GERMANY

DAY 1

     My plane touched down 45 minutes late (6:45 am) in Frankfurt, Germany.  Remember I was on a Lufthansa plane and Jim was looking for United Airlines.  Well, I waited by the gate for a few minutes as crowds of people were briskly walking past me.  No sign of Jim anywhere.  I walked up to the help desk and tried to communicate with them, but they spoke German, not English.  I decided to follow the crowd.  I wandered a while and saw another help desk.  They did speak a little English, so I asked them if they can page Jim for me.  Of course they wanted to know my story why he needed to be paged, so I explained it to them.  Then they told me I have to go over to that desk to have him paged, and they pointed me on my way.  I approached that desk, and the same thing happened.  They pointed me to another desk.  Nine desks later, I finally found the "American" help desk.  As he picked up the phone to page Jim, I turned around and there was Jim waiting in the exact same line about 5 people behind me.  He was going to have me paged.  In my opinion, it was purely a miracle that we were able to find each other.  We were in another country, we couldn't speak the language or read the signs, they changed my flight, it was an hour and a half after my ETA, and we were in an airport the size of JFK International, and we happened to "bump into" each other.  It was a sign.  We had been called there by God.  Ha ha.

     Well, since Jim's flight had come the night before, we went back to his hotel to get his bags.  As we walked into the ritzy hotel, I mentioned to Jim that I hoped this trip would be cheap.  After all, I had just graduated from college.  Jim was puzzled why I came.  We decided to make things easy by eating breakfast at the hotel.  After all, it is an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.  It was extremely delicious, but not $15 worth.  Oh well, it's only money.

     After breakfast we took a taxi to the train station.  Eventually we figured out the correct room to buy Eurail passes.  We got in line and waited.  Once again, it was the wrong line.  We tried a different one.  Nope.  While we were in line, some gypsies approached us.  They asked for some change.  Jim, eagerly wanting to help others, held out his hand full of change and they started rummaging through his pile of coins.  We believe they ended up with the better deal.   I don't remember how many lines we tried, but after almost 2 hours, we stumbled across the correct one and bought our passes.  This allowed us to use the trains as much as we wanted in the next 21 days within Western Europe, with the exception of Great Britain.  The British always have to do things differently.

     Our next big feat was to decide where to go.  We hopped on the next train to Berlin, which was about 5 hours away.  By the time we reached Berlin, we (or at least I) were exhausted.  Jim claims that I had "jet-lag", but I am convinced that I am immune from that sort of thing.  At any rate, evidently we got off at the wrong station, because there were NO hotels even close to us.  We took the subway to the tourist area, or so we thought.  We hiked and hiked.  Eventually we found a few hotels and picked one.  We then decided to have our first "cultural" meal.  We ate at a tidy restaurant where no one in the entire restaurant spoke a lick of English.  We pointed to something at random on the menu to order our food.  Jim was lucky and got a decent meal.  I, on the other hand, got something quite different.  I don't even know what it was.  It was something like carrots, celery, potatoes, other vegetables?, and some sort of meat all mashed together and in this cold Jell-o gravy type substance cut in squares.  Oh how I longed for a McDonalds.

     On an empty stomach, I decided to go to bed.  After all, I had now been up nearly 55 hours with virtually no sleep.  Jim decided to live it up at the hotel and enjoyed the night life in the bar downstairs.  While he was there visiting with the German women who look like Jim's cousin, he also met a German guy.  Soon Jim came upstairs and told me I have to meet him.  Reluctantly, I did go downstairs for a while, and he gave us good deals for a city tour of Berlin since he arranged them.  Later we discovered why he gave us a good deal.  He liked me.

