Sunday, August 3, 2008
The Dog Recovery Nightmare
Since our dogs were too big (dog plus kennel has to be less than 100 lbs for most airlines) we had to ship them cargo. Hence the dog nightmare began.
1. We needed to get together all the right paperwork. What the "right" paperwork is, is a mystery since everyone you go to and all the websites seem to have different answers. What we figured out in the end is we needed:
- 15 digit id chip
- rabies vaccination more than 30 days but less than 90 days old
- a German/English veterinarian form
- a USDA vet certification
- within 10 days another letter from the vet saying the dog's fit to travel
2. Next we needed to figure out where to send them from. Since almost all airlines have flight restrictions where they won't ship your dogs between 15May and 15Sep due to the temperatures outside, we went with Continental Airlines. They have air conditioned vans they'll put the dogs in when they're on the tarmac. The closest airport to Minnesota, where the dogs were (Thanks Mom!), that the planes could accommodate a large kennel through the cargo doors was Chicago, we had to get them to Chicago. We called 6 weeks out and they had a flight from Chicago to Newark to Frankfurt. We booked them on that flight. They told us to call back two weeks out once their flight schedules were finalized. We did, and then the flights went Chicago to Houston, stay overnight in Houston, then to Newark and then to Frankfurt. In Houston they kennel them for the night. Of course, they then tell us that the don't have our reservation and the flight already has 4 dogs on it (their limit is 5). Argh!!!!!! After Brad did some smooth talking, and arguing since we'd already booked for the flight, they got the dogs scheduled on it (whew).
3. Then Brad flew back with the girls to Dallas, took a flight to Chicago, rented a truck and drove to Minnesota. He spent a couple days there (including his Birthday), and then drove to Chicago. Of course, they couldn't tell us where in Chicago he'd be driving and it's not on any of their websites... When he got close though the GPS gave him the address. Next, they told him to check the dogs in two hours before the flight (at 3:00 p.m.) but he found online that the cargo terminal closed at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday - a little detail they should have mentioned. Checking in the dogs went well, no issues and the dogs were on their way. Brad was scheduled to fly out the next day (we'd left a day in between just in case something went wrong).
The dogs were scheduled to land on Tuesday at 9:25, Brad at 10:15
4. Brad called and told
me that there was no way the kennels would fit in my Passat so I rented a van. I didn't realize when I was making the reservations that I was renting a transport van. The thing was tall enough in the back that Brad could stand up in it, it had no air conditioning, and it was impossible to park. But it was the day before I was coming to pick them up and I had no time to make any other plans, so I went with it...
5. Step 1: Then Tuesday arrived. Frankfurt is 190 km from home and goes past a big city I left home at 5:30. I got there at 7:45. The continental airlines people had given me an address and that's where I headed. When I got to the cargo area, the first thing I had to do is go into a security office and check in to get a pass to go into the cargo area. Of course the guy didn't talk any English and I didn't talk any German so even this first task started out harder than needed. I headed for the building I was told about to find that the building was just their business offices, and no one was at work. So I went to LUG Cargo, which shared the same building. The girl helping me spoke a little English and told me that I was in the right place, I just needed to go to a different entry. Building 437 - entry C. I went into that entry and the guy in there told me to go somewhere else! Argh! I went and got some orange juice and more money for the parking meter I was parked at. Then I tried 437 C again, this time going upstairs to the Import office. At this time it was 9:00. They told me, again not much English, to come back an hour after the plane landed, maybe 1/2 hour more. I thought I'd try to go get Brad... Of course, I realized as I was driving around I didn't know what terminal to go to. I got lucky, found a place to park the beast, and ran in and read the directory. Then I circled around the right terminal about 5 times. I couldn't park in the parking lot because the beast was too tall to fit, and I couldn't parallel park 'cause it was too long. Finally I got lucky when someone left an end spot out front that was 1-1/2 spaces wide. The spots right on the curb outside the airport are 15 minute parking spots, you just have to pay for them. I, of course, didn't have any change. So I ran to a food counter, got some change, and was finally parked legally (though very crookedly). I went and waited for Brad, running out and getting another 15 minutes after a big. I waited until 12:00. Brad's plane had landed at 10:30. By this time, the place he was coming out didn't have his plane listed anymore, and I'd seen the pilots leave with their luggage. The dogs were waiting so I went back to get them...
