6/06/2007

Germany, Part I

Monday-Tuesday, May 21-22

I ran a little late Monday morning because my alarm did not go off, and I had been pretty vehement in telling my parents not to wake me. But I made it to the school by 8:30 a.m., as required, and checked in. We collected our passports and had a last-minute meeting, and then I snuck off to the office to do a couple of web site updates before we left. I think the buses were supposed to leave at 10:30 a.m. (I'm not positive) but 10:30 came and went without their even arriving. I know they were at least 30 minutes late, possibly more. When we finally got going, we ran into three traffic jams between Montgomery and Atlanta due to car accidents or construction, so we were even later getting to the airport than we might have been. Five people were on an earlier flight than the rest of us, and they missed it. They had to stay the night in a crappy motel in Atlanta and catch another plane the next day.

The other 150 or so of us were divided up between a 767 leaving at 4:30 and a 777 leaving at 6:30. Our individual itineraries specified which flight we were on, but some people discovered at the airport check-in that they were on the earlier flight when they were told they would be on the later one. I was one of the first people to get my bags checked and get into the main terminal, but by the time I got through security and to the gate (stopping for 5 minutes to grab a sandwich at Arby's to take on the plane), they were already on last boarding call for my flight (it was probably between 4 and 4:15 at this point, and I hadn't eaten all day, hence the sandwich). I got on the plane and to my seat, sat down and looked around, and easily half the plane was empty. Last call, and half our group wasn't there. But they apparently waited for us because people kept getting on, and I don't know of anyone who missed that flight. Some people, as I mentioned, didn't know they would be on this flight and had to run for it, but they did make it.

Being on the 767 flight, we had a large tv screen in each section rather than the individual, headrest screens that the 777 had. Unfortunately, the screen in my section was malfunctioning. It would flick on for about four seconds per minute, then flick off. It did this for 9 hours. Even while we were trying to sleep. Also, the lights in our section flicked on and off, but at different times than the screen. I have a hard enough time sleeping sitting up to begin with, but this made it pretty close to impossible. So besides not being able to watch the movies, I couldn't sleep, either. At least I had my iPod and a book.

We arrived in Frankfurt around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, collected our bags, and boarded our buses. According to MapQuest, driving from Frankfurt to our first stop, Rothenburg, should take 58 minutes. We made it in about 2-3 hours. That would put us arriving around 11-11:30, at which point we disembarked, walked into the center of town, and were then led on an hour-long tour. The town is very pretty, but it would have been more enjoyable if a) we hadn't just spent 9 hours on a plane and 3 on a bus and b) we'd been allowed to EAT FIRST. This is a recurring theme. My group's tour guide was very friendly. Her name was Claudia, and she took us to her house. We didn't see the whole house, or anything, she just wanted to show us the cellar, which was pretty cool. We also met her mother and her daughter.

We ended the tour back in town square as the clock was chiming, so we got to see the glockenspiel in action. Then we separated to eat and were told to be back at the buses by 3. I joined a few others in finding an ATM and then sat down and had lunch by myself, with my book, and checked a few stores. They had very nice nutcrackers, but they were kind of expensive, so I didn't get any. I did stop in a little shop to buy a print, though. Maybe someday I'll get it framed so it can actually be displayed.

So, we get back on the bus to drive to Munich, where we'll be spending most of the rest of our trip. MapQuest says 2 hours and 16 minutes; again, about 3. I can tell you, I had about the best bath EVER that night. Our rooms were small, but our bathroom was amazing. My roommate, Rhonda, and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant and walked around the block to look around a bit, then went to bed.

Wednesday, May 23

We started the day with a bus tour of the city. Not very interesting, really, but we stopped at Nymphenburg Palace, which was amazing and actually inside the city, which is odd. At least to me. I wish we'd had more time there; we had a very quick tour of the inside (just a few rooms, really) and were briefly shown the back garden, which was beautiful. I would've liked to spend time there, but we didn't even get to walk through it, just across the top as we circled the back of the building and returned to the bus. We probably spent an hour there, total. Anyway, that was about halfway through our tour, so after driving around a bit more, we were deposited at the Deutsches Museum. I would have preferred an art museum, but whatever. It wasn't all that interesting to me, but I think other people enjoyed it. I think one of the chaperones called it the German Smithsonian. Lots of scientific stuff. This was the first time I got to spend with Kristin since we'd left the school, so I was glad for that at least. :)

We finished at the museum around 1 or 2, I think, and a group of us walked around looking for a place to eat. When we didn't find anything, we decided to head back to the hotel where we were a little more familiar with the area. In the subway station, though, the map conveniently lacked a "you are here" sticker, so we couldn't figure out where to go without knowing where we were. There were five of us, though, so we just split a cab back. And in the cab, I figured out where we were on the subway map and that we were only three stops away from the hotel. Oh well.

Wednesday night, 40 of us went to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. Basically, we were in a huge room with long tables, lots of open space, a buffet, and a stage at the far end where a quartet played music during dinner. Afterwards, there was yodeling, wood sawing, etc. The food wasn't anything special, but it's pretty much the place to go for beer. It's served by the liter. One guy at my table had 4. We had to walk him home. Near the end of the night, they did a Maypole dance on the stage and tapped Kristin to take part, so I have some good pictures of that. :) Another girl in our group helped them with the chicken dance. There was also a group of Japanese tourists who seemed fascinated with us, and while we were taking a group picture (with about 5 different cameras), one of them decided to hop in with us.

A large group of us decided to walk back to the hotel rather than take the subway, and on the way back we passed by a Mozart pianist. We stopped and listened and chatted for a while, and one of our girls, who happens to be an opera singer, was persuaded to sing a little. We passed another street performer a little later, a guitarist, and stopped with him for a while, too. At some point half the group separated and went fountain hopping; there were lots of pretty ones.

Okay, that's all I can do for now. I still have 6 more days to go!