Getting There

Back in 2000, after my second year of medical school, my wife Jenny and I decided to go to Europe for our summer vacation. This blog was written almost entirely just after we returned, but because my life got very busy for the next seven years, I waited until Jan 2008 to post it. At the time I was on active duty in the US Air Force, and so we qualified to fly for free in empty seats on a military flight. Neither of us had been to Europe or flown space-available before, so my first step was to talk with lots of people to figure out how to do it. My sister Missy and her husband Doug had gone to England and Paris the year prior on a commercial flight, so we talked with them, as well as some friends from my school who had flown space-available. Jenny's long-time friend Angie and her husband David both lived in Germany at that time. The two of them were especially helpful, giving us advice through e-mail and acting as tour guides for the first three days of our trip. It was nice having friends with us who knew German and some French, knew about the sites, and were fun to be around. Without their help and the help of many others our trip would not have been nearly as successful, even if we did manage to get over there somehow.



Early in the morning on Saturday, June 10th, 2000, Jenny and I flew out of Dover AFB on a C-5. Notice from the photo that there are no passenger windows on this type of aircraft. We rode with our seats facing backwards, with ear plugs to muffle the roaring engine sound, in semi-darkness. The seats were 95% functional and 5% comfortable, and through the metal grate floor we could see a warehouse sized chamber filled with wooden boxes on palates. It was pretty surreal, but other than the $5 we spent on a box lunch it was free. We landed at Ramstein AFB, Germany, eight hours later, but because of a six-hour time difference, it was 7:00 at night by the time we arrived. The Hertz where we had reserved our car had already closed, and the lodging on base had been filled. That's one weird thing about military bases -- everything closes early. Luckily for us, the receptionists at billeting found a very nice place for us to stay at the Europa, in the nearby Ramstein Village. We caught a cab there, and it ended up being our favorite hotel on our trip. Saturday night we slept comfortably and awoke to a wonderful breakfast.



We picked up our rental car and drove down to David and Angie's place in Nufringen, near Stuttgart. There David and Angie served us a delicious traditional German meal.

Then we were off! I found driving on the autobahn to be exhilarating, and I much prefer it to driving on the highway in the US. Germans drive on the same side of the road as we do in the US, but some of the rules are different. Unless traffic is at a crawl, passing on the right is absolutely forbidden. Because of this, slower cars are expected to pull over to the right, and the fastest car on the road can fly down the left lane unhindered. I only wish I would have rented a faster car, as mine would only go up to about 100 mph, and it was my only chance to drive at high speeds legally. Although I enjoyed driving on the autobahn, I found driving in the city in Germany, especially at night, to be frustrating. Most cities were laid out before the invention of the automobile, so were not designed with modern travel in mind. I also found traffic rules different enough to require constant attention.




At the upper right side of the screen are the cities we visited, in order. Click on the name of the place you want to see next.