Friday, February 26, 2010

Nights 3 & 4: Bad Neuenahr

From Köln I traveled just under an hour south to the old spa town of Bad Neuenahr. It was at one time a very popular resort area due to its thermal springs, but the interest and most of the tourists have now gone elsewhere. It also has a casino and one of the most expensive secret bunkers in the history of the Germany military which was supposed to house the government members from Bonn in case of a Russian atomic attack. It was never used.


I was met at the little train station by the mother of my next host family, Susanne, and her youngest son of three, Claudius, who just turned three last week. He charmed me immediately with his sweet cheeks and adorable German child voice and waving to the train as it went away. We drove for only a couple minutes through the town and up up up a hill or two to their big, beautiful house where I met her husband and two other sons, ages 7 and 8. I was also immediately charmed by the 7 year old, who appeared at the top of the stairs dressed as Robin Hood/a hunter in the full green lederhosen outfit complete with velvety cape and hat. It was amazing. As it turns out, her husband, Dominik, is also a professional photographer. There were beautiful child and family photos all over the house.

My bed was in their pretty empty living room that Dominik uses for photo shoots. It was very clean and spacious and had a beautiful view overlooking the village (see top photo). There was a very nice welcome note around a bottle of the town's special mineral water on the bedside table and my towels were folded elegantly around a Kinder Surprise chocolate egg. It was too cute.

My enchantment with the adorable German children was over by lunch, that is to say, maybe 20 minutes after my arrival. Screaming and hitting each other and grabbing and being generally loud and terrible. This continued throughout my visit and Susanne and Dominik were shocked and said they'd never seen them behave this way. They're wonderful parents, so I don't doubt them. I guess I just came at the wrong time.

That afternoon Susanne took me on a lovely walk through their town and along the roaring Ahr River to a medieval sister town not far away. I got to drink the mineral water right out of their thermal spring. Apparently it's very high in iron. I still don't know if it had anything to do with the terrible nosebleed that fell upon me shortly afterward.

I was also a bit tickled to walk down the street and see this sign for a fancy schmancy restaurant. Part of me really wanted to go in and ask for a family discount, but I don't think it would have worked out. I guess there are lots of Metzlers in this part of the world.



Dominik's father owns a bakery in one of these old, old houses. We got to go in and choose whatever delicious things we wanted to eat and drink and had a nice hot chocolate party in the apartment over the shop. Then we poked around a little more, including inside one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen.

It was dark inside and thus hard to capture in a photograph. The acoustics were incredible and I was surprised when Susanne, a music teacher, asked me to sing something. I always want to sing in big beautiful churches, but never do, so was happy to have been given permission. I sang part of the Exsultet, then she sang something, then we sang Dona Nobis Pacem and Amazing Grace together. We were both a little surprised to hear a man's voice join in with us on the latter, someone else visiting the church at the same time. It made me happy.


The next morning I got up suuuper early and went into school with Susanne to observe her music classes. I was also able to sit in on a French class taught by one of her friends. It was an 8th grade French class and I was very impressed by how well they already spoke. (SEE, AMERICA? SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TEACH FOREIGN LANGUAGES BEFORE HIGH SCHOOL? No more bad reputation when it comes to knowing other languages!) The younger kids were pretty awed to be in the same room with a real live American, which was amusing. And look, the German method of raising hands is actually raising a finger.

That afternoon I went on a great little hike with Robin Hood, who is actually named Julius, up to a tower on top of a huge huge hill in the forest to have a look around. He was particularly cute because he recently lost both his front teeth, tho he sthpoke in high child voith with a little lithp. He was also a whistler, so we whistled a lot back and forth to each other.





The tower was still decked out in its Christmas outfit. The view from the top was amazing. I could even see the tiny little cathedral in Köln, wayyy way off in the distance.

