29 France D-Day Beaches

Thursday and Friday

It was a very good trip from Harlaxton to France. We took the train from Grantham to London and then took the Tube with about the same number of people that live in Bombay. We only had to go from Kings Cross to Waterloo stations which is just a few stops but includes a change of subway line. We got on to the second line (Bakerloo – as if that means anything to you folks- I will tell you it has nothing to do with the bathroom of the companion of the butcher and the candlestick maker) and it was very crowded. At the next stop no one got off and 337 more people got in our car. At the next stop there were a lot of folks waiting. The doors opened and the folks waiting just looked at the sea of compacted bodies and decided to wait for the next one; that is all but one of them just looked. One “gentleman” with two bags decided he was getting on the subway come Hades or floods. He tried and managed to eventually to get in but not before he had the doors try to close twice on his leg and his suitcase. He and I shared the same personal space for the duration of our ride. Thankfully that was not long. We made it and actually caught a train to Portsmouth about half an hour earlier than our plan. We thought we would be cutting it close to make the ferry. It turns out that we waited 45 minutes or so before they let us board the ferry anyway.

The ferry was large with a whole raft of school groups running around acting like school groups. Evidently it is fairly common for both British and other countries to take their classes on field trips for the day or weekend to another country. One of the visiting faculty members has a 10 year old son (Cameron). His class was taking a trip on Friday to France. Cameron did not get to go because being an American and a non European Union citizen the paperwork was going to be too much hassle.

I stayed up for a while (we left at midnight). I thought I might get some night pictures as we pulled out of Portsmouth. However it is rather difficult to take a time exposure on a moving ship.

We had a nice cabin (small). We both slept some and it was a smooth crossing. The ship wide alarm went off about 5:30 to get everyone up on time. Fortunately it was nice classical music that they woke us up with.

After breakfasting on the ship we made our way with the other foot passengers (evidently all those other people came on board on their hands and knees) to the passport control which is not needed for anyone with an EU passport. We took the bus into Caen.

Caen is a city that was virtually all built since 1945. It was almost all leveled in WWII. The Cathedral in the center of town and two castle structures built by William the Conqueror were largely untouched in the war. Everything else is modern. We decided to take-in the Caen Museum. It was a history of WWI and WWII as well as the cold war. It had a large section dealing with peace.

I was reminded about the human suffering in the war. The people of Russian suffered horribly in the siege of Leningrad. Thousands of people starved or died of disease as a result of their malnourishment after the Germans invaded. The museum did have some information about the final solution and the holocaust. Although I am not sure I saw that word used. It was not a major part of the museum. It was presented but I guess I wanted to see a more prominent role for that part of the story.

There was a startling map of occupied Germany that had marked all of the concentration camps and the work camps that surrounded the main camps. I had never considered how many there were.

There was a very interesting section on the French Resistance and how they operated and how the Germans developed ways to triangulate the radio signals and find the broadcasters. This led to the Resistance finding ways to hide and move their broadcast equipment.

When the information about the cold war was presented it painted America as an exporter of our pop culture which was seen by the Soviets as a bad influence. I found myself very ambivalent as I agreed that much of what the US exported and continues to export is not very wholesome nor very meaningful (they had displays of Hollywood exports and lots of things from the 50s like the music). I could not help but think that the only way we could export that culture was if someone wanted to import that culture. Then I thought, that is the same logic as a drug dealer.

We had a bit of difficulty finding a taxi to take us back to the train station. After about 20 minutes the taxi that was called did show up. The 15 minute train ride from Caen (pronounced like you were trying to rip off an elderly person -CON) to the small town of Bayeux (pronounced like the Louisianan “bayou” but only if you say it like they do in the heart of Cajon country. “by ooooh” not the Houston “by oh”.)

That is enough French lessons (we have exhausted my knowledge). In contrast to Caen, Bayeux was virtually untouched in the battle for Normandy following D-Day. Bayeux was the first town that was liberated by the Allied troupes (two small villages preceded). When the allied troupes arrived the Germans had already pulled out to establish a front north and east of the town. So there was no resistance and thus no real damage to the city. Many of the buildings date from the Middle Ages and the streets are cobblestoned and quite narrow (and filled with very noisy motorcycles).