I had to get another card to get into the cargo area again, went back to LUG, paid for the dogs, then they sent me to a whole other area of the airport to pick the dogs up...
Step 2: I drive 5 miles to this other area, (it was called the Frankfurt Animal Lounge) and they at least had the dogs. They give me the papers that Brad sent with the dogs and send me to the vets (in the same building).
Step 3: The vet takes the paperwork and tells me to come back in 30 minutes. I think, hey, I could go get Brad. I get back in the beast, and head out. But the gates won't open. I repark and someone tells me that I need a passcard to get out and send me to a little shack. By the time I get a card it's been 15 minutes. I go back to the vet, they give me the paperwork, charge me $200 for their efforts.
Step 4: The Animal Lounge people then tell me I need to go get a customs stamp. He then sends me to building 451 (that's all he says) He doesn't say where in 451, or that 451 is the size of a high school... I find the customs office, but the guy their doesn't know what I need and sends me to get a form from the U.S. people so I don't have to pay customs. He sends me to another building to get this form, but that guy (finally someone who speaks English!) tells me he only does official military imports and sends me to the main terminal. I go back to the main terminal and finally find brad (3 hours after he landed). The MPs have no idea what I'm talking about and we wait an hour for another guy to come in, he heads back to the Animal Lounge with us. The Animal Lounge people call customs, who claim they never saw me, and send me back over to 451. The office I had gone to is now locked, but someone sends us to another building (it's a small building outside building 451), where they finally know what to do, stamp our paperwork and send us back to the Animal Lounge.
Step 5: The Animal Lounge finally give us the dogs, of course, after charging us $100 for them watching the dogs for the day. It is now 5:00 p.m. and we head home.
On the way home we hit the mother of all traffic jams (people were out of their cars), divert around it and take backroads home, finally getting back at 9:00 p.m.
It was a tortuous, crazy day...
1. We needed to get together all the right paperwork. What the "right" paperwork is, is a mystery since everyone you go to and all the websites seem to have different answers. What we figured out in the end is we needed:
- 15 digit id chip
- rabies vaccination more than 30 days but less than 90 days old
- a German/English veterinarian form
- a USDA vet certification
- within 10 days another letter from the vet saying the dog's fit to travel
2. Next we needed to figure out where to send them from. Since almost all airlines have flight restrictions where they won't ship your dogs between 15May and 15Sep due to the temperatures outside, we went with Continental Airlines. They have air conditioned vans they'll put the dogs in when they're on the tarmac. The closest airport to Minnesota, where the dogs were (Thanks Mom!), that the planes could accommodate a large kennel through the cargo doors was Chicago, we had to get them to Chicago. We called 6 weeks out and they had a flight from Chicago to Newark to Frankfurt. We booked them on that flight. They told us to call back two weeks out once their flight schedules were finalized. We did, and then the flights went Chicago to Houston, stay overnight in Houston, then to Newark and then to Frankfurt. In Houston they kennel them for the night. Of course, they then tell us that the don't have our reservation and the flight already has 4 dogs on it (their limit is 5). Argh!!!!!! After Brad did some smooth talking, and arguing since we'd already booked for the flight, they got the dogs scheduled on it (whew).
3. Then Brad flew back with the girls to Dallas, took a flight to Chicago, rented a truck and drove to Minnesota. He spent a couple days there (including his Birthday), and then drove to Chicago. Of course, they couldn't tell us where in Chicago he'd be driving and it's not on any of their websites... When he got close though the GPS gave him the address. Next, they told him to check the dogs in two hours before the flight (at 3:00 p.m.) but he found online that the cargo terminal closed at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday - a little detail they should have mentioned. Checking in the dogs went well, no issues and the dogs were on their way. Brad was scheduled to fly out the next day (we'd left a day in between just in case something went wrong).
