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Germany at last
Entry 10 of 35 | show all | print this entry |
Jan 30 and 31
I arrived in Germany after what has to be one of the longer days I have ever spent traveling . I left Lima, Peru where I had returned after spending a final night in Cusco after completing the Inca Trail. I left Lima around 10 am to get to the airport for my 1pm flight to Sao Paulo. In the process of getting to Sao Paulo, I lost 3 hours from traveling east, so I really have no idea how long my trip was exactly, but I arrived in Frankfurt at around 3:45 local time in the afternoon. The flight from Sao Paulo to Frankfurt was in first class, which is THE way to travel. I had filet mignon and some sort of fancy asparagus and tomato appetizer on the flight, along with really good champagne and pretty much anything else I wanted. It was great because the seat folded flat into a bed and I actually got some decent sleep on the flight.
Getting Euros at the atm was pretty easy compared to how hard it was to get pesos and soles in Argentina and Peru. The Frankfurt airport is just how you would expect a German airport to be- efficient and orderly. All the signs are marked in English and German, and most of the announcements are made in both languages as well.
I had to wait a long time for my bags to come through on the belt, and was hoping there would not be a repeat of the situation Buenos Aires situations with my bags. The eventually came out onto the belt, and I found the train station with relative ease. It was at this point I realized I did not have the contact information for J and Kim Nelson on me...they are some friends I met through Luke and Becky Meyers. J is in lawyer in the US Army and is stationed in Mannheim (I thought they were living in Heidelberg for some reason....more on this to come). So, I figured that as long as I could get to a computer I could get to the email they had sent and get their phone number. In earlier email communications I had indicated I would arrive in Frankfurt at 2pm which was supposed to be the case.
I decided to take a train to Mannheim because I knew that was at least part of where I was supposed to be going to get to the Nelsons. In reality that was the only place I needed to go! Once in Mannheim, I could not find a computer to use, so going on what I had thought was correct, I bought a ticket for 4.5E and headed to Heidleberg, only to get off at the wrong station! There are multiple stops with Heidelberg and I got off at the one that had no train station, etc. It looked like it may have been the worst part of Germany,...something out of the movie Band of Brothers. I quickly realized my mistake, and hopped on the next train after learning from another person at the stop that the real Heidelberg was the next station down.
Upon arriving in Heidelbergs real train station, I found an internet cafe and looked up J and Kim's number. I rang them, and they gave me the good news that they actually lived in Mannheim!! So, I bought a ticket back, practically being an expert on the Heidelberg to Mannheim route, and arrived at their house about 20 minutes later.
J and Kim have two great kids- Major and Hudson. Major is 2.5 years old and Hudson is only 9 months. Both are really well behaved, and Major is about the most polite kid I have met, a really sweet little guy. It has been nice relaxing in a place where everyone speaks English as their first language, and where ham is not served with cheese and bread for breakfast!
On Tuesday, Kim and the little guys and I drove to Ladenberg and to Heidelberg. We spent the morning walking around the very quaint town of Ladenberg. Its buildings are picturesque, and the town is an old Roman settlement along a river. There was not much going on, but I can imagine in the summer it is a nice place to spend an afternoon. Heidelberg was a different story. It is very beautiful, also located on the banks of a river, and there were many people out and about. The city serves a US Army base, and so there are more tourists in town, but overall, it did not feel like a typical tourist trap. I walked the streets, looked up at the ruins of an impressive castle which billed itself as the greatest castle in Germany (which I seriously doubt is the case...it is more likely similar to the Krug Park castle than Buckingham Palace). There were lots of stores to go in and out of, and I sampled the local bratwurst which was not bad. Kim and the boys had a doctor appointment so I toured H-berg on my own and had a great time.
On Wednesday (Feb 1) I planned to borrow the Nelson's 1991 BMW M3 and drive the autobahn up to the Rhine River valley towns of St. Goar and Bacharach, but when I got up it was too foggy to do much of anything, so I spent today getting caught up on travel plans, including this journal. I am planning on leaving for Paris tomorrow and understand the train trip is about 5 hours in length.
More to come! Keep checking back. I think there have been almost 750 visits to the site which is pretty amazing.
Josh
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