Baron Scroll Spring 2005                                                                                                                             Page 14

After a 10-hour flight from Phoenix on Thursday to London’s Heathrow airport, the flight to Frankfurt was delayed for a couple of hours. Finally, arriving at Frankfurt airport and grabbing our bags, we entered the double glass doors to the outside world to be met by Claire and Larry Runge. Actually, they were waiting for Janet and Jerry Rodgers, who were to arrive on the same plane as us, but hadn’t made the connection in Heathrow. Poor Janet and Jerry had been stuck on the plane in San Francisco for over 5 hours as the airline tried to fix the plane. But that’s another story in itself.

 

After numerous hugs and hellos, Larry and Claire went on to Bitburg while we spent the night in Frankfurt at a nearby hotel. We left a message for Janet and Jerry to call us at the hotel when they arrived in Frankfurt so we could take them up to Bitburg since the Runges were leaving after having been at the airport all day.

 

Now we were ready to continue our big adventure into our past. First thing we had to do is find the rental car counter. This took over an hour. Finding the rental car was easy since we had discovered the car way before we found the counter. Once we were in the car, all we had to do was figure out how to change the GPS system to English speaking, input a Germany address and remember how to drive a stick shift. No problem, except the address we had for the hotel wasn’t accepted by the GPS system. Knowing where we wanted to go, but having no idea how to get there, we were off, out of the airport complex and lost. Of course, it was dark by now, and we were still getting accustomed to International road signs. Who has the right away on the circles in Germany, anyway? After about 15 kilometers, we stopped and tried to get directions. Oh yah, that worked out just great. We discovered we were on the right road but the hotel we were looking for was 20 kilometers in the other direction. By now we were getting pretty testy, and my copilot/navigator is telling me to take her back to the airport and she will take a taxi to the hotel. We finally found an airport hotel. Of course it wasn’t the one we were booked into, but we did commission a taxi that we followed to our hotel. Finally, we reached the hotel at about 9:00 pm, after more than 3 hours in Germany. The next day we discovered we were about 1 mile from the airport, who knew?

 

When Janet and Jerry arrived at Heathrow were paged and asked if they knew a “Tiny” and were given our message. When they arrived at Frankfurt, they called us at the hotel. Luckily, we weren’t going to have to venture back to the airport to pick them up, because the hotel had a shuttle. Everyone was tired; we called it a night and met them in the morning for breakfast.

 

After breakfast Jerry and I cranked up the old GPS and drove on to Bitburg. The brewery had setup 3 separate hotels for the alumni, all within a couple of blocks of each other, the Simonbrau, the Eifelbrau and the Louis Muller. We deposited Janet and Jerry at the Eifelbrau, and we checked into the Louis Muller. We all met Larry and Claire at the Simonbrau for lunch.

 

Bitburg has changed a lot since our high school days, yet it is almost the same. After lunch and a few beers, we wandered down to the old train station, which is no longer used, except as a café. On the way back, a stranger drove up to this wandering group wanting directions. Turns out the stranger was no stranger at all, but Tony Alves, just in from driving around Europe looking for his old banking haunts, and I assume accounts, but that is another story in itself.

 

At Larry’s suggestion, we all met that evening to caravan to a restaurant with the best butter schnitzel you have ever tasted, only to find it closed. We eventually ended up in Dutteldorf at another restaurant for a fine meal and a lot of story telling. As the week went on, more alumni arrived and the story telling was repeated for the new arrivals. Funny how the stories got better with each new version.

 

The next day was Sunday and the town was having a street fair called the Farmer’s market. This was our first chance to scout out ATM locations and practice how to extract cash from a German ATM. We also had our first experience, since high school, buying a brat from a street vendor. They are not as prevalent as they were 30+ years ago. We also discovered that many of the streets that we drove on in town were now pedestrian walkways, with no cars allowed. Hauptstrasse that you would take through town over the hill past the church, Rat house and Luigi’s to the Eifelbrau intersection is now a pedestrian mall.

 

On Monday, Joy and I went into Luxemburg to pick up Kelly Flynn and Suzy Wayne who had just flown in from New York via Amsterdam. Thank goodness they flew into Luxemburg instead of Frankfurt. Not only was it closer to Bitburg, but also we were able to park about half a block from the terminal. Real simple. Of course on the way back we traded our traveling stories.

