Day 16: Munich, Montebelluna and Venice

We spent the night, once again, trying to sleep on a train. We left Munich at 11:45 PM, and pulled into the station at Venice Italy at 7:45 AM. Since it was too early to check into our hotel, .we just walked over two tracks and caught the local train to Montebelluna, where we planned to meet with Craig Quam, who pastors several Calvary Chapel outreach churches in northern Italy.

Craig picked us up from the train station and drove us to the old city of Asolo, which was originally built for the queen of Cyprus. We had a great time of fellowship, and then caught the train back to Venice at noon. We made it to our hotel by 2:00 PM and set out to explore Venice.

The drizzle that started in Salzburg followed us to Venice, but we still had a great time exploring the narrow streets and getting completely lost, despite having three maps and two guidebooks.

After walking down to St. Mark's square, watching the pigeons, walking through a few churches, and crossing the Rialto bridge we were ready for some dinner. We found a nice restaurant from our guidebook, had a romantic dinner and headed for bed. Here are a couple of photos.

Day 15: Millstatt to Salzburg

Today is Tuesday, and we got up before breakfast and walked down to the lake where Calvary has a dock. It was really beautiful.


Then, after breakfast, we had devotions with the staff and Maxine drove Kathy and I into Spittal so we could catch the 10:30 bus to Salzburg.



Salzburg was a really interesting, but crowded city. We spent the afternoon walking around with our umbrellas (only drizzle, but pretty cold). I got my picture taken with Mozart's statue:



And Kathy got to see the graveyard where the Von Trapp family (from the Sound of Music) hid from the Nazis:



After all our walking, we found a warm quiet restaurant and had a traditional Austrian dinner:



At 7:00 PM we caught the express shuttle to Munich, and there, we got on the overnight train to Venice at 11:45 PM.

Day 14: Melk to Millstatt

Today (Tuesday, September 25^th) we set the alarm clock for 6:00 AM to catch the 7:45 train to the Calvary Chapel Conference Center in Millstatt Austria. Breakfast was at 7:00, so we tried to settle our bill before we ate. Unfortunately the matriarch who ran the place (which was really nice, Hotel zur Post) didn't normally get to work until 7:30. The staff person we spoke to apparently called her to come in early, and she wasn't too happy. (I wouldn't be either.)

After breakfast we walked the three blocks to the train station and waited around for the commuter train to Amstatten (about a half-hour away). At Amstatten, we picked up an InterCity Express bound for Klagenfurt in the very south of Austria. It was a beautiful ride, going through the southern part of the Austrian Alps; very, very scenic.

By 2:30 we were at the town of Spittall, where we caught a bus for the ride up to Millstatt (about 20 minutes). In Millstatt we walked through the town and then sat down for a late lunch. Kathy ordered a pepperoni pizza, but apparently here, that means a peppercini pizza. I had the old reliable Bratwurst and fries.

Refreshed, we headed down to the highway rolling our bags the last three Km to Schloss Heroldeck and the Calvary Conference Center. Build as a large vacation home for a wealthy family. In 1938 it was purchased by the Nazis and used as a training center. After WWII, it was briefly used to house high-ranking German prisoners, and then converted to a children's convalescent home. Finally in 1989, Calvary Chapel purchased the property as a retreat center for it's European ministries, and later converted it to a campus of the Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe.

We got to the Castle around 4:00 PM, and were shown to our room by Maxine and greeted by Robin Turner. We walked around the castle for a while, admiring the architecture and the view. (There are no students here this semester, and we're between conferences, so things are kind of quiet.) After we finished walking around, we asked to borrow the computer so I could update my blog.

Dinner is in a half-hour, then we'll probably walk down to the lake. Tomorrow, we'll head back to Munich via Salzburg, on our way to Venice.

Day 13: Biking to Krems

Today is Monday, September 24^th, and we've just had a wonderful day. I'm still limited to the pictureless five-minute version, I'm afraid (since the other guests are lining up outside to use the terminal), but at least you'll know what we've been up to.

After breakfast at the hotel, we checked out a pair of bikes and rode up the Danube river through a dozen picturesque towns and villages to the town of Krems (37 Km). We rode through the village of Willendorf (where the Venus of Willendorf you'll remember from Art History was found). We rode through the town where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned in 1193. We rode through vinyards being harvested and orchards where we ate pears and apples that fell from the trees.

When we got to Krems, we walked the town and had lunch on the pedestrian mall. Then, we walked down to the train station to take the train back to Melk. Unfortunately, we found the train only went half-way back to Melk. Fortunately, it was the hardest part of the trip, so even though we ended up riding an extra 16 Km, it was mostly down hill.

We finally got back to Melk about 5:00 (over 8 hours of biking), I took a shower, and then we went out to a wonderful dinner. When we came back, we saw the Internet terminal (which had been occupied) standing empty, so I was able to bring you all up to date.

Tomorrow morning, we head for Millstadt and the castle.

