THE TRIP TO GERMANY (DAYS ONE THROUGH FOUR)

Well, Day Five here now and we're in a rain delay in Budapest.  I've made it safely to Hungary though and now sit in the company of my awesome daughter (I am thankful neither of us cried at the airport...we're mature people).  So, in the great tradition of baseball rain delays--let me tell the story of my time in Deutschland.

DAY ONE (which is really into the second, but...)

So the second great trip to visit a child studying abroad is under way. Other than St. Louis drivers at 730am, things started well. Flight was on time and while waiting, I even wrote about three pages for the novel I'm working on. It winds up in Hungary (shhh, that's a secret), but I couldn't get to the point of writing about Hungary while IN Hungary. I procrastinated too much.

It was a nice flight on a puddle jumper, too. I sat with the former assistant coach for Missouri's gymnastics team and we discussed a ton of stuff about her sport and about volleyball.  In gymnastics, you have four events and you better be able to be great at least three of them. If you are only good at one, you'll walk on and maybe see action once in a while, but only as a relief to one of the all-around athletes. That's a far cry from volleyball which (within college/club) is promoting specialization. I don't particularly like international vb rules because it limits the subs and my ability to get playing time for tons of kids—but I would bet a good ton of money on it that you get more well-developed players that way (hmmm....make them actually play front/back row, hit AND pass...what a concept....) It was interesting to discuss nutrition—they follow a policy of 'all things in moderation' rather than banning certain foods or pop—their experience is banning something means temptation and a far worse problem than by promoting common sense and being reasonable.

I was also fascinated to hear that most gymnasts are done by 22 at the latest—that because of the way they have to practice and the stress on ankles and knees, their bodies can't take the pounding any more. It makes sense to me, but it's not something I ever really thought about, but given how young those kids start and the constant training—yikes. That was another thing. The time gymnasts put in—before college, they are used to putting 3-6 hours in DAILY, and for many those requirements mean they are home-schooled. Can you imagine the fit parents would have if a volleyball coach wanted to train that much every day? (By the way, anyone interested in this...and not playing for your school team...I'd be happy to work with you for 5-6 hours daily...make checks payable to “Jim's Retirement Fund”, please.

Toronto's airport is nice—also pretty big, an important consideration since an Air Canada employee sent me all the way to Terminal 3 from Terminal 1. “But why is that important?” you may ask. And I may answer, “Because every damned Air Canada flight emanates from Terminal 1”, so...I got my exercise in for today, that's for sure. I'd be angry—except that everyone's friendly...hard to be angry when there was no ill intent.

The rest of the day—airplane ride to Frankfurt. Maybe I'll sleep. I'll try to get a couple sucky hours (I hate sleeping on planes) so that I am alive and able to roll all day tomorrow for Day One in Germany!

THE FLIGHT / DAY TWO

So I didn't get much sleep—wound up watching “The Imitation Game” and a documentary on the making of “Dark Side of the Moon” and spent about four hours talking to the two Canadians sitting next to me—good time. We spent most of it comparing the countries—making fun of Tennessee, Saskatchewan, American gun policy, and Canadian obsession with Tim Horton's donuts. They were legitimately shocked that I could name three Canadian political parties as well as understood the Victoria Day holiday.

Plane arrived in Frankfurt early, about 0540. Customs and baggage was the usual—just took time. Then met Guenter and headed to Bad Nauheim. We discussed politics and games for quite a bit, then I crashed for a ninety minute nap before heading to an Indian restaurant—a mom and pop shop that was pretty good, and while the food was good, I was impressed by the owner—he knew everyone who came in, many by name, and the clientele during lunch hour included high school aged students, workers from area businesses and us, so clearly if you have kids and adults walking in to your shop—you're making tasty stuff.

 

 

Here is Herr Doil.  Basically, this is where he was four years ago...hard at work like an ideal German!!  (I enjoy spending time with Guenter--it's like hanging out with an older brother, I suppose) 

I took a nap in the afternoon and then we walked through Bad Nauheim—it is a spa town going back a century or more, known for the health properties of its waters. We'd done it before, but this time went past a different section of town—I got to see how they used to make salt going back a thousand or more years, running the local water over a gigantic (at least fifty feet high) stack of blackthorn branches, the water trickling below where it was then collected, dehydrated, and voila—salt. They still have this up for tourists. It was pretty cool to see, not to mention think back on a world where salt was more valuable than gold.

Dinner was at a cafe in town and the weather turned nice enough we ate outside. I had a non-local dish called Pfalzer Saumagen which translates as Pig Belly from Pfalz. Considered a peasant dish, it's a favorite of Helmut Kohl, former chancellor of Germany. It's pork served on a bed of sauerkraut with mashed potatoes. Very tasty. I'd eat it again. Being this is Europe, I washed it down with two Duneklbiers from Munich. Unlike American beers, this was pretty decent—I think it was a good compliment to the food (an accident of choice).

We got some business done, too, along the way—including a potential idea for expanding business in Europe and another way of cutting expense on popular JRG games—without drastically increasing the financial risk of those games to boot!

DAY THREE

Not quite a lazy morning—had time to write up Day Two and check volleyball email. After that, went with Guenter on the road for the day. He had an opportunity to see his chiromaniac, so we went there first—which was interesting because the chiromaniac is Australian, the customers German, and most of the writing in the office in English—the music and TV were playing shows/subtitled in English, too. It was quite full there, though, so he must be competent. Turns out also that he graduated from Palmer Chiropractic which is in my hometown. The world is a small place.

