April 4th 2002 1530- Amsterdam Schiphol

All went well so far except for one thing- I have no money! The ATMs here say that my card is invalid. I'll try some when I get to Germany, if that doesn't work I'll have to email my bank and get angry. I have 5 hours here, with little to do. I was planning to take a € 3.00 train into Amsterdam, but I have to stay here. I already walked around the whole airport and I got my boarding pass to get to Frankfurt. Right now I'm on the "Panorama Terrace" which is an outdoor viewing area on top of the airport. It is 14c here in Amsterdam, but windy on the roof. The tallest hill in all of the Netherlands is 4m above sea level! There was a man outside who was asking if I spoke English. He wanted money to get home, but I had none. ON the plane I sat with a Danish woman who spoke good English. She said in school all Danes learn English and German. These shoes are nice, but I feel like sleeping. I suppose the jet lag will be worse later. The in-flight movies were "Harry Potter" and "K-Pax." I watched half of Potter and most of K-Pax. I only got an hour's worth of sleep. On the plane, the crew spoke Dutch first then English and the movies were in English with Dutch subs. I learnt that vriend means friend. Dutch is similar to German, but they sprinkle j's in everywhere. I'm tired, but I better not sleep... Don't want to miss anything important.

April 4th, 2002 23:49- Marburg- Peter's house

Peter met me at the airport with no problems. Johannes was there, too, so I will see him again. I introduced myself to his father in German. His sisters spoke good English. He has a four story house including the basement. My room, on the ground floor, has it's own sink! The house is different. There is a button on the wall to flush the toilet. There are palm-sized switches on the walls for lights. And of course the wall plugs are different. We drove on the Autobahn to get here. The fastest we went was 165 or so. You can't keep it over 150 for long - there is always traffic and you have to brake all the time. I felt tired at 10:30, but I'm better now. I'll probably sleep like a baby. I got a nice down comforter and pillow here.

April 6th, 2002 0841 Marburg

Yesterday we went to old part of Marburg. I saw the Marburg Castle and two very old churches, one of which was 700 years old, founded by the Baron Elizabeth. They both had huge pipe organs in the back of the church on a a balcony. Old Marburg is cool, and very hilly. New topic - The houses are different. Peter's house is post-war,- maybe 40, 50 years old. Different things about the house: The door handles are all very hard to turn. The doors, made of wood, all have a lip on them that goes all around them and seals around the frame. The washrooms are also quite different. The toilets come out of the walls and do not touch the floor. They are flushed by a button on the wall. The main bathroom has both a shower and a bathtub. It also has two sinks. This is a three story house, and it has a basement. There are many books; maybe 4000. It has 10 foot ceilings. Johannes' house is a prefab from Sweden, but it has most of these features. I forgot, the windows open at the top, which means they sort of lean into the room, and they have no screens. Peter's family is pretty friendly. Yesterday afternoon, we met some of Peter's friend's in Gießen (means "to water") and played soccer on Astroturf. Then we bought some frozen pizzas, and went to Johannes' house. After, we drove around and finally watched "America's Sweethearts" in German, on somebody's computer, I think on Divx from the Net. I didn't catch much from the movie, as it was a dialogue-driven romantic-comedy. Peter explained a little, but not much. My camera seems to be broken. I put my film in Peter's sister's camera - so I can take some pics of the Saalberg Castle. Yesterday I was able to get some money out of the ATM at Deutsche Bank. Apparently you can't take money out of "Savings" in some of Europe. Mom and Dad did something at my bank and got me a checking account.

April 8th, 2002 1000

On Saturday, we went to Saalburg, where a Roman castle had been up to 200 AD to keep out the German Barbarians. They had built up a replica castle on the site of the ruins by the order of Baron Hanstein. They had a large selection of artifacts that they had found in the ruins, like coins, weapons, tools. Many thousand people had stayed there, including women and children. Then, we went to Hessen park, where they had many old German houses. They were torn down from the village the come, and later rebuilt at Hessenpark. Most of the house had come from Hessen. They had tried to recreate an old Hessen village, with barns, pigs, goats, chickens, an old church, cobblestone streets. It was really quite quaint. The houses were from the 18th and 19th centuries. We were allowed to go in some, which were set up to look like they would have looked like back then. Then we went home.

