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Published: August 23rd 2008
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August 19th, 2008: The Tour rides again! Unfortunately, Erin couldn't make this trip, so it's just Jesse & Margaret on this trip.
Jesse started out by almost missing his flight from San Jose. Made it with 10 minutes to spare. The dynamic duo met up in Phoenix to continue on to Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the bird was bent. In other words, the aircraft was having issues and they were working to repair any problems. The flight was originally supposed to depart at 10:11am. We finally loaded up the bird and were buttoned up and ready to fly by noon, but now the captain comes on the loudspeaker to let us know that we've got yet another problem. This time it's a faulty engine oil indicator and they're working on the issue. We finally get wheels-up at 12:40 with no potable water and smelly lavatories due to the problem that kept us on the ground in the first place. Our chances of reaching our connection flight in Philly at this point are approaching ZERO.
Un-eventful flight into Philly, until we get to the gate and have a ten minute ground hold AT THE GATE for some unknown reason that they never
told us. Meanwhile, we're seeing the chance to reach our connection to Frankfurt slip between our fingers...The plane finally unloads and we get an announcement over the intercom for Frankfurt bound passengers to see the gate attendant. We're screwed. The attendant hands us boarding passes for tomorrow at 4pm and hotel / food vouchers, but says "You might still be able to make the flight..." So Margaret, myself, and several other passengers ran the airport equivalent of the "Mogadishu Mile" between gate A6 and A16, and actually made it to the plane. Hey, overnighting in Frankfurt with the possibility of not having our bags was better than than the certainty of having to overnight in Philly, right?
August 20th
Of course, our luggage couldn't run as fast as we had managed, and it wasn't waiting for us in Frankfurt. After a wait of 30 or 40 minutes while other claims were filled out, we got the claims for our missing bags filled out with the clerk and headed down to Budget to pick up our rental car reservation. Much to our chagrin, Margaret had made the reservation online at the wrong Frankfurt! There are actually THREE Frankfurts in Germany,
and we'd made the reservation at the wrong one! Luckily, they were able to call the other office and cancel that car, and get us something suitable. Hopefully the Opel Zafira we got will hold the bike cases! We also got the address of a local Accor hotel from the Budget clerk. Thank goodness for the GPS we have! The roads around the Frankfurt airport are like a rat's nest. Drove there expecting a slightly smaller place, and got standard airport corporate world for "only €130.00 per night". Oh well, at least we ain't in Philly! We took a nap to combat jet lag and then set out in the car in search of a small local town of Rudesheim the Budget clerk had told us about. Turns out of course that there's two of THOSE, so we hit 'em both. Stopped at a tiny little place called the Rosenbiergarten. As luck would have it, this was opening night for the place and the construction crew was there in force. Had fun talking to one of the builders who was so drunk he could barely stand, his buddy the tile setter, and a few other locals. Had a pretty decent
steak and sausage plate that we split, and of course several beers 😉 Probably the best deal we'll have all trip, considering it was only about €5.60 for the steak and sausage, and an additional €6.00 for the beer.
August 21st
Had the hotel front desk staff call the airport about our luggage (kind of hard to do a bicycle tour without the bicycles), and they hadn't arrived yet. The next flight was due in three hours, so we decided to drive in to Frankfurt and take the two hour city tour offered by a local company. It was a great little tour, and probably one of the better such tours we've been on. Very lively tour guide that spoke at least four languages that we heard. One of the unique aspects of this tour compared to others we've been on is that it stopped twice to extend the tour on foot into areas that the bus (and cars) couldn't go. Turns out there's a GREAT party area that we'll have to try to hit some other time 😉 Also a great statue of a spitting woman that legend tells would stand there and yell at passers-by. When the
old lady passed away, some locals had a fountain made that spits at the people walking by at irregular intervals, keeping her legend alive. Came back from the tour, and still no bikes. Decided to push on to Münich to the hotel Margaret had reserved. She'd called the previous night to let them know we weren't going to be able to make it due to our luggage, but of course they hadn't understood very well (or just didn't care), and not only charged us for the two nights, but gave away the room to top it off. The manager or owner (or whatever he was) managed to get us a room at the hotel across the street. Let me tell ya', the only thing smaller that I've ever heard of is Japanese coffin hotels! No A/C either. Blech...After that bit of check-in fun, we walked down to the Hofsbrau Haus that Margaret had visited in 1964. Had some GREAT beer and decent food, though the service was a bit slow. We'd gotten both our first round of beer AND our food before the people across the aisle from us had even talked to a waitor or waitress! We walked the
mile back to the hotel (thank goodness once again for our GPS), and finally slept.
August 22nd
Had the clerk contact the airport, and the baggage has arrived! Told them to hold it, and we'll pick it up later todaz. This little pocket hotel has more breakfast staff than I (Jesse) had front DESK staff when I used to manage a hotel in Santa Cruz! I had three times as many rooms and have the desk staff. No, I'm not bitter. Plugged in the GPS once again (T.G.f.GPS) and headed for Dachau. Dachau is an intensely sobering place. The amount of suffering inflicted by man upon man in this place is truly staggering (some 200, 000 dead). The various government agencies and survivor organitations have done an outstanding job producing a self-guided audio tour and museum exhibit in the hope that never again shall such a thing happen in this world. Returned to Frankfurt and was delayed in traffic for probably two hours by slowdowns due to construction and accidents that happened in the heavy rain that has rolled in this afternoon. This would cost us dearly in reclaiming our luggage, unfortunately, as after an hour and a half our so we found out the location we need to collect the bags from had closed 20 minutes previously. So, back to the Accor we were in before. Better the evil we know (€130/night) than that which we don't know...We'll call first thing in the morning and have the bags delivered to the hotel.
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Elyse Wright
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Thank you, Jesse, for an always entertaining blog. NOT an auspicious start to your trip by the sound of it. At least you're finding some good food and beer! The only news here is that we are on tenterhooks waiting for Obama to announce his VP pick - supposed to happen in the morning. I'm hoping for Joe Biden. I look forward to your next entry which will have you well on your way and on schedule. Cheers to Margaret. Elyse