery at about 280 kph.

 

I was surprised by how fast our trip from Frankfurt to Cologne was on the ICE train.  It was also very comfortable, since the train has clean toilets and a restaurant.  We did not use the restaurant during our trip to Cologne, but it was nice to have had the option.

 

 

Bill checks the schedule…

 

This is the life.  First class all the way.  Second class probably would have been fine, too.

 

We could have taken a more leisurely train to Cologne and probably saved some money, but this was a really nice way to get where we were going.  It’s been too long since our last train trip.  I think we need to take them more often.

 

It was a simple thing to take the S-bahn over the Rhein River to get to Cologne’s main station, home of the city’s majestic Dom and our hotel, the Excelsior Hotel Ernst.  

 

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Repost of my 2012 Space A trip report… Part two

Our very first military hop to Europe! Part 2… places we saw– part one

May 29, 2012 (Updated May 30, 2012)

The Bottom Line Our travels in Europe.

For part one, click here.

Our blind booking…

After enjoying a tasty German Sunday evening repast and Kolsch beers at a Kolsch brewery, Bill and I went to the lobby in the Ibis and completed our blind booking flight. I was hoping we’d end up somewhere exotic or interesting, but it turned out we got a flight to Munich.

I wasn’t that disappointed about going to Munich. Munich is a fun town and I hadn’t been there with Bill, except to stay overnight before an early flight to Oslo. As soon as I started looking for Munich hotels online, I realized that our cheap flight would lead to high hotel prices! But thanks to that trip in 2009, we knew of a good hotel. It happened to be at the Munich airport. At first I was reluctant to book a stay at the Hotel Kempinski because I wanted to be in Munich. But then it occurred to Bill that we had an early flight back to Cologne on Thursday and being in an airport hotel would be convenient. Plus, we also knew that the Munich airport is awesomely populated with conveniences. So we booked our expensive Munich room, confident we’d be happy with our choice.

Monday morning

We enjoyed a typical German breakfast at the Ibis, included in our rate. All in all, I was pretty happy with the Ibis. The room was tiny, but had a nice hot shower, a flatscreen TV, and free Internet in the lobby. The bed wasn’t the best, but I was so tired, it didn’t matter.

Since our flight to Munich wasn’t until the afternoon, Bill and I strolled around Cologne’s old town. Right next to the train station stands the city’s very impressive cathedral. We walked inside and I was awestruck by its vastness. Bill was overtaken by how beautiful everything was. I always get a kick at the ease he gets moved by beautiful places and Cologne’s cathedral is definitely beautiful.

We walked around Cologne and I took pictures of graffiti. For some reason, I have a knack for finding stuff. On the other hand, Germans post a lot of goofy stuff on signposts and walls. That afternoon, we took a train to the Cologne airport. Bill was upset because Germanwings never sent me a confirmation for our flight. We went to the counter and the ticket agent found my reservation with no trouble. We dropped off our bags and had lunch at a German Argentinian chain restaurant called Mareda. Its speciality is beef, but I’m not usually impressed by German beef, so I ordered Wienerschnitzel. Bill had goulash. We both enjoyed the free wifi in the airport. Free wifi is apparently a rarity in Germany!

Our flight to Munich was quick, painless, and peaceful. It lasted about 40 minutes. The most memorable thing about it was the sight of a young guy walking around with a t-shirt depicting a naked picture of Claudia Schiffer.

We landed in Munich and checked into the Kempinski, where a very elegant man gave us the full tour of our expensive five star room. The Kempinski was even more lux than I remembered it. The huge flatscreen television had British channels; the bathroom was huge; and the Internet was not free. The Kempinski is a business hotel, though, so that’s not surprising.

That first night, I didn’t feel like going into Munich, so we headed to the Airbrau restaurant/brewery and drank some very tasty wheat beers. I was pretty fascinated by the people watching. I saw a vast array of interesting fashion choices, including one swarthy looking man wearing a t-shirt that said “I’m what Willis was talking about.” I had to wonder if the man even knew what famous television program his shirt was referring to… Those of us who grew up in the 80s certainly know!

Tuesday

The next morning, we went to McDonalds for breakfast because we didn’t feel like paying 30 euros for a hotel breakfast. I was amazed by the fact that the McDonalds had kiosks where people could order their food from a computer. It was sort of like a self checkout for fast food. I don’t tend to enjoy McDonalds that much anymore, but I had to admit the quality of the breakfast was pretty good and at seven euros for both of us, cheap.

After breakfast, we took the train into Munich and visited my favorite German gourmet store, Dallmayr, before touring the Residenz museum. Bill had never been there and I wanted to show it off to him. Imagine my surprise when I saw jars of Bone Sucking Sauce on sale for about $10. Bone Sucking Sauce is made right here in North Carolina.

