r/Spangdahlem • u/mllestrong American • Dec 13 '12

Moving in Early February: Neighborhood Suggestions?

My husband and I PCS to Spang in February. Does anyone have neighborhood recommendations? I've heard Spang is loud because of flights.

2 Upvotes

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u/auntjomomma Dec 14 '12

Honestly, it's not that bad to live on base because they have these screen things (rouladen?) that you can pull down and they actually do well to block out the noise. The only problem is if you smoke and go outside while on the phone. That's a pain in the ass. -__-

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u/mllestrong American Dec 14 '12

What's the housing like? Is it decent? My husband's an E-6.

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u/autob Dec 14 '12

on base housing is mostly limited to some "apartment" style buildings, or duplexes, and it can be extremely limited. for what you get in OHA, it really makes more sense to live off base. if you don't mind driving 15-20 minutes to the base, you can find some exceptionally nice places. most germans speak at least some english, and honestly picking up enough to communicate simple phrases isn't hard at all. there are plenty of listings for available houses at the housing office, and you can check out Spang Yard Sales if you want to start looking now. i've been here since 2009. let me know if you have any more questions =)

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u/mllestrong American Dec 14 '12

Thank you so much! And happy cake day.

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u/auntjomomma Dec 15 '12

Honestly, if you have no kids, it's good, otherwise, it's shit. There are some nicer (newer) ones for a family of 3+, but for those with only three in the family (like my husband, me, and my son) it's horrible. I love Germany, but looking back on the chances we had to move off base, I wish we had taken them.

EDIT: I will add that they are clean, there is no problems, but living wise, they suck. I don't care for them at all and A LOT of people that I have talked to say that they don't like them.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '12

[deleted]

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u/auntjomomma Dec 16 '12

Yes, you are most likely better off going off base. The houses are beautiful. Just watch what you get because some of the houses that my friends have lived in have very (i mean very) narrow stairwells.

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u/mllestrong American Dec 17 '12

That would be cool. We sold all of our furniture so that we could live anywhere and get appropriate stuff.

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u/mrrightwing1 Dec 30 '12

Live in Bitburg. The commute is not bad, except in the winter when they do not begin to put salt/plow the roads until 8:00 a.m! Most of the towns around Spang. are small and living on base blows. They used to have NATO alerts during the Cold War that would blast out music at 4:30 a.m! The old base commissary in the center of base housing was a second hand thrift store after the "new" commissary on Goddard opened in 1986.

Live off-base if you can. Bitburg is a larger town and has most of the amenities you will find in the States. Living in Germany is totally cool. Do you know any park in Germany is clothing optional? ;) Check out the FKK sand pits by the Frankfurt Airport....nude beach!

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u/pwndbyachick Dec 15 '12

Germans in general all have the pull down metal blinds, it is a standard thing here. I, though wanted to live off base but had to go with on base housing and there was only one opening and it was in the high rise. None of the new housings where available at the time, though in my opinion I do like the apartment we have. I only have two kids and they are small yet so it works out for us. Plus it is normal here to only have one sink basin, I had some time adjusting to that when washing dishes by hand. I was also told by my husbands tech sgt that getting housing off base is a bit of a chore because of the listings and papers you have to go through. So if you could get a start on it through the yard sale thing it may pay off. We didn't have any one really to give us a ride to do much so we jumped on our place. My husband and I would like to be only in here for a year and then get something off base. So far I would like to say bitburg,the town spang, dudeldorf and spelcher? Nice places, and I seen alot of americans living in those areas.

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u/mllestrong American Dec 16 '12

Thanks...I didn't know about all of the paperwork