Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Man, we didn't sleep worth a shit that night. Of course, there was only a couple hours of it, anyway. Up and at 'em. Quick shower but still the same clothes because, as I've said, the rest of them were all packed up and somewhere in the airport.
Because we did not view the sights of London last night, we were going to do that this morning but the price we would pay for doing this meant that we ahd to carry our carry-on luggage everywhere we went. We sort of looked like street people, I'd imagine, except we were freshly bathed. I still had the map that the concierge gave me the night before in his ever-so-polite manner. We checked out of the hotel but we were hungry.
Up until this point, we had not had a bite of fast food anywhere along our journey. Right across the street from the hotel, however, there was a McDonald's so we decided today was the day we'd have some. We had sausage biscuits and coffee. The interesting thing about the coffee was when we ordered 2 coffees, the young lady behind the counter politely asked: "white or black?" Huh? Seeing the puzzled look on my face, she translated that for me. "With milk or without?" Ah! With milk, please. For a week now, we'd had coffee with milk, not cream. I much rather prefer cream in my coffee but I accepted milk as a suitable alternative given the environment we were in only drank it that way--no cream.
After breakfast, we caught the bus from the hotel back to the terminal at the airport that would lead us to the Picadilly Line on the tube, again. The ride was not as long as I remember from the night before but it was far more scenic. In the sun-drenched morning, you could watch the activities of London suburbia. The houses, the small shops in little parts of the outlying towns. Various brief stops at the stations provided us with a little longer view.
Finally, we arrive at the Hyde Park Corner stop and made our way to the top. The escalator to get to the surface was absolutely the longest, tallest, and steepest escalator I had ever seen. Once to the top, there was a slight labyrinth of tunnels to navigate to get to the park but we made our way through and into the city. The entrance to the park was a beautiful but small piece of architecture. Of course we took pictures but did not enter. We only had a couple short hours to see some of the things we wanted to see. Tarrying in the park would not do our agenda justice.
Hyde Park is not all that far by foot to Buckingham Palace. It was just a short stroll down a road called Constitution Hill. What a beautiful road! Each side was adorned with large trees, providing shade for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike. It was nice taking a walk with my wife in London in a setting such as this, even though we looked like vagabonds with our luggage strapped to us. After a few short minutes, we finally found ourselves just beside Buckingham Palace.
What an impressive sight! The palace itself was not all that awe-inspiring but the whole scene was just awesome! The Palace, the modern Police officers with automatic weapons but wearing traditional bobby hats, and of course the traditional Palace Guards. They were not outside of the gate but instead they were up against the Palace walls. Yes, they marched back and forth, for what I do not know. Probably mostly for show, now, as I think the automatic weapons out front served as much more of a deterrent than these fellows. We took a few pictures of the palace, the modern cops, and the traditional guards then walked over to the Victoria Memorial for a greater view.
The Victoria Memorial was a wonderful piece of art. Looking out over the Mall was the likeness of Queen Victoria--regal and graceful, at the same time. We took a few pictures there and had our picture taken by a French man there. Looking away from the Palace while standing at the memorial, the Mall was an impressive sight, as well. On each side of the street for as far as the Mall stretched, dozens of British Flags hung as a bold reminder of exactly where you were standing.
Knowing that we didn't have that much time, we headed out by foot toward the clump of history that all sat near the banks of the River Thames. We took the path of a street called Birdcage Walk. Another impressive compilation of pavement and horticulture, if I must say. On that little road, we passed the barracks for the Palace guards. There were tour times available but had to press onward.
After a few mintues of walking down Birdcage Walk, we came upon the square where one could see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey almost all in once view. It was magnificent. We headed to Westminster Abbey first. What an impressive sight, that was! Built in the Gothic model of architecture, the details and the angles...the towering spires and the artwork that was so intricately incorporated into the architecture was something that modern day engineers would simply not have the patience for. I could not get enough of staring at this beautiful piece of history. But after several pictures of the church and about 20 minutes of taking it in, it was time to move on, yet again.
All of these traditional sights are literally clumped all together so just beyond the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament sat waiting to be viewed. This structure was absolutely enormous. Not so much tall as it was just the massive amount of real estate that this thing took up. We walked the entire length of the Houses (aka Westminster Palace), taking pictures and just looking at the buildings. Two things really caught my attention. There was this very small structure across the street from the Houses that was built in the shape of a castle. I didn't know what it was while we were there but I thought it was interesting. Later, when we came back to the States, I was doing a little informal research of the Royal lineage and saw that one of the Kings had built that to house the Royal Treasure. I cannot remember now which King it was but it was neat learning about that.
