It has been a month since I flew to Germany. A busy month. A month filled with deadlines and expectations, surprises and enjoyment, running through airports and a desire to sleep in that was finally fulfilled this weekend. In the past month, the leaves have fallen, the weather has turned cold and the sky has turned gray prematurely. I find myself amidst a momentary pause, with no urgent commitments to others and no self-imposed overcommitments to waste time doing things that just aren’t that important. As dusk falls, I watch the tree in the front yard shiver with each gust of wind that makes it sway and scratch against my office window. This is the right time to bring this journey to closure. My chance to remember something special that would otherwise fade from memory, and commit it to paper, as it were.

Day One

Saturday is generally the day I need to use for recovery from a long week. September 23, 2006 was no exception. Except for the fact I would be flying to Germany that afternoon. For the most part, I had cleaned and packing was no big chore. I was determined not to stress out over this trip. If I left underwear unkempt on my bed, I would just have to put it away when I returned. The refrigerator was stocked, for my son, and the dogs had ample dog food to see them through while I was gone. A storm had blown through the area the night before, but things were looking good and I decided it was just cool enough to wear my light jacket. About the only issue was my failure to learn that laundry needs to be done the day before you travel. I tried to clean three loads, and in order to get to the airport 90 minutes before my flight, I ended up packing damp jeans and left my son with a load of my laundry to finish.

We rushed to the airport, running a little behind because of the laundry SNAFU. Still, everything was good and on track. Until I arrived at the Unite check-in counter, with two stuffed bags and my carry-on computer bag and camera bag. I just wanted to check luggage and get on my way. The weather had caused delays in Chicago, and that meant my flight would be cancelled. I ran to the American counter, and they were in the same position. In my frustration, running from one airline counter to the next, I left my baggage “unattended” and wandered about 15 feet from it. It was not a good time to argue with airport security. I am sure every day sucks if you have that job. I tried to keep that in mind, and put on a fake smile as I belligerently lugged my luggage back and forth. Meanwhile, my two co-workers (let’s call them “Kathy” and “Janet”) were not at the airport yet. They were taking a slightly later American flight. And I tried desperately to reach them, to let them know that their flight was cancelled as well. The best I could do was leave a voice message.

I guess tornadoes are a good enough excuse to delay and cancel flights, but the weather wasn’t bad now, and taking later flights wasn’t an option because they avoid delaying international flights at all costs. I bit my lip and tried to think happy thoughts, when all of a sudden the lady at United said they were pulling the 2:00 flight back off the tarmac and opening the doors so those of us waiting could make our connecting flights. I really feel sorry for the people sitting on that plane for two hours. I hope they had air conditioning, but I doubt it. It was hot and uncomfortable when I got on the plane, but I felt lucky just to be making my connection, which seemed a forgone conclusion just moments earlier. My baggage and I were soon in the air. My co-workers were not so lucky. They were delayed a day, which meant they would not arrive until Monday.

My time at O’Hare wasn’t that bad. I realized that I had too much cary-on, and it was cold and rainy. I lugged everything onto a shuttle and transferred to the international concourse, where I had a Billy Goat burger and waited for the Frankfurt flight to board. I put on my iPod and listened to conversational German lessons, as I played with my new camera. I was excited to make this trip, and really had no idea what to expect. It might be bad weather and I might not get to take any photographs. I didn’t even know much about my camera. The Nikon D200 is a pretty sophisticated deal. It is a 10.1 MP, semi-pro camera. There were many features beyond my understanding. I think I am pretty good at knowing a good shot when I see one, and do a good job of composing my photos. Out of a roll of film, I traditionally discarded very few and was usually pleased with the rest. But, I hadn’t even experimented with the camera before the trip. I wanted pictures worthy of this expensive piece of electronics, so this trip would be be my first opportunity to break in the camera. (I am reluctant to use the term “break” in relation to my camera, because I had nightmares of dropping it off a cliff or into a river or setting it down and then finding it missing. None of these scenarios happened, you will be glad to know.)

The trip to Frankfurt was about nine hours. I tried to sleep for most of that, when they weren’t shoving airplane food at me. I think the constant food and beverage service keeps people occupied. They showed some movies in the seat backs, but I had no interest. I crossed my arms and tried to sleep.

