Germany

We ended up in Frankfort, Germany on our way north from Switzerland since we could get good train connections to the Scandinavian countries from there. Only after checking into our hotel room did we find out that their restaurant was closed that day. So, we were directed to Adolph Wagner's for some real German food. We joined a packed house on Saturday night. But, you can just sit at any table where there is room, so we joined a table where there were two guys waiting for a friend. Both of them spoke English so we could at least we could communicate since we knew very little German. The busy waiter made sure I had a nice plate of sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and a pork chop. Not bad, but I still like our homemade PA Dutch "sauerkraut and pork" better. John had pork bellies, boiled potatoes, and sauerkraut. And he savored every bite. I decided to pass on the blood sausage, but the salads looked good, and were almost a meal by themselves. They had a hard apple cider in a bottle which John ordered. I tasted it, but didn't care for it too much. So I stuck with water, but forgot to order it with "no gas" (and ended up with a bottle of mineral water). We were pleased with ourselves as we rode the trolley to and from the restaurant without getting lost.

On our second trip through Germany we were just passing through on our way to Holland. We didn't have the time to stay overnight in Germany at this point as it was already Sunday. I had wanted to make it back to London by the weekend so we would be there to catch our plane back to the USA on Tuesday at 1 PM. And, we were finding that Germany was the hardest for us with my scooter and our luggage. That's one more reason to travel as light as you can. Trains do run very efficiently on a very tight schedule (often stopping only a minute or two in the station). So, if the trains are even a few minutes late, many people have to really run to catch a connecting train. We tried to stay out of their way, especially on the crowded platforms. We even had a "guardian angel" at the train station in Germany. She was a Canadian living in Amsterdam. She translated the message and told us that they changed the track where we needed to get our connecting train. And, someone in uniform magically appeared with a key to unlocked the elevator so that we could get down to the proper platform to catch the train. It was the only elevator on the whole trip that we found locked and at the worst possible time. It is good not to panic as there are always options. We got lucky many times on this trip. And, it is a good feeling to meet some angels!

© 2001 JKH