Anyways, I took off early from work on Friday, as I had nothing really to do (more specifically, I had nothing else I wanted to do and it was such a nice day). So, bit of shopping (bought a book and an ice cream cone), waited for Linda, cooked dinner. I was in the process of eating dinner when she knocked and said our laundry party had been moved up from 9 PM to 7--as in, I needed to be downstairs with my stuff in 15 minutes.
The laundromat is always fun, and mostly involves waiting. Our party involved Linda and I, two french students studying in Mainz, and one german student who (strangely enough) studies French here. So, lather, rinse, repeat, wait, wait, unload, reload. Fold and finished.
The laundry party turned into a housewarming party, as Julie was moving into a new WG (shared appartment). So we sat in a circle on the floor by the light of a tealamp in her empty room, drank beer (I still don't like it), and 'hung out'. Turns out Julie has her birthday on Sunday, so the collective rest of us were going to cook and throw a dinner party for her, to which I was invited. It was a fun time with nice people, and I enjoyed just sitting and talking. Better than sitting alone in my room, which is what I would probably have been doing had I not been with them.
So, midnight, I came back and fell into bed, not bothering to clean up from dinner. Linda and I had tentative plans to go to the market and go swimming in case our plan to go to Luxembourg with another friend, whom we couldn't get ahold of, fell through.
Anyways, still unsure if he would show up, Linda and I took off for the train station at 6:50 the next morning and caught a 7:20 train to Koblenz. Because we had gotten the train ticket for free from the Burgundy Council (or whatever they are called--where Thomas works and where the art show from the previous week was) and it restricted us to slower trains, that journey took two hours.
The trip up to Koblenz is along the Rhein river, the prettiest part, dotted with small villages and a castle on every corner. I alternated with sleeping, trying enthusiastically and more or less unsuccessfully to photograph said castles, and reading my somewhat peculiar book. So, Koblenz. In Koblenz we caught a train for Trier.
Trier is the oldest city in germany, founded by the romans a very long time ago, and the closest city to Luxembourg. We actually wanted to go all the way over the border, but we'd already spent 4 hours in the train and Lux. would have been 2 hours more round trip. And Thomas didn't want to go. So we looked at Trier, which was hosting some sort of a kids fair, got bored, and headed back.
We went as far as Koblenz, and found out from Linda's ex tha there was going to be fireworks and a wine festival in one of the Rhein towns that evening, so we had to fill the time between 2 PM and 8:30. So we stopped at some of the little villages recommended by Rick Steves or whatnot, Boppard and St. Goar, photographed their respective castles, wandered through their tourist-infested old town districts. In Boppard we ran across a slightly drunk brass band, who then followed us to the train station. Not sure if they got on our train or not, but we made sure to be on the other end of the platform from them. Perhaps more beer would improve their ability, but I am guessing not.
From St. Goar, instead of taking the tran one stop farther, we decided to walk the 7 km to Oberwere or whatever it's called. Past the campgrounds full of dutch tourists (you really could smell the weed), we bought a bottle of Riesling and decided to start the party early, hiking on into the next town. After a quick Döner (turkish sandwich) we met said Ex and headed down to the wine festival.
The town has, on average, about 3,000 inhabitants. Expected tourists: 5,000. Huge tents selling wine of all kinds, wine markets, games for kids, music, beer halls--your typical Volksfest, the kind you never find in the states, like a mini Oktoberfest. Except with wine. You can buy your wine there or bring it with--the Ex had some--and we watched one of the best firework displays I have ever seen, called Rhein on Fire, accompanied by Händel, Saint-Saens, Copland, and others. It was awesome. Unfortunately, the last train left at 10:30 and was full of drunken revellers who accompanied our journey to Mainz with soccer anthems sung at full pitch.
Today: reading, swimming, dinner party. Perhaps pictures later.
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1 comment:
and this is what you did in one day? my goodness, what can we back at home say that matches that? and you took a train for the purpose of visiting Luxembourg, made it almost there, and then didn't? ;) mom
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