The other thing that really grabbed my attention was the statue depicting King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart). It was a representation of the King who reigned between 1189 and 1199. He was mounted atop a horse and holding a sword above his head. No savage look on his face...no galloping steed...no robes flowing behind him. Just the King with a face that demanded respect. Odd thing about this English King was that the man hardly spoke a word of English and was rarely even in his country. Instead, he was commanding armies in battles throughout the vast majority of his life. But it really wasn't the statue, the warrior spirit, nor the placement next to the Houses of Parliament that got me. It was the simple history of it. King Richard I, the English People and their pride. Regardless of how proud I am to be an American, most of us have our roots right here in England. Some man, some woman, some child who were subjects of this mighty king had children, who would have children, who would have children, who would become my parents. This is just as much a part of my history as any given British subject, regardless of my nationality.
As much as I hated it, it was time to move on. Through the whole venture in this historic part of London, I would occasional snap pictures of Big Ben from the different angles I could see it from. Yes...just a clock but it's iconic. I think many of us think of Big Ben when someone mentions London. But this time, I was there. Just on the other end of the enormous grounds that held the Houses of Parliament, this giant clock they call Big Ben stood high and proud...the base of it all literally being slapped by the small waves of the River Thames. I wondered for a moment how long it would be before erosion wore completely through the base of ole Ben and caused to tumble into the water.
Many pictures taken of all of it. The River Thames, Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parliament, the various statues of heroes (including the great Winston Churchill), the double decker buses... just amazing. But only 3 hours worth of it.
My wife and I got a cup of espresso from a little shop run by an Italian man. We stood outside, drank our coffee and just watched for a bit. But very soon, it was time to catch the tube back to Heathrow.
In the station waiting for the train, we met a man from India who was just beginning his journey all over Europe until he made his way back to his home country. He spoke very good English and was excellent conversation both in the station and on the train, itself. We talked about our children, our cultures, our political views... It was interesting.
Back in the airport, we had a couple hours to kill. I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time just in case there were any security issues or other unforeseen events. Inside the airport and near our gate, there was this little restaurant that we decided to eat in. They served Bass on Nitrogen which was delicious. In fact, I had a beer there on our way to Germany a week earlier. Anyway, since I really wanted to have English Fish and Chips, I was very pleased to find these on the menu. It was heavenly! The greatest part was that I discovered "mushy peas." WOW! They were fantastic and taste4d nothing like the canned or even fresh peas we have here. They were large, bright green and just as the name implies: mushy.
We ate, paid our tab, and headed to the gate. After about half hour, we were able to board the 747 that would take us directly back to Phoenix. The plane was not packed but was not particularly empty, either. My wife and I had 2 seats in a row of 3 and after several minutes, no one had claimed the other seat in our row. We started to get a little excited, thinking that perhaps we would have this space to ourselves for the whole 10.5 hour flight.
One particular woman was making her way toward us and we thought "damn!" but no. She passed us and we both breathed a sigh of relief. But then she came back. Passed us again. Over and over she passed us heading in both directions. Finally, she was shown to her seat by an attendant. Yep. She sat with us. She was a very petite woman who was probably in her mid-40's. She absolutely smelled like a French whore. My goodness! Her perfume was so overwhelming that I just wanted to gag. Her make-up was caked on her skin which looked like leather. Literally. Once we took off, she ordered wine after wine after wine. In French! no kidding. Maybe she was a French Whore. Anyway... for 10 hours and after several wines, she never got up once. WTF?
After those 10.5 hours, we were home. It was a long flight. We were tired, I was grumpy... you know how it goes. It was May 31st in Phoenix so it was hot. We got a ride back to my car and made the trip back to our house. It was over.
What a great time. I had been to Europe as a young man in the Marines but not like this. When I was younger, I had to go out with a "liberty buddy," I had to be back on ship at a certain time, etc. This time, I was with my wife...my life-partner. We were totally immersed in the culture. We had to learn together and live together for 24 hours a day that week. We saw human atrocities. We laughed at things we saw. We drove on the autobahn. We visited a castle. It was simply amazing.
