Returning home from a 8 day visit with my son, DIL, and three grand kids currently stationed (Air Force) at Spangdalham, Germany. The cool thing is that they decided to live in a village about 20 minutes from base that has a population of 563 people. The home they live in was a stable built in 1835 and converted to a home about 30 years ago.

WOW - 20" walls, no AC, heat generated from an oil burning furnace in the basement that heats the floors, no cable or satellite (his choice to not have this because the kids are 5,4 and 2) so they would be not be en-gulped by the technology world we all live in. The church bells ring every night at 6:30 p.m. indicating that the town is closing for the evening and when it snows the local farmers clear the roads with their tractors.

Life is simple - They purchase their bread and pastry products from a local baker that knocks on their door every Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. and the eggs are from the neighbors free range chickens 6 houses away. There is no law enforcement on site and if anyone in the village has an emergency the church bells ring a different hand pulled (rope pulled ringer)pattern notifying everyone that someone is in need of help.

Yes - there are the modern things here also - hotel, restaurant, and a lake, where everyone comes to enjoy in mid/late summer. I will tell you that it took a couple of days to adjust but the TV was never turned on and my wife and I played with the grand kids with the simplest of games and songs.

The first picture below is of the local village church where everyone is welcome to attend Sunday mass and the doors are never locked.

The second picture is of large Roman City Gate in Trier, Germany called Porta Nigra (about 30 minutes from the village where my son lives)- and this gate was built in 170 A.D.... We spent several hours in this beautiful piece of history in amazement that it was built almost 2000 years ago.

And finally - in the covered parking garage of a dealership in Trier the sales manager kindly allowed my son and I to go down to see some of their inventory (last picture is a Bentley SUV - did not know they made an SUV). Car guys should like these pictures. This was a trip that my wife and I will never forget with plans to go back later this year for another visit since this part of our family will be stationed there for at least three more years. Enjoy my SIGForum friends......Mark

Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for posting the pics. I enjoyed them.

Lots to see and do in Germany! Wife and I covered all of West Germany during my first 4 years stationed there. We covered a good portion of what used to be the East zone the second tour, that was after the walls came down and the borders opened.

We still have relatives living in the "east zone" and had some great times visiting with them while stationed in Frankfurt!

Sounds like a neat trip, and neat experience for your son's family. Living in such a small town, they will really get a chance to get to know their neighbors and experience a different culture.

Very nice. The Porta Nigra is right across from the Trier Cathedral. I visited there in 2001 to see the Klais pipe organ there (we were considering that firm to build our new organ--and did hire them).

flashguy

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

What an interesting place to visit, much less to live in. Fresh bread from a baker who knocks on your door.

Everyone must know everybody else.

Flashguy, your church had a NEW organ built? What a wonderful blessing. A great church I used to attend had a fabulous organ and organist. The organist went on mission to Sweden (it’s harder to get converts in W Europe than in Africa or Asia); and not long after the church leaders had the organ removed. As President Trump would say, SAD!
I’ve had the opportunity to hear an organ concert in St. Thomas’ Church, Leipzig, where J.S. Bach was the Kapellmeister. He’s also buried there, so it was a little eerie looking at his tomb marker while listening to the wonderful music.

My first stay in Germany, just out of college, as at a Goethe-Institut school in Staufen, about 12 miles south of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Very quaint, as the OP describes, and the town did roll up the sidewalks at 6:30 pm. That’s how I got introduced to German and Swiss dark chocolate, the only thing you could buy after that time from a vending machine.

They raised wine grapes on a hill with a ruined castle at the top. At harvest, we got to taste the must, the fresh-squeezed grape juice.

Sweet memories, haven’t faded in the least in the last 54 years!

Thanks for sharing. What a wonderful trip!

Thanks - brings back memories! We lived in Kirchberg in the Rhineland-Palatinate, but population around 3,000 so a relatively "large" town. A lot of the roads were just re-paved Roman roads, and some weren't re-paved. Sometimes we'd eat in the NEW restaurant, built in the 1700s, and a little wine guy used to deliver wine to our door. Incredible amount of history in the region, from the Roman legions to the Napoleonic wars - your son and his family will have the opportunity of a lifetime!