Kaiserslautern/ Ramstein AFB/ Landstuhl, Deutschland

My son had a very important pre-op appointment near Ramstein Air Base, in a city called Landstuhl. Landstuhl is home of the largest military hospital in Europe, so I knew it wouldn't be in the middle of no-man's land!

Just like going to Schwangau last weekend, Landstuhl is about a four hour car ride on the autobahn. It's in a different direction though, so we weren't sure what to expect on the drive there. 

I was irritated the night before we left. I had made lodging arrangements with the Landstuhl/Ramstein Inn on the base. At the last minute they suddenly shot back with an email saying they had no availability!
 WONDERFUL!
 What busts my buttons is that we weren't heading there for fun or leisure, but because of a necessary appointment. Generally the lodging on post/base is supposed to cater to people like us; a large family traveling quite a distance for a medical need. We have friends who have been to the area recently, just because they felt like going, and had no issue securing a stay at on-base lodging. GRRR. Not mad at them, just sayin'. 
We had no choice in the matter. It was a required trip.

So I went ahead and booked a hotel in the area (the only hotel that could accommodate a large family). It was actually a pretty beautiful hotel as far as family owned German hotels go! Nestled in trees, and distanced from the autobahn; away from the hustle and bustle of Army/Air Force people. 
Hotel Barbarossa. I would highly recommend it! Kind of pricey, but whateves. Sometimes it is what it is. I did find a neat abandoned train station behind the hotel, which made my stay worth it! There's also a super adorable Irish pub across the street.

Hotel Barbarossa actually sits in Kaiserslautern, or what we military people call "K-Town". Unfortunately we didn't have the chance to explore K-Town, but we will be returning for my son's surgery within the next couple of months. I am positive we'll be able to see walk the streets of K-Town then!
The hospital in Landstuhl is not as large as it was once described to me. It's actually a sore sight when compared to many of the nicer military medical facilities I have seen in the US.

After my son's appointment (his 'super fast, but drove 4 hours to get here' appointment), we headed to Burg Nanstein; local castle ruins perched on top of a hill in the city of Landstuhl. As usual, I did my research beforehand. I knew this castle was old and partially destroyed. This meant that I knew I would love it :-)

Finding the castle in the city of Landstuhl was easy. It's seated high above the town, in plain sight, but finding the road that lead up to it was a chore. Our GPS wanted to take us the wrong way down one way streets! Eventually we found the narrow road situated behind a neighborhood. If you blinked, you'd miss the sign.

A horse we saw along the way.

We parked at the base of the castle in a hotel parking lot (which we later realized we weren't supposed to do), and we took a walking trail up. You can drive straight to the castle, but then you'd miss the weird tree trunk men carved along the trail!

To visit, you will have to pay a entry fee, but it's pretty cheap. I think it was €6 for all of us, but it was worth it. And after paying at the tiny window, you're free to wander the grounds!

We went on a day that had some weather attitude, as Germany usually does. So I have a mix of pictures with gray skies that looked like they'd dump rain at any moment and then suddenly the clouds would clear, revealing a beautiful sky and tiny puffy clouds. Then back to gray. The weather here reminds me so much of Washington State!

Once you reach the highest point of the castle grounds, you are in a treat for 360 degrees of views! It was so odd that I would turn in every direction and find a different sky than the last direction I faced!

Parts of the castle seem to be built into the rock. There's a picture shown above (of the turret) that you can see the rock formation where the structure was built on to. The red rock reminds me of scenery in Sedona, Arizona. My own little piece of home. Maybe? Yes? No? I'll say yes.

These people ^^^ are extremely patient when we are out. I have a tendency to wander away from the group, which is exactly why I have come to hate guided tours. But me thinks they'd prefer them so that I could be forced to stay on track (umm, no thanks). Here they sit waiting on me to get in all of my pictures.

This weird hole is shaped like an ear, and on the other side of the arch, there is another. I have to wonder, because of the ear shape, if maybe they weren't peep holes, but instead used for sound (like a warning call?). I shall investigate further....

After walking Nanstein, we headed off in the other direction to Ramstein Air Base. Unfortunately, we arrived at the gate only to realize that my military ID was nowhere to be found! I suddenly remembered that I had stashed it in my back pocket when we had left the Landstuhl hospital. The last time I fumbled with my pocket was when I was pulling my cell out of it to sit in the car after touring Nanstein.

We drove all the way back to Nanstein, and sure enough, it was on the ground next to where we parked. Phew! I have NEVER lost my ID before. *I'm going to go ahead and say that it was briefly misplaced, not lost.
On our way back to Nanstein (to find the ID) I was able to get a picture of the castle from down below. It was taken from a moving car with dirty windows, but it's always nice to get a visual of the big picture.

Now that I had my ID, we were able to get on base. Now, any other day, they may have let me get away with not having a military ID, but this day was definitely a NO-GO. We were on 'high awareness' throughout Europe installations. Fun.

I remember landing at Ramstein, so I had flashbacks to the day we arrived. Seeing the airfield and the hotel behind it reminded me of how lost and confused I had felt not very long ago.


Our main objective was to hit the BX (base exchange, but I still call it a PX sometimes. Same diff). Everyone has talked about this place as if it were one of the holiest places on earth. I beg to differ. 
Is it big? OH yes. 
I guess they hype it receives is what lead me to believe it'd sparkle in the sunshine, or some shit. Not the case. It's like any other base/post exchange, except that it has more 'mall' shops full of random peddler junk, a movie theater built on the top floor, and the exchange itself is rather large. The exchange has all of the same products and goods you would find at any other, except you have more sizes, colors, varieties of things to choose from.

We went shopping, ate some gross Chinese food at the food court (I should've known better), and went up to the top floor and caught a movie with the kiddies: 'The Box Trolls'. Honestly, the movie was the highlight of my time at Ramstein. 

I'm certain we'll return soon. Surgery for my kid has been scheduled for December. Fun.