If you've read all of these, thank you for taking time out of your lives to read about mine.
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Dad's Childhood and the Picadilly Line (Day 7 of Germany--final day)
Saturday, May 30th, 2009.
We had decided that we would try to sleep in a little on our last morning. We did manage to get an extra hour of sleep. That puts us at 7am instead of 6. :) But we really took our time getting ready. Took turns taking showers and getting ready. Watched a little bit of the German version of the Disney Channel. It was an American show with German dubbed over. Looked about as natural as Kung Fu theater, as far as words matching lip movement. I have no idea what they were saying but it kept me interested, anyway.
While my wife was in the shower, I decided to use the hotel's complimentary computer that was in the lobby to check some emails. I logged in alright but the keyboard was so different. It took me a very long time to find the apostrophe and when I did finally find it, I couldn't figure out how to actually make it appear on the screen. Well, we have the "shift" key that gives us the alternate symbol on a given key. They have that too but they also have keys that have three options. You have to hold the "Alt" key to get those symbols. they also had the vowels with the umlauts on them. Overall, it was odd trying to use it. I gave up on it and went back upstairs to pack. I packed all of my clothes except for my current selection, as we would be home tomorrow. I had on a t-shirt, some thin plaid shorts, and flip-flops. Everything else would be checked. Not important now but it would play out later.
Guess what else? No deli meat and cheese this morning. Instead, we decided to see if we could find a bakery. I remembered that there was one enxt to the pizza place we had visited on the first night here, several days ago. I lied the look of the bakeries, here. Of course they were more like little shops that just happened to bake in the back but they were quaint. Don't know why we never tried one prior to that day. We went in, got a couple of pastries, couple cups of coffee and ate inside the bakery. A lot of these places (Imbiss included) had these tall tables that were at just the perfect height to stand and eat or drink at. Never a chair. It was almost as if they invited you to stay and consume there but don't wear out your welcome. An invitation to eat and run, I guess.
Since this was a little shop, we bought the kids each a magazine in German to take back to them. After we came back home, we realized that one of them had some very sexual stuff in advertisements. This was a magazine that featured Hannah Montana on the cover. We assumed it would be safe. You know what happens when you assume, right?
We had decided that we would spend the day in Wiesbaden, which is a little town about 20km outside of Frankfurt. I really wanted to go there because my Grandfather was stationed there back in the late 50's/early 60's. My Dad had actually lived there att he time, with my Grandparents. To me, it was awesome to know that I was nearly 6,000 miles from home but in the same place that my father was when he was a child. And in another country, no less.
We made our way to Wiesbaden and found a parking garage near a very busy shopping district in the town. The parking garage was actually affixed to a "mall" of sorts. We'll call it a mall anyway, because I can't think of how else to describe it. Each floor of the place was dedicated like a department store but it was huge! They even had a Starbucks on site. Of course we partook of the caffeine goodness. :)
After perusing the mall for a bit, we decided to walk around the shopping district of Wiesbaden. The streets and alleys were closed to motorized traffic but was jam-packed with pedestrian shoppers and gazers. We even found a little farmer's market where people were buying all sorts of fresh produce and meats. The biggest selling item there? White asparagus. I'm personally not a big fan of asparagus but my wife loves it and was really impressed with the odd cousin of the more popular green asparagus. Apparently, these little guys needed to be shucked or peeled or whatever they do to them. There was a machine that did this for the masses at the end of the market.
We didn't buy anything. We just sort of walked around and looked in many of the shops. Of course, I stopped for a beer. We sat there for a bit before deciding it was time to head back to Frankfurt.
Once we got back to the airport, we parked the car and headed in to hang out at the gate before our departure back to London. I had a couple beers and sent a couple texts back to my colleagues in the U.S. All of our bags were checked and the only clothes we had were what we were wearing. I had on shorts, a t-shirt, and some flip flops. The weather was nice in Germany. Later, I would pay for it.
On the flight there were a lot of American high-school aged girls who were on a softball team for some American School in England. We spoke for a while with the chaperones--an American couple and a young woman who was from London but barely had an accent. She claimed that was because of her consistent exposure to Americans. The flight was uneventful and we arrived in London as the sun was starting to set. The American man that we had spoken with earlier said that if we wanted to hang out in historic London, we could take the Picadilly Line on the Tube straight from the airport to the Hyde Park stop. That sounded like an excellent idea but we wanted to drop our bags at the hotel first.