The dogs were scheduled to land on Tuesday at 9:25, Brad at 10:15
4. Brad called and told
me that there was no way the kennels would fit in my Passat so I rented a van. I didn't realize when I was making the reservations that I was renting a transport van. The thing was tall enough in the back that Brad could stand up in it, it had no air conditioning, and it was impossible to park. But it was the day before I was coming to pick them up and I had no time to make any other plans, so I went with it...5. Step 1: Then Tuesday arrived. Frankfurt is 190 km from home and goes past a big city I left home at 5:30. I got there at 7:45. The continental airlines people had given me an address and that's where I headed. When I got to the cargo area, the first thing I had to do is go into a security office and check in to get a pass to go into the cargo area. Of course the guy didn't talk any English and I didn't talk any German so even this first task started out harder than needed. I headed for the building I was told about to find that the building was just their business offices, and no one was at work. So I went to LUG Cargo, which shared the same building. The girl helping me spoke a little English and told me that I was in the right place, I just needed to go to a different entry. Building 437 - entry C. I went into that entry and the guy in there told me to go somewhere else! Argh! I went and got some orange juice and more money for the parking meter I was parked at. Then I tried 437 C again, this time going upstairs to the Import office. At this time it was 9:00. They told me, again not much English, to come back an hour after the plane landed, maybe 1/2 hour more. I thought I'd try to go get Brad... Of course, I realized as I was driving around I didn't know what terminal to go to. I got lucky, found a place to park the beast, and ran in and read the directory. Then I circled around the right terminal about 5 times. I couldn't park in the parking lot because the beast was too tall to fit, and I couldn't parallel park 'cause it was too long. Finally I got lucky when someone left an end spot out front that was 1-1/2 spaces wide. The spots right on the curb outside the airport are 15 minute parking spots, you just have to pay for them. I, of course, didn't have any change. So I ran to a food counter, got some change, and was finally parked legally (though very crookedly). I went and waited for Brad, running out and getting another 15 minutes after a big. I waited until 12:00. Brad's plane had landed at 10:30. By this time, the place he was coming out didn't have his plane listed anymore, and I'd seen the pilots leave with their luggage. The dogs were waiting so I went back to get them...
I had to get another card to get into the cargo area again, went back to LUG, paid for the dogs, then they sent me to a whole other area of the airport to pick the dogs up...
Step 2: I drive 5 miles to this other area, (it was called the Frankfurt Animal Lounge) and they at least had the dogs. They give me the papers that Brad sent with the dogs and send me to the vets (in the same building).
Step 3: The vet takes the paperwork and tells me to come back in 30 minutes. I think, hey, I could go get Brad. I get back in the beast, and head out. But the gates won't open. I repark and someone tells me that I need a passcard to get out and send me to a little shack. By the time I get a card it's been 15 minutes. I go back to the vet, they give me the paperwork, charge me $200 for their efforts.
Step 4: The Animal Lounge people then tell me I need to go get a customs stamp. He then sends me to building 451 (that's all he says) He doesn't say where in 451, or that 451 is the size of a high school... I find the customs office, but the guy their doesn't know what I need and sends me to get a form from the U.S. people so I don't have to pay customs. He sends me to another building to get this form, but that guy (finally someone who speaks English!) tells me he only does official military imports and sends me to the main terminal. I go back to the main terminal and finally find brad (3 hours after he landed). The MPs have no idea what I'm talking about and we wait an hour for another guy to come in, he heads back to the Animal Lounge with us. The Animal Lounge people call customs, who claim they never saw me, and send me back over to 451. The office I had gone to is now locked, but someone sends us to another building (it's a small building outside building 451), where they finally know what to do, stamp our paperwork and send us back to the Animal Lounge.
Step 5: The Animal Lounge finally give us the dogs, of course, after charging us $100 for them watching the dogs for the day. It is now 5:00 p.m. and we head home.
On the way home we hit the mother of all traffic jams (people were out of their cars), divert around it and take backroads home, finally getting back at 9:00 p.m.
It was a tortuous, crazy day...
Friday, August 1, 2008
Riding my bike to work
These last two weeks I've been riding my bike to work when I can. A few times I rode in with someone else I work with, who rides in every day and just happens to live on the other end of the building I live in. If I ride with him, it takes me about 30 minutes. If I go on my own it has taken me:
- 2-1/2 hours: the first time I was so horribly lost I finally cried Mercy and took the train back to near my house - the sun had set, I didn't have any lights on my bike and I went past the same spots over and over again. When I looked at the map I found it took me over two hours to travel 3 miles...