There is a very large cathedral called Notre Dame but not the one in Paris. The cathedral does have the similar style with the flying buttress that the one in Paris has.

Bayeux is also home to a 1000 year old tapestry that is almost perfectly preserved. I had envisioned a wall sized square rug-like tapestry like I have seen in other castles depicting a scene in the life a king or someone. The Bayeux rendition is a story telling tapestry that was embroidered with wool thread on a linen cloth. The cloth is about 2 feet tall and almost the length of a football field. It tells the story of William the Conqueror. The importance of this “history” is supposedly in the details it provides for the story and the daily life at the time (circa 1066). William became King of England and he was a Norman (French Viking type person – Nor(th)-man).

I am learning in British Studies that this was the beginning of a very long and bitter love hate relationship between the English and the French. The love part, while very powerful and usually short lived, is evidenced in things like D-day when Britain played a major role in the liberation of France. The Americans and the Canadians were trained and staged in Britain. Also the British Navy was largely responsible for clearing the mines out of the channel before the D-day landing. The hate part is evidenced by the 100 years war, and this weekend’s Rugby World Cup match which England won. The tapestry displays a lot of details about the kinds of weapons and clothing that people would have worn. They would not let me take pictures so I was forced to buy these.




The cathedral closed at 6:00 so we thought we would have dinner. We had picked out a restaurant based on recommendations on “tripadvisory.com”. This restaurant was right across from the cathedral but it was closed. We walked to another, it was closed and another, closed. We finally found one that had hours posted in the window and it turns out (which we confirmed) that most of the restaurants are opened from 12 until 2 and then from 7 until 11. We thus went back to the hotel and regrouped until just before 7:00.





We walked back the 8 or so blocks to the cathedral and our restaurant. We arrived at a few minutes past 7:00 and were given a table. The restaurant began to fill up soon after that. A sorority (I assume) arrived about 7:30. There were 25 or so young ladies from America who were having a nice time. The restaurant had an upstairs that could seat at least 25 or 30 and the downstairs where we were had a front room with the sorority ladies and our room with seating for 15 in or so. The room had beamed ceilings with things like old chairs and glassless windows hanging on the wall. The atmosphere was nice.

Not long after the sorority ladies arrived a group of 25 or so guys showed up and walked orderly upstairs. This is how I estimated the size of the upstairs. I had thought they might be there to watch the rugby match but it turns out that was Saturday night. Whatever they were doing they were very quiet about it. The ladies were chatting and by the end of the evening and several bottles of wine they were taking turns getting French kisses (the kind on both cheeks) form the waiter. The entire restaurant was being served by one man and one woman with one assistant. They were hopping. They were very attentive to everyone. They were on a dead run most of the evening.

Our dinners were very nice. We had the three course dinner. I had boiled shrimp (head and all) as an appetizer. Everything was presented like a French cooking show (wait a second…), lots of little garnishes and large plates. The shrimp was served with a small bowl of mayonnaise. I was thinking ketchup would be better until I tried the mayonnaise. I don’t know how it would be with fried shrimp but it is great with boiled. Penny had bacon (ham) and cheese on toast. It was not that common. It was served on a bed of mixed greens and she really enjoyed it. Our main course was the fish of the day. It was grilled cod in a delicious cream sauce with snow peas and beans, rice and a dollop of mashed carrots. For dessert I had ice cream and chocolate sauce with crunchy cookie things. Penny had Crème Brule. The meal was delightful. Ok, Penny says the cooking show is over now.

