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Thursday 28 May:
A bit of a disturbed night’s sleep but we were all up and reasonably awake at 8am. Clear blue sky outside, something we haven’t seen for 10 days! After breakfast, showers, and a bit of a tidy up, Zachary and I headed out so Heather could rest her ankle and also do the packing. We had until 12pm to check out so the plan was for Heather to organise all that and then for us to meet her in the lobby at 12:30. The train was due to leave at 1:28. Despite the fact Heather had not actually checked out yet, 3 cleaning staff still came and knocked and asked if they could clean the room. Clearly there is no communication going on there!
I decided to go to the Olympic Park, site of the 1972 Olympic Games. We walked around the complex and also did a “tourist train” ride which was very informative. The 1972 games were the first where everything was held at the same site, and much of it was actually held underground. The park also has an aquarium. You can hire pedal boats to go on the lake.
And there are plenty of places to eat and drink. Nearby also is BMW World, an interactive museum. We didn’t have much time so couldn’t do these, but we are back in Munich at the end of the holiday so we may well head out there for the day. Zachary thinks this is a good idea, especially as he wanted to go on the pedal boats. He told me that when we came back “we go in the boat, I do the pedals and you drink beer”. Good boy – you’ll go a long way!
We got to the train station and established from the diagram that we were sitting in the front carriage. This was an extremely long walk from the end of the platform! To confuse the issue somewhat the carriages all had numbers on the side and as we got about ¾ of the way down the numbering suddenly changed so now we couldn’t be sure that the carriage we thought was ours, actually was as the number on our ticket and the number on its side did not correspond. However, it was and the correct carriage number was helpfully inside the carriage. I
haven’t been overly impressed with the few German trains we have taken thus far. Austrian and Swiss trains had a trolley service for snacks and drinks, free internet, power points, and gave Zachary activity books or similar. They also had leaflets at each seat giving information about the route and times, and the price of food and drinks in the restaurant car. None of these have appeared on the DB (Deutsche Bahn) trains, and on this train the information screen has been blank and announcements, until the last one, have been in German only (they have been in several languages, including English on the Austrian and Swiss trains). On the plus side they are very roomy.
The train travelled through the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, stopping at Ulm. Ulm is not on our schedule of places to visit but looks quite a good place for a visit. Apparently it has the world’s most crooked house and its most famous offspring is some fella by the name of Albert Einstein who apparently was quite clever. We do have a week back in Darmstadt from August 13-20 so if we have any money and enthusiasm left we may consider a
night or two here or somewhere else that looks interesting.
Our connection was at Stuttgart where we were due to arrive at 3:47, and this is exactly when we arrived. This would give us precisely 17 minutes to get from platform 10 to platform 7 and find our carriage and seats. We needed about 2 of those – sitting at the front of the train as we were made it very quick and easy. Power points on this train so that’s handy. This trip was scheduled for 78 minutes with Barbara to meet us at the other end. Rainer has had to go out of town for business today so a taxi or bus to their house is the plan, with a good traditional German meal of spaghetti Bolognese planned. I noted in my email correspondence to Barbara that in 4 days in Munich I had not had a single beer, so was looking forward to some good German beer in Darmstadt. Alternatively, I could save it all up for Berlin.
We arrived in Darmstadt and Barbara was there. She took Zachary and we went to the bus stop. On the bus to their
place she sat with Zachary who talked her ear off the whole way. On arrival at the house Zachary discovered they have a great swing set in their yard. Between that, watering the garden, and being a knight scaring off dragons he had a great time.
Rainer got home after his day business trip to Antwerp (!) and Zachary immediately had a new best friend. He went and shook his hand and then helped unload the car, clear the mail, and then drive the car into the garage. After which they vacuumed the car and at this point the hierarchy changed and Zachary took charge of proceedings, much to our amusement.
Beer, dinner, wine, ice cream, and schnapps and then after a good talk it was off to bed. Zachary took a while to settle but eventually we all got to sleep.
Plan for Friday is to go to the Rhine Valley and as part of that we will take a short cruise down the river to St Goar, passing the Loreley. I did a similar cruise with my mother in 1983 so it will be cool to see that area
again.
Friday 29 May:
Up at 8, which wasn’t a bad effort at a sleep in after the 10pm bedtime for Zachary last night. After breakfast I attempted to contact the BNZ in Wellington as I have managed to lock myself out of internet banking. Sadly, they had “high call volumes” (at 8pm on a Friday night?) and no-one was answering.
We drove to the town of Bacharach, about 80km north-west of Darmstadt. This is one of many towns along the river Rhine. After a look around there we took a 40 minute cruise to St Goar, passing the Loreley on the way. This rock is at the narrowest part of the river, which starts in Switzerland, spans Germany South to North, and goes to the North Sea in the Netherlands. A strong current and hard-to-see rocks below the waterline are also prevalent here. The myth is that many sailors crashed onto the rocks after being distracted by the songs and beauty of Loreley, a siren who sits on top of the rock.
After the boat trip we took a short drive to go to a schloss. On the way we passed by (on the opposite side of the river) the town of Kamp Bornhofen, where my mother and I stayed in 1983. After climbing up a rather steep hill (somehow managing to lose Barbara on the way as she took a wrong turn) we discovered that it did not have a restaurant, thus rather running our lunch plans. So we headed a bit further up the road to a brewery and restaurant and had a huge late lunch. After that we went to Barbara’s parents’ house, where Barbara is staying the night (she will be back in Darmstadt tomorrow evening). Her father is 87 and was captured as a 17 year old by the Americans. He was handed to the British as a POW until being repatriated after 4 years. He had learned English in school and was able to put that skill to use. He was treated very well by the British and has always had a high opinion of them.
We then took a short trip to Mayen and looked around this old town and its castle and fortifications before heading back to Darmstadt. We were sure a very tired Zachary would fall asleep on this drive of about 1 hr 45 but he was determined to stay away. Got back about 8:45, had a small meal and then sleep time for him at 10 – two days in a row!
Rainer has proved to be an excellent tour guide thus far. He is retiring in November so perhaps he has a second career lined up! Tomorrow we will explore Darmstadt itself and then Sunday it is off to Würzburg to see and stay with Lara.
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