Thursday, April 10th, 2002 22:26

On Sunday, I went to Peter's church, which is a Free Evangelical. They sang only in German. After, Peter took me to the old Border to East Germany. The Grenzmuseum was closed, but I took some pics anyways. Then we went to a nearby castle. Monday, we left on the train to go to Heidelberg. Peter lives with 7 other young Christians in an apartment, but they share a kitchen. I read a book(in English) about post-war rural America from the point of view of a 7 year old boy. Tuesday, I borrowed his roommate's bike and we went to Altstadt, the old part of Heidelberg. No cars or bike riders are allowed in this part. I was amazed how many bikes are in this town. This one square, I saw hundreds of parked bikes. In Germany, it is the law to have a bell on your bike, and also a generator for light. Almost all the bikes are old and/or crappy. We visited the castle, which was nice. Then we visited his bro' Johannes and his sister-in-law Miriam. His bro' has a British accent and when he talks you can't tell that he is German. We came back to his bro's place later and watched "The Emperor's New Groove," which was very funny. Yesterday I went in Old Heidelberg by myself and took some pics. Then Thomas picked me up. We drove through the black forest which is more green, but it looks dark. It has mainly coniferous trees. Thomas and Simone have the top floor of a house in a village which only has 20-30 houses. It is only 400 metres from the next town.

Saturday, April 12th, 2002 1841

Thomas and Simone's village is called "Spindlershof," which doesn't "mean" anything. They have two Volkswagens. There floor is a 4 1/2 apartment. It is small, with each room having a 45 degree angle on part of the ceiling because of the roof. Thursday, I went with Thomas to Stuttgart, where he had to work. I walked Stuttgart the whole day as he worked. Stuttgart is not as old/fancy as Heidelberg, 'cause it was bombed severely in the war. It has two castles, called the old and new castles, but the new one in nicer. It has a 1100 metre pedestrian mall, and a big city garden. For lunch, we went to a "Mensa" which has cheap (2.60€ ) for students, with Thomas' colleagues. Then, I walked around more and went in a Museum, which had old photos and artifacts of the "Rosebud Sioux." Then, I took the "S-bahn" to the Mercedes museum, which was free, and turned out to be really cool. They had the first motorcycle, with 0.5 hp and a 1-cylinder motor, which was made by Daimler (?) in ~ 1880. They had lots of cool cars including the "silver bullets" which were famous for winning races. They had one car designed specifically for speed, which got up to 400 km/h on the Autobahn near Frankfurt, which they closed for it. It still holds the record for speed on a public roadway. Peter told me that the Autobahnen were designed by Hitler to move troops and equipment. They were also a make-work project to give people work during the depression. In Germany, nobody even flies the German flag. They consider that to be too nationalistic. I have seen the Canadian flag in Altburg, which is the town 150m away. Then, we drove home, and Simone made "Maultaschen" which is a "swabian" dish. It was very good. Friday, we were supposed to (originally) go to a hut in the Austrian Alps, but the weather forecast was rain all weekend. Instead, we drove to Ludwigsburg, where they had a friend there, Aaron. Aaron actually worked at the MCC coffee-shop on South Fraser way in Abbotsford. He was also a little familiar with the Chilliwack area, like Cultus, Harrison. He took us to the Ludwigsburg castle, where we went on a 75 minute German speaking tour. This castle was made by the same person as the New castle in Stuttgart. At one time, the King lived in Stuttgart, while the Queen lived in Ludwigsburg. The interior was very ornate and impressive. Some parts were preserved so well. There were 400 rooms, but we saw only ~50. It was done mostly in the Baroque style. They had lots of art, statues, a church, a theatre, a room of mirrors, and much more. The queen had a footstool that converted to a toilet, which a servant had to carry around. They didn't bathe in those days. The queen used a ^500mL bottle of perfume every day. Her clothes, etc, took 3 hours to get ready, so she mostly slept in her clothes. They seemed to have a fascination with nudity back then - many statues, frescoes, paintings had nudity. Then we drove to a little 'yard' in the country, where we had a German barbecue, with sausage, steak, etc. Before we ate, some of us played a Canadian game where you hit this thing with your hands.

Sunday April 14th, 2002 11:40

Yesterday, Thomas' parents came to visit with some other relatives who had moved to the US in '52. We went to a Gästhaus(restaurant) where I had a steak that came from a cow raised in the same town. Then, we went to a café where I had strawberry cake/pie and a coffee. Also with the steak I had Swabian noodles with wine sauce. Both meals, plus a little sight seeing, took nearly 5 hours. Then the three of us went home, relaxed for a bit, and then watched "Pearl Harbour." I hadn't seen the beginning, so that was ok. This morning, we had weißwurst with German pretzels and special relish from München. Then we went to an old monastery and castle 5 km away. Some of it was 900 yrs old. I took pictures of a church which was 16th century. Then, we went to the old part of Calw, which has many old h houses, and shops. As usual, there are parts were no cars are allowed. We went home and Thomas showed me some slides from PdF, and we all laughed, reminisced, etc. Rolf and Sandra are coming, and we will go to Simone and Thomas' church in Altburg. Also on Saturday, we went to a bike/outdoor store in Calw. They didn't have much high-end stuff. Most makes I didn't recognise, like Stevens, but the had Scott USA. Surprisingly enough, they had 5 unicycles, two of which were 4 foot Giraffes. As it is the law to have lights powered by generators, many bikes had that. The cruisers here come with tabs for generators. They also have fenders, made out of plastic with metal strips to carry the current. Bells are also mandatory in here.

