Harald was at the station with several of his friends. Upon our arrival, Harald informed the stationmaster that he found us. Apparently, he had all of Germany looking for us, or something! We made it down through the tunnel and up into the Marburg station. I spied the WC (water closet; aka bathroom) and started making my way there. Harald was busy ushering everyone out the door to the parking lot, so I made a point to inform him of my intensions. "Wait, you need this", he said as he flipped me a Euro coin. "He will give you change", he said. Oh, I get it. I need to pay the attendant 30¢. No problem!
Great! With that business out of the way, I find everyone in the parking lot. "You go in this car", Harald said, "your luggage is in the trunk." OK. Marty and I climbed into a tiny car and waited further instructions. Harald's friend, Ralf climbed into the driver's seat and we were off. We didn't know where we were going, but we were off. We drove through Marburg. I recognized a hotel and a restaurant I found while surfing the Internet. We drove across town and then up a narrow driveway and stopped in front of an open garage. It had started raining, so we ducked into the garage for shelter. We figured we were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Ralf tried to talk to us, but his English was not so good. Unfortunately, neither Marty nor I could speak any German. Ralf was extremely nice, however, and motioned for us to follow him into his apartment, which was perched on the hill above us.
We followed him into the apartment where he lives with his girlfriend, Anne, we learned later. There was a mass of vines covering the side of the apartment building and was a colorful red due to the autumn season. Very nice!
Even nicer, was the beers that Ralf offered us when we got inside! He brought out a couple handfuls of assorted beers from his private collection. There were a few different Pilsners and wheat beers. Some of the Pils included Licher Pils, Licher Export, Warsteiner Pils, Jever Pils, and Krombacher Pils. They were not cold, but they tasted great!
By that time, it was about 3:00 in the afternoon, or 15:00 as they call it. I figured I had been awake for about 27 hours at this point, since I was not able to sleep on the plane. But, by now the adrenalin had kicked in and soon the alcohol would kick in! Shortly thereafter, the rest of the gang arrived and we all started to crack open the beers! Apparently, Ralf was well stocked with beer! He also had a lot of snacks, too! A great party had begun! Thank you Ralf!
The others had made a detour to another host's house to drop off luggage, I think. I never did hear exactly what took them so long. No matter, though. We were all together and having fun.
It didn't take long before Jeff was overcome by exhaustion and found a place to crash in the other room.
One of Harald's friends that we were with was his old college professor whom they call Cäsar (pronounced Caesar in English). He is a retired professor of German Literature. The group of Harald's friends we would be spending time with all met while attending classes with Cäsar.
The TV was switched to a soccer game, and the fun really began! They watch their soccer like we watch our football! The final score, Bayen Munich 4, VFL Bochum 1. It reminded me about the Penn State and Eagles games I would be missing. I guess I will have to forget about that until we get back.
I thought we were going to have an international incident when Marty attempted to pour a Hefeweizen into a Pilsner glass! Ralf and Anne insisted he use a proper Hefeweizen glass. Marty didn't want to create another dirty glass to wash and insisted he pour the beer into the glass he was already using. After seeing how important it was to our hosts that he use a proper glass, Marty gave in and used the new glass instead. Lesson learned!
Then a thought occurred to me. I haven't told my wife I made it safely, yet! Fortunately, I spied Ralf's computer in the corner of the room. So I asked Ralf if I could use it to send her an e-mail. No problem! Well, nothing major. There was this little thing with the German keyboard. in order to fit some of the special German characters, some other keys were moved around! Where's the 'Y' key? Oh, there it is down there. OK, no problem. Now what was Bonnie's home e-mail address? I forgot! Maybe it's this? No, that didn't work. How about this? Not that either. Never try to operate a computer after several beers! Anyway, I remembered her dad's address, so I sent him one. "Sid, made it to Germany. Having a great time, By the way, what's Bonnie's e-mail address? Fortunately, he was at his computer at the time and sent a reply right away! Oh, so that's her address. I knew that!
Soon it was time to go to dinner. We woke Jeff from his nap and headed out on foot into town. There was a light mist in the air and the streets were a little damp. We walked to the center square and looked around at the old half-timbered buildings which were lit up by street lamps. It was very pretty. The town was empty. That was a surprise since it was a Saturday night and this is a college town. I guess the weather kept people indoors. We back tracked a bit and went in a Greek restaurant called Kreta.
The food was very good, although my meal was very slow to arrive. I think they forgot about me! I ordered some kind of dish with mushrooms. It was worth the wait.
There was also a good menu of beers, too. Of course, we had to try them all! We had Hannen Alt, Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen, Henninger Pils and a Krystallweizen.
Then it was time to pay the bill. Once again, the waiter went through the routine of getting payment from each person individually. When he came around to me and totaled up my bill, I checked my wallet. Oh oh! I'm a little short of Euros! "Do you accept traveler's cheques?", I ask? The look of panic on the waiter's face told me the answer was "no". Jerry, alertly chimed in, "I can spot you some money, Scott." Thank you, Jerry!
When I prepared for this trip, my wife suggested I get American Express Traveler's Cheques. So, I went to the AAA office and got some in Euros. I also got what they call a "Tip Pack" which was 40 Euros. Well, somehow most of the Euros from the tip pack got spent at the train station, I assume, and I didn't think to try to get a traveler's cheque exchanged at the airport. Not to worry, Harald said, you can get one exchanged at a bank tomorrow.
After dinner, we walked back to Ralf and Anne's place where we split with our various hosts for the night. The Carney's stayed with Ralf and Anne. Marty went with Cäsar. Harald went to his parent's house. Jeff and I (Scott) went with Manuela. Actually, Harald, who was driving his sister's car, drove us to Manuela's house first.
Manuela showed Jeff and I to our room, which was her 13 year old son's room. After unloading our stuff and chatting for a while, we crashed. It's a darn good thing I brought earplugs, as Jeff snored like a chain saw!
I had a particularly strange dream that night. I dreamt I had a headache and needed to take some ibuprofen! (That's not the type of thing I usually dream about!) However, in my dream I couldn't find my bottle of ibuprofen either, so I looked for it. As luck would have it, I spied the long lost bottle on a shelf in my medicine cabinet at home. Just when I went to grab it, Manuela knocked on the bedroom door to wake Jeff and I up at 9:00 a.m., thus waking me from my dream! I did have a headache, but after a quick search of my carry-on, I found the missing bottle! Yes! The day had started out good!
Next, Our Tour of Marburg.
