I liked the small towns

  I traveled a lot in the two years I was in Germany.  Most of the travel involved work; however, most of the time I stayed in local hotels or gasthaus accommodations. Occasionally I would use military housing but during maneuvers there were never enough rooms available.  I figure I drove a little over 100,000 miles in the two years I was there. Drove all over Germany, west into France, south into Italy and southwest into Spain.  Also got into Belgium and Luxemburg and Switzerland.

  I’m still amazed at the number of service personnel (even today) that rarely leave their assigned base.  They go to the movie, bowl, play sports, eat at Burger King or McDonalds and take part in all the Special Services things available to them – BUT they only leave base when their unit goes somewhere. What a waste. Shown below is the Robinson Barracks PX and Theater.  There was also an NCO club and other facilities for the soldiers and their families.

  I loved what I did but I also couldn’t wait for the evenings and weekends. A couple of my favorite towns near Zuffenhausen were Calw, Marbach am Neckar and Tubingen.  Calw because it was beautiful, Marbach because it was old and close by and Tubingen because it was a University town and had girls from all over the world. Picture below is the main street in Calw.

  Calw was just south of Stuttgart and was at the very northern end of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).  I rarely saw any GI’s roaming around Calw. I did see an occasional American family.  My other favorite small town was Marbach am  

Neckar.  It wasn’t far from Zuffenhausen and there was a very small gasthaus just off the main plaza downtown.  It took a few trips to be accepted and then later I was invited to sit at the owners table near the back by the kitchen.

  My other favorite town was Tubingen which was due south and had a University with lots of girls from all over Europe.

  The pictures above show the town hall and a view from across the Neckar river.  I never scored with any gals from Tubingen but I kept  going back because of the college atmosphere and people (girl) watching.

  IF YOU WERE IN STUTTGART OR THE 594TH PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.  WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM OTHERS WHO SERVED. TSD