On the bright side, though, Lee came to Germany again. He and his friend John flew into Hamburg on August 1st at around 8:30 am. Since they had waited too long to purchase their RailPass, and therefore had to have it
mailed to me, I went up early in the morning to meet them at the airport and give them their train ticket. And I mean early, too. My train left the Hauptbahnhof in Köln at around 2 in the morning. I myself had a RailPass because it was cheaper to buy that than to buy round-trip tickets to Hamburg and back, so I didn't have a seat reservation for this trip. I figured it wouldn't really matter, anyway, since there shouldn't really be too many people on the train at 2 am on a Sunday. Wrong. The train was packed. I ended up having to sit on the floor for the entire time, which was about 5 hours. I was not a happy camper. When I got to the airport, I saw John and his friends (who he met a long time ago on the internet and who live near Hamburg) but not Lee. That's because Lee had to report lost luggage. Yeah, awesome. He came all the way to Germany for 2 weeks and all he had with him was one change of clothes because his luggage managed to get lost somewhere along the way. It was not a good start to the trip.After we got some food at the Hauptbahnhof in Hamburg we put all of their luggage in a locker and went on a walkabout. Sebastian, Yvette and Nicole (the 3 who are from the Hamburg area) led the way and showed us some of the basic sights of Hamburg, like city hall and some churches, the port, that sort of thing. Then we went and sat down in a park for a little while. I fell asleep until it started raining, and then it was time to move on. It wasn't actually raining that hard, so we just went and checked out the indoor tropical garden they had and then
went back out and hung out in the park again for a little while. The train that Lee and John were going to take to Berlin was leaving Hamburg around 6, so after we relaxed a little bit in the park we all headed back to the Hauptbahnhof. The German part of the group went their own way (after clarifying plans of when and where they were all supposed to meet up again in Wacken for the concert) and I put the boys on their train and sent them on their way. I was thoroughly exhausted, so I went and got on the next available train heading toward Köln. It was going to require a train change about an hour into the trip, but I didn't care because I just wanted to be on my way home. Unfortunately there was a problem with the train, and it didn't leave nearly on time. In fact, the next train heading to Köln (which was also a direct route, without requiring me to change trains) pulled up in the track across the platform as we were sitting there waiting to leave. I didn't feel like waiting any more, especially for a trip that wasn't direct, so I switched trains and was on my way home. Unfortunately, the train was once again pretty packed, and I had to sit on the floor almost the entire time. I managed to find a seat a few different times, but each time I was kicked out because someone had a reservation for that seat, and then it was back to the floor. Honestly, sometimes when you start on the floor it's better to just stay there. Otherwise you look for a seat and if you don't find one, your spot on the floor may be taken when you get back, and that just sucks. So with the lost luggage, and sitting on the floor of a train for almost 10 hours, and having fat blisters on the back of my heels from the shoes I wore the day before, and feet so sore and swollen that I wasn't able to put my shoes back on after I had taken them off on the train, it was a pretty hectic and stressful day. It made me immensely happy to see Lee, but I was definitely relieved when I got home and was able to lie down in my bed.Last Sunday I made the trip to Hamburg again, but this time I made sure to reserve a seat. I had Lee's luggage (which showed up here at the house late Wednesday night) and I met the guys at the Hauptbahnhof so that we could all go to the hotel together. It was actually a pretty uneventful day, since we were all so tired and wanted to be able to unwind a little bit. At first we all just hung out in the one room talking because they still hadn't finished cleaning John's room from the previous guests. Once he was able to move into his room, the boys took showers and we all ended up napping before heading out to find some dinner. Like I said, an uneventful but necessary day.
Monday morning we all got up and had breakfast in the hotel. I love eating hotel breakfasts in Europe. Anyway, after we finished eating John went down the street to
a laundromat because he didn't have any more clean clothes, and Lee and I went wandering around the area while we waited for him. Once he was done we headed toward the center of Hamburg to find the Miniatur Wunderland Museum, which Lee had seen on TV shortly before he flew over here. The line was so long that we actually bought tickets for a later entry and then checked out a few other things in the meantime. We found a church that had been completely destroyed during the war (aside from the bell tower), and they left it in ruins as a memorial. We took the elevator to the top of the tower to see the view from up there, and then went down into the crypt to see the historical display they had down there. They had a map that showed the destruction levels of Hamburg in 1945, and it was crazy. The city was absolutely destroyed during the war. It's amazing that anything survived.The Miniatur Wunderland Museum itself was absolutely intense! I have never been so fascinated by a model train in my entire life. In addition to the trains traveling around the tracks, there are cars that drive on the roads
without being on a track. They change lanes, they stop at stoplights, they simulate traffic jams, and they pull over when the fire trucks come through. Yeah, firetrucks. There is simulated fire in various parts of the display, and fire trucks come from little fire stations, with lights and sirens and everything, and congregate at the location of the fire. It was crazy. Most of the moving road traffic was in the United States part of the display and not so much in Europe, but that's probably because it's a newer part. In one section they actually have water that experiences high and low tide (a difference of 4 cm) and a cruise ship that steers itself around the "sea" without any track or anything to guide it. Oh, and did I mention that they also simulated night? The lights change, so it feels like there's actual sunset/sunrise and night time. Seriously, I can't even begin to explain how cool and elaborate this place is. We actually spent almost 5 hours there because there are a million little details everywhere you look. It may have taken up most of our day, but I'm so glad we went.After we left the museum we headed toward Reeperbahn, which is
