Circle Inn - Ramstein

This year Wifey decided she wanted to stay in the town of Ramstein instead of the town of Landstuhl.  We've enjoyed both hotels we've visited in the area (the Merkur we've stayed at twice); but felt a new home base might spice things up and give a different radius for walking and exploration. After much trip-adviser research, the Hotel Circle Inn was chosen.  This is on the outer edge or Ramstein; and we now realize probably the closest hotel to Hubby's work.

We missed our hotel when we first exited the round-about onto it's road.  Hotel Circle Inn shares a parking lot with Avis and is somewhat tucked behind the entrance. Luckily we also rent cars that can make u-turns and recalculate! The next few pictures show the entrance area and view as you curve around to the 'front' of our hotel.

across the street view.

The circle of Hotel Circle Inn - as viewed from our beautiful bedroom windows!  

And, our beautiful bedroom windows!  So much natural light even though it is rainey outside! 

Opposite the windows we have a built-in work-space and living area. Also pictured in the center bottom of the "work space" photo is our mini-fridge.  It shares cabinet design features so you can't even tell its a refrigerator.  

Work Space!

Think we can bring this couch home!? <3

COMFY!

Sitting area

 The bathroom is nice and roomey.  I would slightly prefer if conditioner was provided; but that's just me :) Note - German or European towel dryers.

The entry-way hall includes a coat closet and bathroom access. 

Housekeeping is on top of things!  We left our room around 9:00 am to buy some groceries and came home around 10:15 to find the room already cleaned and our neck-pillows artfully incorporated into the freshly made bed!  Love it! 

Old-school key - no comment. 

Breakfast is good, although not the best we've had in the area.  Hot options included a mozzarella salad, scrambled eggs, and potato dish.  3 cereals were also available along with a selection of breads, meats, and cheeses.  Black coffee comes with it, and specialty espresso drinks are available for a fee.  There are also several varieties of juice to drink.  Hubby prefers breakfast at the Schloss with its dried fruit.  Wifey prefers the Merkur's yogurt options.  

Breakfast room/Bar

French Bakery and German Cemetery

We had a bit of trouble locating the french bakery that was recommended by our desk-clerk probably due to crossing 3 languages and two GPS's.  We managed to follow our rental car's GPS to the town where this mystery bakery was located but had to stop in a random hotel and ask for directions from there.  The directions were basically:

• go to the next round about and take the first exit.  
• Then go to the next round about and take the first exit.  
• Then go to the next round about and take the third exit.  
• Continue straight.  

La Mine de Pain did not disappoint.  We ordered coffee that was well - too french for our taste; but did serve the purpose of espresso - keeping us awake!  We also enjoyed a sweet treat of some kind for which we don't have a name.  The whole outing cost about 8EU which is about as much as one drink from Starbucks. Also, free-wifi allowed us to download and install google translate as well as the French and German Language packages which we had forgotten to do before leaving for Europe.  

Across the street from La Mine de Pain was a grocery where we purchased all-important bottled water; a necessity for the night!  Wifey drove home.  #WomenWhoKnowHowToDriveAManualTransmissionRock

Isn't this the nicest restaurant bathroom sink you've ever seen? 

After returning to our hotel across the border in Germany, we went for a walk .... because (1) avoiding sleep and (2) Wifey has a one year goal of walking 10K steps every single day.  We're just over 9 months in, so today isn't the day to break her streak! 

Random statue we saw along the way!  This was in Landstuhl.  

We also wandered into an old German cemetery.  It was clearly catholic and dates from the mid 1800's.  Most of the tombstones are no longer legible however.  We thought for a while the local sur name must've been Goff or Gott.  It's not.  Gott means God in German.  Apparently folks write "God" on their tombstones a lot here.  

For dinner we chose to visit New York Donor in Landstuhl.  We've been here several (many?) times before and it was one of the few places open on the holiday. We knew it'd provide a good quick meal that both of us would enjoy.  (Wifey doesn't eat Donor).  We were right.   

