Day 14 (Part 1) - Schwaebisch Hall, Rinnen, and Dolan Barracks

One of the things we wanted to do in Germany was to visit where we lived and worked when Irv was stationed there from 1989 to 1992.  It's hard to believe that it has been 25 years since we left Germany.

 

Towns change in 25 years and Schwaebisch Hall is no exception.  It took us a little while to get our bearings, but then we found the road to Rinnen, the village we lived in.

 

It's about a 5 mile drive up a very narrow and curvy road.  This particular curve is where Irv totaled my car. Luckily no one was hurt and the car was a lemon so we were happy to see it go.

 

 

The village of Rinnen is pretty much the same except that there are more houses.  This is where we lived on the first floor.  There are houses directly behind and to the left of the house now.  There were orchards there when we lived there.

 

 

This was the neighbor's barn.  I remember looking at the cornerstone on it once and it is older than the United States.

 

This is our landlord's house, Herr Ruger.  We decided there was no way he could still be alive so we didn't go looking for him.

 

This is Frau Leidig's barn.  She was a lady who befriended Mary and taught her to ride.  We should have knocked on her door, but we just didn't know if she would still be there.

 

This was the village gasthaus.  We had many meals there.

 

Driving back down the hill, this is the intersection where the bus used to pick Dana up to take her to High School in Stuttgart.  Yes, there's a KFC there now.

 

Getting to Dolan Barracks was a challenge because the road is being worked on.  We also couldn't find the gate that we were accustomed to going through.  I think it must be gone.  The majority of the post is gone and has been replaced with new buildings.  The only sign that an American Army post was ever here was this hangar.  This was the Chinook hangar.

 

 

This is part of what used to be the officer's housing although it has been completely redone.  There were two of these buildings when we were there, only one now.

 

On the airfield Irv's old office building is gone and only one of the hangars remains and it looks quite run down. 

 

 

All the enlisted housing is still there and it looks the same although I don't think they had balconies when we were there.  We've heard that it's used for refuge housing now.

 

This is the day care that Jillian attended for a short time.  She could never get used to the environment and cried all day.  Eventually they asked us to take her out.  We found a wonderful German lady to be her nanny and it all worked out great.

 

This is the elementary school that Mary attended.

 

This building was the post library, shopette, and bookstore, I think.  That's about all that is left of Dolan Barracks.  The bank I worked at is gone, the barracks are gone. 

 

 

Next we decided to visit the Schwaebisch Hall city center.

 

All of this looked the same, we even saw the ice cream shop we used to go to.  What we don't know though is how we ever drove our mini van down these narrow streets.

 

This is St. Michael's Church.  In the summer we used to go see plays that were done on the stairs of the church.  Irv once went up the tower and then froze when he got on the platform up there.  That's when I learned to never tease Irv by playfully giving him a shove when he's up high in an unenclosed area.  When the soldiers were deployed to Desert Storm this church would hold services for the families.  Such kindness.

 

This is the Rathaus.

 

The city used to host a great German-American fest along this river in the summer.  Lots of fun.  There's no Americans in Schwaebisch Hall anymore, I wonder if they miss us.

 

After reminiscing for awhile it was time to head to Rothenburg.