That evening after the kids were finally in bed, Susanne asked me if I'd like to sing some more songs with her. She whipped out a song book she'd put together years ago which had many songs I knew. It felt both good and strange to be singing Peter, Paul, & Mary and Simon & Garfunkel tunes late at night in this strange home with a woman I'd only just met. But wonderful. Then I showed her pictures of my home and played her some of the songs that mom and I had recorded and we talked about life. She really opened up to me, which made me feel special. Maybe she just needed some female company after being cooped up in a house full of males for so many years.

The next morning, I wandered around the town a little more before Susanne kindly saw me off at the train station. I then decided to take advantage of my free day of travel on my German Rail Pass and spent a couple hours wandering around the over 2000 year old town of Koblenz on my almost 5-hour journey from Bad Neuenahr to Tübingen. I'd remembered reading neat things about it in one of my Germany guidebooks while planning out my trip and was a little disappointed when it wasn't as amazing as I'd imagined it to have been. Maybe it was the fact that it rained on my the whole time. Maybe it was the overly chintzy way they'd touristed up the old buildings. Maybe it was all the construction. Maybe it was the somewhat bloody, mostly dead body being pulled out of a house on a stretcher in front of me all of a sudden as I walked down the sidewalk. Who knows.

However, they did have some really amazing churches. I went and sat in several of them on my self-guided tour and was particularly pleased when there was an organ lesson being taught in one.


I was a little weirded out by something in the scene below. See if you can find it.
There was a giiiiant statue/monument of Kaiser Wilhelm I (on a horse, of course) at what's called the "Deutsches Eck," which is where the Rhine river meets the Moselle. It was so giant that you could climb the steps up and walk around underneath him to have a look around outside.

I was very surprised while walking amongst these flags further to the left to look up and see the stars and stripes of my homeland waving somewhat timidly in front of this old German city. It felt very strange and looked even stranger.


One cool thing that did happen was that two cute old ladies asked me for directions to the central station about 20 minutes after my arrival in the town and I was able to direct them there like a native. Bwahaha.

But anyway, I was happy to get back on the train and travel south. The stretch along the Rhine between Koblenz and Mainz was incredibly, incredibly gorgeous and fairytale-esque. Little church-centered villages popped up every now and then, backed by huge hills and cliffs covered in vineyards. The best part was that almost every town, no matter the size, all had some sort of castle or fortress perched on it's highest peak. Little old towers like the one in this picture, remains of old city walls, or huge famous castles perched on cliffs or even on their own islands in the middle of the river that I clearly recognized from my guidebooks. I wish I'd taken pictures earlier, but my camera was packed up and I was tired and sitting in a crowded compartment with a dirty window and rain to fight through.

I also had a short pause in Stuttgart as I had to transfer there to get to Tübingen, during which I peeked out the various exits from the station to see if there was anything exciting. More rain and shopping district. I arrived in Tübingen an hour later and found my way to my next hosts' apartment without difficulty. Now sleep.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Nights 1 & 2: Köln

I'm off to a good start! Internet provided, I'm going to try and update a little bit from/about each place I visit. The first stop was the big city of Köln (Cologne), located on the Rhine River in western Germany. I've decided to trace out where each place is on the map so y'all can follow my progress. The red line is the train ride (four hours from Hamburg to Köln). I've also circled Bremen, where I did a Servas weekend earlier, and estimated where Detmold is, where the Traphöners live. : ) Click for larger view.


My host in Köln was a wonderful single woman named (prepare for irony) Regine, (prepare for more irony) who is a professional photographer/ photojournalist. (How appropriate, right?) She had a lovely old apartment that was decorated exactly as I would have decorated it. I slept on an antique sleeper sofa in the kitchen and can't remember when the last time was that I'd slept so well.

I arrived at the Köln central station in the late afternoon on Monday and followed her directions to her apartment. This involved a misunderstanding with a bus driver that made me realize that this trip could potentially be much more difficult because of different dialects and accents in each part of the country and also made me feel totally silly once I'd figured out my mistake. I still got to her apartment easily enough and we introduced ourselves and had some tea and getting-to-know-you chitchat until she had to go to a Spanish class and I, exhausted from not sleeping and traveling and still being very sick, went back to trying to contact new host families for my third and fourth visits, as I still hadn't found someone that worked. No such luck that night. I also had a little mishap in which I realized while getting ready for bed that I'd forgotten my PJ's on my bed in Hamburg. Regine came in as I made this discovery and immediately offered to loan me a pair for all four weeks. They are striped and silky. LOVE.

