Germany Day 4

Sept. 13, 2011. Today is a travel day. Breakfast was a hurried affair since we had to be at the train station for a 9:19 AM departure. We quickly ate an open-faced sandwich and drank a little tea, then grabbed our suitcases for a shorrt walk across the padlock bridge to meet the taxi. Herman, Christine and Gustl walked with us, and we said goodbye to Christine and Gustl at the bridge since she had an appointment to keep. It was hard to leave; Christine has been an exceptional hostess and we had a wonderful time in Regensburg! Herman had time to go with us to the train station to make sure we got on the right train, and many hugs were exchanged as we said goodbye to this fun, interesting man. He was going to spend the rest of the day bicycling to Kelheim and doing some repairs at Christine's office. I hope I am as active and vital as Herman is at 70; he is an inspiration!

From Regensburg to Nurmberg to Aschaffenburg to Darmstadt Main by train; from Darmstadt Main to Darmstadt Ohstbahnhof by bus; from Darmstadt Ohstbahnhof to the youth hostel on foot. Much of the time you could see nothing but trees along the train tracks so I dozed off and on. It looks so much like home here - the rolling hills and fields could be Illinois. The houses with thier red roofs and solar panels are different, but much else is the same. When we arrived in Darmstadt, we arrived in an entirely different world from Regensburg. Regensburg is a village, Christine kept saying. And how right she was! Darmstadt is a city - a large, busy, modern city. If the signs were in English it could be Chicago! As we waited for the rest of our group at the hostel, we could see rush hour traffic zooming past.

It turns out the group had gone out for an early dinner and were coming back for the evening as we were ready to go out. So Deb and I headed to the city center for dinner to Darmftadter Ratsteller Hausbrauerie, a restaurant recommend by Jens and Judy. It was on the edge of the city plaza, where we could sit in the biergarten and watched the locals go about their lives. The flower vendor had beautiful blooms for sale: fragrant lilies, lovlely dahlias, spiky gladiolus and best of all a huge cart full of pumpkins! There was a stack of blankets to wrap around customers' shoulders if they got chilly at the biergarten. Deb and I both ordered kasespatzle (spatzle with cheese and onions) was it was so good I decided to make it for our German Christmas dinner. The house beer was a light beer, and not as good as the dark ones I have had but I will continue to honor my vow to try a different house beer daily!

After dinner, we strolled the streets that radiated off the city center like spokes in wheel. It was a shopping area, and we found some familiar stores: Claire's Boutique, TJ Maxx and The Finish Line. There was also a Euro Store (like a $1 store but everything for 1 Euro) and a grocery store we browsed to see the different German foods. The moldy sausage looked disgusting, but everthing else was pretty normal and it was fun to see familiar foods with German labels. After window shopping, we walked back to the hostel and visited with some of our group for awhile. 6 of us women are sharing a room, so it should be a race in the morning to see if we can be ready on time! The group is tired after their flight, so I think it will be an early night for all of us. Tomorrow, we go to Ruedesheim for a boat trip on the Rhine, so we will see if it will be like a Tetris game to fit all of us and our luggage into the vans!