Our hotel was located just on the other side of London Heathrow but the cab ride with tip cost us 20 pounds!! That's like $30! Pretty rich, if you ask me. We checked into the hotel and took our bags to our room. Once back in to lobby, I asked the concierge about more economical means of transportation back to the airport where we could catch the tube to downtown. He told us about the buses and which one we should take to get us to the right terminal for the Picadilly Line. He gave us a map and he was most pleasant to speak with. When I said "Thank you" his response was "pleasure." That was neat.
We waited for the bus for what seemed like an eternity. I was getting very thirsty after several minutes of waiting. I went into the hotel bar to get a bottle of water. Guess what. The bus came and went while i was inside. Nice. So, we waited another 15 minutes for another bus.
Bus ride was uneventful. We found the Picadilly Line, no problems, and headed downtown. The funny thing about the "Tube" which is really caleld The Underground was that above each door, there were these signs that said "Mind The Gap." It was really neat to note the differences in the English we speak in America, and the English spoken there. "Mind The Gap" was literally used as we would use "Watch Your Step" in our culture. Exit signs said "Way Out" instead of "Exit." Our "Clearance" signs (i.e. drive-thru windows and parking garages) said "Max Headroom." In fact, the "Mind The Gap" saying has apparently gotten a lot of attention because you can even find shirts, panties, and other items with this little saying on them.
We finally got to the Hyde Park stop and it was damn near midnight. We were very tired. We got outside of the station and my goodness! It was so cold!!! Those shorts, flip-flops and t-shirt were now not a good idea. The train was going to stop running in a little over an hour so we needed to head back. What a waste of time!!!
My wife fell asleep on my shoulder on the way back to the airport. I was people watching. Many people dressed to go out partying, as it was Saturday. Girls there were dressed just as trampy as the girls here, apparently unbothered by the cold night air. Young men were riding together and chit-chatting about nothing at all, the same way we do here. Just as it was in Berlin, these were just people, going about their business the same as people all over the world. Just with different accents and different ways of doing things.
We finally got back to the airport around 1:30am. The buses had mostly shut down and we couldn't find a cab to save our lives. I was so ready for bed and just wanted a ride back to the hotel from anywhere. We did finally grab a cab and thankfully, we were cloer to the other side of the airport and the cab ride was only about 10 pounds.
Made our way to our room and we both crashed pretty hard. The next 3 hours of sleep were going to be short, indeed. But we wanted to make sure we got to see the sights we intended to see.
We had decided that we would try to sleep in a little on our last morning. We did manage to get an extra hour of sleep. That puts us at 7am instead of 6. :) But we really took our time getting ready. Took turns taking showers and getting ready. Watched a little bit of the German version of the Disney Channel. It was an American show with German dubbed over. Looked about as natural as Kung Fu theater, as far as words matching lip movement. I have no idea what they were saying but it kept me interested, anyway.
While my wife was in the shower, I decided to use the hotel's complimentary computer that was in the lobby to check some emails. I logged in alright but the keyboard was so different. It took me a very long time to find the apostrophe and when I did finally find it, I couldn't figure out how to actually make it appear on the screen. Well, we have the "shift" key that gives us the alternate symbol on a given key. They have that too but they also have keys that have three options. You have to hold the "Alt" key to get those symbols. they also had the vowels with the umlauts on them. Overall, it was odd trying to use it. I gave up on it and went back upstairs to pack. I packed all of my clothes except for my current selection, as we would be home tomorrow. I had on a t-shirt, some thin plaid shorts, and flip-flops. Everything else would be checked. Not important now but it would play out later.
Guess what else? No deli meat and cheese this morning. Instead, we decided to see if we could find a bakery. I remembered that there was one enxt to the pizza place we had visited on the first night here, several days ago. I lied the look of the bakeries, here. Of course they were more like little shops that just happened to bake in the back but they were quaint. Don't know why we never tried one prior to that day. We went in, got a couple of pastries, couple cups of coffee and ate inside the bakery. A lot of these places (Imbiss included) had these tall tables that were at just the perfect height to stand and eat or drink at. Never a chair. It was almost as if they invited you to stay and consume there but don't wear out your welcome. An invitation to eat and run, I guess.
