Out of breathWow – that was close! Our train to Mainz from Bacharach was 10 minutes late, and by pure luck our next one was too. It was the second time now that we've had to walk from one end of a long train to the other to find 'first class' (which our eurorail passes are booked on – they won't let people over 25 get a 2nd class pass) car. In hindsight, literally, the other end of the train was probably closer... but Jon read the train's sign on the side SECONDS before the doors shut. We hopped on, not caring where we sat as long as we made it onto the train. Now I'm sweating from the workout – it's not pretty watching two overly backpacked non-skinny people waddle through a narrow train aisle (not unlike on a plane) slapping people with a variety of straps and bag corners... I was saying my excuse-me's as pardons so as to displace the dirty looks with stereotypes of France instead. :-)
Waiting to catch the train...Our last few minutes in Bacharach were sunny & misty, as the Rhine is warmer than the air (4 degrees Celsius this morning). It takes until after 11 for the mist to burn off revealing a clear blue sky and lots of bright sun. The leaves on the shrubs and trees are all changing colours, so there is a rich mix of deep green with reds, oranges, and yellows. Next week it would have been even prettier, I bet.
Jon waited at the train station while I bopped around the main street for a few minutes, taking more Doors of Europe photos for my future home-made poster... certainly the colours of the doors aren't as vibrant as they were the last time I was in Ireland and England, but the character in them is still prevalent.
Memories come up and are added to in the weirdest ways...The home of Ingrid and Helmut was a nostalgic experience – the fine points of German architecture and home design are what I grew to expect of expat homes in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, though I never really knew where the influences lay except that I knew they were European. Little things like the light switches, the layout, the door locks, the door handles, even the toilets reminded me of my youth overseas. It's funny what you forget you remember.
Good B&B Eats!The breakfast that Ingrid made for us this morning was again splendid and too much – the buffet of buns, cheese, meats, fruit, tomato and cucumber slices, preserves, soft boiled eggs, flavoured cream cheeses, yogurt, coffee, juice... stunning and daunting. After all the white wine last night (which gave me some harsh indigestion which lasted into this morning) it was hard to eat, but hard not to! She even gave me a little plastic baggy to take a bun away with. One bun in particular would have made Mom drool – mashed into sunflower seeds on the bottom, crusted with flax and sesame on top, and all of it throughout. I got my fiber this morning!
Wine tasting and random conversation with other tourists...Our mission upon returning to town after the long day in St. Goar was to try out some wine tasting. We *think* the place we ended up at was the one that Rick Steve's recommended, but regardless it was tasty. The whole place fit 5 tables of 6, and was awkwardly quiet when we first sat down. We stumbled with the choices until we saw the English menu at the back of the menu booklet and decided on the sampler that had everything from dry to sweet. As neither of us generally drink white, it was overwhelming to see 6 single numbered glasses set in front of us with only two large pieces of Rye bread to nibble on as we proceeded. I wanted to order food, but the lady was a little short and didn't seem to have patience or interest in double checking if we wanted food... it didn't help that I tried to order the Thursday special (Jon said it was Thursday!) on a Friday. A gentleman from Berlin tried to help us decide on something to eat, and from there our conversation with him and his wife began.
He was close to 60, or just over. He stopped now and then to translate summaries to his wife, and had a few moments where he was shy of his grammar yet his English (like Ingrids) was fantastic. As we say, WAY better than our German. We learned a few neat things:
-Most Germans start a job with 21 days of holiday per year. That's 4 weeks.
-6 week holidays aren't uncommon
-To visit the USA or Canada typically costs a minimum of $15K,
which at this point I can relate to from our perspective :-)
-retirement wages are somewhere around 1600-2000 Euro per month, which starts around age 60, and as such is not enough to travel with typically
-This gentleman really enjoys watching foreign news to get different perspectives, and doesn't like George W. Go figure.