Daz 12: Vajta to Melk

Todaz, Sundaz the 12th, we got up earlz, ate breakfast with Jason and Angie, and then went to the first service at Calvarz Chapel Budapest. (In case zou're wondering, I'm trzing to tzpe this on a German Kezboard; guess what kez moved to the location where the Y is on an American kezboard.)

Since we have only fleeting access to computers (I'm standing up writing this on a terminal in the hotel lobby), I'll just try to keep up with where we are and what we're doing; I'm keeping track of the details in my journal, and I,ll add them later (along with the pictures) when we have better access to the Internet.

After church at 10:30, Jason drove us over to Keleti station, helped us find our train and spend our last few Forints on Paprika chips and a sandwich from a train-station food stall, and said goodbye as we caught the 11:10 express train to Vienna.

The train was about a half hour late getting into Vienna, so we missed our initial connection to Melk, where we plan on spending two days on the Danube in the Wachau valley. We had a cup of coffee, and then caught the next train. By 4:00 PM we were checked into our hotel and out checking out the hotel and the massive Melk Abby which dominates the town.

After exploring the town, we had a wonderful dinner (sure, and ice-cream after) and I was sound asleep by 9:00 PM.

Day 11: Last Day in Vajta

Today is Saturday, September 22^nd, and, as you can tell from the computer-generated datelines on the last week's blog posts, most of them were entered into the computer today (copied from my hand-written journal). Angie Vander Burgh let me keep her laptop over the weekend, which has been a real blessing. I've almost got the published blog in synch with our actual travels.

I did some work on the blog last night, but this morning, when I got up early, I couldn't get the Internet connection to work, so I went for a walk instead, through the village at Vajta just before dawn. Here are some of the things that I saw.

These are the original gates to the castle with the main building (365 windows, 52 rooms) taken just after dawn. This gate, which fronts the main road, is no longer used.


This picture shows one of the nicer houses in the village.


Here's an interesting and unusual statue on a grave in the cemetery.


Here's the "Welcome to Vajta" sign that greets you when you enter the village. (Of course, you could just read that for yourself, right?)


On Saturdays, the students have a 10AM brunch which I ate while updating the blog entries in the coffee shop. Kathy spent the morning visiting with some of the ladies individually.

Before dinner Jason Vander Burgh (Angie's husband) drove us to town to visit the ATM. When we got back, Kathy and I took one last walk around the property.

After our walk, Jason and Angie had us over to their house for one last dinner and some great conversation before we went back to our room to pack.

Day 10: A Hungarian Dinner

Today is Friday, September 21^st. Kathy spent the morning speaking to the women at the Bible school and I spent the morning erasing all of the pictures I'd taken so far on our trip from my camera (accidentally). After I got my heart started again, I spent the afternoon trying to restore the photos I'd accidentally erased. Angie lent me her laptop computer and I finally found a free program on Downloads.com called "Art Plus Digital Photo Recovery 2.3" that managed to recover the pictures from the memory card, even though they seemed to have disappeared.

In the evening, Angie and her husband Jason, Gwyn and her husband Mark, and Phil Metzger (the pastor of Calvary Chapel Budapest) and his wife Joy, took Kathy and I out for an authentic four-course Hungarian meal that included the best cabbage rolls I've ever had. In keeping with our blog's food theme, here are a few pictures.

Day 9: Munich to Budapest

We actually got on our train at 23:45, so this probably should be under "Day 8", but I'm not going to quibble about 15 minutes. Starting at midnight, today is Thursday, September 20^th and we're taking the overnight train from Munich to Budapest.

While we were still in the states we reserved a "double" in a sleeper car (rather than a "couchette" where we'd have to sleep separated in gender-specific cars with 3 to 5 other travelers. The conductor didn't speak English and seemed a little annoyed when we didn't understand his instructions. We did find our compartment, though, which had three single fold-down bunks along one side of a regular railway compartment. The other side had a small washbasin, but no toilet.

The conductor took our tickets (which made me really nervous; I pictured being stuck in Budapest without our railpass) and folded down the middle bunk, since the top bunk was really high--about a foot to the ceiling). We went to sleep pretty easily; the motion of the train was pretty restful, but stops and starts meant that we woke up more than normal through the night.

I woke up for good about 5:00 AM (fret, fret, fret about the tickets) and got up and got dressed. This actually worked out pretty well since there wasn't room in the compartment for both Kathy and I to get dressed at the same time.

We were scheduled to arrive in Budapest a little after 9:00 AM, so Kathy got up around 7:30. Just as she started getting ready, the conductor knocked on the door and said (we thought), "Breakfast, 5 minutes." Five minutes later, there was another knock at the door, but it wasn't breakfast but a policeman checking our passports. Then, just a few minutes later, there was a third knock (all this time, Kathy is trying to get dressed). This wasn't breakfast either, but an immigration control officer stamping our passports. Interestingly, we didn't have any passport formalities when we stopped briefly in Vienna at 3:00 AM.