Wednesday April 17th, 2002 21:00

On Sunday, Rolf and Sandra came to Spindlershof to pick me up. They had been visiting the part of Germany where Rolf comes from, Saarland. Saarland is on the French border. It is directly west of Heidelberg. It has been traded back and forth from .fr and .de, so there is a strong French influence. Sandra and Rolf live on the ground floor of an apartment building, near the downtown of Pfullingen. The both work as "occupational therapists," healing? people who have gotten out of a hospital. On Monday, they both had to work, so I was going to take Rolf's bike and ride around in Pfullingen, but the bike had a leak in the back tire, and I couldn't get it pumped up hard enough. They have different pumps here in Germany, they are only single stroke, and the don't have a pin to open the valve, it just uses air pressure. So, I just walked around Pfullingen. The centre of town is an old monastery, with a pond in the middle. There are creeks going all over the place. There are many waterwheels there. Then, I walked to Reutlingen, 6 km away. In Reutlingen, around Easter, they put out a hundred bear statues, all painted differently, but otherwise shaped the same. One looked like a monk, etc. There was also a nice Gothic church. On Tuesday, they again had to both work, but Sandra came at 4:30, and she took me to Nebelhöhle, which is a calcium cave in the Swabian Alb. It was pretty cool. There were stairs, and lights, and we just walked around. It was a old hideout that some duke hid out in to escape from his enemies. It had many stalactites and stalagmites. One of the stalagmites was cut out and taken in thin slices to the Neues Schloß in Stuttgart. Nebelhöhle means fog hole, because that is how they found it. There was only one opening in the hillside, and the temperature remains at ten degrees all year round so in winter someone found it from steam coming out. In the evening, I went with Sandra to her house church. Normally there are 10 members, but there were only 3 others. We sang some songs, while Sandra played guitar, and had a short Bible study about sharing the Gospel with others.

Friday, April 19th, 2002 14:10

At the Bible study, I could understand a lot, except when they talked in dialect. I followed in an English Bible, after someone said what verses in German. On Wednesday Rolf didn't have to work, and Sandra only had to start work in the afternoon. We went to Wilhemshöhle, another cave, with a stream running through it. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the other one. We went in on this flat bottomed boat. Apparently you can go much much further in SCUBA gear. Then we went to Zwiefalten where Rolf works. His workplace is on the grounds of an old Monastery. It has a very impressive church. Nearly was the Zwiefalter Klosterbräu, a monk's Brewery. The way back, we stopped at a largish stable. There was some machine that was walking the horses. After we took Sandra home, Rolf took me to a "bath", the same idea as a Roman bath. It has 6 swimming pools, steam rooms. Upstairs, they had 4 different saunas, relaxing rooms, and a cold water tank to go in after you went in the sauna. I was surprised that the norm for the saunas is nudity. But a sauna feels better without a bathing suit- just the birthday suit. It was called Panorama Therme. On Thursday, I rode with Sandra on the bikes to Reutlingen, where she helped me get a ticket for the train to Tübingen. I locked my bike at the Reutlingen Hauptbahnhof. Then I rode the train to Tübingen Hauptbahnhof. I easily found the Tourist Information office. When I started to ask her, "Sprechen-Sie Englisch" she started to shake her head, and then I said "oder Franzsösisch?" Turns out she spoke French pretty well. So, I spoke to her in French only (Well a little German). I asked her where the Youth Hostel was, but I forgot the French word so I had to use the German word. I also asked for something in English and she gave me a map with a walking tour on it. So I did this tour, only getting lost a few times. I saw something that made me laugh, so I took a picture of it: something called a "pissoir." It is a public urinal, no toilet... Also, when I was taking a picture of the Rathaus, a man came up to me and asked me if I knew where the Castle was in German. I pulled out my map of Tübingen and started to say "Sie sind hier." But then he asked in "Normal" English if I was American. Of course I said I was Canadian and I told him in English. After the walking tour I went to the Youth Hostel and I got a nice map with all the Youth Hostels in it, and a book with prices. Then I took the train home again. There were many schoolchildren on this train, and it made more stops. In the evening we all drove to Stuttgart, and went up the famous TV tower, Fernsehturm. It was 154m where we stood and looked out all over Stuttgart. There was an elevator which went up pretty quickly. The observation deck sways up to 30 cm in the wind. I was the first observation deck on a tv tower. There are ~ 750 steps, but they make to take the elevator around the observation deck, there are bars which are only big enough for you to get your head out. Maybe suicides used to be common. The way back we stopped at an Italian restaurant. I had a pizza with hot salami. The dough was thin but good and they don't usually cut it, you have to cut it yourself with a table knife. On Friday, I didn't do much. I walked up a hill to a Lookout. It was this tower with two legs. Anyways, it sorta looks like an upside-down U. They joke that it looks like a pair of long-johns.