We woke up to dismal grayness and rain on Tuesday, which put a damper (har har har) on my exploration plans. I waited for a while, then gave up and went on about a four hour city wander. Regine didn't come along as she had some back pain and things to do, but pointed out where I ought to go. It was a lovely walk that took me all over the city; along the Rhine, over the Rhine, through little alleyways in the old part of the city, around the shopping district, here, there, and everywhere.
I ended up at the gigantic cathedral after several hours and went inside to sit in the back pew and breathe in the hugeness and oldness of the place.


While I sat there, I thought about how unbelievably fortunate I was to be there, and for the third time of three separate occasions in my life. Sabine and I had visited it together during my first visit to Germany in 2006, which included us climbing to the top of one of the towers. I'd then visited it again by myself a few months later while waiting for a train back to Belgium after a scary German train adventure. And now. It truly is a magnificent place and I knew as I walked through the huge arches in all the stillness and flickering candlelight that I'd be back again sometime.

I made it back to Regine's in the late afternoon and had a little downtime before she took me on another walk, this time along the Rhine in the other direction. I had a major feeling of déjà-vu as I remembered many walks that I'd taken with Régine, my Belgian host mom, along the canals in our area in the dirty early spring. Both Regines commented on how lovely it all was and I agreed while trying to overlook the bleakness and old abandoned factory feel. Then she took me to one of her favorite places, and old cargo train bridge overlooking the city as all the lights started turning on at dusk.

It was there that I learned about a new trend among lovers in the city that had recently become very popular. The couple buys a padlock, writes their names on it, locks it somewhere along the bridge or similar location, then throws the key into the Rhine. Cute? Yes. Who knows what they do if they break up, but adorable all the same.


She then took me around her neighborhood and told me about it's history and how it had been affected by the war, all of which was really fascinating. We ended up at her favorite Mediterranean restaurant where we had a delicious meal and Kölsch beer and talked about pretty much everything.

Wandering around the city on my own was nice, but having the inside stories from someone born and raised there along the way and seeing cool places that I never would have known about was what I really enjoyed the most. That's something that particularly excites me about this trip.

We shared a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit, bread, and coffee this morning before going our separate ways. I caught the bus back to the train station and headed south to a small village in the Rhine Valley where I'm staying with a young couple and their three boys. More about that later. Now I can't wait to sleep again.

Oh, and I did end up securing homes for the next two cities. My telephone German is getting better and better. Awww, yea.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Exotic island adventures!


Before I get started on this epically photo-filled 50th blog post, I would just like to point out that I have successfully narrowed my photo count of this 2.5 day journey from about a thousand down to 437. Yay!
[*EDIT* I KNOW there are several html and photo spacing problems in this post. They're far too tedious to fix and I'm tired. Blogger hates me. Please forgive.]
So. Mallorca! Sarah and I safely arrived in Palma at about 10.30pm on Sunday the 14th. We somehow ended up surrounded by families with many small children on the flight over, which was sometimes adorable and sometimes not. Actually, mostly not because it was after their bedtime, but whatever. One cute moment happened when we landed and the kid at the window in front of us looked out at the light colored tarmac and asked his parents if it was snow. No, dear, just no.

