I was very excited to go to Germany. As sad as I was to turn in our rental car on our last day in England, it was also a relief to take a break from the stress of driving (in a foreign country, on the other side of the road) and rely on public transportation (or kind hosts who own cars) for a little while.
We also had the benefit of traveling with Kathleen, who had spent three weeks in Germany on an exchange program last summer. She’d had a wonderful host family with whom she’d maintained a close relationship, and they were excited to meet us and show us around. On top of that, we were staying with one of her former classmates, and she also had a friend whose older sister lives in Frankfurt. It was pretty much a treasure trove of people who were full of knowledge on the area.
As if that isn’t enough, Kathleen also speaks passable German. She’s not fluent, but she can read it easily and can make conversation, and that was good enough for most people. The big takeaway here is that people in Germany aren’t as unfriendly as they’d have you believe. But I’ll get into that.
Our flight was scheduled to depart London Stansted early the morning of 27 June 2015, and since we’d never flown Ryanair, we didn’t know the protocol. Turns out, the check-in process is pretty brutal. They don’t open check-in until two hours before the flight, which made for long lines in a crowded airport. For cut-rate flight prices, I guess the trade-off wasn’t too bad, but it was incredibly stressful and exhausting, especially since we were wearing our heavy backpacks.
We landed in Frankfurt-Hahn around 10:30am and were greeted by Kathleen’s former classmate, Allie. She’s pretty kickass — she’s been living in Germany for over a year now, and she spends most of her weekends doing quick trips to other countries. She’d actually just gotten back from a three-day trip to Malta the previous weekend. Color me jealous!
Allie drove us straight into Frankfurt am Main (pronounced like “mine” instead of “Maine,” luckily Kathleen had already corrected me on that before we arrived) to meet up with the older sister of one of Kathleen’s other friends, a woman named Rose who is full of historical facts about Frankfurt. She greeted us warmly at her flat, and then we set out into Frankfurt with Rose as our tour guide.
We took the train into the city and one of the first things we did was cross this pedestrian bridge, called Eiserner Steg.
Just on the other side of the river was a square called Römerberg. It’s comprised of reconstructed timber houses surrounding a cobblestone square and a fountain.
These houses were destroyed during the bombings in World War II, and supposedly these timbered buildings are close replicas of the ones that stood there for centuries.
This is *sucks in breath* the Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen, or the Fountain of Justice. It depicts the goddess Justitia holding her scales and a sword, and it’s the oldest fountain in Frankfurt.
This is the Römer, or the City Hall, which has served as such for 600 years. It was also reconstructed after WWII.
Rose then took us to St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral, which is free to enter. She told us about all of the preservation the Germans put into the various statues and architecture around the church during WWII in an attempt to protect them from the bombings. There are areas where the damage is still present, but the statues were safely preserved and restored after the war was over. We attempted to have a look around while a children’s concert was in session.
Rose suggested climbing to the top of the observation tower of the church. Remember when I said we would miss the elevator provided to us at Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik? Yeah. This was tough. Not only did the spiral staircase seem endless, but it was also very tight and narrow, and I experienced the corresponding anxiety attached to that. Rose was very sneaky — she told us it “wasn’t a bad climb” before we paid the €3/per person, but about three-quarters of the way up the tower, she admitted that she’d lied.
But ultimately, it was worth it.
The first and only thunderstorm of our entire trip rolled in just as we neared the top of the tower. There was constant lightning and cracks of thunder as we circled the top deck, and we were blasted with cold rain depending on which direction we were facing.
It sounds crazy, but the thunderstorm made me feel less out of place in such a foreign country. I know thunderstorms, we have them at home all the time. Gone was the fine, soaking mists of England — bring on the thunder and fat, unforgiving raindrops!
It’s a very beautiful view of the River Main.
I paused for a pic of the staircase as we descended. Notice the rope to the left? It runs all the way down.
With our thighs burning and rain coming down, Rose suggested stopping for some coffee. We sat outside and ordered our drinks and giggled at a passing segway tour.
And miraculously, the rain cleared up! Rose took us to the shopping district for something Kathleen was very excited for us to see: spaghetti ice cream!
The shop is called Eis Christina, and have a look at that link, because seriously, I want some ice cream again. I want to fly back to Frankfurt right now.
We said a sad goodbye to Rose and thanked her for her incredible knowledge of the city. She revealed that she loves going on walking tours during her free time and is basically a sponge for local information. In other words, she’s kind of my hero.
We had plans to meet another one of Kathleen’s classmates in Wiesbaden, and Allie was nice enough to drive us out there.
The Kurhaus, or “spa house,” which serves as the conference center of Wiesbaden. I did all of this research after visiting this town, since we didn’t know our Germany itinerary until we arrived.
Wiesbaden is one of the oldest spa towns in Europe, and it’s famous for its architecture and hot springs. It definitely has an upscale, quiet feel to it.
It’s also a famous gambling center, as the Spielbank allegedly inspired Dostoyevsky to write The Gambler.
Wiesbaden also has a strong military presence, as there’s an American military base nearby.
We took advantage of the wonderful weather and ate outside at a restaurant whose name I can’t even begin to remember. I feel bad! But I also didn’t eat well in Germany — it’s a cuisine that perfectly lines up with all of the foods I don’t like. I did enjoy eating pretzels with mustard, though.
We finally retired to Allie’s flat after a long day of flying and sightseeing, and that’s when I got really jealous, because Allie pretty much lives in my dream flat.
