Day 19: Zurich To ... Kaiserslautern:

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Well, today started like most days, but didn't stay that way very long. We ate breakfast, packed up, and went down with our luggage to the nearest tram station, Bellevue. We caught the No. 4 tram to Wildbachgasse, close to where our car was parked. From there, we walked the 2 blocks or so to our car and .... couldn't find the car key! We both looked "everywhere" for the key, but neither of us remembered where we'd put it or seen it last. This was the start of a major fiasco, with a happy ending, Manoli stayed with our luggage near the car, partly to make sure that if the parking police came she could tell them we'd misplaced the key and would be gone soon. I walked back to the tram station and took the next tram 4 back to the hostel, hoping our key was there in the room, or had been turned in. Well, I made to the hostel with no problem, but after a thorough search of our room, the break room, and even the bathrooms, plus checking with the hostel staff... no key! The next, and only step, was to find the nearest Hertz rental car location since I didn't have phone service, and ask them what they could do. I lucked out in that the Zurich City Hertz office was only a few blocks away... well, more like 6 or 8 blocks away. I walked there, explained to the lady what had happened and asked what I could do. Could they provide a reprogrammed key? Well, after finally figuring out who I was and what vehicle I'd rented, since all the info was on the lost key or in the locked glove box, she made a call to the Ramstein office and put me on the phone. They gave me a number to call for replacement keys, and all the rental information I would need. I then called and talked to a Hertz guy that also spoke English... more or less, and he said they could send the spare key to me in Zurich that same day, but it would cost me 300 to 400 CHFs (about the same as Euros, therefor 350 to 450 bucks), or get it to me within a day or two for a good bit less. I told him I'd wait and save the money. He then told me he needed to talk to someone to set it up and would call me back in a few minutes. Well, a few minutes became 30 to 45 minutes, and still no call. I realized my wife might be getting worried, plus our car was parked in a spot with a permit that was about to expire, if it hadn't already, and the fine for improper parking was supposedly ridiculous... something like 500 Euros! I told the lady I had to get back to my wife, but that I'd be back asap. I figured my best bet was to go back to the hostel, make sure no key had been turned in, buy another parking pass for the day, and reserve our beds again for another day or two. Well, still no keys and no beds available, but I did buy another day permit for 15 CHFs. I hopped back on the tram to the car, hoping that maybe Manoli had found the key. When I got there, no key, and she had already had a confrontation with the parking police but thankfully a helpful guy that lived near there explained things to the police lady and she said she'd waive the fine.... for now.

After explaining the whole situation to her, including that there were no beds available at the hostel, that the key would take a day or two to get here and cost a 100 bucks or so, and that we were going to lose our reservations with AirBnB at Kaiserslautern, I said let's thoroughly go through everything and make sure we don't have the key. Well, about half way through our search, Manoli discovered the key in her luggage, and couldn't understand how it got there. At that point, I didn't care! We thanked God, and our lucky stars, loaded our stuff into the car and headed to the Hertz office to cancel/stop the key replacement process. Thankfully, again, they hadn't completed the process (and I had not agreed to any particular price either), so they just forgot the whole thing, laughing under their breath probably, and I got back into the car and entered our new destination in Kaiserslautern, hoping the navigation system wouldn't take us up through France as I'd originally planned. We'd found out that France charged a LOT of tolls! It must have taken us an hour to get out of town, due to some hold up we never saw, but we finally got on the highway.

For the next 4 hours or so, we ran into a few tunnels, several long slowdowns from 120 or 130 to as slow as 40kph, again without any apparent reason, but no tolls, thank goodness, since we had very little money left on hand. Around 2pm, we spotted one of those Raststations that had gas and someplace to eat. We pulled in and tried to get some money out of the ATM in the eatery building, but it wouldn't take our credit card. We decided just to use the credit card for food and get cash somewhere later. The building had a Coffee Fellows, a McDonald's, and a NordSee. We opted for fish and chips from Nordsee, along with a cappuccino for me. I think the total was around 14 Euros. We were reminded just how expensive food and everything else was in Zurich. The same food probably would have been something like 30 Euros! After a leisurely lunch, we got back on the road. I noticed we were getting a little low on gas, but our destination was only 40 kilometers or so away and the car told us we had something like 140 kilometers of gas left, so I kept going. Well, following the navigation system again steered us a bit wrong. Instead of coming into Kaiserslautern from the well traveled Northwest side, we were directed to the Southeast side, requiring us to basically travel up and other a small mountain, on 1 1/2 lane roads, and even had to take a detour onto a dirt road for several miles due to the main road being washed out or something. Well, by the time we headed down the hill and saw the town, we were both so relieved. We'd never been in Kaiserslautern before, but I was sure it was a good sized town with several gas stations, but after the roads we'd came in on, I was beginning to wonder.

We entered the sizeable town of Kaiserslautern, found a gas station pretty easily, then started our search for the AirBnB apartment. Again, the navigation steered us wrong, trying to get me to turn down a one-way street, but it eventually directed us close by, and after parking, we found the right street and started looking for number 4. From the online description, it was a building with a bar on the ground floor and our room above it. Unfortunately, I had read all the messages before logging out of the WiFi, so I missed some important instructions, like a photo of the building with the door indicated, along with the combination to the lock box in front that contained the keys! Thankfully, a guy pulled up in a motorcycle and apparently knew the owner, so he called and asked him what the combo was. We put the combo in, got a set of 3 keys and eventually made it upstairs to our new home for the next two nights. It is a small bedroom; with a full sized bed, a TV on the wall, a fold out table and chair, and a makeshift wardrobe. There is also a very small bathroom with a shower. Next door, we have a washer and dryer we can use, and downstairs there is the kitchen of the bar (apparently closed for the season or something), equipped with refrigerators, sink, microwave, utensils, etc.

After getting acquainted with the place, we went looking for a supermarket and whatever else there was near by. Again thankfully, my wife decided to ask a lady if she knew where a supermarket was and just happened to pick a local that spoke relatively good English. We thanked her for the information (she also showed us where we could park later), and head down the street to an Aldis Sud supermarket, in a very large, very modern mall. What we've seen of this town so far as nothing like the other German towns we'd been in. It is more like a small American city, with lots of stores and restaurants, almost all in newer buildings. We found the Aldis, picked up some stuff for dinner and breakfast, and went back to the room the move the car closer and then eat.

Tomorrow we plan on leaving for Ramstein AFB early in the morning, to see what we can see. There is a flight listed to Dover AB in Delaware tomorrow night, but we're not sure yet if we want to try that option. Currently they aren't listing any days past Saturday, but maybe they will tomorrow. I have no photos to post for today, but I'll get some of the room and town tomorrow.

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