Stop over in Steinau
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2006
1
3
120
Trip End
Sep 02, 2008
Steinau,
Germany
Sunday, January 8, 2006
It took me twenty hours to get from Edmonton to Frankfurt. I arrived about five pm local time, where I was met by Cate D and her parents {she and my sister were exchange partners} who volunteered to put me up for the day in their home in Steinau, about one hour outside of Frankfurt.
Our first stop was Cate's cousin Stephan's house, where he was celebrating his 23rd birthday. Her entire extended family was there. I can't imagine many places where a just about stranger can be welcomed as a friend at a birthday party and be treated as such, but that was one of them! By this time I was drinking coffee as if it were water to stay awake, so when it came time to celebrate the evening with schnapps, I had to exert fair moderation in order to not fall asleep then and there.
The next day Cate's family took me to the cathedral in Fulda. Despite the fact that there has been a church there for 1300 years, the building is relatively new. A few hundred years ago, the local price tore the old church down to replace it with a more stylish baroque building! In fact, he rebuilt most of that town. Inside the cathedral is the tomb of St. Benedict {the English monk who converted the Germans to Christianity}. We celebrated mass and then walked about the town for the morning, although it could have been warmer.
We enjoyed a quiet afternoon playing some games - an relaxing way to get over jet-lag. Cate's sister went out dressed up as a king as per the three kings or three wise men of the story of Christ's nativity. In groups of 4 {?}, young people dressed up as kings go from door to door to collect money for charity. Yes, it's kind of backwards! This year they are collecting for orphanages in Peru. Last year over all of Germany, the collected 50 million Euro!
And now this peaceful time comes to an end as I am off to Istanbul via Deutsche Bahn {an expensive train monopoly in Germany} and Germanwings {an inexpensive airline). Ironically, it is more expensive to take the train from Frankfurt to Cologne {3 hours} than it is to take an airplane from Cologne to Istanbul {also 3 hours!}. C'est la vie.
