Trip to Germany - Part 1

We have been back for a while and settling into a routine, so I thought, it might be time to write about our trip. For the first time we took the direct, non-stop Lufthansa flight from Seattle to Frankfurt. It was absolutely great. It cut about 6 hours off our trip and the timing was better, too. Instead of arriving in Frankfurt at 6pm, we got there at 10 in the morning. This made the whole jet-lack transition easier.

I was a little apprehensive about customer service, since the Germans are not exactly known for that, but I have to say, I rarely had such a positive experience flying. Well done, Lufthansa, you have gained a new customer (or 4). You definitely knew, you were not on an American airplane, when on the bag of pretzels, you got with your drink, was a beer advertisement. Instead of creating waste with little cans and bottles, all beverages were poured from large bottles. The variety was not as great as on other airlines, but liquids were flowing freely. During dinner they came around with bottles of white and red wine and kept filling the glasses. Beer was in half liter bottles and ice was scarce. Oh yes, and then there was the toilet paper, how much I miss that. you only need one ore two pieces instead of 6-10.

The girls especially loved, that when the flight attendants came around with water and juice, they had bars of chocolate on their tray as well. It was straight out of Homer Simpson's fantasy of Germany. I enjoyed catching up on German movies, while the girls watched various kid/teen movies. The arrival in Frankfurt was easy. It took us only 30 minutes from landing to being out the door at arrivals.

We spent the first days going to the swimming pool, the Italian gelateria and grocery shopping for everything I miss here. Then it was time on Friday to head north to Dissen to Bernhard and Janne's Wedding. The normal 5.5 hour drive took 8 hours due to summer travel and road construction. To break up the drive we stopped north of Frankfurt at a Roman Castle, called Saalburg. To secure their borders, the Romans had built the Limes, a wall that reached from the Danube to the Rhine, with watchtowers and Castles one-day-marches apart. While several of them have been found and excavated, none has been so perfectly restored than the Saalburg. There are administrative buildings, company barracks, walls, ramparts, watchtowers etc. They have a great exhibit about soldiers lives, as well. And the special exhibit this time was about the change in legionary uniforms from 100 B.C to about500 A.D. We always tend to think about the uniforms as we see them in the movies, but clearly a lot happened during those centuries. Marlene's favorite was the Playmobil display of the make up of a Roman legion.

Saturday was the Wedding and the hot humid weather had turned into cold and windy. It was hard to stay comfortable in our wedding outfits. The morning we spent wandering around Bad Rothenfelde, a Spa town next to Dissen. The girls and I definitely pushed down the average age of the visitors. I got weird looks since I was below 65 walking round and not working there. It was a great Wedding and I had a lot of fun visiting with relatives. Amelia slept through the ceremony which put Marlene into the position to throw flowers, something she deemed herself too old to. Great Wedding, thank you Kesslers for the invitation!

On Sunday morning after visiting with the Newly Weds and their family we headed off into the Teuteburger Wald and towards the big statue of Herman the Cherusker king. 2000 years ago in 9 A.D (as you might remember from history) the German tribes under the leadership of Arminius defeated the Romans in the Teuteburger Forest. Three exhibits in three different towns are commemorating this event (I guess Germans have to go far back for a good clean memorable victory). What I found fascinating was, that in many towns Roman military insignia were displayed that had been transformed into peace symbols. We climbed up the mountain to visit the big statue and were caught in an torrential downpour.

After returning to Ludwigshafen we stayed closer to home for day trips. We visited the Kurpfalz Park. When I was little this was a small private park displaying forest animals. It has grown into a much larger scale operation with many playgrounds, some rides and slides and elaborate animal presentations, like the wolf show and a great bird show.

Tuesday we spent a day in Heidelberg which is always more fun for me, than the girls. But getting to play in the water feature along the Nekar and later going to the swimming pool there made up for that. Wednesday we went hiking in the forest of Palatinate. Having grown up with hiking nearly every weekend, it is something I miss very much. And off course no forest can come close to my home forest. Naturally hikes are great in the Northwest, but the missing part are the huts were you can buy food at the end of it. In Germany the tradition of hiking as recreation is going back 200 years and with it clubs that maintain those gastronomical cabins. What's a hike if there is not good food and a glass of wine at the end? On the way home we visited the Hardenburg, which is the largest castle ruin in Southern Germany. We climbed up the towers and along the walls and explored several rooms. There are many castles in our area and as a kid I thought it was normal to visit another castle every week; I have learnt since, that a castle every 10 miles is really special and not everyone get's to see that all the time.