Next, we went to the Residenz. I had been before, but had only seen the crown jewels/treasury. We purchased combo tickets and toured the whole museum. By the time we were done, it was time for lunch. We made our way to the Hofbrauhaus. Bill was sure it would be touristy and crowded, but it really wasn’t. We had mas krugs of fine German brew and enjoyed some very yummy German cuisine. One of Bill’s favorite German meals is roasted chicken. That’s what he had, along with potato salad. I had a wurst with sauerkraut. I let Bill eat the cabbage, though.

We wandered around Munich until evening and checked out the Farmer’s Market, which had a very handy public pay bathroom. I made use of that, needing to get rid of some of the two liters of beer I drank at the Hofbrauhaus. Then we climbed a very tall church tower, which helped burn off more beer and offered a gorgeous view of the city. We got to the top in time to see the glockenspiel show, then climbed down and visited a couple of churches, one of which had an atheist message stenciled/graffitied on the side of it. We went into one church that was having high mass and stood in the back, trying to be inconspicuous. Sweet Bill was overcome with emotion again, so we left quietly and went looking for dinner.

I was getting pretty tired of German food, so we stopped at an Italian trattoria I had visited on one of my day trips to Munich. Bill and I enjoyed pasta, wine, coffee, tiramisu, and people watching. We were the only Americans in there. I recognized one of the waiters, who I think actually might have owned the place. Last time I was there, he laughed when I tried to say “schtimpt”… meaning he could keep the change. I probably still haven’t gotten it right.

Wednesday

We started Wednesday with breakfast at an Italian cafe and deep conversation. We had plans to visit Salzburg, which was included as a stop on our three day German railpass, even though it’s in Austria. I had never been to Salzburg. Bill had been once in the late 80s. But I have seen The Sound of Music many times, so I knew I was in for a treat!

We took the train from the Munich airport to the main train station, then switched trains to go to Salzburg. It took a couple of hours traveling through beautiful countryside to get to our destination. When we arrived, it was about 1:30 pm. We walked toward the centrum and stopped for lunch at a charming family owned restaurant where we enjoyed Austrian beer and some local specialties. I had green and white asparagus with Hollandaise sauce, ham, and potatoes. Bill had roasted pork, I think. I remember two big dumplings.

After lunch, we wandered to the centrum and I was awestruck by how beautiful Salzburg is. We passed the building where the composer of “Silent Night” was born, then crossed the river into the old town. We toured the cathedral and saw some beautiful horse drawn carriages. We were about to move on when a female driver approached with a couple of gorgeous black stallions. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe they were Friesians (I was a horse geek as a kid). I stood there captivated for several minutes by these beautiful steeds, wishing I still had horses in my life.

I was drawn away from the horses by the sound of music. A quartet of four Russian Cossack soldiers were singing folk songs, accompanied by accordion. Now it was my turn to be moved to tears. After listening for a few minutes, I had to buy one of their CDs. Then we walked up the hill toward the Stiegl Brewery. I wish we had been there earlier; maybe we could have taken a tour! I was suddenly wishing we had booked a room in Salzburg instead of Munich.

As it was, we had to leave quickly because a storm was rolling in. We managed to get to the same restaurant where we had lunch before the sky opened. The man who owned the restaurant was delighted to welcome us back for beer and schnapps! He said the schnapps would make the hair on my arms stand on end, but it was actually not bad at all. Just tasted a little like minty gin.

On the way to the train station, I needed to make a pit stop. Fortunately, there was a shopping mall where peeing was free. We also ran into a group of ladies engaged in a “hen party”. I think it was in honor of someone’s 50th birthday… We will have to go back to Salzburg for a closer look sometime soon!

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Repost of my 2012 Space A trip report… Part one

I originally posted about my 2012 Space A trip on Epinions.com.  Since Epinions is now defunct and I want to preserve those stories, I am going to repost them here on my travel blog.  Keep in mind, these reports were written in May 2012.

Our very first military hop to Europe! Part I… flights

May 29, 2012 (Updated Aug 14, 2012)

The Bottom Line Our first military hop…

This is going to be a long story, so I will post it in parts…

Those of you who regularly read my Epinions reviews may have noticed that I haven’t posted in almost two weeks. That’s unusual for me, because I usually have plenty to write about and lots of time to do it in. As it turns out, my husband Bill and I just returned from a somewhat “seat of your pants” trip to Europe via military “hop”. I had been wanting to do this for some time and Bill surprised me with an email a few weeks ago, letting me know that he had arranged for time off so we could do it. I just got back yesterday and now have plenty to write about and lots of time to do it in. So here goes…

The adventure begins…

What is a military hop?

I originally posted about my 2012 Space A trip on Epinions.com.  Since Epinions is now defunct and I want to preserve those stories, I am going to repost them here on my travel blog.  Keep in mind, these reports were written in May 2012.