Saturday April 20, 2002 23:00

In the morning,, we went to Metzingen, which is famous because it it the city of "sieben Keltern." A Kelter is a building where they make wine. One was converted into a quaint little library and was called Kalebskelter 'cause of Caleb and Joshua bringing back the grapes... They had some art on the side of the building. One of the Keltern was open as a display, and I had some wine and a bun. Sandra and I went into a church, where a young adult was practising playing the organ. It was really nice to hear. The way back I bought two more cameras. Rolf's parents visited in the afternoon, Josef and Gisela. We ate at home, a sort of thin pancake, but with spinach and feta. Then the five of us went to a castle at Neuffen. It was free, and ok. They has some goats and llamas. A wedding party was just arriving as we left. On the way back, going through a village, we had to stop because a whole flock(?) of sheep was being herded across the street. It was a couple hundred metres long. Then driving farther along, we saw 4 horses just running free on the road.

Sunday April 21, 2002 16:41 Pfullingen

Saturday evening after Rolf's parents left the three of us went in a "happening" pool hall in Pfullingen. they had 17 tables, but we still had to wait, so we played some foosball, which they call Tischfußball. I didn't win any game. We played 2 against 1 rotating. Then we played 1 game of pool me against Sandra + Rolf. I won! They play a different way where you have to put the 8 ball in the corner opposite to where you sank the last ball. Today, Sunday, Sandra, I, Rolf's mother and both of Sandra's parents went to Church. it is called Martinskirche. They also had a pipe organ and a mens choir. After Church, Rolf, Sandra, their 4 parents and I went to Übersbergerhof which was a Swabische restaurant. Then we saw Mädlesfelsen which means "girls rock" in Swabian. I ate pork Schnitzel with french fries. Sandra's mother is taking an English course, so I spoke in English to her. I think Sandra's father didn't speak much English. Her mother said that she didn't learn English in School.

Wednesday April 24, 2002 18:54 Munich Youth Hostel

Sandra drove me ~ 8:00 on Monday to the Reutlingen Hauptbahnhof. She wanted to stay until my train left. She gave me an envelope and said I might need it, but of course I didn't. She said if I didn't then I could give it to someone who did. My train ride was 3 hours long with three different trains. Sandra also gave me some snacks. When I got to Munich Hbf, I went to the tourist Information, and got a map of Munich. Then I bought a three day public transit pass. I decide to go to Dachau first. My pass, btw, only went to the station before Dachau, so I had to get off, buy a ticket, and wait for the next S-bahn. When I got to Dachau, I found that the Concentration Camp was only open Tuesday - Sunday. So, I walked around old Dachau a bit and decided to spend the night in the Dachau youth Hostel instead of going to Munich, then coming back. So I walked a couple km to the Youth Hostel, but they were completely booked. I was carrying my backpack at this time, too. So, I had to walk all the way back. So, I took the S-bahn back to Munich, and took the U-bahn to the Youth Hostel. I missed it after I got off, and had to walk a little extra. The person at the desk did speak English. I paid for 3 nights, plus there was a deposit. When I got to my room, there was no-one there, so I thought I scored. Then, I took the U and S-bahn to a movie theatre that has English movies. I saw "The Shipping News," with Kevin Spacey. It was set and filmed in Newfoundland. It was ok, but some things were weird. Then I walked around. This theatre was just on the south side of the River Isar. I came back to the Hostel to find somebody in my room. He didn't speak much English. He looks like one of the pirates from that part of "Shipwrecked" where "They will protect us from pirates." He offered me a beer, and then some chocolate alcoholic drink. "It's only 17%." I refused, saying that I don't like alcohol. Then he asked if he could smoke, which, btw, along with alcohol is forbidden. In the morning, I did half of the tour that is on my map of Munich. So, I saw the famous Rathaus with the famous Glockenspiel, which I did not see. The building is neo-gothic, and is pretty cool. I also saw the Royal Residence. My map says that it is normal, but I was surprised to see someone slow down his bike, and rub the nose of the lion shields at the entrance. I saw the National Theatre, then a supposedly famous pub called the Hofbräuhaus. Then, I took the S-bahn to Dachau. Instead of walking to the "Konzentrationslager Gedenkestätte," I took a bus. I misunderstood, and thought that the guided tour was everyday, but it is not on weekdays. So, I just walked around. They had some disgusting things, and I heard an American tell stories about the whipping block, and punishment. They hung prisoners from their arms, which were tied behind their back. 1 hour of that, and they might not regain full usage. I took a pic of the famous memorial, "never again." Everything was in German, English, French, Italian and Greek. They had crematory ovens, and a gas chamber that was never used. There were also two churches, one Catholic, and a synagogue. I went back to Munich, and finished my tour, seeing the famous Frauenkirche, which is "the" Munich landmark, 99m high. In fact, there are no skyscrapers in Munich, because they are not allowed. I also saw the Altar Peter Church, which is a little more impressive on the inside. The Frauenkirche was rather plain on the inside but still stately, and with a nice pipe organ. Then, I waited around more, and finally saw "Panic Room," which was ok. In Munich, I see bikes called Call- a - bike all over the place. They seem to be controlled remotely. I mean, I think you call and they unlock the bike, and you ride it. Munich also has plenty of bikes, many of them pieces of crap. I made it back to the Hostel by 01:00. Today, I went in the morning to Bavaria Film Studios where I took a German tour. I didn't think they had English tours. I took a couple of pics of the interior of das Boot from "Das Boot," before my camera ran out. In the afternoon, I visited the BMW museum. Some of it was really cheesy, but some was cool. On Tuesday, my "roommate" also offered me porn. He said "No alcohol, no smoking, no girls, no sex? Are you going to be a priest?" I told him that I didn't think so. He just left now. He is working with the trains, and is here for 10 days. He had to switch rooms.