After that, we went to Mainz. I hadn't realized it was significantly bigger than Frankfurt. There, we went to a game store and surprise, surprise, it looked like a US game store—and felt like one as well as we were both ignored by the proprietors while we looked at stuff. Guenter noted that they were listening in on our conversation though...I suspect they didn't realize we knew what we were doing. Then again, maybe their English sucked (I doubt that—this is Germany...no one's English seems to be that bad).

This picture is here from the game store.  At Origins in 2005, a company produced this as their dream.  They made 30,000 copies (my print runs are 2,000) thinking they make tons of money and have the world's greatest game.  It didn't sell...finding it in Germany was kinda cool and also very sad.  A group of people lost a LOT of money on their dream...but Baron Heintz will appreciate seeing this picture a great deal.
 The Rhine is puny (because I grew up on the Mississippi), but it has a fast current and it was completely blue-green. I hadn't been completely sure of the current until a barge appeared heading upstream—it's prow was throwing off water high and wide even though it was making slow headway. That's just not something you see with the Mississippi. There wasn't much river traffic either, though Guenter said there was some sort of strike going on and that the river is usually much busier.

The pictures just don't show the bright green of the river well.  It's about half as wide as the Mississippi is near the Quad Cities.  While we were on the bridge, I thought about what Patton did--the pause that refreshes--but it was too cool/windy to do that...and I wouldn't anyways...

 

 

The flag of Mainz and the state flag with the shield on it.  Apparently the shield is there because Bavaria is pompous and has their shield.  Go figure...state rivalries.

From there we went to Frankfurt and saw the old Guard Post (now a restaurant, but it had been the police station before and a barracks initially). Better was the St. Paul Church where German republicans in 1846 or so tried to create a unified single nation of Germany as a republic. With the European-wide revolutions of 1848, they failed, leaving a great 'what-if' for European and world history.

So...the one picture is sideways.  These are the St. Paul Church.

 

This is Frankfurt's flag that hangs over what is the city government building.  It's in a tourist-y part of the Stadtmittel with old looking buildings, but most are rebuilt due to bomb damage during World War Two.

This is the house where Goethe did most of his writing.

 

After that, we went for coffee and conversation with Guenter's smoochie girl, Virginia. She is very nice—you can tell they both like one another very much. With her, we talked quite a while and then walked to the Goethe House and to the Kleinmarkt—which is a place with 30+ stands selling fresh meat, veggies, or sweets. Very tasty. I enjoyed three pieces of sausage. I don't know what they were exactly (they were all different types), but were all worth savoring.

Guenter and Virginia

Me and Guenter outside the Goethe House

 

After that, Virginia had to go to her Tai Chi class. Guenter and I then walked to the Oper Haus, Frankfurt's Opera House (duh)--what a beautiful building. Classic and not overwrought. It may be my favorite structure I've seen in Europe for beauty—though I still love Schloss Colditz and its history more. Once that was done, we headed back to Guenter's...except we took the long way.

Translates basically as "For the just, the beautiful, and the good"

We stopped at Saalburg which has a rebuilt Roman fort. We walked around the fort and looked at the excavated ruins of the buildings which sprung up there as well. The fort was destroyed by German warriors in 226AD and it was then abandoned to nature until the start of the 20^th century.

After that, we stopped at the Frankfurt Luftplatz—that's a small air field well outside of Frankfurt, right by Bad Nauheim really. It's used mainly for gliders, the field angled so the gliders don't need planes to tow them—it has a catapult system to launch them independently. The air field has a restaurant run by an Englishman from Newcastle. I had a piece of cheesecake—Guenter had plum crumb pie. I had an Artlander dunkel bier from a small German micro-brewery while Guenter had a wine/mineral water mix as we watched the sun set to the west. The scenery was quite beautiful. I think watching a storm approach from that vantage point would be even more amazing.

This is actually Bad Nauheim from an inn/restaurant on a hill overlooking the city.

DAY FOUR

So, today started with a taste of Eirlikor---German egg nog. It didn't taste like the stuff you get in the US. Of course, that may be because it was 40-proof. It cleared the morning phlegm from my throat for sure! Guenter had a doctor's appointment in Stallstadt (my spelling is off on that), so I went along, did some writing. It's only today, Day Four, on my second trip to Europe that I'm confident I could drive the autobahn without causing a 20-car pileup. It just takes a while to get used to the signs and speeds in kilometers/hour...it's a pain to think in Imperial units while everything is in metric. How much easier would it be if the US converted to the metric system? I suspect the benefits would be amazing.

Guenter's appointment was to the south, so we detoured just a smidge--into Bavaria.  Lunch was at a Bavarian biergarten--currywurst und pommes de frites (French fries).  I had a Munich hefeweize to was it down--definitely not the best beer so far.

We went in to Frankfurt for what was a failed mission. I went to find my mom's birthplace, the house adjacent to Martin Luther King Park. We couldn't find it—just a lot of bungalows and apartment buildings. We did walk the park and it was very nice and incredibly busy—more people there than in any park I've seen in the US in a long time—including 3-yr olds biking and kids 4-6 playing unsupervised without fearing anything (American parents could learn from this I suspect).

We went through a couple more old towns on the way back to Bad Nauheim and wound up staying at Guenter's place for the evening where he cooked some tasty Frickedelle helped down by a light rye bread and some butter. I got to try a new cola Afri-Cola. It tasted like pop. Apparently it used to be very popular, lost it and was discontinued...and now it's back. Guenter said it was his favorite as a kid.

A little more life discussion and then time to pack and go to bed. 430 comes early.