Saturday

We were taken on an all day tour of the D-day beaches and some of the towns and places of interest. Our guide was named Phillip (fay leap). We found out far more about Phillip than I wanted to know. He was very knowledgeable and seemed to have almost everything about the Battle of Normandy committed to memory (of course he could have told me that Mickey Mouse was the first Marine on shore and I would not be able to disprove it.) As the day wore on Penny and I both came to the conclusion that Phillip’s biggest joy in life was making himself look good at the expense of other people. He was not content in just telling us the information. He had to quiz us (there were two other Americans on the tour) about whether we knew who the American soldier was that led the attack at such and such a battle. He then spent a great deal of time talking about the mistakes that were made in the preparation and execution of the D-day plan. I am sure that the information he provided was correct. For example he said that the calculation of how much gunpowder to use to shoot the grappling hooks to the top of the cliffs was done with figures of the weight of the rope when it was dry. On D-day the rope was wet and thus many of the grappling hooks did not make it to the top of the cliff. The American landing craft only had one motor and not enough power to land easily with the current that was there. He told of the paratroopers who were dropped in the wrong places because of the young scared pilots who failed to recalculate the time in flight when the speed changed.

Phillip had many more of these stories. I wanted to say to him that it all seemed to work out fairly well for France in the end. But I held my tongue.

We were taken to Omaha Beach where so many men lost their lives and also to Utah Beach which was less well defended. This is Utah Beach.




But despite all that attitude, Phillip was very educational. One of the more memorable parts of the day were visiting the towns and farms where various events took place that had pictures taken by journalists and a few soldiers who broke orders and brought cameras. Phillip would park in the town square and show us the pictures and with the same buildings in the background.



We went to some of the remaining German bunkers and saw how solidly they were built to withstand the bombardment. We saw Omaha Beach where so many Allied forces were killed as they tried to land. The defenses on that beach were very difficult to stop. Utah Beach on the other hand was very lightly defended because they had withdrawn for some reason several of the cannons that had been stationed there.
I was reminded of the film we had seen the day before in the Caen museum. The first part of the film had a split screen with the right side showing German film and pictures from Normandy in the days leading up to D-day and the left half showed the allied force preparation. The film demonstrated that people died on both sides of the battlefield.

The American Cemetery that overlooks Utah Beach was a stark reminder of the men who died here.

All of the men buried here died during the Battle for Normandy. But as I looked at marker after marker the day that kept appearing was June 6, 1944.

It was a very moving day.

Saturday evening we walked around and looked at menus and then wound up back at the same restaurant. We were joined by the sorority ladies again only this time they ate upstairs.

Sunday

We have been traveling since we left the hotel at 9:00 and it is now 10:22 and we are still on the train. We walked, took a train, then a bus, then a ferry, a taxi, then a train, then a bus, then a train, then two subways and now a train and we have one more taxi before we get home. Traveling is fun and tiring.

Ray

28 North Wales

We headed out on the coach to North Wales with Ian, the driver, in charge. The movie Madagascar was the in-flight entertainment. I was less than entertained by the volume of the movie coming out of the speaker directly over my head but Penny said that the sound was fine by her. She was sitting opposite me due to her shoulder injury. Her shoulder felt much better this morning, a bit worse this afternoon.

Our first stop was at Chester in Northwest England. Chester is a roman city (so what else is new in England). But here in Chester they have Roman soldiers giving school kids tours of the city.




The city has a wall on which we walked and a clock which was erected to celebrate something to do with Queen Victoria. It is said to be the second most photographed clock in the world (or maybe it was England). Whatever, I was not going to be left out, so here is a picture.





We spent most of our 2 ½ hour stop visiting the cathedral. They had an audio guide and that was very interesting. One of the interesting historic events in this cathedral was that Handel had his first ever rehearsal of the Messiah in Chester Cathedral. The debut was to be in Ireland and that was where the rehearsal was to be as well. But when the winds were not favorable for the crossing from Chester to Ireland, Handel got stuck in Chester and he asked if there were people who could sightread the music. (Evidently he was still working on the music and wanted to hear it performed). One fellow was evidently not doing well at his sightreading. Handel said: “I thought you said you could sightread.” The man replied, “I can sightread, but not on first sight!” Evidently it worked out fine for Handel.




In the choir stalls there were some very beautiful yet strange wood carvings on the seats. This is evidently what happens when you describe an elephant to a wood carver who has never seen a real elephant. Note the horse-like legs including hoofs.