Friday April 26, 2002 9:48

Late Wednesday night I watched "Resident Evil," which was ok in a sorta cheesy way. Like "Starship Troopers." It was based on a computer game. My 3 day pass for transit ended then, so I had to buy a one day pass. In the morning, I finished up at the youth hostel. I think a towel might have been nice. But I have no room anyways. Drying myself with a hand cloth sucks. I left the hostel ~ 9:00 AM. Then I looked for a train to Füssen, which is the town near Neuschwanstein. Well, I found a place where they had plans to get around on the train. The train wasn't labelled, but it was on the right platform. I asked a lady on the train if it was the right one, using German and pointing. I had to switch trains in Buchloe. Then the other train was supposed to take us the whole ways, but it stopped a few stops away and a conductor said that way only on the weekend. So I had to wait an hour for the train to Füssen. When I got to Füssen there were buses to take you to the castles. Well, it cost € 2.80 both ways and only took us part way. Then you had to walk 500m to the ticket centre which was the only place to buy tickets. The ticket was € 7.00. You could also visit a second castle, but it cost more. Then I had two hours before my tour started. You could walk up (a 40 min. walk they said), or take a horse-drawn carriage. Even though it was raining, I chose to walk, to save money. Among the road up (no cars) there were food stands, a restaurant, and tourist shops. Then when I got up I had to wait a whole hour and a bit. I didn't have an umbrella, of course, so I had to wait in the entrance to the castle, where there were many others waiting too. I was surprised to find that Italian was the language spoken. German, French, English and Japanese and Chinese were also there. Later I saw two big tour buses filled with Italians. Also at the information desk you could lock up your backpack for free, which I did. Finally the wait was over, and the English speakers filed into a line. Then we had to wait for a bit and finally our guide showed up. She had a nice German accent. But she said no photography or videoing allowed. That pissed me off. € 7.00 and they want me to not take pictures. The castle Neuschwanstein was built by Ludwig II in the 1870-80's. It was never finished. The throne room floor with over two million pieces. His bedroom took four carpenters four years to build. We saw the famous swan, which is made of some kind of porcelain, and was a flower vase. He built it in honour of his friend Richard Wagner, the composer. It bears almost no notice to the king himself. He died in suspicious circumstances after he was ruled unfit to rule and was taken away to "Burg?" Then the tour was over, and to leave we had to walk through a souvenir shop, past a café. There was also a boring film about him that I watched in German. Then I walked back down, and it wasn't raining anymore. I had to wait 3/4 of an hour for the bus back, and a while for a train. The train was extremely slow, going maybe 30 or 40 clicks. It went to Augsberg, where I immediately took an ICE to Frankfurt, passing through Ulm and Stuttgart. I wanted to take a sleep train to Hamburg, but it was reservations only, so I took another train to Aachen, where I slept.