Day Two

When you travel eastward, you lose hours. I my case, about 5 hours were lost. Which means I had a very short sleep cycle and I then arrived and it was about 9:30AM. Tired, with luggage and a weak grasp of conversational German I “deplaned” and wandered the Frankfurt airport in search of the baggage claim. As I figured out from the signs, you need to take an escalator up a level, and then go past a booth with a little man who will stamp your passport. He spoke English, and asked me where I was going. I answered, “I am working in Mannheim.” He replied, “Well, your bags are in Frankfurt.” Odd fellow.

I thought I would have to wait longer, because the driver was going to pick up all three of us at 11AM. I wandered the airport and took a few pictures of this and that. There were smoking areas, in the middle of things and not set aside like in US airports. These areas seemed to be sponsored by cigarette companies, and there were many vending machines with cigarettes. I guess we’ve gotten used to not having those in the US anymore.

The driver paged me, and I found him. I tried a little German, but it was good he spoke English. We got onto the autobahn and he accelerated to about 200 kph. Right after I complimented him on the roads in Germany, we found a section of construction and had to slow down. It took under an hour to get to Mannheim, and I was soon checking into the Holiday Inn. I gave the driver a tip of ten euros, which is like thirteen dollars. The nice lady at the counter later told me that you don’t tip your driver in Germany. Good thing the company was paying for this!

It was noon on Sunday, and the weather was cooperating. It was nice out and I grabbed my camera and proceeded to walk all around downtown Mannheim and snap pictures. If you look at the photos on Flickr, realize that I didn’t take lots of extra shots. They are all up there. I visited the Wasser Trun, and the Hauptbahnhof (the train station is about the only place with open stores for food/magazines on a Sunday.) I even bought a Coke at McDonald’s. I was tired after walking around, and took a late afternoon nap. Then I got back up and walked around looking for a place to eat dinner. I made sure to leave a wake-up call so I wouldn’t sleep in the next day. I was expected to be at the John Deere factory at 8AM to meet people and take a tour.

Day Three

Monday was a fair day, as well. I had the complimentary breakfast, and walked to the main street where the tram ran. I got a ticket for two euros from a dispenser and rode the tram to a stop near the factory. It was one stop too far, I later learned after walking about a kilometer. I used my conversational German to ask to speak to my contact, and was pointed in the direction of a large map of the grounds.

We were having “virus issues” back in Moline, so I needed to take time to have a meeting and contact the vendor of our antivirus software. This meant I would take the factory tour and then they gave me a desk and phone where I could work. It was a very nice tour, and no, they do not drink beer at the factory. They used to, but now they are only allowed smoke breaks inside the factory as a consolation. The only issue I had was trying to later on reach the antivirus company. Since it was 7 hours earlier in California, I needed to reach someone in Europe, but they refuse to publish phone numbers on their website (not even on their private website, for paying customers.) I eventually got an answer, by using a tie line back to Moline, and then initiating an outbound phone call to the US number. It worked, yet they were ambivalent about the whole virus problem. This was one of those computer viruses that gets fairly well resolved, only to have new variants written every day for a week after. So, keeping PC antivirus software updated is quite important. This whole deal was mostly us staying ahead of things, just to be safe. The meeting was soon over, and our host drove me back to the Holiday Inn where Kathy and Janet were waiting.

We didn’t feel like using the rental car they reserved for us. We were a bit intimidated by the roads, and the prospect of following our host out into the country for dinner and then having to find our way back to the city in the dark. We decided to take the train back, after dinner. He drove us out toward Bad Durkheim and told us we had just missed the largest wine festival in the world the weekend before. (After watching a little television, we were glad we weren’t in Munich at Oktoberfest!) We drove through quaint villages in the hills, with narrow roads that wound up to rows of steepled houses with tile roofs. We saw the vineyards spreading out for miles, and as the sun set we arrived at a restaurant in Weisenheim (Speeter) for dinner. We started off with a couple large glasses of Neue Wein. This is new wine with a high alcohol content, that is not yet done fermenting and sweet to the taste. The four of us really enjoyed an authentic German meal in a small mountain village. The food was the best on the entire trip. I am sure the ambiance and wine had something to do with it. By the time we finished, and I had a shot of schnapps and another glass of wine, it was too late to take the train back, so we called a taxi. A woman with blonde hair, cropped short, showed up in a station wagon. She sped down the narrow, twisty roads, and soon we were back at the hotel. We had a night we would always remember.