We then drove on to the Ambassador Hotel in Llandudno, North Wales. Llandudno is a very beautiful town on the northwest sea coast of Wales. There is a large crescent shaped bay where the town is located. The promenade wraps around the shore and a line of resort hotels front the promenade.












We felt absolutely like children as we strolled around the shore. The average age of the people out walking/shuffling/toddling/wheel-chairing around the promenade was at least 75.
We walked out on the pier and watched some fishermen as they snagged each other’s lines and the bottom of the ocean. One man did manage to catch a fish about 14 inches long. He took it off the hook and I thought he was going to throw it back as he reached toward the iron pipe railing. Then suddenly he smacked the fish’s head on the pipe to kill it and proceeded to clean it, so much for catch and release.




Just before smacking the fish.

It was then time for dinner about 6:00. We walked past the promenade to some business streets. We soon discovered that Llandudno is the proverbial town that rolls up the sidewalks at 6:00. They were really closing down everything. This includes the restaurants. There were just a few restaurants in the area that we found and most of those were only opened for lunch. We did find one place opened and ate there but at 7:00 they closed. The last couple that tried to come in was turned away. I bet the students are going to be bored silly. It is 8:14 and we have been back in the room (small but fine) for 45 minutes or so. Maybe there is something on TV.

Day 2.

Today was a fabulously sunny day in North Wales. We headed out at 9:00 for a bus tour to see the beauty of this land. Our first stop was at Caernarfon Castle.

It turns out not be a castle at all but rather a royal palace. Evidently you can tell by the small statues that decorated the top of the walls and the towers that are polygon shaped rather than round or square. We took a guided tour and our guide was very informative. He was very Welch and took every opportunity to talk about the English with an ever so slight disdain in his tone. He said the English never could get along with their neighbors. They tried and failed to conquer France, Scotland and Ireland. They did manage, under Edward I to conquer Wales. Edward I being the king of two countries and began to fancy himself an emperor and decided to build a palace in Wales. That was Caernarfon. It was a very defensive fortress with the highest technology of the time. The arrow slits have a single narrow slit from the outside but on the inside there were three openings that all shared the same slit. Picture a ↑ with the 3 arms on the inside all leading to the same point opening on the outside. This made it look like you would only have 5 archers shooting at you if you were trying to attack the wall but in fact you could have between 15 and 30 (high and low shooters from each hole on the inside).

Other tidbits we learned from our guide: The moats also served as the septic tank for the castle which made them very uninviting for invaders to plunge in and swim across. Most castles have small spiral staircases. We had heard at other castles that this was built in a counter clockwise direction so that the defender on top could use a sword in his right hand and the invader would not have room to use his right hand for the sword. Our guide here at Caenarfon said this was not true. He said soldiers (at least those attacking castles) at the time would likely have been in armor. The swords used were not the small swords of the movies but rather large heavy rather dull swords used to bash in the head of a man in a suit of armor. This armor was why they built spiral staircases. If you have been in a spiral staircase you know that the steps are very narrow on one side and slightly wider on the outside. Now image a soldier in a suit of armor with armor shoes with pointed toes used for kicking your enemy. They would not be able to climb those stairs.

We also saw that in the kitchen that they had hot and cold running water. One trough ran through the fireplace so that you would have hot water.

The cooking spots had places for very large pots where they kept a fire burning all the time (because it was easier to keep it burning than to light a new fire – no matches). He said that thus the big brass pot was always there and always hot. So they did not wash it. They would just add new stuff to the pot when it got low. Thus there was a lot of really old food that was probably at the bottom. If you arrived to eat when the pot was low you would have to scrape the bottom of the pot and no telling what you would dredge up. Thus we have the phrase “pot luck.”

Outside the castle was a small market and a group of folks in traditional Welch clothing were dancing in a small park.

We then drove through Snowdonia National Park. This is where the second highest mountain in Britain is located. I use the term mountain rather loosely. These are not very big compared to most mountains but they are still very beautiful. Take a look.

