Day 26, Prague, Czech Republic to St. Goar, Germany.

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Day 26: Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Prague, Czech Republic to St. Goar, Germany

So, yeah, remember that cold medicine? Well, as my dear brother John pointed out, in Scotland, the cold medicine has codeine in it. Say goodnight Gracie! I'm guessing the Austrian version has something similar because I was in the most ridiculous haze. It was bad enough that while standing outside the coach, waiting to hand off my bag to Enzo, Jonathan (who later quasi joined our group) offered to hold my bag for me and load it if I wanted to just go and sit down on the bus. I think I nodded my head and thanked him before sludging away, but I can't really remember. That entire trip to St. Goar is a blur. I remember sitting dazed at a rest stop, but that's it.

We get to St. Goar around 6pm and luckily most of the cold medicine has worn off. It it hadn't, this next bit of exercise would have been even more interesting. Dave informs us that this quaint little hotel, Hotel Montag, doesn't have an elevator, but he'll be helping people with their bags if needed. Natasha and I look, and our luck still holds true and we're on the third floor. Natasha finds someone to carry her bags but since mine is strapped to me, I go it alone. We go up two flights of stairs, open a door, and go up about 10 more steps to get to our room. We get to the top and Natasha is winded and remarking on the difficult climb. I am bent over, with my bag still strapped to my back, and literally bracing my arms on my knees and gasping for breath. We get the door open and walk in and Mexico follows us in. Another odd fact about Mexico, he's from somewhere in central Mexico but his accent sounds just like Borat. So he's going on and on about "What a nice room! Why is your room bigger than mine? I want your room! Will you switch with me?" (all in Borat voice). I'm still gasping for air so finally I manage "MEXICO! (gasp) Get out!" He says "Oh-kay" and closes the door as he leaves. I can't believe he listened to me, but yea! Now I can die in peace.

We have about 20 minutes to get air back in our lungs and we head downstairs to the store front part of the hotel where they make beer steins. We get a short history on how long they've been making them and what different types they have (they had a very cool one that had a piece of the Berlin Wall on it) and then we're free to meander and buy. I was tempted to pick one up for John, but the prices kept me from being a truly cool sister. Sorry John, you'll have to go to Germany sometime 😊

Some of us head out to explore the 2 shops in town that are still open. First is a gift shop whose claim to fame is the "World's Largest Freestanding Cuckoo Clock" on the outside. I buy an ornament to go with my collection (an ornament from each country) and we head back out and stop in the other open store- a Birkenstock store. It's odd to be looking at sandal's when there's snow outside. Natasha, Luna, Mana and myself then take a quick walk down by the river where I try to enrich their lives by teaching them the Xena Warrior Princess yell. It's a gift that, at this point, only Mana and myself have been able to master. True, Natasha and Luna's lives will be a bit sadder without this ability, but I have a feeling they will shoulder thru the pain. We head back to the hotel for dinner and then everyone else heads off to a Wine Tasting excursion and I head upstairs to do some blogging.

However, upon getting up to our room I notice that our radiator isn't working. Natasha ran upstairs to get her coat and was going down to join the excursion so she said she'd tell the manager and get it sorted out. I then proceed to spend the next 45 minutes in a frozen bathroom because dinner decided it didn't like me. By the time Natasha comes back, I'm huddled under the covers of the bed, fully dressed, and exhausted. I asked her what the manager said and she said she forgot to mention it, that she'd say something then because she was heading down to play cards with the gang and that she was supposed to drag me with her. I inform her of my stomach's plot to kill me, so that takes care of any gaming plans for me. About 1 1/2 hours later she comes back up and the room is still frozen. She said she said something to the manager, and he said he was going to take care of it.

Around 11pm I'm so cold I hurt, so I try to call downstairs but can't figure out how to do that. I put my shoes on and go down to the lobby, but it is all locked up for the night. I look at the room assignment sheet and find Dave's room number so I go knocking on his door. No answer. Across the hall is Luna and Mana's room so I knock on their door and it opens and I am greeted by sweet sweet heat. I tell them what is going on and Mana, who is not as shy about pounding on doors as I am, pounds on Dave's door but we still don't get an answer. I then ask them if I can sleep on the floor of their room, and Luna says not without my mattress, who knows where that floor has been.

So, that is why at 11:30pm, if people were roaming the halls, they would see myself and Luna hauling the mattress down 10 stairs, thru a door, down a flight of stairs, thru a hall, up a flight of stairs (she was on the 2nd floor which was in a weird ass part of the building) and thru another door into the hallway and into their room. To make it even more fun, the lights at the hotel are set up on timers so you have about 30 seconds from the time you hit the switch until the lights turn off again. Yes, it did that while we were on the stairs hauling down a mattress. I get settled in their room and we giggle for about 30 minutes before ending the sleep over around 1am (and we're getting up at 6).

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Photos

Frozen Hotel Room
Before mattress was moved out.

Worlds Largest Freestanding Outdoor Cuckoo Clock
Say that 5 times fast.

Comments

[Chris]

You played Germany's favorite game: Musical Mattresses?
Did you find Natasha in a state of popsicle in the AM? Remember, you can always burn the furniture for heat.