Dover-> Ramstein-> Aviano-> Ramstein-...

Author Message   Wes Loukota Intermediate Member Username: Woodturner Post Number: 60 Registered: 07-2007 Posted From: 75.254.236.205 Posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 12:27 pm:    The produce, meats and cheeses are well priced. The cheeses are superb. That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to ask anything else. I will help you out as much as I can. One other thing came to mind. We get a lot of gifts from my wife's family and had a few souvenirs so we mailed a package to ourselves from the local Posteitaliano which was about 25 pounds for 65.60 euros. We've done that on every trip and have not had too much problem, although it does help to understand the language. Last trip we mailed a small package from the US post office at Camp Darby with the assistance of a very nice soldier. Anyone not stationed there can not use the US post offices on base. Wes - The Woodturner(which I haven't done any off yet since we've been back)   Wes Loukota Intermediate Member Username: Woodturner Post Number: 59 Registered: 07-2007 Posted From: 75.254.236.205 Posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 12:26 pm:    You are very welcome John. James, prices were about the same as last time we were there 3 1/2 years ago, but the dollar was up a little bit. The cheapest I saw diesel was about 1.20 euros, at an exchange rate of $1.35/euro that's $6.13/gal. The cheapest gas was about 1.30 euros/liter, $6.64/gal. The most expensive for extra super(premium) was about 1.5 euros/l, $7.66/gal. Most other prices were comparable to ours until you convert to dollars. I bought a nice jacket at famila, the local grocery store for 35 euros - $47.00. Espresso was between 1 and 2 euros. Never ate out where we paid for it, but pizzas are in the 5-10 euro range. Gelato(ice cream), another favorite, was 1-3 euro/scoop. At the small cafes and bars a glass of wine is around 1 euro. They have 1 euro stores, like our Everything's a Dollar stores. We also found a nice outlet-type store where I got a Key West(made in Italy) belt for 5 euros. And of course there are McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks. All the small towns around us in Castelnuovo di Garda have basically the same weekly market that travels to town a different each day. In Verona the main market is in Pizza Erbe. Quite a bit of the merchandise is made in China. I looked at an Italian leather jacket that was about 250 euros. I'm getting a server error so I'm going to split this post.   James E. Kale Advanced Member Username: Jimiam Post Number: 171 Registered: 09-2006 Posted From: 96.241.136.166 Posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 09:19 am:    Thanks for all the excellent detail and the time you took to write it all up. Italy is our goal for the fall. How did you find prices?   John R Garrison Senior Member Username: Majorg Post Number: 2558 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 208.81.157.86 Posted on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - 06:38 pm:    Wes: Great three part report! Thanks for taking us along. Happy travels, John   Wes Loukota Intermediate Member Username: Woodturner Post Number: 57 Registered: 07-2007 Posted From: 75.235.87.31 Posted on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - 05:47 pm:    We survived the ash, but didn't get the t-shirt even though they did have them at the t-shirt shop in the mall at Ramstein. The train ride from Verona to Munich was quite nice. Some really beautiful scenery. We left Verona at 9am and arrived in Munich at 2:30pm. Had about a half an hour in Munich, enough time for a quick lunch. It took us five minutes to walk our car,the very last one on the platform, on the Mannheim leg was. Got to Mannheim about 5pm with a change and a ten minute wait. Feeling rushed to find the train and not knowing any German we got on the wrong train. We went to Mainz, but had help from a very nice woman on the train who spoke pretty good English, and a very patient conductor. We changed trains in Mainz, without having to pay extra, for Kaiserslautern and Landstuhl. We finally got to Landstuhl about 11pm and 2 hours late. Caught a cab(25 euros, I think), with help from a service member, to the base. Of course the new inn was booked, but they had a room in bldg 306 and they called us a cab which was about 10 euro. While the wife was getting ready and thinking about what to do, I walk to the Hertz office across the parking lot. They had one car left, a new Toyota Avenis station wagon. We figured that was probably the best option. We could at least keep the luggage in the back and not have to haul it around, and maybe sleep in the car if necessary. Later in the day we checked billeting and they had a suite in 302 for two days so we dumped the luggage and drove to Kaiserslautern for a little site-seeing. We also drove to the hospital side at Landstuhl just to see where it was. Took us about an hour to find it. What a pain, talk about getting turned around. There is a decent breakfast bar at the Sports Bar on the second floor of the mall across from RTT Travel. On Saturday we dropped the room keys in the drop box at the front door and went to the terminal and dropped the car keys in the Hertz drop box. The first rotator had 54 seats but we were about 70 on the list. There were several more flights with no seats. There was a roll call that finally started about 1600 for another rotator with 74 seats. We were about 68 on the list, but when we went to check in there was a problem with the count and almost didn't make it. Finally got to Baltimore about 2030 local and took another 2 1/2 hours to get a ride to Dover to pick up the car. We were going to rent a car from Avis($91 plus $.25/mile) which had a drop box in Dover. Two couples who had a reservation with Hertz were checking Avis because the Hertz one day Saturday rental was the 2-day rate(over $300) because the office in Dover is closed on Sunday and has no drop box. They ended up renting an Avis van(and we rode with them) for about $220, split three ways was cheaper than either of the a fore mentioned deals. We finally got to Dover about 1am and got a room at the Best Western outside the North Gate. We then drove back to Knoxville on Sunday in time for my wife to get to work as scheduled on Monday.   