- 45 minutes: I went directly home the same way we drive so it was further in distance but I didn't get lost.
- 60 minutes: I tried to get to work on my own but took a wrong turn and ended up going down a huge hill into a valley -- of course then I had to peddle my way back out of it - all uphill
- 50 minutes: Getting closer, tonight I only had to backtrack about 4 times but found my way on my own without needing the GPS or the main roads.
Since I haven't found time to workout at work yet, at least I'm getting my workouts coming and going from work!
There are a million bike trails here, and the Germans are all out walking and biking on them in the evenings. I always see a lot of people. The other great thing is the bike trails aren't just lanes next to the road, they are little roads of their own. The weather has been great also, though the last couple days have been horribly muggy! When I ride home and get there, all sweaty, I just can't cool off in our non-air conditioned house or my non-air conditioned work!
- 2-1/2 hours: the first time I was so horribly lost I finally cried Mercy and took the train back to near my house - the sun had set, I didn't have any lights on my bike and I went past the same spots over and over again. When I looked at the map I found it took me over two hours to travel 3 miles...
- 45 minutes: I went directly home the same way we drive so it was further in distance but I didn't get lost.
- 60 minutes: I tried to get to work on my own but took a wrong turn and ended up going down a huge hill into a valley -- of course then I had to peddle my way back out of it - all uphill
- 50 minutes: Getting closer, tonight I only had to backtrack about 4 times but found my way on my own without needing the GPS or the main roads.
Since I haven't found time to workout at work yet, at least I'm getting my workouts coming and going from work!
There are a million bike trails here, and the Germans are all out walking and biking on them in the evenings. I always see a lot of people. The other great thing is the bike trails aren't just lanes next to the road, they are little roads of their own. The weather has been great also, though the last couple days have been horribly muggy! When I ride home and get there, all sweaty, I just can't cool off in our non-air conditioned house or my non-air conditioned work!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Paris
Holy cow, it's been almost two weeks since I posted anything. I'll admit I've been working a lot and Brad and the girls haven't done anything unusual, but the truth is we went to Paris last weekend...let me say that again: Paris :-)We had a lot of fun - saw the Eiffel Tower. After we waited in a 45 minute line to go up the tower, then walked around taking in all the views we went out to dinner and then headed back to the metro. Fortunately, the metro is right by the museum across from the Eiffel Tower because we got to watch the evening light show. The movie shows a little of it - it was a lot of fun, especially all the street performers taking advantage of the crowds to work for some money.
The next morning we took in some art at the Louvre: (if you could see behind the guy's head, it's the Mona Lisa). While the Mona Lisa was nice, none of us saw why people would come only to see it!
You can see the crowds - and this was 30 minutes after the museum opened!! My favorite was the sculptures, some of them were amazingly detailed, down to the lace work at the sleeves and the curls in the hair. We spent several hours walking around and didn't even go through half of the musuem. One of the exhibits that we liked the best was the apartments of Napoleon III, click here for a virtual tour. Ate lunch at a Cafe in the Louvre, where I got both of the girls loving Quiche as much as I do! 
It was a beautiful day, and we ate out on a balcony of the Louvre under umbrellas. The picture of Kaylee just shows one of the many, many wings.
After the Louvre, we went and walked along the river, checking out all the old buildings 
and people running around. We walked over to another famous site - Notre Dame. The history is simply amazing, but my favorite part is all the beautiful stained glass windows. After the crowds at the Louvre (which we mostly avoided by not going only to the "famous" sites, which countless people rushed from one to the next so they could take their pictures - I think it's like taking pictures at the zoo, sounds like fun when you do it but looking at the pictures later you wonder what you were thinking!)As to how we got there - we drove...
