Spring Break--Day 3

14 April, 2010--Day 3 Ramstein Air Base

Today we decided to take a break from cathedral/church viewing, and went with a much more secular plan. We had heard from many people that if we ever got to Germany, we had to go see Ramstein Air Base, if only to see the monstrously huge new Base Exchange (BX/PX for us military folks).

So we put everyone in the car and headed out. As it turns out, 'many people' were absolutely spot on--it was amazing! We have lived with some pretty small BXs in our military days, and have usually opted to shop for our household goods and clothes at Target (insert small sob here--no Target nearby for the last 3 years), WalMart, and even KMart when truly desperate. The beauty of the BX is that you pay no sales tax, so when you are buying a high priced item--like, say, a big-screen television--that can be really helpful. The downside is that your selection is generally pretty dang limited, and if you don't feel like buying Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, or Polo clothing, you're often out of luck.

And where we are in England, the BX system is definitely on the wierd side. See, we live near a chain of three bases, and they have divided the BX products between the different bases. If you want furniture, then you head north to the RAF Feltwell BX. If you want toys, then you head south to RAF Mildenhall. If you want clothing, then you make your way to the largest BX of the three smack in the middle at RAF Lakenheath. The trouble with that is obvious--I can never remember which one has what! Exasperating, but still usually worth the trouble rather than buying things on the economy. Usually. But not always.

Anyway, this BX was a beautiful sight for my mall-deprived eyes! Our last base in the US was a pretty small one, and the BX was a little building where you could see from one end to the other once you put your foot in the door. In a word, it was tiny, and I did very little shopping there as a result. I could almost always get more variety for less money at the big mean WalMart across town.

I think this shop put that WalMart to shame. It certainly put our last town's little mall to shame. Sorry, dear friends at our last base. We love you, but we don't miss the (s)Mall, or the Hall, as the teenagers called it.

We oohed, and ahhed, and acted like total idiots over this building--we must've looked like the Joads pulling into California, drooling over this new land of milk and honey. Prosperity everywhere! Glory Hallelujah--we have reached civilization!

What pathetic people we are.

It had a food court, a multi-plex cinema, and more clothing and vendors than you can shake a stick at. Now, I know all of my family members are probably laughing their heads off right now, knowing that I was so excited about the possibility of spending time at a mall that I took a day of our trip in Germany to find said mall. Yeah, I know. Once a mall-rat, always a mall-rat. Go on, laugh. But, I've been without those luxuries for years, and it wears on a person...really, it does...oh, whatever.

We had a grand time revelling in the unadulterated capitalistic commerce...the options...the stuff...the candy...the electronics. Oh, the electronics...and the wee little lederhosen--how cute are those outfits?

I could just eat him up!

And this toy display was so cool; the toys rotated around, bouncing on springs, and as they rotated, each got dropped off a little ledge to keep the springy action happening. The kids were fascinated, and I thought about walking right into the shop and making an offer.

Petting the soft, fuzzy, purple Milka chocolate display cow...much less stinky than our Clovis cows!
And this shop was Abby and Josh's dream come true--a whole store devoted to Haribo candies!
Just look at it all--giant gummy cola bottles, peach gummies (Abby's favorite), three sizes of gummy bears, and it just goes on...good thing they each have 5 Euros to spend, or we'd never hear the end of it!

After being silly and touching everything the vendors were selling, we opted for some lunch before tackling the actual BX part of the building.

It was so fun. We tested mattresses, flopped around on video game chairs, lounged in recliners, and tried our hands at Bose noise-cancelling headphones (with my life, I may have to get me some of those!) and the new Ipads. It was great, and an interesting change from all of the serious stuff we had seen the day before!




Josh enjoyed checking out the many different kinds of steins they sold. He didn't know what they were for, but decided they'd be just right for root beer floats!

Eventually, we'd done all the browsing and shopping that our feet and budget could handle, and it was time to see some more of the base. Ramstein Air Base is the headquarters for US Air Forces in Europe, and is also a NATO installation. It is huge, and is called The Gateway to Europe within the military community. We had fun just driving around on our own, seeing what there was to see. But soon we decided everyone needed some quality playground time!

Oops. I guess we should have checked the sign before allowing our children to run roughshod all over that innocent playground equipment. We'll just be heading back to our car now...exiting quickly, whistling innocently...
It was another good day, and a nice way to let off some little-kid steam. And some big-kid steam, for that matter. Then it was off to Macaroni Grill for dinner and back to Spangdahlem.

Tomorrow, Eifelpark is in the plan, but will we actually go? Stay tuned.