Since this was a little shop, we bought the kids each a magazine in German to take back to them. After we came back home, we realized that one of them had some very sexual stuff in advertisements. This was a magazine that featured Hannah Montana on the cover. We assumed it would be safe. You know what happens when you assume, right?
We had decided that we would spend the day in Wiesbaden, which is a little town about 20km outside of Frankfurt. I really wanted to go there because my Grandfather was stationed there back in the late 50's/early 60's. My Dad had actually lived there att he time, with my Grandparents. To me, it was awesome to know that I was nearly 6,000 miles from home but in the same place that my father was when he was a child. And in another country, no less.
We made our way to Wiesbaden and found a parking garage near a very busy shopping district in the town. The parking garage was actually affixed to a "mall" of sorts. We'll call it a mall anyway, because I can't think of how else to describe it. Each floor of the place was dedicated like a department store but it was huge! They even had a Starbucks on site. Of course we partook of the caffeine goodness. :)
After perusing the mall for a bit, we decided to walk around the shopping district of Wiesbaden. The streets and alleys were closed to motorized traffic but was jam-packed with pedestrian shoppers and gazers. We even found a little farmer's market where people were buying all sorts of fresh produce and meats. The biggest selling item there? White asparagus. I'm personally not a big fan of asparagus but my wife loves it and was really impressed with the odd cousin of the more popular green asparagus. Apparently, these little guys needed to be shucked or peeled or whatever they do to them. There was a machine that did this for the masses at the end of the market.
We didn't buy anything. We just sort of walked around and looked in many of the shops. Of course, I stopped for a beer. We sat there for a bit before deciding it was time to head back to Frankfurt.
Once we got back to the airport, we parked the car and headed in to hang out at the gate before our departure back to London. I had a couple beers and sent a couple texts back to my colleagues in the U.S. All of our bags were checked and the only clothes we had were what we were wearing. I had on shorts, a t-shirt, and some flip flops. The weather was nice in Germany. Later, I would pay for it.
On the flight there were a lot of American high-school aged girls who were on a softball team for some American School in England. We spoke for a while with the chaperones--an American couple and a young woman who was from London but barely had an accent. She claimed that was because of her consistent exposure to Americans. The flight was uneventful and we arrived in London as the sun was starting to set. The American man that we had spoken with earlier said that if we wanted to hang out in historic London, we could take the Picadilly Line on the Tube straight from the airport to the Hyde Park stop. That sounded like an excellent idea but we wanted to drop our bags at the hotel first.
Our hotel was located just on the other side of London Heathrow but the cab ride with tip cost us 20 pounds!! That's like $30! Pretty rich, if you ask me. We checked into the hotel and took our bags to our room. Once back in to lobby, I asked the concierge about more economical means of transportation back to the airport where we could catch the tube to downtown. He told us about the buses and which one we should take to get us to the right terminal for the Picadilly Line. He gave us a map and he was most pleasant to speak with. When I said "Thank you" his response was "pleasure." That was neat.
We waited for the bus for what seemed like an eternity. I was getting very thirsty after several minutes of waiting. I went into the hotel bar to get a bottle of water. Guess what. The bus came and went while i was inside. Nice. So, we waited another 15 minutes for another bus.
Bus ride was uneventful. We found the Picadilly Line, no problems, and headed downtown. The funny thing about the "Tube" which is really caleld The Underground was that above each door, there were these signs that said "Mind The Gap." It was really neat to note the differences in the English we speak in America, and the English spoken there. "Mind The Gap" was literally used as we would use "Watch Your Step" in our culture. Exit signs said "Way Out" instead of "Exit." Our "Clearance" signs (i.e. drive-thru windows and parking garages) said "Max Headroom." In fact, the "Mind The Gap" saying has apparently gotten a lot of attention because you can even find shirts, panties, and other items with this little saying on them.
We finally got to the Hyde Park stop and it was damn near midnight. We were very tired. We got outside of the station and my goodness! It was so cold!!! Those shorts, flip-flops and t-shirt were now not a good idea. The train was going to stop running in a little over an hour so we needed to head back. What a waste of time!!!
My wife fell asleep on my shoulder on the way back to the airport. I was people watching. Many people dressed to go out partying, as it was Saturday. Girls there were dressed just as trampy as the girls here, apparently unbothered by the cold night air. Young men were riding together and chit-chatting about nothing at all, the same way we do here. Just as it was in Berlin, these were just people, going about their business the same as people all over the world. Just with different accents and different ways of doing things.