If you’re not affiliated with the U.S. military, you might not have heard of space available travel. The U.S. sends planes all over the world to carry out military missions. Some of the planes are chartered aircraft from Delta Airlines or Atlas Air. Some are military planes operated by the Air Force. When they have extra room on these planes, the space is made available to members of the military, retirees, and their dependents.

These flights cost next to nothing. People who want to take space a flights are ranked into categories based on their duty status and relevance to the U.S. military’s missions. A person who is going somewhere on military duty, for instance, gets top priority. Someone going home on emergency leave gets second priority. Bill, as an active duty soldier on leave, was marked “category three”. The ranking continues to category six, which includes retirees. It can be tricky to get a flight, especially if you’re a lowly category six. That’s why it makes sense to be prepared to purchase a commercial ticket or have some other “plan B”.

Before I was an Army wife, I was an Air Force brat. My parents traveled “space a” many times when I was growing up, but they never took me on any of their travels. So I was curious about what they had experienced. Since we live in North Carolina, we are within driving distance to several Air Force bases and Baltimore-Washington International Airport, which has a terminal for U.S. military operations.

Passing the Washington Monument on the way to BWI…
Finding a flight

Bill joined a couple of messageboards dedicated to military space a travel. The one he checked most often was, by far, Dirk Pepperd’s board (www.pepperd.com). Every day, he would watch the trends in flights going into or out of the air bases closest to us. The flight schedules are typically released 72 hours beforehand. We were looking for a flight going out May 19th, so we started watching the messageboards for the air bases closest to us.

For about a week prior to our trip, we thought we’d end up leaving out of Charleston Air Force Base because it was closest to us and seemed to have the most seats available for flights to Europe, especially to Rota, Spain. I was researching things to do in Spain and thinking we’d finally get to see Seville together. But on May 16th, it was clear that Charleston wasn’t going to have any flights going anywhere we wanted to go. After checking all the other bases closeby, we turned our attention to BWI. On May 19th, it was offering 195 seats to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. We surmised that was our best bet to get a flight and decided to drive all day to get there.

We had to be in Baltimore by 8:00 that evening… that was when “show time” would be. In reality, people were showing up much earlier than that. We arrived in Baltimore at about 6:00pm, signed up for a flight, and were immediately approved. We then got in line behind what seemed like hundreds of servicepeople in uniform, most of them with weapons locked in cases. They were headed to Afghanistan. We also saw lots of families with pets. They were moving to Germany for an assignment. There were also plenty of retirees. It looked like most of them were successful in getting on the flight.

We stood in line for about an hour to drop off our luggage. The USO was there to give us care packages… yes, even the civilians! A man asked me how much I weigh and I lied, of course. Then we were at the ticket counter, where we dropped off our bags and paid the $16 per person head fee. Yes, Bill and I paid just $32 to fly to Germany!

Flight to Germany

The flight was conducted by Atlas Air, an airline contracted by the government. It was like just about any other flight, except many of the people onboard were on their way to war. The guy sitting next to Bill and me was in uniform and looked pretty petrified. It was his first deployment. He didn’t move the whole flight and didn’t speak until toward the end, when he confessed that it was his first time.

The aircraft looked like it had once been operated by a Japanese airline. The signage was all in Japanese and the seatbacks all had video monitors on them with poorly translated English instructions. The programming was all in English, but some of it had Japanese subtitles. I watched the Christmas episode of Glee, then switched to the channel that showed our progress toward Europe.

Back in Germany!

We arrived in Germany in the afternoon, picked up our luggage, and made our way through customs. A nice German lady helped us get a cab, which showed up minutes after we called. The guy driving it was an American veteran who moved to Germany 33 years ago and had raised his family there. We were telling him about our two years in Germany and how we had hated to leave. I swear, if we ever had the chance to live there again, I’d take it in a heartbeat!

The cab driver dropped us off at Kaiserslautern railway station and wished us a good time. We purchased a three day Germany pass and hopped on an ICE train (inner city express) to get to Cologne, Germany. I wanted to go there because of the cathedral… and the fact that the airport is a hub for Germanwings, a discount airline that offers cheap “blind booking” flights. Bill and I had flown with them twice when we lived in Germany. I was eager to take another blind booking flight and see where we ended up.

Cologne, Germany

On our way to Cologne, we looked at the beautiful Rhine region flying by and I remembered how much I love Europe. Bill and I had never been to Cologne before, except once in 2008 when we had to change trains there on a trip from Germany to Brussels, Belgium. The connections were so quick we had no chance to see anything there.

When we got off the train, we were both exhausted. We checked into the first hotel we saw… an Ibis that was literally in the station. We checked in, dropped our bags, took showers, and immediately headed out for some dinner.

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