 

By the time we had returned to Bitburg, and got Suzy and Kelly situated in the hotel the bar at the Simonbrau had filled up. When we walked to the Simonbrau from the Louis Muller the new arrivals including, Lyn and Jim Slaughter, Rosemari Garrison Davis and her husband Bill, Sharon Warren and her husband Rich. So another round of story telling began and numerous beers were consumed. I really think the Simonbrau’s revenue shot up during our visit. 

 

On Tuesday, we caravanned down to the Rudesheim for a boat cruise along the Rhine River. Since we missed the boat, we had some time to tour the old town before the next boat docked for passengers. When the river-cruising group returned to the scene of the previous night’s gathering, we found Bob Daniels and his wife Bev enjoying a cold Bitburger Pils. Shortly after that, Cam and Irish Strong, who had just arrived from a weeklong trip to Italy, joined us. Cindy Rush and Pat Schreiber had accompanied Cam and Irish to Italy, and Cindy was also at the Simonbrau. Unfortunately, Pat had fallen seriously ill during the Italy trip and Cam and Irish checked her into the city’s hospital shortly after they arrived in Bitburg. But that’s another story in itself. Suffice it to say that Pat finally made it home, and she is almost fully recovered.

 

On Wednesday, we took the train into Trier for shopping. (By the way, the Bitburg train station is now at Erdorf.) Once at Trier we seemed to break up into teams and were going to rendezvous back at the Porta Negra that afternoon. While shopping, Patty and Pud Charlton joined us. They had just come in from their own European excursion.

 

On Thursday, we caravanned to Bernkastle for lunch and additional shopping. Bernkastle has not changed much at all and is as quaint as always. I think we hit the shops more there than we did in Trier. Some of us cut the shopping short to go to the castle on the hill and the nearby winery. That evening we had a great dinner, as a group, at the Eifelbrau. Another great day.

 

Friday morning, we drove over to Spang and Larry helped us get base passes. We took the opportunity to cruise the base, and later some of us drove through Spang and Dahlem to check out what had changed. Since we had passes, we also took the opportunity to check out what had changed at Bitburg AFB. What was the old French Concern is now operations for the wing. The high school has moved from the old site to a new location closer to the exchange. The old school site is now the middle school and elementary school. We had to check out the old buildings and gym. As it happened, the school was conducting an assembly with the base Commander as guest speaker. Of course, our presence caused a little commotion, and when we explained who we were, the Commander took some time to introduce us to the students. You should have seen their faces. Here we were alumni from their school from 30 years ago. I think we were probably older than the Base Commander. After the assembly, a lot of the students came up to us and wanted to know where we lived now and what school was like back then.

 

That evening, the high school held a pep rally and paraded through the housing area. They included us in their parade that I am sure, aside from amazing the students, really amazed their parents and other bystanders along the parade route.

 

Saturday was our first rainy day, and of course, the Homecoming football game. Many of us didn’t last the whole game due to the rain, but those of us who did were introduced at half time to rousing applause and recognition. The Barons soundly beat Mannheim, which put them in the playoffs.  That evening, we had our last dinner at the Simonbrau. Dr. Dietzsch joined us at the dinner and presented the group with some memorabilia from the brewery and some insights into the current Anglo/German relations. We also had a chance to present to Dr. Dietzsch the gift we had purchased for him in recognition for all his assistance and support of our alumni group. Of course, there is a story about the gift traveling through Europe with Tony. Since Tony had brought the gift over from the States and had toured Europe before arriving in Bitburg, he had to explain the gift at each border crossing and talk he way out of paying customs each time. 

 

After dropping Suzy and Kelly at Luxemburg, Joy and I were off to meet up with several couples for one last hoorah at a Holiday Inn in Frankfurt. Finding our way to the hotel and then caravanning back to the airport to turn in the cars and catching the shuttle back to the hotel is a story in itself.

 

Needless to say, it was a great trip with great people. Check out some of the photos that Jerry has posted on the Bitburg web site. They tell a story in themselves and I strongly suggest that when you meet any of the aforementioned folks, sit down and have a beer over a story or two, there are a million of them. I can’t wait until we go again. Larry, are you planning the next trip yet? Great job!