We had a nonstop flight that left Dulles at 10PM on Wednesday, July 1st. It was an eight hour flight but the six hour time difference meant we landed around noon local time on Thursday, July 2nd. We passed through customs (ZollKontrol) and then went to get our bags. A coworker was waiting outside to take us to the hotel. We had reservations at the
Hyatt in Mainz. The flight counted as my work day on Thursday and Friday, July 3rd was a federal holiday so I didn't have to go in to work until Monday the 6th.
Initially we were quite jet-lagged. Our first night in Germany found all four of us awake at two o'clock in the morning. It took four or five days before we completely adjusted to the time change. The Hyatt is right on the banks of the Rhine River. Many evenings were spent sitting along the river watching the boats go by. A lot of cargo is shipped by river in Germany. It was not uncommon for us to see huge boats with stacks of 18-wheeler-sized trailers float down the river. Oscar liked it when we got him "SoftEis To Go" (Soft Serve Ice Cream) for €1,50. Calvin is allergic to milk so he just had some pretzels we got at Tengelmann's (overpriced grocery store that was within walking distance from our hotel).
The view from our hotel was fantastic:
I took this next photo of the Rhine from the nearby Theodor-Heuss-Brücke (Bridge). Like almost all other German Rhine bridges, the original bridge was destroyed in World War II. The bridge was rebuilt in the early 1950s and named after the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Theodor Heuss.
The Rhine river is the border between the German states of Hessen (Hesse in English) and Rhineland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate in English). The two cities on either side of the river (Wiesbaden, Hessen and Mainz, Rhineland-Pfalz) are the capitals of their respective states. Kastel, a former Mainz suburb on the Hessen side of the Rhine, has been separated from the city since the war (the Rhine river was the border between the French and American occupation sectors). Even today, residents of Mainz-Kastel consider themselves part of Mainz although strictly speaking they are administered by the city of Wiesbaden and the state of Hessen.
On Saturday, July 4th, we walked about 45 minutes from our hotel to a bus stop and then took a city bus to the Wiesbaden Army Air Field for 4th of July festivities. The Army had lots of fun rides and games set up on the runway of the Air Field. The boys had a great time!
The next day, we got a ride to church where we met lots of new friends. Because of the large military presence in Germany, the church has an English-speaking Stake here (five wards, one branch). The Stake center is in Kaiserslautern -- about 75 minutes away. We attend the Wiesbaden Military Ward in the Kaiserslautern Germany Military Stake. We share our church building with the Wiesbaden Ward in the German-speaking Frankfurt Stake (Dieter Uchtdorf was formerly their Stake President; most of the Germans that have been here for 15 or 20 years know him personally).
Although our ward is a "military" ward, an association with the military is not required to attend. About 70% of the members in our ward are actually in the military. A large percentage of the rest are civilians that are in some way affiliated with the military (we fit into this category). We have a few families that have no military connections at all -- a few American graduate students at the local universities and a few others that are just here working for International companies in the Frankfurt area.
The following day (Monday, July 6th), we were able to pick up our minivan. Our driver's licenses are issued by the Army but the German government honors them. Tina and I both passed the Army's written driving test on Monday morning (on the first attempt) without much difficulty. The written test to get an actual German driver's license is much more difficult and has a high rate of failure. It is not uncommon to fail multiple times before passing. We were glad we didn't have to take that test.
After we picked up the van, we felt liberated. Being in a foreign country where you don't speak the language is hard enough. Not having your own transportation just compounds the difficulty. So having our own transportation was a big deal for us. Of course, one of the first places we went was the
IKEA in nearby Wallau. We ate Swedish meatballs and the boys enjoyed playing on the toys. We brought along one of my coworkers and his family since they were staying in the same hotel but did not yet have their car.
IKEA shares a parking lot with Toys R Us so we went to see what they had too. I underestimated the international appeal of Thomas the Tank Engine and Lightning McQueen.
We also found the
library that first week. It is not huge but it isn't small either. They are linked to all of the other Army libraries in Europe so if you want something that is available somewhere else, you can request it and they will bring it to your local branch. I have a
German textbook on the way from Italy. Predictably, the boys picked a Thomas the Tank Engine book.
Next time: More adventures that took place while we were still living in the hotel (we spent 32 nights at the Hyatt) along with some comments on our search for a place to live.