We finally got back to the airport around 1:30am. The buses had mostly shut down and we couldn't find a cab to save our lives. I was so ready for bed and just wanted a ride back to the hotel from anywhere. We did finally grab a cab and thankfully, we were cloer to the other side of the airport and the cab ride was only about 10 pounds.
Made our way to our room and we both crashed pretty hard. The next 3 hours of sleep were going to be short, indeed. But we wanted to make sure we got to see the sights we intended to see.
A Rental Car, a Map, and Some Change (Day 1 of Germany)
Yep, this one may be a bit lengthy.
As some of you know, my wife and I went to Europe from May 23rd-May 31st. Specifically 6 days in Germany and a day and a half in England. Boy what an experience! I have been to many countries in Europe before but only for a few days at a time. I had never been so immersed like I was for this brief stay...I say brief because my passion for Europe makes my stays always seem short. I'm proud to be American but I truly believe I was born in the wrong continent. So, what is this blog for? I want o try my best to recount each day as they went. Bear with me and if you make it through, fine. If not, oh well. I may just write this so I can look back on it, too. :)
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009. We’ve been waiting for this for a little more than 5 months. It's hot in Phoenix today. We leave tonight. Do we have everything? I sure as hell hope so. Plane tickets...rental car papers...first night in Frankfurt Hotel reservations...passports...International driving permit? Check! Spent the day with the kids and her mom. Took them to Peter Piper Pizza. They left for Yuma and it was all of a sudden just us. Get to the airport about 3 hours before takeoff and because we had not checked in until now, we could not get seats together. Uh-oh! She's scared to death anyway. Now I can't even sit by her? What to do, what to do...
So, we sat at Chili's in the airport and had our fill of beer, wine, and spinach artichoke dip with chips. :) YUM! Getting ready for takeoff, I asked a middle-aged British man if he would mind trading seats with me because I wanted to comfort my wife during takeoff. He was hesitant but conceded his seat just for takeoff and up until altitude. That was fair enough, I reckon. Off we go.... 9.5 hours in the air. I couldn't sleep at all, although we purposely did not get much sleep the night before. Instead, I watched movies on the plane for the whole trip. Several hours into it, I couldn't wait to get to Heathrow. Most of you know I'm a smoker so I was envisioning this cigarette in London. No dice. Damn. Instead, I suffered the three hours in the airport AND the 1.5 hour flight to Frankfurt. You bet your ass that's the first thing I did in Germany though.
So, we make our way through the Frankfurt airport. Sure, there were signs for things but they weren't many and very vague to say the least. We finally found the baggage claim area and there was a passport control point. No problem. I've done the international thing before. There were many desks for this control point but only 1 desk had any officers at it. So we went to that one. The guy was a plain dick. He asked me in English: "What is this line for?" "Passport control?" I replied. "What does the sign say?" he responded. I stepped back so I could see the sign and it read "EU Passports Only." Ok....but these were the only desks open so it's not like I had options. "So, why did you come to this desk?" he asked....clearly irritated. I checked my smart-ass nature for a moment and apologized for the misunderstanding. He cleared me anyway. Got our bags directly after this and headed to Hertz to pick up my car. Found it at level U1 in spot 19. A little FIAT Punto. Tiny 4-door, hatchback, manual transmission car. Verity called it "cute." I had to smile, of course. So, we get in and I couldn't find reverse. Shit! I'm trying everything I could think of. I remembered that the old VW's used to get reverse if you pushed downward and over but that didn't work. I kept playing with the shift until I finally figured out that there was a little collar below the shift knob that you had to pull up to get to that elusive reverse gear.
I should pause to tell you that we had no local phone, no paper maps of any sort and no hotel reservations after tonight. Instead, I bought a global blackberry off of ebay and activated a global voice and data plan. We LIVED on Google Maps for this trip...a little shout-out there.
