U.S. Army Stuttgart

It's been a week since I took these photos.  We took them last weekend when we went for walks around the bases. When we first got here (over a week ago already!), it was cloudy, rainy and overcast for a few days; much like Seattle weather.  The last few days have been colder, snowy and still overcast.  Apparently, this is the norm until the summertime.  Not sure how we feel about that.  Well, last weekend was the first time we had seen some sunshine around here. And since we don't have a car (and we didn't want to bother our sponsor) and had some time on our hands, we thought we'd do some walking around our new "neighborhood". 

There are four bases that make up the U.S. Army Stuttgart Installation--Patch Barracks, which is the main post that houses the Headquarters of the United States European Command, or EUCOM, as well as the Special Operations Command Europe, or SOCEUR; Panzer Kaserne, which is where the Garrison Command is, as well as the Marine Forces Europe, or MARFOREUR; Kelley Barracks, where Africa Command, or AFRICOM, is; and Robinson Barracks, which is primarily a housing area, although every base has housing.  Every base has a PX and commissary, although they are miniature versions of what's back home.  Panzer is where we're staying.  The lodging is here, as well as the main PX and the welcome center (where we do our inprocessing).  I'm not sure when Kelley and Robinson were built, but I do know that Patch Barracks and Panzer Kaserne were built during World War II.  Both bases have cobblestone streets and although you can tell that much of it has been redone over the years, a lot still date back that far.  It's really beautiful.

Most of, if not, all the buildings on every base look just like this.  Even the stairwell housing we're planning on living in looks like this (even though this is an office building).

I've been told that four families live on each floor of these buildings.  That sounds really crowded to me.  But you'd be surprised at how spacious the apartments are, especially the newer ones on Robinson Barracks.

The backdrop of the hotel we're staying in is all forest.  You guys don't know how happy we are to see some green around here...even green grass!

Since we have no car, we've become pros at riding the buses to and from post.  I especially have since I have to take the bus to Patch every morning to go to work.  It's quite a transition, but all the walking is great exercise.  If I don't lose any weight here, I don't know what I'm going to do.  In any case, like Panzer, you can walk around all of Patch Barracks in about half an hour.  We walked around the housing area that we plan on living in (we should have a place by mid-February) and passed by the EUCOM Headquarters.

I've toured this building a few times while I've been doing my on-the-job training and it's beautiful.  Even the conference room is fancy-do, like the offices you see in the White House on TV shows.  EUCOM is the headquarters for all the units throughout all of Europe.  The guy that's in charge is a Navy Admiral.  So a lot of serious stuff goes on here.  My office is in a building right across the street from these headquarters.

I have about two more weeks of inprocessing before I actually start working, but I've had the opportunity to meet all the folks I've been working with and they're great.  I can tell the job is going to be busy (and at times, overwhelming), but I have a feeling I'll be having some fun too because everyone's so friendly and easy going. 

And seriously...we live in Germany!  I think it'll be a while before we get over the excitement of being here.  Once we get our driver's licenses (hopefully at the end of this coming week) and get settled into housing, we'll be able to get out into the town (as well as the rest of Europe) to do more sightseeing. 

Anyway, I better get to bed.  I'm still trying to get used to the time change here.  It's killing me!  Have a great Friday everyone!

Note:  After doing some reading...I found out that all the bases were originally built back during WWII as German bases.  And there are actually five different bases/installations...one is an Army airfield, Stuttgart Army Airfield to be exact.