We missed the last bus by a few minutes and had to take a cab to the other side of the city where our hostel was, which was pricey but extremely smooth and convenient. The hostel itself was surprisingly fantastic. For only 16 euro a night, Sarah and I had ourselves a clean, private room and bathroom with a wonderful shower, towels, bedding, free breakfast, fun and helpful conversations with the cheery British owners, basically everything we needed. Thank goodness for that
.
Monday was supposed to be rainy all day, so Sarah and I took a bus to the other side of the island to explore a big cave there, Cuevas del Drach, which I believe translates into CAVERN OF THE DRAGON DUN DUN DUN! Well, maybe without the dun dun dun. I always enjoy exploring subterranean playgrounds of stalactites and stalagmites, though I fear my visit to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico this summer set the bar too high as far impressiveness goes. However, the climax of the adventure came with a classical concert played by musicians being rowed around a huge underground lake in illuminated rowboats, after which WE got to ride in the boats. The presentation was a little cheesy, but the concept? AWESOME! How many people can say they've had a boat ride on a subterranean lake? Photos were strictly prohibited, but I... accidentally discovered one on my camera later. I wonder how that got there. Hm.
We hung out in the somewhat run-down town of Porto Cristo for a while while awaiting the bus to return us to Palma, during which we went to find ice cream and instead found that asking for the "frutas del tiempo" (please forgive my Spanish failures) meant exactly what it said as we each received a plate upon which was an apple, an orange, and a kiwi. Just for the record, I have never eaten a more irresistibly delicious orange. We had another food adventure that evening while trying to find an open restaurant in the rain in a dead part of town. Finally we gave up and went to the local bar across the street from the hostel. I didn't know what any of the food options on the chalkboard were, so asked Sarah to get me something fish. A fish is what I got, head, eyes, tail, scales, all that good stuff. I tend to really enjoy fish, but had just never eaten one that still resembled its original form before. The little old manager kept coming over to talk to us in a mixture of Spanish and German and I got the impression that he didn't think I would eat it. I showed him!


It was actually wonderfully scrumptious, cooked in with an orange stuck inside it with lots of yummy flavorings. Sarah ate a quarter of a chicken. The waiter was impressed. Then he brought us shots of some syrupy pink alcohol tasted like anis seed. It was a cultural experience!
Tuesday's weather looked much nicer, so Sarah and I decided to take a vintage train ride to the mountain town of Sóller. The sea outside the hostel looked lovely.The hostel staff gave us a neat tip about the train, being that if we went to the front there was a car with squishy couches and things that we could sit in rather than the uncomfortable wooden benches in the rest of the train. Scooore.

The ride up into the mountains was gorgeous. There were lots of little villages surrounded by orchards in bloom, the sun was shining, and all was well in the world...

...until some guy accidentally closed my thumb in the door while I was standing on the platform between the two cars to take a picture. I pulled it out and thought, "Oh, that's inconvenient" at the sight of my purple thumbnail, then lost most of my vision and hearing as the pain hit and I found myself trying to stay conscious to avoid falling off the open platform of the moving train. Maybe it's a little sad that I was trying not to faint in an effort to save my camera before myself, but it was true nonetheless. I finally made it back into the car after clutching the wall outside for a while and freaked out poor Sarah with my dysfunctional state. The adorable chubby German woman next to me noticed something was wrong and offered me some cooling spray. She was surprised when we started speaking German with her. It was sweet. Once we arrived in Sóller, Sarah took me to a pharmacy and used her great knowledge of Spanish wound vocabulary to procure me some ibuprofen gel. I would post a picture of the lovely colors and swollen-ness of my thumb, but that would be gross. : )



After that there was nothing left to do but enjoy our day! And what a day. We first explored Sóller's cute central square and church before settling in to an outdoor cafe for tea and paella. I was particularly amused by the cat that came to beg at our table at the arrival of our delicious rice and sea creature dishes. I always assumed that cats had too much dignity to beg.







Once fully satiated, we began our hike up to the mountain village of Fornalutx, which is said to be one of the most beautiful villages in all of Spain. First we had to exit Sóller via its little winding streets and alleyways.
We were delighted to see that the town was surrounded by voluptuous orange and lemon orchards and hundreds of olive groves in full bloom. These lovely visions of spring in February made our spirits soar after so many months of cold German winter, particularly with huge mountains in the background.