Day Four

On Tuesday, I woke up about an hour before I woke up just to take pills. The wine had an effect on my brain, turning it somewhat mushy. I took two ibuprofen and a Sudafed and went back to sleep. As I turned back in, it seems the wake up call came. I showered and dragged myself down for coffee and breakfast. The hotel had the same breakfast buffet every day. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, meatballs, and an assortment of bread, cheese and cold cuts. We had boxes of books for the class we were going to teach, so we decided to pack it up in the rental car and drive to the factory. We were fortunate to find well-placed signs directing us from the city center to the factory. From that point on, any time we were lost we would find the factory and use that as our landmark for getting back to the hotel. It turned out it was easy to get lost in Mannheim.

The class was off to a good start, and there was little for me to do the first day but sit at my laptop and work on my presentations and do all the work I meant to do throughout the year but hadn’t on improving the relevant websites. I also kept up with email, but in the back of my head it was funny to think that I was getting to the factory at about 2AM Moline time. I tried to avoid thinking about things like that, it only made me yawn.

We had lunch every day at the John Deere cafeteria. All the workers arrived at the same time, and the line was long. The menu was not as ala carte as in America. They had several choices you could mix and match, but nothing was made to order. People ate their lunches in a perfunctory way, and then got up and went back to work. Everything was clean and orderly. Something about it all was offsetting though.

Tuesday was the first time I got lost driving the rental car. We weren’t paying attention, and I missed a turn that was almost hidden. You needed to stay in the left lane, which did a u-turn across some train tracks. Once we backtracked, the second time we found it and never again got lost going from the factory to the hotel.

Tuesday night we were all a bit tired, and we thought we would invite some people from the class out to dinner with us. In the process, Kathy and Janet ended up eating at one place, while I did meet up with Dimitry (from Russia) and Bert (from the Netherlands) for dinner at a good German restaurant. Dimitry had been in school in Mannheim for five months, and knew his way around. He also taught himself to speak fluent German, so he was a good guide. I had a large fried pig knuckle and beer for dinner. As usual, the bread came without butter, so I put some German mustard on it. (I wonder if all mustard in Germany is considered German mustard?) We had a good conversation, and enjoyed relaxing with a beer and even ignored the mouse that ran by after we finished our meal.

Day Five

Wednesday I seem to remember teaching a little. I mostly watched other presentations and worked on my stuff. I would present some in the afternoon for co-workers that had not come, and then in the morning. I was responsible for covering most of the distributed computing security issues, while the ladies were reviewing reporting and processes and account security.

Wednesday was the day that I don’t remember much of. We came early, and stayed late (like most days) and we were tired so we thought we would have dinner at a cafe nearby. (This was after I got lost for an hour driving Dimitry back to his hotel.) We ended up sitting on a sidewalk at a small table, with a waitress who spoke little to no English. My grasp of German food names is not that good, so we ended up with a platter of fruit, cheeses and sardines. It was not what we expected as an appetizer. I was also feeling the pressure of the week ending, and every day we left late and it got dark before I could walk around and shoot pictures. We went back to the hotel after the salty meal and a long walk, but I was not satisfied so I went back out again and walked around until I found an open-air coffee shop. My German was superior as I ordered a Vanilla Latte and piece of cheesecake. It was a nice relaxing way to end the day.

Day Six

The weather really held out all week for us. I couldn’t have asked for better conditions. It clouded up some on Thursday, but nothing too bad. After another long day of training, we carpooled to the restaurant on the Rhein River. It was clear, warm and the service at this lovely restaurant was excellent. Another opportunity for good beer, good friends and conversation. I snapped several shots, as did Kathy and Janet, so you can see we had a great time. Our host really outdid himself in planning and taking care of all of us who travelled for this training class. It was so nice to meet people I have worked with remotely over the years. I have worked in email and over the phone, but never met them face to face until then.

When we left, I got a little turned around and lost. I kept going in the direction that I thought we had come from and found the factory gate. From there, we had no problem getting back to the hotel.