We had to pass this truck (lori) on this very narrow stone wall lined road. The driver of the truck had taken a wrong turn. He had to back up and squeeze to one side while cars and our bus snuck by. There was not much room to spare.

We then stopped at Seaside Resort called Portmerion. It was built between 1925 and 1972 by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis who designed it after an Italian village. It is quite lovely but really is kind of like a Disney World town. All the houses are hotel rooms, restaurants or souvenir shops. It is not really my kind of place.

Portmerion is located on the shore of the Irish sea. The sea had gone on holiday for the afternoon. Evidently the tide was out and I mean way out.

Our final stop for the day was Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It is a now defunct mine that they take you down into and have a history of the slate miners life. They made us wear hard hats and it was a very good thing. The passages are very low (4 feet in spots) and you would hear the thud of a hard hat hitting the rock and people would laugh because you knew no one was hurt but would have been if not for the hat. The mountains around are full of slate. They still mine it a lot but most mines are now surface mines. We saw lots of half mountains where the face had been gouged out.

The evening was spent at the cinema. We took a taxi and had a popcorn and coke dinner while we watched a movie. It was fun listening to the teens come out of the theatre as we waited for the taxi. They were talking in the same manner and tone as do all teens but they were speaking Welch. Welch is a language that is full of consonants. The words sound like they are talking English but the words just do not make sense to us. It seems very different than listening to any other foreign language. Most other languages have a recognizable accent (French, Spanish, Swedish) plus the words are different. But welsh people have an English accent but speak Welch.

Sunday we left Llandudno at “half ten” (as the Brits are want to say). A short ride brought us to Bets y coed. It is a lovely part of Wales that is forested and watered. Lakes and streams are in abundance in a land that is nestled in the foothills. Streams and foothills frequently result in waterfalls and one of the prettiest is called Swallow Falls. It is just a mile or so outside of Bets y coed and that is where we stopped first. We spent a half hour or so ooohing and aaahhhing at the beauty of God’s creation.

Another couple of hours were spent in Bets y coed. The range of activities here in this tiny village are limited to watching tourists (there were plenty to choose from), looking at the cute buildings, playing in the park, waiting in line to eat, or shopping in the tourist stores. We ate and shopped mostly but I did get in some people watching. The British equivalent of the Hell’s Angels was in town. This consisted of 100 to 125 motorcycles. These were ridden by what appeared to be middle class businessmen and women who spent a lot of money on their transportation and perhaps even more on their clothing. Almost all of them were wearing full leather suits right down to the motorcycle boots and gloves, often very colorful. You could tell by looking at their faces, hands, and hair that they were not original members of the “Wild Ones.” This, I believe, was a large group who woke up on Sunday morning to some of the most beautiful weather Wales has ever seen and decided to take a ride. When they arrived in Bets y coed they determined that “My, my Bernard, this looks like a lovely place for a spot of tea!” and so they did. The ones that drove in their cars brought their dogs. The British do love their dogs.

Ray

27 Germany Day 3

Saturday Rhine River Crusie

Generally if Penny and I gamble with the weather we lose. This time we won the bet. (This was a thrill, but not so thrilling as to make it tempting to duck in to the “mini-casino” we saw. I am not sure if there were fewer crap tables or the ones they had were itty bitty.)

We looked at the weather for Friday and Saturday. Both days were rainy but Saturday had less of a chance and we opted to cruise the Rhine on Saturday. The weather was gray with occasional spots of sunlight.

The day was trains, boats and more boat. Our first transportation task was to figure out the Frankfurt subway. We were to travel to our first train change by subway. The subway (S-Bahn) turned out mostly to be a supraway. It was underground for only a few minutes and then it became a regional train as we emerged from the tunnel into the suburbs. Most subways we have been on around the world require a ticket to get through the turnstiles to gain access to the trains. The ones in Frankfurt are like the trains, you just walk on. We were told by the nice man at the ticket counter in the main train station that a conductor would check our tickets, but no one did. People got on and off with no one checking. The same thing happened on all our trips on Saturday, including a bus. We got on a city bus and paid the fare to the driver for the trip to the train station. But as we rode people got on and off without paying. I think Germany has a law that only people carrying a camera have to pay.