We drove, since it was just 6 hours away and we wanted to save some money. It also allowed us to drive through the city and look at the sites. We drove a bunch of circles around the Arc D'Triomphe then headed to our hotel. My gosh - it was the hardest place to find. The map on their web site was wrong, they weren't in GPS, and the address wasn't in our GPS either. We finally parked to walk around since it was in a sea of skyscrapers, and discovered we parked less than a block from it! Fortunately it was right by a metro stop so we parked the car for the weekend and took the trains or walked every where. Our hotel was 1/2 mile from La Defense de Paris, so we walked over there the last evening and saw La Grande Arch.
Here's another view from La Defense - you can see the Arc of Triumph in the distance, the two arc's and the Louvre all line up.
We ended the weekend with breakfast at a little French bakery then got the girls their Paris t-shirt (Kaylee) and hoodie (Macie), so they can show them off to all their friends. We bought a big bottle of water and a couple baguettes for the drive home (yum!) and headed back.
One of my favorite parts of the weekend was, though everyone was still talking a foreign language, at least I can read and write French! My vocabulary isn't what it used to be, but I had no trouble understanding anyone! It was so nice :-) Now we're back in Germany - Brad and I really need to sign up for the German Language class!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Fisch Markt (Fish Market)
Today we took the train (you can see Brad and the girls in the train station in this picture), went downtown Stuttgart to the Fisch Markt festival (that does translate to Fish Market). While the words had us thinking that it'd be a bunch of booths selling fish, it was more a bunch of booths selling different kinds of food to eat, most of them featuring fish. Plus restaurants set up in the middle of the square serving people from sit down menus.
We all decided to go different directions with what we ate for lunch. I had a pickled herring sandwich, with a side of mushrooms and cheese followed by a crepe with nutella. It was awesome. Okay - I'll admit neither Brad nor the girls would even try my pickled herring sandwich, but I enjoyed it. Growing up in Minnesota you could buy pickled herring at the grocery store, which we did every once in a while. I'm not sure if it's a Scandinavian dish...I expect it is.
Brad and Kaylee had big bratwurst hotdogs with some french fries and Macie had a tomato, spinach, cheese in a ciabatta bread and some french fries. Each of us enjoyed our meal. If you click on the link to the fish market (above), the wooden ship is where Brad bought his beer to go with the meal. Another new kind of German beer for him, yet again it was very good.The girls followed up lunch with some air brush tattoos then we walked
around looking at the different stores and window shopping. We bought some cheese, meat, fruit and a new basket to carry stuff in. We also found ourselves in the downtown square again, this time to see a bunch of strangely painted bears! These were the Buddy Bears an exhibit that is making it's way around the world. Each bear represents a different country, and each was painted by an artist from that country. The US bear looks like the statue of liberty :-) You'll notice Kaylee is standing just like the bears are.We also looked at a really cool church downtown, this picture shows the doors to the church. It was built in the early 1500's.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
First Week at Work
Today, I was working away at my desk...well I can't say MY desk since I neither have a desk or a computer of my own yet! I was working using someone else's account (I can't get into mine until after a training session I will go through tomorrow), using someone else's computer (fortunately this individual was on leave because I was stealing his computer). I should add, the desk is in a building that isn't our building - we're just using this spot since our building is being refurbished and the place they assigned us to work has SLOW computer connections... I guess it's one of the hazards of working at a new command!! Fortunatley, everyone is really friendly or I'd be screwed!
We had to prebrief our General for this afternoon's General Officer VTC. I was the one briefing him! Talk about leaping right into it ;-) He said I did a good job and commented that he was looking forward to me doing my inbrief check in...lol.
We had to prebrief our General for this afternoon's General Officer VTC. I was the one briefing him! Talk about leaping right into it ;-) He said I did a good job and commented that he was looking forward to me doing my inbrief check in...lol.
Brad and the girls ran all over the base today and took their bikes for a short ride. Brad and I need bicycle helmets before we can go off post. I plan to ride my bike to work on Monday. It'll be good for me to add some more physical training to my life! On the way too work I'll ride slow and easy so I don't get sweaty, but on the way home I can ride hard if I want to! It'll be even faster than taking the bus for getting to work. My work is @ 6 miles from home so it's not that far. I work with someone who rides his bike every day and he's going to show me the route on Monday - he takes a way that is off the main roads so no one should be running over me!
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