Wes Loukota Intermediate Member Username: Woodturner Post Number: 55 Registered: 07-2007 Posted From: 75.201.156.65 Posted on Monday, April 26, 2010 - 05:48 pm:    The city bus stop is a ten minute walk from the hotel, Da Tussi. We took the bus, 30 minutes, from Aviano, 2 Euro/person, to the Pordenone train station. There is a train from Aviano but it is a weird schedule(not even sure it ran) and didn't fit ours. We were going to Peschiera di Garda, near Verona, and had to change in Venice with a two hour wait so we got lunch near the station. I think the fair was 10 or 15 Euro, but didn't write it in my expense log properly. We spent two weeks in Castelnuovo with my wife's cousin. We drove all the way around Lago(Lake) di Garda. What an incredible trip. Also went to Verona and Mantova. If anyone is interested in hearing more about our stay there let me know. We took the train from Peschiera to Vicenza which was 9.20 euro each round trip(andati e ritorno). Spent the day on base for some American fair, shopping in PX and commissary, and computer usage(email banking,etc.). The computers in the library were down so they sent us to the Family Center about 2 blocks away. And yes, retirees can use Exchange facilities, and eat in the dining facility(I think). On the return to Verona we were early to the Vicenza station so I checked the schedule and hopped on an earlier train to Verona. There was one with no stops until Verona. I didn't realize it was and IC, InterCity, which costs more so we had to pay and extra 8 euros each on the train. If you do something like this make sure the train you get on is a Regional. While we were at Vicenza I checked for train tickets from Verona to Ramstein at the travel office near the Shoppette. Their computers were down, but one of the agents said they could not do the reservations anyway because it was a German train. I went back to the Family Center and got on the Bahn website, http://www.bahn.de, and could have done the reservation myself but the site said you had to print the ticket on A4 paper which is a slightly different size than our standard. Since I didn't know if that would make a difference I decided to wait to get back to the Verona station to check for reservations. I didn't want to blow 188 euros because they wouldn't except our standard paper. (I'm still not certain) To make a long story a little shorter I found an Internet bar where I made the reservations from Verona to Ramstein and printed the ticket on A4 paper. You can buy tickets on the train or in the station for Munich(Monaco in Italian and Munchen on the train schedule boards). We went to the information desk at the station in Verona and they said there is one travel agent in Verona that allegedly can do the reservations. The final leg next.   Wes Loukota Intermediate Member Username: Woodturner Post Number: 53 Registered: 07-2007 Posted From: 75.201.156.65 Posted on Monday, April 26, 2010 - 04:28 pm:    Hi all, I will probably do a few posts on this trip. First, the goings. We drove from Knoxville,TN to Dover (10 hrs), arrived just before midnight, Friday 4/2. There was nothing going out until Saturday afternoon so we stayed at the Best Western ($73.43 military transient rate) just outside the North Gate(which is closed) because billeting was full. There were a few flights out but not much in the way of seats. One C-17 took 3 AD families with a total of 14 dependents to Spandahlem. A C-5 (72 seats) to Rota was scheduled for late Saturday and all who wanted to go to Rota were manifested. We got through security and into holding. About 2300 Pax rep came in and said the crew went to bed. Flight rescheduled with an early afternoon roll call on Sunday. Got to the terminal Sunday morning and roll call was moved back to 2300. At 1400 they announced roll call in 30 minutes. Some of us raced around getting vehicles to LT parking. Got back to the terminal to find out they only had 14 seats. It took two families who had been waiting since Tuesday to get back to Rota and a few other IIIs. Left a couple of Cat IIIs and all Cat VIs. Late Sunday we finally got a C-17 with 24 seats which took all(13) who wanted to go to Ramstein including 5 Cat VIs. We finally got off the ground about 0300. The plane was carrying helo rotor blades stacked down the middle in the forward section and other cargo aft, but there was enough room for any one who wanted to lay down could. Had a nice chat with the co-pilot on the flight deck. Got to Ramstein about 1700 Monday and got a room in the old Ramstein Inn, Bldg 306. Caught the Pat Ex to Aviano Tuesday after about a 4 hour wait in the terminal after check-in. Arrived just before dark and there was no room on base for Cat VIs. The airmen at the billeting front desk were very nice and called their overflow hotel in the town of Aviano and a cab(30 Euro) for five of us. Nice hotel and restaurant - Da Tussi (65 Euro for one night, military rate). More on Italy to follow.