So, we pull out of the parking garage and I found myself in the lane that automatically puts you on the Autobahn (A3 to be exact). Ok... seems like we're going a little far and I don't know the rules of the road yet. People are absolutely flying by me in the left lanes. My little Fiat has no shot at keeping up. So, we get off on the exit for the B43/44. Ok. We're not supposed to be there yet, I guess but these highways are on the directions list somewhere so we figure we're good. We go one way for a while, then turn around and go the other way. Then we figured out we were heading back to the airport so we turned around again. THEN we went through this little section of a suburb but I was in the wrong lane and headed back the other way (toward the airport).....again.....so we turned around.....again.... :)
This time I say I'm going to get into the far right lane. So I did and it proved to successfully get me the hell off of that highway. :) No idea where I'm going, the street I'm on isn't even on our directions list in Google maps. I took the first right because a car in front of me did and I knew I could. Now, we're in a residential area and I tell my wife we'll pull over and try to figure out where we are and how to get directions from there. Guess where we were? Right in front of our hotel. What are the odds that with all of those mistakes, neither one of us knowing how to read the directions, that we would end up right in front of our hotel? Whew! Sigh of relief. So we check in and find our room. I had forgotten to get cash at the airport like I had planned on so I needed an ATM (Geldautomat). The hotel receptionist told me there would be one at the end of the main drag we were on. We were both dying for a shower so I let her take care of hers while I went for a stroll down the road to find this ATM. After a while, I could not see the end of this street and turned back. No biggie. I got to stretch my legs after spending all that time in the plane and the car. But I did notice one thing. There wasn't really anything open. And we were hungry!!!
Went back, took a shower, got the car and finally found the "end of the street" I was looking for. Sure enough, there was a Deutsche Bank right on the corner. Pulled out some Euros and we found this little pizza joint not too far from the hotel. Ordered up a pepperoni and mushroom (champignons) pizza (these were Italians there in Frankfurt so the Pizza was good enough). Interesting thing is, they had these little peppers on the pizza that had a flavor like pepperoncinis but a little more spicy. This was very relaxing for us. It felt like we had been on the go for a week. We were having fun but were stressed and in a brand new environment.
After dinner we figured we would try our luck at driving around in downtown Frankfurt. Let's keep in mind a couple things as we go through this journey. First: Frankfurt is like any big American city, by the way. Large buildings, slums, and ritzy areas. However (and secondly), let's also remember that the streets in European cities are older than our country so driving can be a challenge. These streets and the structure of traffic was not originally setup for cars, buses and trains. We got a lost a few times that night...even found the Frankfurt Hells Angels clubhouse somewhere in the mix. Somehow, we found our way back to that familiar hotel that we had already accidentally found earlier.
So, after a late dinner and all the evening activities, we went back to the hotel and crashed. I'll also point out here that it stayed daylight until about 10pm every night. That was odd for us but welcome.
As some of you know, my wife and I went to Europe from May 23rd-May 31st. Specifically 6 days in Germany and a day and a half in England. Boy what an experience! I have been to many countries in Europe before but only for a few days at a time. I had never been so immersed like I was for this brief stay...I say brief because my passion for Europe makes my stays always seem short. I'm proud to be American but I truly believe I was born in the wrong continent. So, what is this blog for? I want o try my best to recount each day as they went. Bear with me and if you make it through, fine. If not, oh well. I may just write this so I can look back on it, too. :)
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009. We’ve been waiting for this for a little more than 5 months. It's hot in Phoenix today. We leave tonight. Do we have everything? I sure as hell hope so. Plane tickets...rental car papers...first night in Frankfurt Hotel reservations...passports...International driving permit? Check! Spent the day with the kids and her mom. Took them to Peter Piper Pizza. They left for Yuma and it was all of a sudden just us. Get to the airport about 3 hours before takeoff and because we had not checked in until now, we could not get seats together. Uh-oh! She's scared to death anyway. Now I can't even sit by her? What to do, what to do...
So, we sat at Chili's in the airport and had our fill of beer, wine, and spinach artichoke dip with chips. :) YUM! Getting ready for takeoff, I asked a middle-aged British man if he would mind trading seats with me because I wanted to comfort my wife during takeoff. He was hesitant but conceded his seat just for takeoff and up until altitude. That was fair enough, I reckon. Off we go.... 9.5 hours in the air. I couldn't sleep at all, although we purposely did not get much sleep the night before. Instead, I watched movies on the plane for the whole trip. Several hours into it, I couldn't wait to get to Heathrow. Most of you know I'm a smoker so I was envisioning this cigarette in London. No dice. Damn. Instead, I suffered the three hours in the airport AND the 1.5 hour flight to Frankfurt. You bet your ass that's the first thing I did in Germany though.