It was only a few kilometers to Fornalutx, but we took our time as each stretch was more beautiful than the last. The village itself really was that beautiful - a curvy maze of stone and happy foliage with hidden staircases and incredible views the higher you climbed. There were a few other tourists, but not many. The village was sleepy and quiet in the warm afternoon sun. The residents must have been taking their afternoon siesta, though this cat we came across had the best siesta spot of them all. I shudder to think of how tourist-infested it must be in the summer.


 

Clear sunny skies, clouds blowing over dramatic mountain peaks, babbling brooks, blooming orchards, clucking chickens, and even fleecy sheepies!
















On our way back to Sóller, we were amused by this interesting flocking of chickens, roosters, turkeys, and geese under the orange trees.


Then they all came over and begged us to feed their bird bellies and their vanity.



We finally made our way back down to Sóller where we located the local ice cream shop and gave them lots of business. Our next adventure involved trying to locate the bus back to Palma. All the maps we had seen were not helpful on this front and poor Sarah was forced to perfect her travel help vocabulary as she asked many different locals for aid. After finally finding the stop, we realized that we had taken a much more complicated route than was necessary, but we got there on time and that's what counted. The bus ride itself was incredible. We drove up tiny winding roads over mountain cliffs up and up until we reached the peak and all of the Mediterranean at sunset appeared before us. We drove through other mountain villages in the pink evening light, past little clifftop monasteries, and then back down to Palma's flat urban sprawl.
We spent the next couple hours wandering around Palma trying to locate a restaurant for dinner and when we still hadn't found anything open at 9pm, we ended up in a cafe type place for tea and decadent hot chocolate, which was very similar to the pudding-like hot chocolate in Prague. The kind you have to eat with a spoon because it's just that thick and rich. Full and sweet, but not too sweet. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Sarah also managed to get a couple sandwiches from the cute little elderly waitress, who chatted with Sarah about our stay in Mallorca. She was very sweet and brought us two gigantic oranges as we were leaving because we looked sad and she didn't want us to have a bad time in Mallorca. She didn't say that specifically, but that's what we figured.

The next day was equally sunny and delightful. After checking out of the hostel, we wandered around more little winding streets in the old part of Palma for a while.



One attraction we visited in the the old part of the city were the Arabic Baths, which are estimated to have been built in the 10th century and are the last remaining sign of the ancient Islamic traditions on the island. Neat!











Still having some time before having to be at the airport, we enjoyed our sympathy oranges in the sun by the seaside. Then we found picnic food at a grocery store and took the bus back to the airport for our late afternoon flight back to the frigid north. We had flown into Mallorca at night, so I was happy that we got to fly out of in when there was still sun. We noticed clouds gathering over the little island as we flew over it, which eased the parting somewhat. I for one still felt like crying when we stepped off the plane to sub-freezing temperatures back in Deutschland. That's what we get, I suppose.



 


We got home safely and survived the cold back to our respective dorms. I was annoyed to wake up the next morning with a nasty cold and had to go to the doctor pronto as my thumb had only worsened. The cheery doc told me that it wasn't broken, thank goodness, but he did end up [[SKIP TO THE END BRACKETS IF YOU DON'T WANT THE AWESOME DETAILS: boring a little hole into the middle of my thumbnail so that the blood could come spurting out. Like a fountain. IT WAS SO COOL!!!]] ...fixing it to the best of his extent.

After that I had to jump back into organizing my Blumberg trip, as I'd heard back from a lot of the host families in my absence. Most of them said they'd be happy to host me, though I had to find replacements for a couple that were busy. I still haven't heard back from everyone yet but have a good start. The first family I was hoping to stay with (Starting tomorrow) was unable to host me, so I made the executive decision to postpone my departure for two days until Monday. I was even more relieved to have made this decision after the sickness in my face woke me up this morning with a vengeance. Hopefully that will take care of itself, as I am not in the possession of any medical aid. Oh, well. I just spent three glorious days in Spain!

Please excuse any typos. Usually I reread these things before I post them, but now it's siesta time.