This is a good time to bring up driving, cars and parking in Germany. They don’t have big cars. In fact, they sell a tiny car called a Smart that is so short, you can park it sideways at the curb and it is as long as a normal sedan is wide. On many roads, the parking is either on the sidewalk, or half-on the sidewalk. The roads are narrow, and the garages are tiny. I think this all comes from having old cities in Europe, where they don’t have many options for redesigning the city so the roads are wider. Also, with the gas prices a few times higher than in the US, no one drives big cars and trucks. Although, a few people had sport cars on the Autobahn. It was tricky parking the car at the hotel, even. The parking is tight, the turns are hairpin and I am surprised we didn’t see more cars with scrapes or dings.

Day Seven
Hard to believe the week could go by so quickly. We had half a day of classes on Friday, and after lunch we packed everything up and went over to the offices for about two hours. We waited for our host, who was kind enough to drive us to Speyer for sightseeing and dinner. Everyone at the office was helpful, especially Brian who lives in Heidelberg and gave us great suggestions for how to spend our free time on the weekend.

Our host, “M”, drove us to a Harley Davidson dealership outside of Mannheim, so Kathy and Janet could buy T-shirts. He then led me to Speyer, where I parked about a kilometer from the downtown area. He could only stay for a bit, because he needed to pick up birthday gifts for his son on the way home. We appreciated him taking the time, and late he told me he got everything he wanted (a bike and chemistry set) and the timing was just right.

This was my first opportunity to walk and walk and take pictures. I was in a rush, since we left late and shopped and I worried about the sun going down. In fact, the photos show more saturation from the low sun and things couldn’t have worked out better. The weather was nice. Kathy and Janet got lost as they each went different directions to shop. After about two hours of walking and looking, we settled down at the restaurant “M” recommended. We sat outside and ordered dinner (again, the waitress didn’t speak English). It was easy to order salads and sausage and beer, and it all hit the spot. We then walked back to the car, because we knew it would be tricky finding the hotel. It was. First, “M” said to go North and we’d find the highway. I’ll just say that I kept going in the right general direction, and it was good he left us his detailed map. I can’t believe they didn’t have a good map in the rental car. It would have made getting around the other days a little easier.

When we got into the greater Mannheim area, we knew we were lost when we saw a brightly lit up ferris wheel. We were crossing this river and that river. All the time, heading for “Mannheim Zentrum”. I wonder how many city centers they have? We all agreed to stop at a McDonald’s in the middle of nowhere. This was after we “thought” we had found the factory water tower, but it turned out to be a different water tower. It is probably not hard for you to believe that people working for minimum wage at McDonald’s didn’t speak English. I used my poor excuse for German, and with some waving and pointing they told me which way to go. This got us back in the right direction. I think we passed the John Deere sign going the other direction, and that gave us our bearings. We were back at the hotel in ten minutes. We agreed to meet at 8:30 and take the train, for our Saturday trip to Heidelberg.

Day Eight

It looked like it might rain on Saturday, so we took jackets just in case. The weather turned out to cooperate for most of the day. In fact, it didn’t rain until the train ride back.

We walked to the train station, and asked where we could buy tickets. Brian told us we should take the S-Bahn to Heidelberg. We wanted to take the next train, but the line was not moving. Fortunately, just in time, a nice lady who worked there helped us use the automated dispenser. It turns out we weren’t even in the right line for the S-Bahn. Go figure. With our group ticket in hand, we walked out to the platform and got right onto our train. It took about 15 minutes to get to the train station in Heidelberg.

The trains are clean in Germany. People are clean and polite. After all, public transportation is used by everyone in Europe, not like in the US where it is mostly transportation for the poor who can’t afford their own SUV. The train station was also clean. From wall to wall, scrubbed tile that sparkled. In fact, they charge for public toilets in Germany. At least at the train station. They have an attendant to monitor and help customers, and so even the toilets are well kept.

This was the day of the huge Heidelberg festival. They expected 150,000 people to attend. We took a bus to the plaza where we began a walk for a kilometer or so past booth after booth of jewelry, clothing, food and so on. It was a nice day, and I took many pictures while the ladies were shopping. While they were shopping at a Christmas store, I walked around the Medieval Festival, eating and drinking. The beer mug deposit was never reclaimed, and I now have a clay drinking mug from Germany. In fact, the ladies wanted one each, so I forced myself to drink two beers for them so they could take home mugs.