DAY 2

     On a good night's rest, we could enjoy our city tour.  We were instructed the night before where to go to meet him.  We spotted him and got on the bus.  The company providing the tours was Severin and Kuhn (Jim's last name), so we thought it was another sign by God.  It was a tour where we could stop at the sites and get off there for as long as we wanted.  But he told us that the last bus goes at 5:00 pm so wherever we are, we have to get on that bus.  It was a good tour.  We saw Kurfurstendamm and the Memorial Church, KaDeWe shopping mall, Lutzowplatz and Kulturforum (Cultural Auditorium--where fine arts performances are held).  At one point, we thought we saw the Berlin Wall, so we got out at the next stop and hiked back.  To much surprise, it wasn't the Berlin Wall.  But we looked at the map and Checkpoint Charlie wasn't far away, so we decided to hike to it.  Once again, we got lost a few times, and thought that we found the Berlin Wall this time.  We were wrong, but it was famous for something.  We got lost a few more times, but eventually we found Checkpoint Charlie.  Later on the tour we saw the Berlin Wall, the Prussian Parliament, Alexander Square, and the Church of Berlin.  Also at the Church we took a boat ride down the river and saw some other famous buildings such as Berlin's new Capitol Building under construction and a famous museum with some Egyptian stuff.

     Well, before we knew it, 5:00 came around.  By this time we were through most of the tour, so we figured the bus wouldn't be coming around for another half-hour or so.  Just to be sure, we left the Church of Berlin so that we could be to the bus stop by 5:15.  Well, we waited and waited.  Pretty soon, 5:30 rolled around.  Then 5:45.  Shortly after that, the final bus came.  We were waiting by the bus stop.  However, the bus didn't stop at the bus stop.  It stopped past the bus stop a ways.  We grabbed our bags and made a mad dash for the bus, waving our hands and screaming.  We got just beside the bus so that the tourists on the bus saw us, but the bus pulled away.  Where were we?!!  We walked around until we spotted a map and a city bus schedule.  Of course it was in German, so it didn't help us much.  But we decided to start hiking once again.  About a mile down the street, we saw Brandenburg Gate.  We hopped on a city train there and made our way back to the train station.  

     We looked at the map and decided to go to Munich, Germany next because there was an overnight train that was going there, and we could be there by morning.  The chairs weren't very comfortable to sleep in, but we were young, so we managed.  During the night, we passed through one of the most fierce lightning storms that I remember.  It was cool.

DAY 3

     Not a whole lot happened on our third day.  We spent the morning in Munich walking around.  In late morning, we took a train to Fussen and then got on a bus that took us near Neuschwanstein Castle.  That is the castle with which Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida is a replica.  Of course it is in the Alps Mountains, so once again we had about a mile hike up the mountain to go see it.  Just before we were ready to enter the castle, my camera broke!!!  Fortunately Jim still had his camera.  We couldn't take any pictures inside the castle though.  The tour and hiking and riding the bus back to Munich took most of the day.  We then took the night train to Frankfurt.

DAY 4

     That morning we hung out at the train station in Frankfurt.  That evening, we were scheduled to meet Thomas Winheim at his place of work near Frankfurt.  He said he would be in Sprendlingen.  We found it on the map, and it was a dinky town southwest of Frankfurt.  We thought that was odd, but we took a train from Frankfurt to Mainz which was near there, and then we hopped on a bus that eventually took us to Sprendlingen.  We got off at the first exit and walked another quarter-mile or so until we reached the downtown area.  We walked all around the town, but we couldn't find the business he mentioned, so we asked a guy on the street.  He motioned for us to follow him, and he led us into a deli store.  He didn't speak any English, but one of the workers did.  He talked with his friends in German for a little while and then one of the workers told us we were in the wrong town.  The towns shared the same name, but the company was located in a suburb of Frankfurt.  We were about an hour and a half from Frankfurt and we were supposed to meet Thomas in 15 minutes.  Oops.  Then we asked where the train station was, so they gave us directions.  We started hiking towards it but quickly got lost once again.   We met a couple elderly ladies on the street, so Jim asked, "Sprecken sie English?"  A lady replied, "Yes."  She gave us directions to the train station, and once again we started hiking.  Soon the first guy comes driving up from behind us and stops his car beside us.  He motioned for us to get in his car.  We did.  We tried to ask where we were going, but he couldn't speak English so we weren't exactly sure what he was saying.  We thought he said the train station.  He drove us to the next train station, which was about 10 miles east at Worrstadt.  We sat and waited at the train station for about half an hour while the guy and the train station worker were discussing something in German.  Finally, we got things squared away and we  got on the next train to Frankfurt.  If the worker would have asked us in English from the very beginning, we could have saved them much discussion, but anyway, we were soon back in Frankfurt.