We had decided to catch the boat in Bingen because the man at the info place said that in the city we were thinking about starting our cruise (Mainz) the train station was a long way from the pier. In Bingen the peer was right across from the station.

Right across is only a description that is helpful if you remember to ask “right across what?” The lady at the Bingen train station directed us to cross the Rhine River and then turn left.

We started out and were soon joined by a young oriental couple who were clearly as confused about what left to take on the other side of the bridge as were we. The river bank was not easily seen from our street position. By this point in our travels I am growing less and less likely to just wonder around trying to figure it out without stopping to ask directions. The problem is that the route we were on had few people to ask. I spotted three men near a building and showed them my brochure and looked lost. (I did not start looking lost at that point. I merely continued looking lost.) It was pretty clear that the one I was closest to did not know.

When I said boat another in recognition said "boat!, that way and left." As I walked away he laughed and said to his companions "I speak English, Yah?" and then they all laughed.

The oriental couple and I saw a large boat and headed to it - wrong boat. Down the river some more we went. We made it to the correct peer a full 5 minutes before the boat arrived.

The boat is very large and very crowded. There are two inside restaurant sections with table clothed tables. There were almost no empty seats and those that were empty had reserved signs on them. We found a table that did not have a sign and sat for a few minutes before someone informed us that it was reserved despite the lack of a sign. We moved to the top opened deck.

There were white plastic chairs stacked in the middle and tables around the edge. The weather was chilly but not at all miserable with the breeze blowing. The boat cruised fairly quickly downstream but not fast enough to blow people and chairs over the side (never saw this actually happening). We unstacked some chairs and placed them in a strategic location so that we could see both sides of the river and where I could pop up and down like a jack-in-the-box and take photos.

The river was magnificent. The towns and villages were lovely. One particular town had a row of houses that looked as if they had been transported from Bergen, Norway (see the previous blog). That is not terrible surprising since the houses in Bergen were built by the German Hanseatic League who settle in Norway back in the 14th century.

Around every other bend in the river was a castle or a castle ruin. The castles were built at a time when Germany was not one nation but rather some 300 independent nations (all rather small). They built these castles along the Rhine and would put chains across the river. When boats would come by they would have to pay a toll or tax before the chains were dropped and they could sail on down to the next castle and pay again.

Penny went down to order us some lunch as I remained up top and did my photographic duty. She ordered me the special dinner and a diet coke. When they brought the food there was a diet coke and a beer. She said she did not order a beer and they said it is comes with the special dinner. (More on Penny the alcoholic later.)

The food was very good. Penny had spicey pork and french fries while I had sausage and potato salad. I think I like German food.

A young lady from Texas joined us at our table and we chatted with her. She is an accountant and her company sent her to Germany for 4 months. She was about at the end of the time. She said she really enjoyed her time in Germany. I only spent a few days here but have found that it is a delightful people and a lovely country.

While we were sitting there chatting we passed the Loreley. This is a big rock (450 feet high). It is in a part of the river just downstream from some reefs. Many medieval ships never made it past the reefs and they blamed it on a blond woman who lured them to their deaths. We did not see a blond woman (in the water) but it is a large rock. You have never seen so many people taking so many pictures of a rock. (I was one of them.)

At St. Goar (more on that below) the boat stopped and 85% of the people got off. The next hour and a half or more we had plenty of room. We went down and sat inside. I still ran out to take pictures. In one of my photo excursions I noticed that the other end of the boat was the nonsmoking section. We moved.

The German people are all going to die of cancer from smoking or second hand smoke. It has been so pleasant in England. England passed a national law that bans smoking in every public building. German has just passed a no smoking law for the trains but not for anywhere else. The restaurants do not have no smoking sections. Our boat was the only place I saw that had a no smoking section while in Germany.

We sat inside and ordered ice cream and I took pictures. It was very pleasant. There was a door to the deck right by our table.

We arrived at our departure point, the city of Koblenz. We exited the boat and took a city bus (the one we paid for and no one else did) to the train station. We caught a train that followed the river, back tracking the path we had taken in the boat. It was interesting to see the back yards of the houses along the river.