the red light district of Hamburg. It's the #1 tourist attraction in the city apparently. We didn't stay for very long because it was late, we were tired, John was starting to feel sick, and we were slightly out of place there anyway. We got ourselves some Döner for dinner and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before leaving for Köln in the morning.When we got to Köln the first thing we had to do was go to the Apotheke to get John some medicine. He got hit pretty hard with a cold and was desperately in need of some decongestants. Since he was feeling so miserable, we went straight to the hotel in Deutz (which is just on the other side of the river from the Dom) to check in and left John there while Lee and I went to Königsdorf to see the family. Esther and Olaf were planning on barbecuing for us that night because it was the only chance that Lee was going to have to see the kids before they went on vacation. Wednesday morning Olaf drove the little guys to Münster to stay with his aunt
for a few days, and Gustav was all excited that he was going without his parents. Anyway, Lee was so excited to be able to see the family, especially Pauline, and the kids were both so excited to see him. The past couple of weeks Pauline had been asking me when Lee was coming, and she actually had me call him on his cell phone once so that she could say hi to him. She absolutely loves him, and it's adorable. Even Gustav, who was a little shy the last time and never really seemed to care as much as Pauline, was wanting to play with Lee and talk to him the whole time. He was upset when it was time to go to bed because he wanted to stay up until Lee left. They were too cute.Wednesday morning we slept in a little bit, since we had been here at the house until late at night and we knew that John needed the sleep. Lee and John's friend Ryan was going to be joining us in Köln for the day, since he's been in Amsterdam for a couple weeks and wasn't that far away. We didn't know ex
actly what time he was coming in, just that it was supposed to be around 11, so Lee and I went to the Hauptbahnhof to pick him up. We went to the Starbucks there first so that Lee could check his email and get Ryan's train information. His train had arrived 20 minutes before we did. Ooops. We went quickly to the track he was going to be on, and found him just as he was about to head downstairs to find a phone to figure out where the hell we were. Once we had collected Ryan we went back to the hotel to pick up John and then went to Altstadt to eat at the Haxenhaus. Lee loves that place, I think particularly due to the fact that it's been around since 1231. We also went inside the Dom, which was the first time I'd actually been inside at a time when they weren't conducting mass. It was really cool because every other time I've been in I was only able to go as far as the back row of pews, but this time it was completely open and we were
able to really look at all the windows and the altar and everything. I personally don't think that the inside is quite as impressive as the outside, but it's still gorgeous. The guys were definitely impressed.Since John was still feeling really crappy, we took him back to the hotel to sleep and Lee, Ryan and I hung out in our room talking for a little bit before we decided to go out for a walk. We just kind of took off without really knowing where we were going or what we were going to find, but that was the point. We ended up walking all the way back to the Dom from the hotel, which was pretty far. We got there perfectly in time for Ryan to hop on the last train to Amsterdam. It was too bad that he had to go back so soon, but he didn't want to sleep in John's room and end up getting sick himself, so he didn't really have too much of a choice. It was cool that he was able to come down and meet up with us, though.
Thursday was definitely a lazy day. We stayed in bed until almost noon, and then we called John at around 1 to make sure he was still alive. He was, so we headed into the main part of the city again so that the guys could buy some souvenirs. More importantly, though, we tried to find out
at the Lufthansa check-in center in the Hauptbahnhof if it would be possible for them to skip the first leg of their flight from Hamburg to Frankfurt and instead simply check in and board in Frankfurt. It's only about an hour and a half to get from Köln to Frankfurt but over 4 hours to get to Hamburg, so it really didn't make sense to get up at 1 in the morning and take a train all that way for no reason. After making several trips to the Starbucks to get essential pieces of information from the internet and calling both Lufthansa and United Air, we learned that it was possible, but only if the they paid a minimum fee of 250 Euro each. What a load of crap! They were going to be boarding the same plane, with the same tickets and the same seats either way, why should they have to pay extra money to not fly? I hate pointless bullshit policies like that.Anyway, once again we spent a short amount of time in the city before we took John back to the hotel (the train tickets that Lee and John had require them to travel together, so we couldn't just send John on his own). Then Lee and I grabbed my little grill and my blanket and headed to Aachener Weiher to hang out. We went to a kiosk to get something to drink and then set up camp before I went to find a grocery store to buy some stuff to throw on the grill. After several unsuccessful attempts to light the charcoal, I went back to the kiosk to buy new charcoal and some paraffin cubes to get it started. That worked out much better!! I had tried inviting some of my friends to come and join us, but none of them were able to make it so it was just Lee and me the whole time. That didn't matter, though, because at least we got to spend the time together, and it was a lot of fun. I don't know what time it was when we left, but I think it was probably around 11:30 at night. We carried all of the stuff back to the hotel, got Lee packed and ready to leave, and then hung out for an hour before we called John and left the hotel at 1 am. Their train was leaving the Hauptbahnhof at 2:10, so we wanted to be sure that there was plenty of time to get there and get them on the train. Luckily the train was fairly empty, so they were able to find seats. I waited there talking to Lee in the doorway of the train until it was time for departure, and then they left and I went straight back to the hotel and slept until it was time for me to check out.
I've spent the last few days hanging out with friends in Köln and helping Esther and Olaf paint the kids' playground white. They picked up the kids today and brought them back this evening, and now tomorrow everything is back to normal. I wish my vacation could last longer, and that Lee didn't have to go home so soon. I'm not quite ready to go back to the usual yet.