This was our view when we woke up the next morning. She has windows on three sides of the building, and she can just throw them open and let the breeze flow through.
Same window, different angle, cat on sill. I would love to have such a view.
And she has two hilarious black cats named Wiener and Schnitzel. I’m not kidding. (Pictured above in the window is Wiener.)
Schnitzel is much more affectionate than Wiener.
They both love laying in the open windows.
Snagged this photo from Mum of Wiener and Schnitzel watching us from above.
Our second day in Germany was a Saturday, and our plans were to hike in the morning and attend a festival in Ramstein in the afternoon. I was not feeling well on this hike, so while the pictures may look beautiful, I was the picture of misery.
We arrived at a tower that gives an amazing view of the town of Kaiserslautern, but I was too wiped to climb it so Kathleen and I hung out at the base and I cried a little bit.
That’s Mum’s picture, and you can barely see us in it, and yes, I was really crying. Kathleen can vouch for it.
Lucky for me, there was a pretty good view of Kaiserslautern from the base of the tower, too.
The whole reason we structured our trip around going to Germany right in the middle was for this festival on Saturday afternoon. Kathleen’s host family had helped organize the Rhineland-Pfalz state fair, which is hosted in a different city in the province each summer. This year it was hosted in Ramstein-Missenbach, and her host family was very excited and proud to be hosting, it’s a big accomplishment.
I had a horrible headache all day and no Advil to alleviate it, so I was still pretty miserable. I really hate that a headache floored me so completely, because the festival was fun and I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn’t been feeling so crappy.
We met up with Kathleen’s host friends, Jonas and Tobias, at lunch. We sat for a good hour listening to them tease her for her rusty German and pretty much give her a hard time. The longer we sat there, the more people joined us, until we were basically sitting at a long table of festival workers in blue shirts.
We wandered around and checked out some booths and the big American military exhibit they had with various tanks and machines (Ramstein is an American AFB), then Kathleen and I conquered one of our biggest fears: ferris wheels.
Kathleen, Jonas, and me. We don’t look nervous. Noooo.
That’s Allie and her boyfriend Alex in the middle, her friend Tobias beside her, and Kathleen’s host father beside me.
The view from the top wasn’t bad, either.
That’s Ramstein from above, and the whole town had pretty much shut down for this festival. It was impressive, like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
It speaks to my crappy body that I only got one other picture for the entire afternoon, and it was these guys:
I don’t even have anything to add to that.
I remember going to a convenience store and holding armfuls of German candies at Kathleen’s insistence, plus a container of blessed Advil for me. I can’t remember what we did for dinner that night, I just remember going to bed really sad because it felt like I’d genuinely wasted that day with how sick I’d felt.
Also we broke Allie’s car, because I can’t go anywhere in Europe without somehow causing damage to automobiles. I mean, it wasn’t my fault, it’s not like I drove it or anything, but I felt like my presence probably caused it.
But good news! I woke up the next morning feeling much better. If only we’d saved the hike for that day!
Instant coffee. Windows open. Slight breeze. Two cats. I miss it.
We spent that morning exploring Kaiserslautern, mostly relying on Kathleen to talk to cashiers and bakers. We ordered breakfast pastries and ate them in a small park by the mall.
We were also pretty excited to wear shorts for the first time since we left Boston. Actually, did I even wear shorts in Boston? I think I hadn’t worn shorts since Florida! Anyway, our excitement was short-lived, but I’ll get into that in the next post.
We walked around Kaiserslautern for a couple of hours, hoping to find something to get Allie to thank her for hosting us. After no luck in some of the smaller shops, we doubled back and went to the mall, where we found this:
She’d been going crazy about the little Minion stuffed animals at the fair on the previous day, and she really liked it when we gave it to her later that night.
For lunch, I got adventurous. And I mean it — this was really out of my comfort zone. We got döner at a corner shop near Allie’s flat.
It. Was. Amazing. I want another one as I type this. Where has it BEEN all my life?
That evening we had dinner at Kathleen’s host family’s house, where they did a schwenker cookout.
It’s where the grill is suspended on a swing above an open flame, and they keep it moving so that the meat cooks evenly. It’s pretty cool!
We also played a lawn game called kubb. I’m pretty good at it. Well, I’m better than Kathleen, but not as good as Allie.
We ended the night on this hilarious note:
Oh man. Those cats do not like their harnesses.
We had to say goodbye to Allie and Alex that night, because we wouldn’t see them before our train the next morning. I was sad to leave; it was nice to be hosted again, and our next stop would feel a little lonelier without a host. We couldn’t have asked for a better situation for our Germany stay.
We broke a sweat walking to the train station, and we grumbled idly about the heat. We had no idea what we were in for.
We had assigned seats on this train to Alsace, so Mum was separated from us by a couple of rows. I had the biggest backpack of the three of us, and my Salomon boots took up a lot of space in it, so I was constantly worried about overhead storage on planes and trains. Luckily I was able to do this trip with the bag in my lap.
We witnessed some of the public shaming the Germans like to do when passengers are caught without valid tickets, it was pretty cool to see. Instead of being rude, the ticket checker was just loud and blunt — “you don’t get on a train without buying a ticket, it costs this much money, you have to buy one now” — and after the woman had paid, the man was perfectly friendly. Kathleen translated it for me as it went, and I was impressed by how quickly it was resolved.
It was about 2 1/2 hours to our next destination: the Alsace region of France. That’s where I’ll pick up in the next post.
You, Me, and Ollie! 