     We arrived in Frankfurt and tried to figure out the bus schedule to get us to Sprendlingen.  Finally we gave up and found a taxi.  Once again, he didn't speak English, but we pointed to the address and he took us straight there.  We were only about 2 hours late.  Thomas had already left, but a co-worker stuck around.  We called for Thomas on the security dealy and eventually his co-worker came to the door.  She let us in and Jim called Thomas's house, but his mother answered, and she didn't speak any English.  The lady got on the phone, and the mother said she would have Thomas call when he got there.  We waited a while and finally he called.  Thomas didn't want to drive his 50 mile one-way commute again late at night.  So the lady made some phone calls and found us a nice hotel for a very reasonable price.  She then drove us to the doors of the hotel in her brand new Mercedes-Benz and told us Thomas would pick us up in the morning at those doors.  By this time, I was in love with Germany.  Everyone that we met went out of their way to help us when we needed it.

DAY 5

     Thomas arrived right on schedule and gave us an inside tour of Germany.  He drove us around all day long and it was a welcome change to be with someone who was familiar with the area, although the adventure and spur-of-the-moment decisions made the trip a lot more fun.  First, Thomas drove us to Frankenwinheim where we saw the old Winheim Castle, the home of both Thomas's and Jim's ancestors once lived.  We couldn't locate it right away, so we asked for directions in the local pub.  We met a farmer and the mayor of the town.  They said it was right around the corner, and one of the waiters left the restaurant and walked us over to it.  Jim and Thomas took many pictures of the castle remains (my camera broke remember).  We then went to the mayor's house and he gave Thomas a book and told him it was free since he was a Winheim.  On the way to Rothenburg, we ate some soup at a diner just off of the autobahn.  In no time we arrived in Rothenburg, the city that was surrounded by a wall.  We perused the area for a few hours.  We climbed the lookout tower and observed the giant Coo-coo clock. 

     Late afternoon, Thomas drove us back to his parents' house in Hilders-Wickers.  We traveled on the autobahn at 160 km/hr (100 mph) zipping through rolling hills and valleys like a hot knife through butter.  In no time at all, we were back to his parents' abode.  They warmly welcomed us into their home and fixed us a four-course homemade meal made largely of homegrown products from their farm.  However, our beverage was not from the farm... carbonated mineral water.  Not bad tasting, but I prefer Nebraska tap water.  Nonetheless, it was an extraordinary meal and fun communicating with Thomas's parents even though they didn't speak English.

     That evening, Thomas took us out on the town, showing us typical German nightlife.  It was fun visiting with him and seeing other German women.  When we tired out, Thomas drove us back to his parents' house where we spent the night.

DAY 6-- D-DAY

     Breakfast was also very good.  We once again ate food from their farm.  It was scrumptious.  After breakfast we drove up to spy mountain about 20 miles away.  Since it was Sunday morning and something was happening up there, all the locals congregated.  Amidst the traffic and crowds, we parked and hiked in the rain up to the top.  We looked around for a while, observing the territory where the Americans used to spy on the East Germans.  Finally, all good things must come to an end, and after taking us back to his parents' house to pick up our backpacks, Thomas drove us to the train station.  We said our farewells and were on our way to The Hague in The Netherlands to visit Jim's friends, Ros and Stephen.  Late that afternoon, shortly before the border of Germany, a pack of teenagers hopped on our train car with a portable radio.  After our fill of the Backstreet Boys' song "You are/ my fire/ My one/ desire/ .../ I want it that a way/ ..." Jim and I were ready to tackle new land, new languages, and new cultures.