So, we make our way through the Frankfurt airport. Sure, there were signs for things but they weren't many and very vague to say the least. We finally found the baggage claim area and there was a passport control point. No problem. I've done the international thing before. There were many desks for this control point but only 1 desk had any officers at it. So we went to that one. The guy was a plain dick. He asked me in English: "What is this line for?" "Passport control?" I replied. "What does the sign say?" he responded. I stepped back so I could see the sign and it read "EU Passports Only." Ok....but these were the only desks open so it's not like I had options. "So, why did you come to this desk?" he asked....clearly irritated. I checked my smart-ass nature for a moment and apologized for the misunderstanding. He cleared me anyway. Got our bags directly after this and headed to Hertz to pick up my car. Found it at level U1 in spot 19. A little FIAT Punto. Tiny 4-door, hatchback, manual transmission car. Verity called it "cute." I had to smile, of course. So, we get in and I couldn't find reverse. Shit! I'm trying everything I could think of. I remembered that the old VW's used to get reverse if you pushed downward and over but that didn't work. I kept playing with the shift until I finally figured out that there was a little collar below the shift knob that you had to pull up to get to that elusive reverse gear.
I should pause to tell you that we had no local phone, no paper maps of any sort and no hotel reservations after tonight. Instead, I bought a global blackberry off of ebay and activated a global voice and data plan. We LIVED on Google Maps for this trip...a little shout-out there.
So, we pull out of the parking garage and I found myself in the lane that automatically puts you on the Autobahn (A3 to be exact). Ok... seems like we're going a little far and I don't know the rules of the road yet. People are absolutely flying by me in the left lanes. My little Fiat has no shot at keeping up. So, we get off on the exit for the B43/44. Ok. We're not supposed to be there yet, I guess but these highways are on the directions list somewhere so we figure we're good. We go one way for a while, then turn around and go the other way. Then we figured out we were heading back to the airport so we turned around again. THEN we went through this little section of a suburb but I was in the wrong lane and headed back the other way (toward the airport).....again.....so we turned around.....again.... :)
This time I say I'm going to get into the far right lane. So I did and it proved to successfully get me the hell off of that highway. :) No idea where I'm going, the street I'm on isn't even on our directions list in Google maps. I took the first right because a car in front of me did and I knew I could. Now, we're in a residential area and I tell my wife we'll pull over and try to figure out where we are and how to get directions from there. Guess where we were? Right in front of our hotel. What are the odds that with all of those mistakes, neither one of us knowing how to read the directions, that we would end up right in front of our hotel? Whew! Sigh of relief. So we check in and find our room. I had forgotten to get cash at the airport like I had planned on so I needed an ATM (Geldautomat). The hotel receptionist told me there would be one at the end of the main drag we were on. We were both dying for a shower so I let her take care of hers while I went for a stroll down the road to find this ATM. After a while, I could not see the end of this street and turned back. No biggie. I got to stretch my legs after spending all that time in the plane and the car. But I did notice one thing. There wasn't really anything open. And we were hungry!!!
Went back, took a shower, got the car and finally found the "end of the street" I was looking for. Sure enough, there was a Deutsche Bank right on the corner. Pulled out some Euros and we found this little pizza joint not too far from the hotel. Ordered up a pepperoni and mushroom (champignons) pizza (these were Italians there in Frankfurt so the Pizza was good enough). Interesting thing is, they had these little peppers on the pizza that had a flavor like pepperoncinis but a little more spicy. This was very relaxing for us. It felt like we had been on the go for a week. We were having fun but were stressed and in a brand new environment.
After dinner we figured we would try our luck at driving around in downtown Frankfurt. Let's keep in mind a couple things as we go through this journey. First: Frankfurt is like any big American city, by the way. Large buildings, slums, and ritzy areas. However (and secondly), let's also remember that the streets in European cities are older than our country so driving can be a challenge. These streets and the structure of traffic was not originally setup for cars, buses and trains. We got a lost a few times that night...even found the Frankfurt Hells Angels clubhouse somewhere in the mix. Somehow, we found our way back to that familiar hotel that we had already accidentally found earlier.
So, after a late dinner and all the evening activities, we went back to the hotel and crashed. I'll also point out here that it stayed daylight until about 10pm every night. That was odd for us but welcome.
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