Just when I thought I could handle no more wine...So even though I was intimidated by the quiet of the restaurant and the volume of wine, we ended up finishing those 6 glasses and another two simply to continue the conversation. The restaurant filled, chatter took over the quiet, and I never did get to order any food. It was a chilly 20 minute walk home, but a great day. Ingrid and Helmut offered us a glass of Rose and a sit in the living room for chit chat... complete with a DVD of a fire burning for atmosphere. We talked about languages and barriers of learning them, which was spurred by a funny innocent contextual mistake – Ingrid made the statement that we have enjoyed our vacation until today, rather than saying up to today... the look in our eyes wondering what doom was in store for us gave way to laughter about the splendid change in meaning depending on the words used.
I guess that concept doesn't exist in German language :-)
Some thoughts on European views of Coffee, Alcohol, and SmokingCoffee has a different philosophy attached to it in Europe. It's expensive, and drank in tiny amounts and rarely, if ever, to go. I can understand why Dad has portable-coffee making down to an art, and trusts Starbucks with his and Mom's lives when abroad, as a Caramel Macchiatto is the same, usually, no matter what country you are in. I probably would have brought my sealable Starbucks mug and some coffee packets and a boiling water thingy (wand) if I was that concerned (like Dad would) but so far we've understood coffee as an expense that is worth it for the consciousness & energy it brings, familiarity, and hydration... sort of. Plus, on train rides like this, it gives Jon something to do.
Alcohol also has it's own philosophy. It's way more acceptable to drink beer anywhere (especially at the park & on the train), so we've made sure to get a couple of 'tall ones' at the corner store when not in pursuit of coffee :-)
Smoking is undergoing a legal transformation right now. As of July 1st Germany has regulated almost all smoking... like we saw in Japan, there are marked out smoking zones on the train platforms, no smoking in the trains, any restaurants or bars, just like Calgary really... one guy we met on the last train was talking about how in his town all the bars are now private smoking clubs with memberships. Only a couple of them are non-private and thus smoke free. In contrast, there are still cigarette vending machines at train stations, near markets, and randomly placed elsewhere. We haven't been around a lot of teenagers at all, so I can't tell if teens smoke a lot, but I did notice that Converse running shoes and leather knee-high boots are all the rage. And scarves – LOTS of scarves.
It was the same in the Netherlands, though ironically the coffee shops could let people smoke pot as long as it wasn't mixed with Tobacco. Weird. Also, ironically, the coffee shops had cheaper coffee (probably because they were making their money elsewhere!).
Since I wrote this I have retired my jeans.So I packed two pairs of pants. One pair of jeans, and one pair of Superstore “Joe” yoga pants. I should have trusted my instinct when examining my jeans for wear and not brought them, as they are now totally split in the inner thighs where my legs touch. HOT. The Yoga pants are working out better as a result, but slip down a lot resulting in me crafting a makeshift belt from my pink silk scarf. We hear that Prague has lots of clothes shopping, so hopefully I can get a new pair there or it will be ALL yoga ALL the time.
Uh oh - aka Oh Shit?Jon's wondering if we're still on the right train. Sometimes some cars go to one spot and others split off at stops, to there is indeed a chance that we're totally off course, but thankfully we've got two nights in Rothenburg so I'm not worried – our Eurorail pass let's us make mistakes and as long as it's in the same day ticket's included... small benefits to spending the extra cash on the pass! He's off to find someone who may know better, and then we'll likely have to stay on until the next big town to switch back. The trains are probably the most confusing thing we've encountered, and there's no shortcut.
Ok it's correct. Thank goodness.
(PS - it was the correct train, but again we had to run down stairs, up others that would get us to the right train all with tons of weight on our backs and sore legs from the castle climb the day before. The whistle blew as we were running down the stairs. I attempted two stairs at once and nearly died. The conductor literally waited for us and an old lady - but again for less than 20 seconds. Holy crap. We were panting for what seemed like forever. THANK GOODNESS we didn't have drag-behind-you luggage, or we would have missed at least ONE of those connections. Yay backpacking!)