Saturday, April 27 2002 10:43 Nürnberg

Anyways, in Aachen, on Friday, I just walked around a bit. I saw a nice church, then I heard loud music. (It was the middle of the afternoon. It turned out to be year-end party, I think, for high-school people. There was lots of drinking and smoking. They even played Nena "99 Luftballons." Then, I took a train in Bielefeld. Bielefeld was pretty cool. It had a nice pedestrian mall, etc. I found a nice cinema, where I watched "The Scorpion King" in English. It won't be winning any awards. Then, I walked back to the train station, took a train to Hannover. I walked around a bit, and the took a night train to Munich. The night train was cool. I got a very nice chair, but I had to pay € 3.30 for not reserving. I slept well. Then, at Munich, I took a train to Nürnberg, where I am now. I'm in a nice Lorenzkirche in the Altstadt. They seem to have two pipe organs- one in the back, as per usual, and one on the left, near the front. They just started ringing the bells like crazy. I think there is maybe a wedding happening, as there are some army guys in dress uniform. There are many people watching and videotaping. The wedding is over now. It was impressive. I think it was a bilingual marriage, because the priest and one of the mothers said a bit in English. They played the organ lots, and that made me happy.

Sunday, April 28, 2002 20:04 Train- Nürnberg- Düsseldorf

After the marriage, I walked around old Nürnberg some more, having a döner for supper. I thought I would spend the night in town on the street, so I sat down in front of a store and tried to sleep. It was still light however. I couldn't sleep, and it was getting windy, so I found a warm grate blowing hot air. I sat there for an hour, with lots of people staring. Then a police car came, and waited until I left. So, I walked to the Hbf and found a train to Köln. I waited a long time. During the whole time, there were many drunk soccer fans with shirts or jerseys saying "FC Nürnberg." They walked around singing some songs. Then about 30-40 fans gathered in a main area and started singing loudly. Finally the police(about 6 of them, who were waiting the whole time) dispersed them. They had dogs(German Shepherds of course) that were muzzled. When the train I was planning on taking came, I was dismayed to find that all the soccer fans were getting on. Since I was taking the train to sleep, I thought better than to get on. So, I walked immediately to the youth hostel, which was in the north part of the Altstadt, farthest away from the Hbf. They youth hostel was the "former imperial stables," or so my map says. I got there just after 22:00. I went up to the room right away. At this hostel, you don't get a key - your room stays unlocked, and the locker costs a whole Euro. I lay down immediately, but then a large group of boys came in the hallways and started playing soccer, and talking really loudly. Finally, I got dressed and stepped outside. One of them said something that I didn't understand and I said "ja." After that, they toned it down a little, I finally fell asleep. I was the only person in my room. I only woke up twice, and finally got up at 07:30. Breakfast was similar, except they had real dark bread and Nutella. After I checked out, I went to the middle of town and looked for a church service to attend. I decided on Lorenzkirche, where I saw the wedding. That church was an Evangelical Lutheran. It had heaters under the pews. They played the organ, and also had some chants by 8 men in white robes. They had communion at the end with some weird ritual. After that, I bought a Tageskarte and went to the old Nazi party celebration grounds. In November 2001 there opened a museum there. It was good, with an audio tour. Also, they had short films. You pointed to the screen with your audio receiver, and the sound played in your language. I learned of the majestic plans for the grounds. Much was never finished. They had plenty of info on the years leading up to '39. It was an attachment to one of the buildings Hitler commissioned. The tour was very informative. Then I took the S-bahn back to Hbf, and took the train I'm on now.

Monday, April 29th, 2002 Bingen am Rhein

So after I got to Düsseldorf, it was still in the late evening, so, I took the train around the area, finally ending up back at Düsseldorf. On the last ride the conductor stamped it where he wasn't supposed to, which would lose my one day of rail travel. So, I went to the Reisezentrum, and she wrote a note on the back of my pass saying what had happened. Also, on a ride to Aachen earlier, a girl opened the (glass) door of the train and tried to walk right through it. Right after I said, "Bist- du müde?", she said "Bin ich müde." At Düsseldorf I got a map at the tourist information. There was a street which is supposedly famous call Königs-allee, but all it had was a lot of expensive designer stores and not much more. I walked along the Rhein, and rested on a park bench for a while, because I had gotten nearly no sleep. I then went to a church where they were playing the organ, practising for a concert later on in the evening. I actually slept with my head on the rack for song books for a while, even though the organ was also playing loudly. A "Penner" was also sleeping in there, too. Then, I went to the train station, hopped on an ICE to Munich, but it passed through a nice part of the Rhein. I found a cheap youth hostel in Bingen, so I got off in Mainz and then took a train to here.