After dinner, we returned to our hotel room for the night and settled in for a few hours of work before bed!  All-in-all; a successful first day in Germany (and France)!

We Stayed Awake All Day! (and Happy German Unity Day)

Jet Lag Is Real.

One of the suggestions i've read for fighting jet lag is to stay awake once you land in a new time zone until a reasonable bed time.  No naps allowed.  This is especially tough when you land in that new time zone around 9 am local time as we did today!

Packing Light This Trip

9:34 - hitting the road

In order to keep ourselves busy we planned to do a bit of grocery shopping before even making it to our hotel.  As we headed west, we saw a scheck-in and knew it was perfect!  However, it looked closed and even had a gate blocking off the parking lot :(  Weird, but maybe it opens at 11:00 am so we decided to go after some coffee and maybe an early lunch instead.

We enjoyed lunch at a small Doner shop a few kilometers from the Scheck-In but couldn't quite understand the feeling in the city.  Everything was pretty dead.  We planned for our coffee and ayran "to-go" but communication failed and we sat instead.  Later we learned the English phrase for "to-go" that might have been successful was "Take-away".

Wifey had french fries and chicken nuggets.  Not Pictured.



Alas, enough time had passed, surely we could go get our German grocery shopping on!!! NOPE. Still closed.  Same with the home-improvement store across the interstate!  WEIRD!

An hour later, we began checking into our hotel.  It will receive it's own post later this week as we decided to try out a new lodging facility here in town.  Wifey casually asked the front desk clerk if today is a holiday and she answered, yes!  Today is German Unity Day.  Apparently on this day in 1990, East and West Germany became Unified.  Cool!  However this means that most stores and restaurants are closed.

Upon hearing our plight, the desk-clerk suggested we head to a coffee shop across the border that also happened to be located next door to a fancy-smancy grocery store.  After all, it isn't France's Unity Day! At only about a 45 minute drive away, it sounded like a perfect option. To Be Continued

NOLA

Wifey had a brief adventure for work to New Orleans.  An airport shuttle helped her avoid taxis!  

Forever grateful to the hotel staff that allowed me to check into my room when I arrived at 9 am!  

View from the elevator on my way up!

Networking lunch at the hotel!  I'm one of those crazy people who actually loves conference/hotel food! 

 The elevator call functions were outside each elevator car. You either choose your floor using the touch screen or scanned your room card and then the touch screen told you which elevator car to board and it would then automatically go to your destination.

Halal Guys:  We need you in Arkansas!  You were amazing and fed me for two days!  (Excuse the selfie - i had just ran a mile and a half and then walked a mile part-way back to my hotel)

Friday of my trip was all about the networking ... over breakfast and later in the day in vendor meetings!  Woo hoo! 

Halal Guys - leftovers make the best meals when you're literally running to catch a flight home!  My last meeting of the day let-out about a half hour early so I was able to catch an 11:30 bus arriving at the airport at 12:00; hurried through security (and only travel with carry-on luggage) and left on a 12:35 flight.  Repeat for a 2:30 flight from Dallas home after 2:00 arrival in Dallas and I made it home about 4 hours early.  Very thankful for my cleverly packed left-overs and American Airlines Gold status that allows me to change flights same-day free of charge.

La Quinta Biloxi

We recently took a last minute trip to Biloxi MS along with our fur-babies!  Since this is mostly a travel blog, you haven't had many chances to meet Bosco and Ellenor!  

Hours of googling and a phone call or two resulted in a room at the local pet-friendly La Quinta.  Our room was nice and the hotel staff gracious to our pets.  

Some things never change .... just like at home, our younger/larger dog waits by the door anytime Hubby is away.  

Our hotel room was typical for america.  It came with the expected free coffee and toiletries.  We ended up declining housekeeping services while we were there due to the annoyance of #pets, but received fresh towels and goodies daily at the front desk.  

We used the chair for a backpack landing zone to free up floor space for the dogs!