In St. Goar we stopped to see Burg Rhienfels. (A Burg is a defensive castle while a Schloss is a showplace castle.) We took the Tschu-Tschu (tram) up the very steep hill to the castle ruin. They charge you to get in and give you a map. We took our Rick Steve guide and followed the directions and read the information.

It was interesting to learn about the toilet that hung over the outside wall. This may have discouraged people from trying to scale the wall at that point.

At other places in the wall they had installed large trough like openings. The inside was wide and the outside opening was kind of narrow. If people were attacking they would pour boiling pitch down these troughs. Ouch.

We did not see the mine tunnels that are only a few feet high and muddy. They built the tunnels under some fields that are just outside the walls. That side of the castle is the only real approach to the walls as the other sides are very steep or on the river side. What the plan was (and used once) was to pack the tunnels with gun powder and if the enemy gathers in the field you blow them up. It evidently worked against some Spanish invaders in 1626.

The other interesting event at the castle was a wedding. As we were on top of the castle we looked down at a hotel near the foot of the castle and saw a wedding party getting into a convertible. A bit later they were going into the castle when we were leaving. There was a large interior room that had used candles and heaters and lights. We are not sure if they had their wedding somewhere else and were just taking photos or if they were married earlier in the castle.

Here is a little German Medeival Bathroom humor.

We went back and took the train back into Frankfurt where we had decided to go for Chinese food. We had planned to go to a restaurant that we had seen on our first night in Frankfurt but as we crossed the street from the station we saw a nice Chinese restaurant on the corner. It was on the first floor which in Europe is really the second floor. We found a very lovely wood paneled restaurant. We sat down and soon discovered that we had stumbled on the Chinese Cheers. Several large family groups arrived and were having a great time. Almost everyone in the place was oriental but us.

Penny suggested that we order the dinner for two which included 4 different main dishes, eggrolls, fried bananas and “espresso." The eggrolls were the size and shape of a hot pocket from the freezer section and very good. The main courses were duck, pork, chicken and beef. Then they brought the fried bananas and the “espresso.” The bananas were what we expected but the “espresso” was a confusion of some kind. They brought us plumb wine. My wife, the teetotaler, managed to order booze for us twice in the same day.

On Sunday we took the bus back to the “Frankfurt” airport (the one that is almost two hours away). We were in line checking in and saw 4 of our students who were on the same flight.

We got to visit with them for awhile and heard their adventures. They had been in Fussen in southern Germany where Mad King Ludwig’s castle is located. Neuschwanstein Schloss is the castle that Walt Disney used as a model for Cinderella’s castle. They had a good time there. But when they went to find their hostel it was not as convenient to the train as they had thought. They got off at the train stop and it was about 10:00 in the evening. The small town was closed. They did get directions from a local saying it was close and started to walk down the road. They stopped a bit down the road to confirm that they were headed in the right direction and a woman told them it was too far to walk and that her husband would drive them. He pulled around in a van and they said they had visions of never being seen again. But he was a very nice man and took them to their hostel. At the hostel they could not find a manager to let them in to the room. When they final got someone they did not have a reservation. They showed them the receipt where they had paid and they found that they had paid for the next day because that had put 1:00 AM on Saturday when they were arriving Friday. It worked out and they did have a place to sleep. The next day they went to the train station and one of the girls found she had left her purse (not passport) in the van the previous day and she was very upset. But fortunately the nice little old man noticed the purse and drove back to the hostel but the girls were already gone. They had left their contact information at the hostel and they called her to let her know it had been turned in. And then the lady at the hostel even drove back to the train station to return it to the girl when she took the train back to retrieve it. It is nice when you have it confirmed that there are nice people everywhere you go. Normally you only hear about the other kind.

Our train back to Grantham from Stansted was really two buses. They frequently work on the tracks on weekends and use buses instead. Our timing was pretty good and we got back pretty quickly.

We had a very good experience in Germany and I highly recommend you all go there.

Ray