Wednesday, April 14, 2002 23:09 Calgary

I feel bad that I didn't finish my Germany trip report, because I'm already going on a new one. I'll hopefully recall the important bits. Anyways, at Bingen, I automatically said that I wanted to stay for 2 nights. I was tired, and my foot had a blister in-between the big toe and the next one. Anyways, Tuesday April 30th, I took a train to Mainz. Mainz is Gutenberg's hometown, and is the location of the Gutenberg Museum. It was maybe 2-3 kilometres from the Hauptbahnhof. When I got off the train I of course looked for the tourist information. All I saw was a building that seemed to be only for buying public transportation stuff, for the area. I went to McDonalds and had a full meal. In McDonalds I sat with a man who was Arabic speaking. He had lived in Germany a long time, and his English was "passable." He had actually been to Canada, taken a bus from Toronto to Vancouver. He said BC and Alberta were nice, but that Saskatchewan and Manitoba were boring... He was a gynaecologist. Then I went back to the building labelled "Information," and it turned out to be the Tourist Information, just poorly labelled. I got a map and started walking. Of course Mainz had the typical pedestrian centre. There was an "American Shop" that I went in, having American Army clothes. They also had real paintball guns, but no good deals. For instance, a Shocker 4x4 was 1000€ ! I finally found the museum, which was on the far side of the Altstadt. The museum was cool, I guess. I learned about Gutenberg. I saw 3 different editions of his Bible. (He made 180 total, I believe) They also had many other examples of publishing around the world, and lots of old books, including miniatures from the 19th century, woodcuts from much older. When I got there, a man was demonstrating a replica printing press to a class of French High-school kids. Then I took the train back. (By the way, this was the day I had to use where the conductor misstamped.) He read the note that the lady had written on the back on the pass, and had no problem. Then I got back to Bingen. Since my Youth Hostel had no lockers, I took my backpack with me. I got back and walked around Bingen, which is a quaint old town. That evening, I called home just to say that all was ok. I decided to try contacting Jutta again, but I had no idea how to call. There was a French guy using the phone, so after he was done I asked him for help. If he noticed my accent, he didn't say anything. He was pretty drunk, and said that I had to add two zeros in front of the the "49." He had a lot of trouble dialling and finally the phone gave it up and said (for emergency calls only.) So I went upstairs, and talked to the lady at the office, whose English was worse than my German. But we could communicate with me trying to talk German. She told me that for long distance you don't need the country code (49). Instead, you put a "0" in front of the area code. The area code was like 4 or 5 digits long. Anyways, I'd never have guessed. So I walked outside to a payphone near the Hbf. I put my card in and called Jutta, who was quite surprised to hear from me. I said, I'd like to visit, and she said she would call Natascha, and look at the train schedules for me. So, I waited 15 minutes before calling back. She couldn't get a hold of Natascha, who was living near Frankfurt. Then my card ran out, because I had depleted it calling home. So, I walked across the bridge to Bingen. (The youth hostel was actually in Bingen- Brücke) It took me ages to find another phone. The other phone was card only, so I had to really search for a coin phone. I finally found one and called her back. While I was waiting I talked to a drunk guy passing by who liked Canadians better that Americans. Anyways, Jutta had checked the web and had a 4-leg journey with times, that I wrote down. The first train from Bingen to Mainz left at 07:58, which meant that I had to miss breakfast. Well, that train never came. So, I had to wait an hour for the next one. Of course that meant that I missed my other trains. So, I had to reschedule. The first train from Mainz to Stuttgart was 15 minutes late, which I thought was okay, since I had a wait in Stuttgart. Well this train made me miss the other one. So, I had to call Jutta for the second time that day. I had to wait 2 1/2 hours so I walked on Königstraße again. Then I took the train to Albstadt, where Jutta had agreed to meet me. She didn't recognise me right away, but she looked the same to me. She tried to get a hold of her friends, and finally we tracked some down. We went to one of her friend's houses, a 16 year old boy name Steffan. We (five of us) decided to take somebody's car and "cruise the strip," because he had a system. They thought it was funny that I could sing along to Rammstein without understanding it. Then we got some pizza. I'm not sure what town we were in at this point. Then we went back to Steffan's house, and sat around, trying to decide what to do. Apparently that day, (May 1st) is what we might call May Day, and that was why I had train trouble. Also lots of stuff was was closed, for example, we were going to play darts. Instead, we went to a pool hall, where a few more people joined us there. I played most games, mostly doing doubles. I wasted everybody, with some difficulty. The, we went back to Steffan's house in Bisingen and Steffan asked me if I wanted