We visited the castle, which you can either walk up to or take a tram. We voted for the tram, and we walked down after we saw everything we could. The view of the city was spectacular. It just couldn’t have been a better day for this.

From there, we walked to the old foot bridge, and saw the brass monkey. We did a little more shopping, and started back. We wanted to eat, but we weren’t sure where to eat, and we wanted to avoid another sardine situation. The ladies decided to eat at Pizza Hut (where I stole a menu.) Safe and reliable American food. I must say, outside of the couple restaurants recommended by our local friends, I find more variety and good food in the United States. I think America gets a bad rap, I know I have bad mouthed the food here before myself. I think it is because few people really travel abroad. Sure, there are good foods to eat in every country, but once you are done being a tourist it is time to go back to something you know your way around. I am sure that families cook more than just sauerkraut and sausage every night in Germany. The food in Europe is nice to visit, but I wouldn’t want tourist food all the time.

As we got to the S-Bahn for Mannheim, it had begun to downpour. We dashed onto the train and off again at the Mannheim station. Then put up our hoods and cinched up our bags and hiked back to the hotel. It wasn’t all that bad. Just a little rain. In the hotel, I watched some of a show that “M” and his family were going to be on. They had tickets to be in the audience. I didn’t see them in shots of the audience, but I watched this popular variety show in awe. It was quite unusual and went on for three hours. I am sure he had a good time. I downloaded photos to the PC and went to bed.

Day Nine

We decided to drive to France on Sunday. I was feeling confident with my driving. They drive on the right side of the road (unlike the UK) and they drive fast. What’s not to love?

I bought a map the day before in Heidelberg, so I was ready to hit the autobahn. We still had lots of gas in the tank, and other than a little slow down with construction, we made good time. I got nervous and followed the first sign to Strasbourg, so we crossed the Rhein and into France in the countryside. I just kept following the signs. Europe is open, as far as borders go, so we didn’t get a chance to have our passports stamped. That would have been cool.

Once we got into Strasbourg, we needed to find the tourist area where the cathedral was, so we could walk around. Remember, most shops aren’t open on a Sunday. I drove toward signs that looked right, but took us away from the tourist area. I stopped and asked for directions from a group of young people. My English and poor German got them to agree, we should go back the way we came. Kathy and Janet weren’t critical of my getting lost, after all, none of us had been here before and Kathy’s only French was “frere jacques, frere jacques, dorme vous? dorme vous?”

We drove. Stopped to take pictures at a park, surrounded by large impressive buildings (theater, library, etc.) Then we found the right area of town and parked in a parking ramp. We made a point to note our surroundings, so we could find our way back later in the day.

Kathy was hungry, so we walked and looked for a nice French cafe. I think we had some kind of movie version of a cafe in mind. We thought we found a festival, but it was a flea market, which wasn’t very interesting. So, we just walked toward the spire of the Cathedral and voila! — we found a nice bakery and ordered pie and Cokes. That took care of our immediate hunger. As we neared the Cathedral, my need to photograph was much stronger than my need for sustenance.

The Cathedral was immense and amazing. The detail and architecture was beyond compare. I can’t comprehend how much manpower and effort goes into building such an edifice. No wonder it was the centerpiece of the town. We walked, looked, smelled and eventually ate. I had the Flammekuechen. A bit too much of the stinky cheese for me. I am glad I had two Cokes, even though they were three euros a piece. I was thirsty.

The day was getting away from us, and we wanted to head back while it was light. We found the car, figured out how to pay for the parking ramp, and then followed the signs to the highway (after I stopped to ask a nice man who wanted to ignore us, but felt obliged to help.) We wound up going back the way we came, through the countryside. We even stopped at a nameless village outside of Strasbourg, just to see if all the villages were so quaint. It was. It was clean, and the houses were colorful. Soon we passed over the Rhein and stopped to take pictures of the signs (Welcome to Germany!)

