Kerie's Knoggin: Thursday April 5, 2012

Almost missed the train.

We got up early enough, had breakfast and got a taxi with all our baggage and got to the train station well ahead of time. As we sat there waiting we started chatting with another American who was traveling around France. He indicated that train tickets needed to be validated before you could board or there would bad a fine. When we went to validate ours 15 min before departure they wouldn't validate. In a panic, we stood in line at the ticketing counter watching the minutes pass until we finally get to the font of the line at 9:10, the exact time our train was supposed to depart.

Here's a tip, international tickets (between countries) do NOT need to be validated! We could have stepped right on the train without doing anything special and now we were late for the train. The lady told us to run and try and see if we could catch it. The platform was roped off and three guards standing by, but the train was still there.. I begged and explained that our tickets were non-refundable and that we didn't know they couldn't be validated. He must have taken pity on us as stupid Americans because here we are on the train speeding along at 180mph as I type this. I'll laugh later, right now I'm still stressed.

The French countryside is beautiful. Rolling hills with little village looking towns spotted in between. I'm not sure what the crops are. They look like grass but are clearly something that is harvested.

We said goodbye to John & Trace this morning. They're heading home and we're off to Germany. It was so great to spend some time with them. Paris was a busy busy place. I'm looking forward to some quiet country towns and slower paced days. This train really zips along! We're seated in the top section facing backwards. Its not that bothersome and at least I get a window seat.

Today has been really frustrating so far. We finally are in our hotel room in Bacharach but not without a few more misadventures. The Frankfurt train station is not very well marked out. We exited the train and hunted up and down for signs to the car rental areas or even a map of the station. I, of course had to pee, so fished out ,70 euro instead of the usual ,50 in Paris and headed to the turnstiles to pay to pee. It really is urine town in these big cities in Europe. The IN was also the OUT so when I was finished there was a line of people trying to get in and I couldn't get out! The turnstile would turn green and open up once you had paid so I tried to exit in between two people paying but got yelled at by some very angry German mother who thought I was blocking her daughters way to the bathroom. Who knows what she was saying to me but her daughters need to pee was obviously much more important than my need to get food and find the way out of there. SIGH. Finally the attendant came out and I asked her how do I exit? She pointed to the clearly marked "Emergency Exit" and told me use that as if I should have known it wouldn't set off some crazy alarm.

We still couldn't find the Avis car rental until we went downstairs to the mall area and finally located a map of the station. Of course the car rental area was back upstairs (did I mention we're lugging our bags around?) and not far from where we had disembarked from the train nearly 30 minutes prior. DOUBLE SIGH.

THEN… we finally get the car, get directions and a gigantic map and promptly get lost in the streets of Frankfurt. Thank goodness I decided to pay for the international data and wifi plan on my phone because that saved us and allowed us to find our way to Bacharach.

We missed the unmarked turn to the street for the hotel, had to double back and drive through streets that were clearly not meant for cars before passing the hotel and doubling back again. TRIPLE SIGH

I need a beer.

Probably no photos today but we did see some awesome looking castle ruins on the hills around here. Its very pretty so I'm still hopeful Germany won't continue to frustrate the joy out of this week.

Ok Germany is not so bad. We just had one of the best meals ever at the Hotel restaurant Kranenturm. I had some kind of pork with mushrooms in a Riesling hollandaise sauce that was to die for. The giant beer helped to make me feel happier as well :).

This town is super cute. Nate has our schedule for tomorrow planed out including several castles. Should be fun!

Apparently you can get TP from the radio if you run out...