to go school with him the next day. I thought that was a great idea, so I agreed. Then Jutta got a schedule on the 'Net for my journey from here to Berlin. Finally Steffan asked his mom if I could stay there, and she had no problem. His school started early, so I got up @ 06:30. During breakfast, (müsli, of course) everybody prayed. I prayed in English, as I didn't want to embarrass myself. Then his mom drove us to school. Walking in the door of the school, Steffan asked the principal if I could come to school with him. He said something like, "He's Canadian, can he come?" and he said yes. The school began at 07:10! Their first class was Geography or something. When the bell rang, the teacher left the class, but we didn't and the next teacher came who taught English. Of course I was the main attraction. The teacher asked me questions, and I talked for much of the class. She also tried to get her students to aks questions, but they were a little shy. Some did, however, asking about pets, hobbies, etc. I tried to talk clearly and enunciate, but of course my accent is a rarity to them. After that, she pointed out the mistakes that the class had made the previous class doing a dictée. It was actually pretty hard stuff. Then they had German and the teacher asked me in English if I understood German. I said a little, and then she asked if I understood Swabische and the whole class laughed. Also in English class the teacher asked me what most typified Germany. I said "beer," and the whole class laughed. Then we had physics and we switched rooms. The whole class, we watched a video about the atomic bomb. Before the class, one of Steffan's friends said that the teacher was a little funny-acting. Sure enough, he tried to play the video before putting it in the VCR. The funniest part for me was when they talked about the Enola Gay. They had some live footage, and after they dropped it the narrator translated what the crew said. "Mein Gott, was haben wir gettan!" I laughed out loud. Then we switched rooms, and had two periods of art. The class was working on perspective drawing, and the teacher made me try, too. So, I copied off the chalkboard what they were doing. The teacher kept coming back, and encouraging me. The whole day, they had couple 5 minute breaks, and one 15 minute break. The school was over at 12:10. It was a Realschule, which means it is for people going into trades, and not for people going to university. The harder school is called Gymasiumn. Then, we walked back home, where we had Schnitzel and Knüdel, which is a kind of dumpling. Everybody laughed when his mom asked if I wanted more. I said "In Swabisch, i bay full." They all laughed. Then, we took the scooter to a super market, where I bought some beer (8 Zwiefalter Klosterbräu, 2 Pilsener) a few Red Bulls, a couple Fantas, a couple Sprudels, a wine, some chococolate including Ritter Sport and Kinder Riegel. This completely filled up the duffel bag I had bought in Mainz. Then we went over to his friend's house, and they showed me Bisingen, which was really an excuse for a smoke break. When the three of us came back, we had Kuchen with his mother and her friend. His mother didn't speak English, so I answered her questions in my bad German, with Steffan's help. Then the three of us went to Steffan's house, got my stuff, and walked to the train station. Steffan and I took the train to Tübingen, where Jutta goes to school. We were gonna get coffee or something, but Jutta got caught in traffic. Then I got on the train and began my five leg train trip to Berlin at 18:33. Since it was before 19:00, I got a ticket to somewhere. I don't remember the trains, but the last one before Augsburg to Berlin was Ulm to Augsburg. Augsburg to Berlin was a Nachtzug, and I got on the wrong car first. Anyways, I got to Berlin at ~ 6:30, but didn't get off at Berlin Zoological Gardens. I didn't know that Berlin didn't have a Hbf. So, I took the U-bahn back, and a bus from here to the airport. I checked in right away and she asked me if I wanted to go on the 9:10 instead of 11:40. I said yes, and had a nice flight to Amsterdam. I had decided to check both my bags, as both were much bigger than allowed. I had wrapped my glass bottles in socks and clothes, and ended up with no breakages. Again, I had 5 hours in Amsterdam Airport, and not enough money to make it to the city. The plane left late but it was only 20 minutes late to Vancouver. On the plane, we had to fill out customs forms. The International Arrival part of Vancouver Airport is really nice. It has running water and a totem pole. I had to pay duty on the wine, and luckily I had just enough money in the checking account. The whole customs and baggage thing took only 15-20 minutes and when I got outside, Mom and Trieneke weren't there yet. I only had to wait five minutes before they came, as they had been delayed in traffic.

The End!

Glossary

Hauptbahnhof or Hbf: Main Train Station

Nachtzug: overnight train

Munich: München

Kuchen: cakes

Altstadt: old city

Rathaus: City Hall

Reisezentrum: Literally "trip centre." A place in a train train where you can buy tickets

ICE: Intercity Express, a high speed German train.

S-bahn: What we might call commuter trains

U-bahn: Subway

Konzentrationslager Gedenkestätte: Concentration Camp Memorial

Tageskarte: a day pass for public transit

Nürnberg: Nuremberg

Hessen: Hesse, a German state.