Velburg, Germany.......The town we call home.

Our little town dates back to 1129, with a current population of around 5200. We have a military leased off post house........which means the government has contracted out X amount of houses in this area for military members to live in.

Here is a view of Velburg from atop the Castle ruins tower, which you can see from our house.

The 72' tall Town Hall was built in 1863-1865, and is set right in the center of town.  The hand paved road is very common throughout Europe, it is aways set at a arched pattern.

This is a pic from the Town hall down the main street, there are a couple of bakeries, a meat shop, bank, couple of hotels and about half dozen restaurants.

We still have to translate what the monument is for.

Our house is in a three-plex, we are the one on the right with the garage right next to the house.  It is 3 story with a basement. basement has boiler room, laundry room, huge storage room, and an open area. The ground level floor is the kitchen and living room with a 1/2 bath, 2nd floor is 2 bedrooms and full bath, top floor is the master bedroom, bathroom, and an office nook. There is also attic storage!

So out our master bathroom window or the office nook you can see the castle ruins on the hilltop.

This is a model of what the original castle looked like in 1129, the model is in the town hall and was made from the mortar of the original castle.  

 The castle was heavily damaged during the 30 years war in 1633 and never repaired.

In the 1700's the stones from the castle where used to build the local church and some of the houses in town.

I talked Jonah into going to the top of the rebuilt castle tower with me.

View of the city from the tower window.

You can barely see Jonahs head through the window.

Going up the tower

Jonah a little hesitant about coming up

Pic from top of tower at the flagpole, our house is just out of frame on the right.

Bench and firewood ready to go

Pic on our way back down

On our way down we saw this wooden cross overlooking the town....Beautiful!

I hope you enjoyed a little view of our town.

Shipping your pet overseas to Germany

So we just finished our flight from Baltimore Washington International Airport to Ramstein Airbase.  It wasn't as bad as we had expected. 

A few notes on your pet carrier.....A lot of carriers come with plastic clips to hold them together, like ours did.  Most airlines require the top be bolted to the bottom, either by plastic or metal nuts and bolts.  So I just went to Lowes and bought a package of 6-1 1/2" machine screws and wing nuts.  I put the cage together and drilled holes on each corner and in the center of each sides.  I also bought the stickers and food tray from Petsmart and placed them on the carrier. Although Delta had all the stickers at the counter and added some "this side up" arrows to her cage. We had no issues with her carrier.

When we originally made our reservations with travel on post they had us on an airline from Atlanta to BWI that doesn't take pets.  MAKE SURE YOU CALL THE AIRLINE AS SOON AS YOU GET YOUR CONFIRMATION TICKETS.  After I called the airline and found out they didn't take animals, I went back to travel and they booked us on Delta.  I called the airline to reserve our cat a spot as pet cargo (as opposed to flying in the cabin). You will need to know the dimensions of your carrier and the weight of it with your pet in it. Also make sure that travel books your pet on the AMC flight because they only carry 10 pet carriers per flight.

When we started our trip, we had to go to the "Special Services" counter at Delta to check in all of our bags and our cat.  They took all of our checked baggage and then weighed the cat in the carrier (she was 14 pounds total).  They added the  "up arrow" stickers and another "live animal" sticker to the carrier.  We had to pay a $200 pet fee.  They also added a form to the cage with some personal information you have to fill out.  After you are all finished at the ticket counter you have to take the pet to the "oversize baggage" drop off.  We took her over the oversize baggage drop off and a TSA agent had me take her out of the carrier so he could check it for safety.  After his 2 sec "safety inspection" they had me put her back in and they placed a zip tie thru the door to the carrier to keep it from accidently opening. We took her about 2 hours before our flight departure time. There is a sticker attached to the form from the ticket counter and when they load the animal onto the plane the stewardess is suppose to bring this tag to you to tell you that your animal is loaded onto plane.  Although, they changed our plane at the last minute and didn't let anyone board until late, so they were in a hurry to take off.  I asked the stewardess if my cat was loaded, she left.....then came back and told us the pilot saw her on the ground outside plane!  A few minutes later she came back and told me the ground crew assured her the cat was aboard. So a short 2 hr plane ride and we arrived at BWI.  We went to pick up our bags from the luggage carrousel and behind the luggage carrousel where oversize luggage is hand delivered through a garage style door is where we found Mrs Popoki.

 

After we got all of our luggage together we went to the AMC terminal, there was a really long line of service members there.  After we slowly made our way forward, about 30 minutes, we were getting close to the rope dividers and we noticed that there was a separate EMPTY line for "Soldiers traveling with family members and/or pets"!! So we moved over to the correct line and was at the check in counter pretty quick. Once at the counter they will check and weigh all your baggage first(even your carry on items).  Then they weigh pet carrier and you pay a $116 fee, they take your 6 page multi language form you get from the vet and make a copy of it.  MAKE SURE you have the forms filled out correctly a couple next to us didn't have the German part of the form filled out and had to call their vet to see if he could redo it and fax it to them before they could fly!!  They will attach the vet form in a baggy to the carrier and it too will have a ticket that will be brought to you before take off. 

 

After all is done they will have you keep your pet with you until 2 hours before take off.  So we took her outside to the pet relief area and put her harness and leash on her to let her stretch a bit(we had a 6 hr layover but by this time it was down to 4).  We also brought a gallon bag of cat litter and a 9x16 cardboard cake pan in our sons carry-on luggage.  To our surprise SHE USED IT even with the harness and leash on!!! 