The Autobahn is nice when it is working and not clogged up with construction. We ended up waiting 45 minutes just to get through construction as we got close to Mannheim. I got to drive over 200 kph for a minute before we came upon the construction, so at least I drove very fast on the Autobahn. In retrospect, Janet was glad she was asleep at the time. In fact, we didn’t have a very hard time getting back to the hotel since I had studied the map. We did drive around a bit to find a gas station, and put 60 euros of gas into the car. But, then it was back to the hotel to pack. I was leaving in the morning, and Kathy and Janet were staying another day to shop.

Day Ten

I ate breakfast and checked out at 9AM. My driver was waiting to take me back to the Frankfurt airport. It was a quick trip. I made sure not to tip this time. I thought that it was cold back in Chicago, because that’s what I remembered. I wore my leather jacket, which was a mistake.

The airport in Frankfurt has free carts for your bags. I think in the US you need to pay for carts, which is why you see so many people lugging bags across the airport, doing God knows what to their backs. It was nice, because I ended up in a 45 minute line just to check-in for my flight to Chicago. Oh well, it wasn’t like I was in a rush at that point. Nothing to do but wait in the airport. Eventually I got up to the check-in and learned I had never signed my passport. Oops! (It is now!) After checking my bags, I walked around, bought snacks and went to security. The secure part of the airport is boring. No stores. Expensive water. No drinking fountains. I just sat in the little waiting room until I decided to board. (I usually wait until the end to board, rather than wait in the long line and sit on the hot plane.)

The trip back was uneventful. I was on an aisle again (thanks anonymous travel agent!) I slept a lot. Ate their airplane food. Watched “Click!” with Adam Sandler, in the headrest in front of me on a tiny screen. Once we passed over Greenland, I had to jump up and take pictures. It was a beautiful view of mountain ranges and frozen rivers and glaciers.

The weather was bad in Chicago. Big surprise. It meant my flight had been cancelled. I had to deplane, get my bags and go through customs. More lines. My bags were left in the checked area to be loaded on the plane to Moline. So, at least I didn’t have to lug them around. But, I did have to leave the secured area and go back to United Check-In in the main terminal. More running. More sweating in that damn leather jacket. I must have looked pretty disheveled by then.

It turns out, they booked me automatically on the 2PM flight which had not left yet. So, just like coming from Moline the Saturday before, I lucked out and got on a little plane to Moline after all. By the skin of my teeth. I just had to stand in the “economy” security screening line for another half an hour. Take off shoes. Open bags. Then go to the gate and wait. My phone was about dead, and there were no outlets. That sucked. My computer was also dead, because I used up the battery on the plane (only free outlets to First Class) adjusting photos in Photoshop. Nothing to do but sit and wait for our plane.

The plane was HOT. The male flight attendant was nice, and funny, but I was just too hot. Even with the jacket off. The air conditioning didn’t work. Oh well, I pretended it was a sauna and knew at least I was getting home. Jarrett would be there to pick me up. I would sleep in my own bed. Little did I know that the ladies were in Mannheim where it was raining, and they would not be so lucky when their flight a day later would be cancelled to Moline. So, all in all, I was lucky. Lucky to have the opportunity to visit Germany, from both a personal and professional perspective. Lucky that the flights worked out. Lucky we had a host that took such good care of us there.

When I did arrive in Moline, I called my son to tell him I was on the ground and called Mike to let him know I survived. Then my phone died.

One of my two bags made it. Several of us were in a similar situation. We had our bags together after customs, but one bag arrived and the other was “lost”. I stood in yet another line to give my particulars to the nice lady from United (BOY AM I GLAD I GOT UNITED AND NOT AMERICAN!).

The trip started at 9AM in Mannheim, and ended at about 7PM in Moline. That is a LONG Monday, and of all the days of the week, Mondays are my least favorite. So, I was nonplused by the fact the bag was missing. I took Tuesday as a vacation day to recover (and Photoshop pictures and prepare to teach) and the second bag showed up, none the worse for wear.

It was a good time, and there were many good memories I will never forget. I am sure some more will come to me as I think about them. I couldn’t capture everything in a little story like this, could I? I am pretty committed now to seeing more of the world. Traveling, and doing it with friends and family if I can. Maybe I will save up and take my parents on a trip like that. Anyplace you can go with good friends and make good memories is a good time.