In my last post, I detailed our stop in Heidelberg, Germany. I have a lot of catching up to do. After Heidelberg, we stopped in Baumholder, Germany. Baumholder is a very small community. We stayed at a small hotel a few minutes from the base. It was quaint and cozy. We check into the hotel and walked around the town, which took a whole 15 minutes. We had to stop for pretzels since the town bakery had them.A little later we hopped back in the bus and made our way to the base. We were greeted by Tony Ramsey, our MWR host. He was so sweet and accommodating. We prepped for the clinic and waited a bit for more people to show up. At first we had only 8 girls, but eventually there were about 30 people, mostly high school aged. We split up into groups and worked on skills for the first 2 hours. Then they played 4 on 4 King/Queen of the Court. It was fun to see their vast improvements over such a short time.
Afterwards we had dinner with Tony and our other MWR hosts at our hotel restaurant. We really enjoyed their company and had fun sharing stories. We called it a night around 11PM since we had another early morning bus ride the next day.
The next morning, we woke at 5:30AM to bus to our last stop in Germany, the Kaiserslaughtern Military Community including (I may have screwed up these names, but I think I am close) Ramstein Army Base, Darmstadt Army Base, and Vogelweh Air Force Base.
We arrived early with the intention of visiting the hospital. However, this was something that required clearance, so we were not able to actually make the visit. We ended up waiting around most of the morning until our scheduled radio and television program visits. We went on the local AFN radio and had a great time chatting with the DJ.
After that, we went to the gym and did an AFN television interview before the evening clinic and exhibition. We had a great turnout for the events. There were a lot of kids in attendance at the clinic. I took the youngest ones and we had fun learning the very basics of volleyball. My kids were so cute. I had such a fun time running them around and playing with them. They seemed to have fun with their first ever volleyball experience.
Afterwards we had dinner with Tony and our other MWR hosts at our hotel restaurant. We really enjoyed their company and had fun sharing stories. We called it a night around 11PM since we had another early morning bus ride the next day.
The next morning, we woke at 5:30AM to bus to our last stop in Germany, the Kaiserslaughtern Military Community including (I may have screwed up these names, but I think I am close) Ramstein Army Base, Darmstadt Army Base, and Vogelweh Air Force Base.
We arrived early with the intention of visiting the hospital. However, this was something that required clearance, so we were not able to actually make the visit. We ended up waiting around most of the morning until our scheduled radio and television program visits. We went on the local AFN radio and had a great time chatting with the DJ.
After that, we went to the gym and did an AFN television interview before the evening clinic and exhibition. We had a great turnout for the events. There were a lot of kids in attendance at the clinic. I took the youngest ones and we had fun learning the very basics of volleyball. My kids were so cute. I had such a fun time running them around and playing with them. They seemed to have fun with their first ever volleyball experience.
After the clinic, Jeff, Brooke, Ty, and I played against the Air Force team. They were pretty good. It was a fun match. They ran a decent offense and scored the most points against us of anyone we played. We played several games and everyone seemed to have a great time.
Afterward, we were treated to a fantastic Hawaiian BBQ indoors. We had traditional red rice and some Teriyaki steak. It was so good! We visited with them for awhile before we had to leave. Once again, it was a terrific stop. We had to cut the night short because we had a very early morning wake up call to get to the airport for our flights to Kosovo.
5AM came quickly and we boarded our bus for the 90 minute drive to the Frankfurt airport. I slept on the way there since I only got 4 hours of sleep in the hotel. We made it to the airport and had to say goodbye to our new friend, Bus Driver Mike. Mike made our time on the bus really fun and relaxing. He is such a genuinely nice, gentle human being that we all really enjoyed spending time with. We were sad to say goodbye.
Once in the airport, we immediately checked our bags and went through security. We still had 2 hours before our flight so we took our time and hung out talking at the gate. We flew from Frankfurt to Vienna. Once in Vienna, we had a 3 hour layover. We got some food, hung out at a table in the Starbucks section and people watched. There was an Austrian clown walking around from table to table trying to earn a little money. He was dressed in a clown suit, but carried a giant foam camera around his neck as if he were a tourist and had a giant foam banana on a stick that he carried around as if it were his knapsack. I did not get a picture, but I wish I had. He definitely looked interesting.
Our next flight was only 2 hours and we landed in Pristina, Kosovo. We were greeted by a US Army escort to take us to Camp Bondsteel. No Hum-vee's this time. We were picked up in vans. That was fine because it was a really long ride because of the traffic and road conditions. We were stuck behind a cement truck for almost the entire way which really slowed things up. It is an interesting drive because the land is so incredibly beautiful but there is no sanitation services so there is literally garbage everywhere. The sky is constantly hazed over because in order to get rid of trash, the households just burn it in their yards. We saw small fires with burning trash the whole ride.
We arrived at Bondsteel in the evening in time for dinner. We had our first of many great meals in the DFAC (Dining Facility) on base. After letting loose with my diet in Germany and eating far too many pretzels, I was happy to get back on track and eat a lot of vegetables. We still wanted to work out, so after dinner, we went down to the sand court and started to move around. After a little while, some soldiers stopped by to see what was going on. We invited them to play with us and before long we had a solid group playing with us. We played around for about an hour, but didn't last too long because we it got dark quickly.
I am going to save the rest for tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed reading!
Angie
Afterward, we were treated to a fantastic Hawaiian BBQ indoors. We had traditional red rice and some Teriyaki steak. It was so good! We visited with them for awhile before we had to leave. Once again, it was a terrific stop. We had to cut the night short because we had a very early morning wake up call to get to the airport for our flights to Kosovo.
5AM came quickly and we boarded our bus for the 90 minute drive to the Frankfurt airport. I slept on the way there since I only got 4 hours of sleep in the hotel. We made it to the airport and had to say goodbye to our new friend, Bus Driver Mike. Mike made our time on the bus really fun and relaxing. He is such a genuinely nice, gentle human being that we all really enjoyed spending time with. We were sad to say goodbye.Once in the airport, we immediately checked our bags and went through security. We still had 2 hours before our flight so we took our time and hung out talking at the gate. We flew from Frankfurt to Vienna. Once in Vienna, we had a 3 hour layover. We got some food, hung out at a table in the Starbucks section and people watched. There was an Austrian clown walking around from table to table trying to earn a little money. He was dressed in a clown suit, but carried a giant foam camera around his neck as if he were a tourist and had a giant foam banana on a stick that he carried around as if it were his knapsack. I did not get a picture, but I wish I had. He definitely looked interesting.
Our next flight was only 2 hours and we landed in Pristina, Kosovo. We were greeted by a US Army escort to take us to Camp Bondsteel. No Hum-vee's this time. We were picked up in vans. That was fine because it was a really long ride because of the traffic and road conditions. We were stuck behind a cement truck for almost the entire way which really slowed things up. It is an interesting drive because the land is so incredibly beautiful but there is no sanitation services so there is literally garbage everywhere. The sky is constantly hazed over because in order to get rid of trash, the households just burn it in their yards. We saw small fires with burning trash the whole ride.
We arrived at Bondsteel in the evening in time for dinner. We had our first of many great meals in the DFAC (Dining Facility) on base. After letting loose with my diet in Germany and eating far too many pretzels, I was happy to get back on track and eat a lot of vegetables. We still wanted to work out, so after dinner, we went down to the sand court and started to move around. After a little while, some soldiers stopped by to see what was going on. We invited them to play with us and before long we had a solid group playing with us. We played around for about an hour, but didn't last too long because we it got dark quickly.
I am going to save the rest for tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed reading!
Angie
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