 

After she walked a bit we put her back in her cage and decided to go to the USO and rest a bit.  We already knew this but just in case pets are not allowed in the USO, so my wife and son went in.  I placed all of our carry on luggage in the USO luggage storage area and left the cat in her carrier on the luggage cart at the doors of the USO.  Then she and I went on a stroll of the airport to get the humans some food.  Since it was late the only thing open on the non security side was subway, Duncan donuts, Starbuck and a bar.  So we grabbed some food and went back to the USO, my wife and son decided to come outside of the USO and eat with me on the bench.  After we ate it was my turn to go into the USO and my wife stayed on the bench outside with Mrs Kitty.  The USO is recently remodeled (hence the no pet rule) and has a very nice staff.  There are 30 really soft chairs in the TV room, free Wi-Fi, about 6 eating tables with chairs, a shower area, family rooms, lots of books and magazines to read.  There is free ice cream, snacks, water, and coffee.  We stayed there until they where closing up shop, they close at 2200 but asked us to start clearing out at 2145 so everyone would be gone in time.

 

Since our flight was at 2350 we took the cat back to the AMC terminal and the same man that checked us in was there with a pet manifest and checked her off the list and put her next to the other carriers going on the flight.  We went thru the security check point and on to our terminal area, again our flight was delayed by 30 min so we sat and waited till boarding. 

 

Once we arrived at Ramstein AFB we showed our IDs and passports then went to pick up our baggage.  The pets where all together on carts waiting to be picked up.  There was no 55€ fee that we thought we had to pay.  Then we went on to getting a briefing and separated by what areas of Germany we were going to.  Also make sure you all before you fly out and reserve a pet friendly room at what ever base you are going to. We made ours about 30 days out and was delayed by 1 day all we had to do was call and let them know of our delay.  There is a family who didn't reserve a pet friendly room ahead of time and ended up with the father in one room with the pet and the wife in kids in completely different building!

 

If you have any questions about shipping your pet just let me know.

Shipping our car to Germany

Well we successfully made our drive back from Texas and shipped the car off all on the same day! NEVER AGAIN will we try that!  It wasn't hard but we were exhausted.  We thought it was going to be harder than it was so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to correct any deficiencies that they found.

We went online to  https://www.whereismypov.com/ (type this in exactly as you see it, one altered letter will bring up 100 porn sights popping up!!, yea it happened to us!) and found out that Atlanta,GA was the closest VPC (vehicle processing center) to Fort Benning.  On the site it tells you what you are and are not allowed to keep in the car and what all paperwork you need from Lienholder or Lease holder.  The website is very informative, you can look up and see where the nearest VPC is to you and to where you are going. 

We got to Atlanta from a 15+ hour road trip back from Texas so you can imagine how the inside of the car looked. We stopped off and got our rental car to drive until we leave for Germany. We transferred all of the luggage we had with us over to the rental at the car wash (most of our luggage at this time was stored at a friend's).  Then we began the rush to detail and clean the car so we could take it to the VPC.  We vacuumed out the car real well, wiped down the leather seats, cleaned the windows and overall did the best we could with what we had at the car wash.  I took it through the drive through car wash and did the ultra supreme wash.  I had to wipe off a few stubborn bugs from the front bumper but overall it looked good.  I checked under the hood and it was just dusty, I did my best to wipe it down.  It was about 2pm and I wanted to get the car to the VPC in case we had to re-clean anything we would have time. They are open from 8-4pm M-F but when I emailed them to see if I needed an appointment they said no just make sure we were there before 3pm so they would have enough time to do all the paperwork.

Sorry for the poor quality pics but my rear camera on my iphone is messed up so I had to use my front camera for all these pics.

Once at the VPC you will give your keys to an inspector who will take it into the inspection area and you will go inside and start your paperwork.  I had to provide them with 3 copies of my orders and amendments (although website says 7), the lienholder authorization letter, and my vehicle registration form.  The clerk will give you some forms to fill out, address, phone and emails stateside; address phone and emails for overseas; point of contact of family or friend stateside; and sponsor info.  After you finish all your paperwork inside you will go out and do the walk thru with the inspector to check for dents, dings and scratches on your car. They are thorough, they even documented small swirl marks left from wiping off the car with a dry cloth.



They will provide a box to put anything you have left in the car.  We had our trailer hitch, tow rope, warning triangle, small tub of tools, windshield screen and owners manual.  When I got outside to meet the inspector he already had all of the items in the box and told me to check through it to see if it was all there or if he missed anything. He will also take off your license plates and place them in the box.

Once we went over all the cars scratches and dings he had me sign and initial the forms.  That was pretty much it.  He gave me a customer comment card and I gave them all excellent.  It was way easier than we had thought.  I did notice they had a vacuum and cleaning supplies in a corner so I guess if you had to re-clean something they would let you do it there, but our quick cleaning at the car wash seemed to be enough.

 

Along with all the paperwork you walk out with they will give you info on how to go onto the website and track where your car is.  The clerk also told me to go online and add the phone numbers when we get our German cell phones and let the VPC in Germany know when we arrive, so if it does arrive sooner than expected they will know we are there.

 

I have heard that coming from Germany back to the states is a harder inspection? Is that true? Let me know your experiences and/or hints for returning.