We landed in Frankfurt. Taxied to the terminal for at least 15 minutes. Thought we'd never get there. Finally got to the terminal and met up with the Carneys. Got our luggage. Of course, since we were early in Philadelphia, our luggage came off last. Breezed through customs! Thank goodness! Now, would we find Harald's sister? Yes! There she is holding up the First State Brewers logo, just as planned! How cool is that! Forgot to get a picture, though! Oh well! Anyway, Marty was already there with her. Also cool!
Scott, Jeff, Marty, Joyce & Jerry
Harald's sister, Carmen, was there with her boyfriend, Michael. They were very nice! We went to a train that took us to the main airport terminal. It reminded me of the airport in Orlando, Florida. From there, we went down to the subway to take to the main Frankfurt train station (Hauptbahnhof). First we had to negotiate the ticketing machine. This one, however, decided to be difficult with the tourists. It wouldn't accept 5 Euro bills! That's all most of us had, of course. So, Carmen had to bail us out with her change. Even though the machines could be switched to English, they were still confusing. Lucky for us, Carmen knew what she was doing and soon we all had our tickets for our trip all the way to Marburg. This was too easy, so we thought!
Carmen and Michael
After a short subway ride, we got off at the Frankfurt train station. What a train station! It has a huge arched steel beam structure with glass on the top like a giant skylight. We quickly found the platform for our train north to Marburg, but once again, we were early. We had an hour to kill, so we followed Carmen to a café for lunch and our first beer in Germany! I had a Paulaner Oktoberfest. It was light and smooth. After a long day of traveling, it hit the spot.
Since we took so long to order (problems reading German menus), we looked at the clock and discovered we had 15 minutes to pay our bill and catch the train. We frantically flagged the waiter and took care of the bill. This was our first of many encounters paying for a meal, German style. In America, we usually get a single check and the group figures what each person owes and piles the correct stack of money on the table and leaves. Not the case, as we learned, in Germany. The waiter comes around with a hand full of cash register receipts and goes from person to person collecting money. This is a very slow process, but we eventually got used to it.
Now, however, we only had 5 minutes to gather our luggage and make it to the train. I was sweating bullets, worried that we were going to miss the train. The others in our group did not share my feeling of urgency, as they seemed to take forever getting out of the café! But as luck would have it, we made it to the train on time and all was well, thus far. As a parting gift, on our way to the train, Michael purchased some apfelwein (apple wine) and presented it to Joyce Carney as we boarded the train. We said goodbye to Carmen and Michael and we were off. See you next week, we told them, as we were going to meet them for dinner in Frankfurt on our last night in Germany.
So far, we were having a blast! We searched the train for a place to sit, first the top deck and then the bottom. The train was packed! We managed to spread ourselves out over several rows of seats, as there were no empty rows able to seat all of us together. No matter, we were on our way. Then I raised the question, "Does anyone know when we get off?" No one had a map. I asked the trainman if he spoke English. He said "ja", so I told him we needed to get off at Marburg. He didn't understand. Luckily, a girl seated in front of us spoke up and pointed out the electronic sign at the end of each car which displays the next stop. She was from the US, too, and was living in Germany, working as a babysitter. She wasn't familiar with this train route, however, so she couldn't give us any warning when we needed to get off.
We decided to relax and enjoy the ride, however. Looking out the window, I noticed a large castle tower rising over a small hill off in a distance. I thought that was spectacular. We eventually realized that a castle sighting in Germany was like a bald eagle sighting in Alaska, they're everywhere!
Then we approached Marburg, I thought. Is this it? Yes, no, maybe so? YES! We get off here! The train is slowly rolling into the Marburg station. Everyone grabbed their luggage and hauled them up a couple of steps to the vestibule area where we could get off. Every one was slow and I was at the back of this slow moving line! I finally made it to the vestibule. "Jerry, what are you doing? Open the door!" "I tried", he said, "It's not opening!" "It has to open, what's the problem?" "It's not opening!" Unlike commuter trains in the US where the doors open automatically, here you have to press a button at your stop for the doors to open. Jerry then led us through the next car to the next vestibule. Just as we got there, (you guessed it), the train began rolling out of the station! Shit! Oh well, we'll just get off at the next station and take the next train back. The thought of Harald's face as he watched our train roll out without us getting off was amusing. However, by this time, the beer I had in the café was starting to take nature's course and I was anxious to take a much-needed pit stop!
As we waited by the next set of doors, we all bitched and moaned about our misfortune at the Marburg station. I recalled seeing a sign on the frigging doors with some words and a circle with a line slanting through it. I assume it said the doors were out of order. The large man sitting near us, who was bald and had a spider tattoo on top, was not amused. He must not have understood a word we were saying, as he never cracked a smile. Since this train was an express, it took us a while for the train to come to its next stop. At least it seemed like a while. Finally, the train makes its next stop and we all pile off!
Marty looked at the train schedule that was posted on a sign on the platform. The next train would come in 20 minutes. Jerry and I decided to take a stroll and look for a WC (that's German for bathroom). We took the tunnel under the tracks and up to the station on the other side. Everything was closed. Not a WC anywhere when you need one! So we went back and made our report to the others. Marty spoke about walking across the tracks and going in the woods on the opposite bank. He decided against that, however. Finally, another train rolled up heading back in the other direction.
This one was a local train. It made at least four stops before we made it back to Marburg. There was a lady trainman on board opening the doors at each stop. We were grateful for that, as these doors looked complicated and we were just a bunch of dumb Americans!
We all huddled in the vestibule waiting anxiously for the doors to be opened when we made it back to the Marburg station. Like a herd of cattle, we stampeded out onto the platform at Marburg. There was Harald waiting for us!
Coming up next, Marburg.
