Where Is Joey Today?

At a schlöss for words in Füssen

I am on a German keyboard so bear with the z and y being flipped. This is also a pretty long blog...sorry.

I picked Dad up at the airport around 12ish after his flight got delayed. He came out ready to roam, which I was anything but ready to do when I arrived. We checked into the Wombat, and headed off to get a Bayern pass to get to Fussen and the Fussen bus to Neuschwanstein. Much like Aying had changed to an unbelievable degree, Füssen´s transformation was even more dramatic. For one, you can see the castle far away (at night it was like a freakishly glowing orb...it sort of looked green?), and apparently there are huge mountains (the beginnings of the Alps?) nearby...who knew?

Unfortunately the castle tours were closed, but it was well worth the walk up. In fact, we got inside the castle gate and sat down when we were told they were locking up. From there we went across the Mary Bridge that was (almost to completely) invisible last time. Vertigo sufferers need not visit.

Since it was getting dark we headed back to the bus stop to find we missed the last bus until 10ish. Never missing an opportunity to walk in Bavaria, we trekked back about 2 and a half miles to the train station. Unfortunately, the next train was 10ish (Sundays are different) so Dad and I enjoyed some traditional Mexican food, I guess their twist on it would be GerMex or MexGerm, either way TexMex sounds and is a lot better.

We called that the end of a long day and went to sleep.

Picture Perfect

I have now seen all five (Fantoft Stavekirke needs an asterisk) of Dad´s enlarged photos. We went to the airport to get the rental car.Apparently because Automatics are rare, they reserve them for the fancier cars, so we got a Mercedes E Class with GPS :-D

Rothenberg was surprisingly far even at 80mph or more on the autobahn. We were one time passed aggresively while doing 90+. The town has become pretty touristy (a lot like Venice and Toledo) but with that, it has also been spruced up so it has never looked better. Dad´s photo looks black and white compared to the new ones(I´ll post both when I get home for comparison).

Once we arrived in Bad Hersfeld, we found the MapQuest maps to be deceiving, but fortunately the car had GPS and equally fortunately I was able to use it. The town is small but has a very busy central shopping district. Dad and I headed to a restaurant then went back to the hotel (which has a view of a park[left]) and collapsed.




Awe de Cologne

With every cathedral, every monument it gets tougher and tougher to get your attention. The Köln cathedral does that... big time. It is the 2nd tallest Gothic cathedral in the world, and until the Washington monument 4 years later, it was the largest building in the world. Construction began in the mid 13th century and was completed more than 600 years later. Inside it is equally amazing and it further cements Gothic architecture as my favorite (and most impressive) style.

Afterwards, I went out in search of some music for the road trip back to München today. For those interested and for those not, the best of the Crooners, Buckshot and Andre Rieu performs Strauß.

Back at the train station I found a route back to Bad Hersfeld that arrived around 00:30. Sounded good to me. Dad said he would pick me up...maybe. I had two changes, one in Frankfurt(Main) with the other one in Fulda. The problem was that I got off the train at Frankfurt(Mann) or Mannheim. I should have realized something was afoot, when I arrived much earlier than expected (nearly an hour) but that would mean that the airport in Frankfurt is almost an hour and a half from Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. It took 30 minutes after my connection, to get to Frankfurt from Mannheim, which effectively steamrolled my hopes of getting back with my itinerary.

At the station I met a guy from Dearborn named Lonzell. He was working with a Haliburton subsidiary in Afghanistan and was trying to get back home before he has to go back. He traveled with cash only, and he got stuck in a small town and had to use it for the hotel. His company didn´t wire him the money so he has to wait until Friday. He needed 15 euros to reserve a room so I gave it to him. If he was a conartist, he has a convincing story.

I checked on a ride back to Bad Hersfeld, and a guy with a mustache that wentfrom sideburn to sideburn tells me that it is not possible. The last stop is in Fulda and the next one afterwards is 5am. I asked if it was safe to stay there, and he responded with, a lot safer than here! He also told me they have a mission (red cross...sort of) off of track one. So I called Dad and we agreed it would be best for me to just wait there until I could get a ride back.

Quick recap

Euro Trip 1: Slept in Gardermoen Airport, Norway
Euro Trip 2: Slept in Lyon Airport, France
Euro Trip 3: Slept in Torino Train Station, Italy
Euro Trip 4: Slept in Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, Germany

Once inside the mission, I scouted out a place to sleep. It was supervised but I still wanted my pack and cds close to me. The people there (after I arrived, I was first) were a mix of the poor and travelers, though mostly the latter. I met an Italian girl named Daria who is studying in Dresden and had a 5am connection. Turned out her train, also stopped at Bad Hersfeld so we hung out for a while. We both got about 2 hours of sleep which became 7 once I got back to the hotel where I had a big breakfast.

We leave in an hour or so for Munich. Hungary for some Budapest?

Bad Hersfeld for Mom

Henry for Emily

--Joey