SPANGDAHLEM AIR FORCE BASE
 

Gus Grot!
I will be moving to the area in a year and want to determine what town to live in. I would like to live in a city center so I can walk to market, and restaurants. I do not want to live to far from base, 30 min maximum. I like the idea of living in one of the wine towns on the mossel river, but also would not mind living in one of the bigger towns like bitberg or trier. I want the full german experience! Location Location Location! Any suggestions would be great. Please also write if you know anything about how to find off base houseing to rent. Do most military people rent or buy? I was reading the base online site and it said that they encourage you to find a house through the housing office on base...Is this how most people find their houseing?

Thanks

If you are in the Military you are required to use the housing office in order to get your housing allowance. This came about for EEOC/discrimination problems with some German landlords.

Also...Gruss Got is the expression.
Tschus!

Actually, it's "Gruess Gott" and "Tschuess"...

Seeing the discussion of Grüss Gott, I can't resist mentioning seeing it as the electronic greeting on the cash register at my favorite supermarket in Prien am Chiemsee. It always amused me to see a cash register telling me "God's Greetings," which is more-or-less what I took the phrase to mean.

I lived in Heidelberg in a BOQ many years ago. I always wanted to live off base, but I could never get permission. I assume that was because the army preferred that we live in army housing if any places were available. It was more economical for them, since the army paid for off-base housing.

With the dollar in such bad shape against the euro, you may not be able to get off base housing, since the gov't would have to pay so much for it. That's just my guess, though.

I don't know much about the mechanics of getting off-base housing, but I do recall that there were disadvantages, like having to install certain fixtures on your own--things that we'd expect an apartment U.S. to have already.

Anyway, I loved my time in Germany, and I still love the country and visit it often. Travel somewhere in Germany every chance you get, as well as outside the country.

I guess some Germans are lazy; in my company they seemed to spell it as listed above...Bis spater!

Longboatkey: Grüss, Tschüss, and später all have umlauts, which changes the pronunciation. Much of the time non-German speakers add an e after the u to indicate the umlaut.

And some German speakers add the e because they can't be bothered to find the umlaut...

We had good luck with the housing referral office. It was a service that you would probably have to pay for on the economy. They had a list of landlords that are willing to let to Americans and usually vetted by experience, having let apartments to US Forces before.

Housing referral offices also had furniture for loan. German apartments often did not have appliances or closets, meaning that the lending closet was a great economic benefit.

Finally they had interpreters if there were issues to be resolved, as can happen even both parties have to best of intentions.

The only downside was that once we had to live on base as housing was available. For us that turn out pretty well in any case.

Regards, Gary

Hi, Mollyann40. You're on the right track to want to live on the economy if possible.

I think that might be possible, given the increase in the size of the base over the past few years. If you already have orders (a year out??), you should definitely be in touch with the housing office to see what the situation is. There is also on-base housing available at the old Bitburg AB, about 15 km away, but it is stairwell living, just like Spang. Yuck.

Your sponsor and other folks in your squadron will be the biggest source of information for you. It frequently happens that "good" houses get into a squadron and are kept there, passed from the departing folks to newcomers before anyone else can even find them. In the past, folks have lived all through the Eifel in little villages and, of course, in Bitburg, a very nice town. You will be too far away, IMHO, from Trier or anywhere along the Mosel to want to live there. Even with the new autobahns, you'll have to travel on small, twisty and hilly farm roads (read: tractors) and esp. in the winter, that's an issue. But village life is wonderful, so do try for that, even in the face of the Euro.

Finally, you will not hear the typically Bavarian greeting "Gruss Gott" around Spangdahlem. You'd probably get a funny look saying that in the Eifel. You should practice "Guten tag" or more to the point, "Tag" (pronounced "tog"). That's the norm. Best wishes.