This will be the final installment of our Excellent German Adventure story.
Our story continues with us arriving at the Frankfurt train station. We took a short 2 hour ride from Baden-Baden and were met at the platform by Anette and Frank. We first met Anette in the Cook Islands in the fall of 1999 on our Excellent South Pacific Adventure. We really only spent about 2 hours with Anette at dinner one night on that trip but have kept in touch with her for the past two years via email and we feel that we have come to know here quite a bit by correspondence. We have to admit that we were a bit unsure about Frank as we only found out about him about 3 months before leaving for Germany when Anette told us that she was living with Frank. Nonetheless, we are both glad to meet them and start catching up as we head out of the train station. We both take an instant liking to Frank as his easygoing personality and sense of humour make us feel welcome right away. We walk a few blocks from the train station and stop in front of Frank’s red BMW. Frank is immediately raised several levels on my acceptance meter. We later find out that the BMW is Anette’s but by that time Frank has made us feel so welcome that this minor issue is overlooked. After a quick blast down the Autobahn, we arrive at their home in the suburb of Frankfurt: Gross-Gerau.
After travelling for half the day and barely getting our suitcases into our room at Anette and Frank’s place, Barb naturally states that she would like to go shopping. Barb’s objective is to get a huge down-filled pillow as we have been sleeping on in every bed since arriving in Germany. Anette and Frank graciously drive us to several stores and through the major shopping areas for several hours and we finally make it home with the items on Barb’s list. No doubt Anette and Frank’s first impression of us is that, as Canadians, we are shopping addicts.
Dec 30:
Today we spent the day on the road driving the countryside visiting some local towns. For most of the day, there is a steady snowfall coming down which limits our speeds on the road. While we are experiencing light snowfall in this part of Germany, we are hearing reports of the heavy snowfall in Bavaria (about 500km away) that was stranding motorists and making headlines around the world. We end the day in the town of Michelstadt where we we have dinner at a local brewery. Michelstadt is famous in this area for having an original wooden structure Rathaus (city hall) constructed about 500 years ago.
Dec 31:
Today is New year’s eve or "Silvester" as it’s called in Germany. Our first stop today is to a supermarket to pick up some food supplies for tonight’s dinner. We head off to a local superstore called "Real" and experience lots of last minute shoppers. Since all stores will close just after noon today and most won’t open until the 2nd, many people are stocking up. I was amazed to see the line-ups at the cash registers which for many of them, were about 200ft long with over a hundred people lined up for a single cash register.
December 31st is a historical day for over 300 million Europeans as it is the last day for 12 countries (including Germany) to say goodbye to their local currency and adopt the Euro starting after midnight today. Many Germans that we spoke to about this expressed a sadness to see their Deutschemark going away and I suspect that this sentiment would be present in other countries as well. The magnitude of the effort to change the currency for 12 countries and several hundred million people is staggering and is probably not widely appreciated by most of us in North America. I think that us being here for this historic moment will be something that we will remember for many years.
We spent Silvester evening at home with Anette and Frank and their little rabbit "Maxschen". We were told that rabbits were fairly common pets in Germany but this was the first one we have seen so far. We had prepared to have a special dinner at home made on a special grill called a raclette. After dinner, we spent the evening chatting and occasionally watching TV for shows on the impact of the new Euro. One of the best parts of this trip was the opportunity to stay with German people and discuss their lives and find out how things are different (and in many cases similar) with us at home.
Midnight finally arrived and we toasted with champagne. We quickly went to the window and were treated to a display of fireworks being done by most of the houses in the area and for about 30 minutes, the fireworks continued. Frank opened the door to the balcony and we could hear the church bells ring at the local churches. We were told that at this minute (at midnight every new years day), every church bell in Germany would be ringing. With the combination of the fireworks and the church bells, it was an incredible moment and a new years that we will long remember.
Jan 1:
Today we are to visit with Anette’s family who live about 150km away in the German state of Saarland. Saarland is in the lower left corner of German right next to the France border. By now, most of the snow is gone from the highways in our area so we make short order of the trip with Frank driving the BMW at 170-180 km/hr. We have lunch at Anette’s sister’s home and then follow on to her parents house for cake before returning home later in the evening. I have observed that having cake in the late afternoon is a German pastime which we quickly got used to.
When we get home, it is clear that our trip is almost over and sadly we spend the rest of the evening packing our suitcases for our flight home the next day.
Jan 2:
Frank and Anette drop us off at the airport and by 2PM the same day, we are at home.
Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down from our Excellent German Adventure
Thumbs Up:
- At the very top of the list has to be the great pastries and variety of fresh buns and bread that we had throughout our trip
- Driving legally on the autobahn at 195km/hr in a rented BMW
- Experiencing an authentic German Christmas with Barb’s family in Flensburg
- Spending 4 days with Anette and Frank for New Years
- Hearing church bells ringing in every town that we visited
- Big down-filled pillows
- Being able to see the Alps in 3 countries from the top of Zugspitze on a perfectly clear day
- Visiting the BMW factory
- Christmas markets and glüwein
- Travelling throughout Germany on the train
Thumbs Down:
- Smoking. Lots of people in Germany smoke and everyone at the table next to us at every restaurant certainly did.
- Stores closing at 6PM. In just about every city we were in, after 6PM (or earlier) everything would be closed except bars and restaurants. And on Sundays, everything’s closed.
- Taking the overnight train with a sleeper compartment that has 4 square feet of stand up room
- Only being able to make it up to 195km/hr flat out in the rented BMW. Mental note to self: next time when unlimited legal speeds are possible, rent a faster car.
- Minus 18 degrees at the top of Zugspitze with a 50km/hr wind freezing our butts off.
Barb and I have been home for four days now and are trying to get back into our regular routine. I hope that you enjoyed my running commentary of our German trip as much as I have writing them.
Our next excellent adventure is already in the planning stages…
The pictures from our German Adventure can be found here.
Barb & Baden January 6, 2002