It’s a beautiful sunny, and rather warm Wednesday morning in Siena. Quite a change from the very cold and rather rainy weather we had in Germany on our quick trip up to Giessen (north of Frankfurt) to see Glen and Christina. Christina is Joyce and Carl’s oldest child and her husband Glen is a captain in the army presently stationed in Germany. They had originally planned to come and see us around Thanksgiving but had to cancel their trip at the last minute because of some military nonsense about missing equipment. Anyway we decided that since we were flexible right now and had the time we would fly up and see them.
So Saturday morning we took the train from Siena to Pisa airport, boarded a Ryanair flight (based in Ireland they are one of the big discount airlines in Europe right now) and flew to Frankfurt’s secondary airport, at Hahn which as it turns out is apparently somewhere in France. (Just kidding you ole Germans you.) Glen and Christina showed up just a few minutes after our flight arrived and we piled into their Chevy Equinox (rather Blazer-like I think) and headed off to Giessen.
It took us about an hour and a half to drive to the base. This post was at one time quite large but has since been broken up into smaller areas. What wasn’t sold off to the Germans (many of the old on-base housing for example are now apartments for the locals ) has been turned into “baselets”.
It was certainly a relief to know that the military has maintained its dedication and commitment to being one of the dumbest organizations in western civilization and the base at Giessen is an example in strength. What they did was create little pockets of fenced areas around the remaining pockets of existing military buildings so that the streets are themselves not even on the base but cut through all these pockets. For example, in order to walk from Glen and Christina’s apartment complex across the street to the mail box you have to leave one security checkpoint, enter another, leave that one and return to the first one, all the time being stopped and having “your papers checked”. The PX (post exchange) is also this way and even the little gas station requires you to check in through security! And of course since 9/11 they have placed all kinds of ridiculous cement block barriers at each entrance (in and out mind you), which adds to the marginal chaos.
And speaking of security. How secure is the base under such rigorous circumstances? Well there are no MPs (Army military police) and in fact the security has been outsourced to a huge security company, Pond Security, which employs mainly local Germans, Turks and the occasional American who has gotten out of the service and opted to remain in Germany for one reason or another. How secure is it when those guarding the base do so not out of honor or duty or commitment to their country but only for a buck? Moreover, how much respect can one have for a cop who is essentially no different that any rent-a-cop at Wal-Mart? It would be quite sad if it weren’t so frightening to know that our men and women are being protected by such dubious elements.
OK enough of that; let’s get back to the story.
So after we were checked in we drove to their apartment and relaxed before dinner – which was chicken in the crockpot with carrots and onions, accompanied by mashed potatoes. Afterwards we headed into downtown Giessen to check out the local Weinachtsmarkt (“Christmas market”). Things were pretty much closed up though by the time we got there but tomorrow we were going to head to Alsfeld (?) to see another of the many Weinachtsmarkts going on in Germany right now.
The next morning Glen went to a local “backerei” (bakery) to get some of the local breakfast treats and we had a leisurely morning before heading off to Alsfeld. The village is pretty cool – fairly typical I suppose of what much of the small pre-war villages must have looked like at one time or another and we enjoyed strolling with the holiday crowd, sampling bratwursts (twice for Glen and I), crepes (Glen) and the traditional “gluhwein” (which loosely translated means “glow-wine” I think)., which is essentially red or white wine warmed up with spices added. You pay a deposit down on a cute little ceramic mug and they keep the deposit if you keep the mug (we turned ours back in, sorry folks). Pretty tasty and given the cold air and even colder cobble stones of the old street it was almost a necessity.
And speaking of cold we were all very surprised at how many of the kids and even babies went around without gloves on – perhaps part of the “acclimate or die” strategy developed by such aboriginal peoples as the Yanamamo of South America.
We left Alsfeld and headed back to Giessen and on the way we stopped at a local castle, “schloss Schiffenberg”, which was originally constructed sometime in the late Dark Ages, and strolled about spending a little time in the art gallery there which featured some rather risqué erotic imagery in large scale. But it was good to get out of the cold and into the warmth for a bit at any rate. We also made a quick stop at the commissary where Susan was able to buy a couple of things that we can’t find in Siena – brown sugar and Puffs tissues.
We then headed back to the apartment where Glen and I sampled a delicious winter German beer and we all relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We headed out to dinner at a local place “Alt Giessen” and settled in for a wonderful meal of schliebtrockenhaufengerlagenfuhrerndickelminersfuhrstuckenfahrengeliben accompanied byfahrstruckenglaubeschliefentrappengruppenfuhrer
Finished off with a bottle of stieffenhauptbaunhofergetrinken.
Seriously folks the food was outstanding even if the names were pretty goofy. In fact the German food we had on our short trip north was all pretty outstanding, from the “brats” at Alsfeld to baked goods from a Giessen bakery to the scrumptious meal at Alt Giessen. Thanks again to Glen and Christina for showing us such wonderful sights and great food! The singular issue we had with the German restaurants is, like London but worse it seemed, smoking is RAMPANT everywhere.
Monday morning Christina drove us to the Giessen RR station and we took the train into Frankfurt in order to get a shuttle bus out to Hahn airport later in the day. We spent a few hours strolling about downtown/old town Frankfurt and browsed through their huge Weinachtsmarkt. We also caught a glimpse of the Main river before heading back to the train station. Along the way we stopped for a bite of lunch and then caught the 4 pm bus out to Hahn airport.
After a rainy, foggy drive of a little less than 2 hours we were back at the airport terminal and then grabbed the shuttle to our hotel, which was close to the airport. In fact it was located on an old abandoned US air base – many of the barracks which had remained deserted for over 30 years were still standing and made for an eerie ambience on our walk to dinner. We checked in and then walked to a nearby restaurant – La Piazza – where we decided against their Italian dishes and opted for one last fling of German food.
The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, got a shuttle back to the terminal and by a little after 1 pm were airborne and on our way to Pisa.
By the time we landed the weather in Pisa had turned quite nice, warm and sunny. We walked out of the terminal and a few minutes later walked right onto the train for Pisa Central. From there we took a train to Empoli and changed for Siena. We were back home a little before 6 pm, and it seemed as if we had just left. Which of course we had.
It was the first time I had spent any time in Germany and the first time in some 30 years that Susan had been in Germany so we appreciated the chance to go and the opportunity to go to see family.
Thanks again Glen and Christina!
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