We never were able to find a dining car with breakfast, so maybe the conductor was saying something entirely different. (I think that we'll probably get better at this as we gain a little experience.)

We finally pulled into Budapest's Keleti station a little after 9:00. The station looks a lot different, maybe more "Eastern European" than those in Germany (at least those we've seen). There were a lot of solicitors (taxis, tours, money exchange, etc.) approaching all of the departing passengers, and it took a little more effort to make our way into the station itself.



Once we did, I stopped by the bank recommended in our guidebook to withdraw 20,000 Hungarian Forints, which is a little less than $100. The ATM gave me two 10,000 Ft bills, so I went into the bank itself to get some smaller denomination bills. There were no other customers in the bank, but rather than just approach one of the tellers, you're expected to take a number, and then wait until your number is called. Later on, walking through the mall, we saw some really long lines (at the mobile phone store) so I guess that this system helps to avoid chaos when more customers arrive. I also noticed that instead of discarding the service numbers, each teller kept them in a box on their desk, so maybe they have to turn them in as a kind of proof of productivity.

While we were still back in the states, Kathy arranged with Angie Vandenburgh from the Calvary Chapel Conference Center in Vajta to meet us at the station and to show us around Budapest. We were planning to stay at Vajta, which is about a two-hour drive south of the city, and so we weren't sure if we'd have another chance to see the city. Since we didn't specify a meeting place, we looked around a bit, and they found us after about fifteen minutes.

Angie brought along Gwyn Walsh, who actually knows how to get around Budapest, including the mysteries of the Metro, to act as our guide. We started out by driving to the West End mall, which is a modern South Coast Plaza style mall, and a safe place to park the car. We all got some rolls and coffee in the mall (since Kathy and I hadn't been able to figure out breakfast on the train) and then we took off for the Metro.

Gwyn was certainly a Godsend; I can't imagine trying to navigate the Budapest public transportation system on our own, even with a guidebook. There are three mail Metro lines, along with a multitude of bus routes. You use the same ticket for any form of transportation, but each ticket allows you one ride on one vehicle. If you have to change subway lines, or hop on a bus, you have to use another ticket. We bought two books of ten tickets (for the four of us) and used them to ride two subways and one bus. We had room to sit on the bus, but the subway was absolutely packed, sardine-style standing room only.

Our first stop was Castle Hill in the Buda (hilly) part of the city. We started out at the Mathias church, the best known church in Budapest. There's a tour you can take of the interior, but we were pressed for time so we just looked around the outside, visiting the statue of St. Stephen. This isn't the saint from the Book of Acts, but Hungary's first Christian king from the year 1000.

From the church, we walked south a couple hundred yards to the Royal Palace (Kiralyi Palota), which has been destroyed and rebuilt at least three times since it was originally built by King Matyas Corvinus in the 1400s. The current palace is a post WWII reconstruction.

In front of the palace is a large statue of the legendary Turul bird which lead the Hungarian people to their current homeland. Most of us, though, are more impressed by the view of the Hungarian parliament, across the Danube on the Pest side of town. In fact, it looked so good to us we hiked down the mountain and crossed the river on the Elizabeth bridge.

The Pest side of the river is lined with modern five-star hotels like the Four Seasons, and trendy restaurants. From here, you can look back across the river to Castle Hill on the Buda side. Pest is also home to the Vaci Utca pedestrian boulevard, which is nice, but actually a little touristy (and pricey).

A few blocks away from the Vaci Utca, though, is the Central Kavehas, where Gwyn lead us for lunch. This is a traditional, "grand style" cafe, directly across from the University library. It's reportedly popular with students and professors. The whole place (upstairs and downstairs) has an elegant 19^th century ambiance. Both Gwyn and I had a meat goulash with a fried egg and sausage, while Kathy and Angie tried the French onion soup in a rye bread bowl. All of our food was really great.

After lunch we headed back underground and used our last tickets to ride the metro back to the mall. We picked up the car and headed down to Vajta around 2:30 PM. Vajta is located about two hours south of Budapest, and, on the way, we stopped at a huge French hypermarket, Auchan. This is kind of like a high-quality version of Walmart, with greater variety. Kathy got some lip gloss and hairspray, I picked up some soda and mineral water, and Gwyn and Angie did their family shopping.

We finally got to Vajta around 5:30 PM. Kathy and I were shown to our room in the Maranatha Lodge (which all the students and staff just call the "U shape"). The facility at Vajta actually houses several different organizations. The Calvary Chapel Bible School Europe (where Judah went to school for one semester) is a two-year, four-semester program in conjunction with CCBC in Murrieta. The school has about 90 full-time students this semester, about half American and half European or African. Most of the European students are from Hungary or other nearby countries like Croatia or Serbia. The African students are from Nigeria and from Ethiopia.

In addition to the Bible School, Vajta houses a mission training program, a K-12 Christian academy, and the short-term Vision for Life and Summer of Service programs. The Conference Center also supports itself by hosting conferences and retreats for different churches throughout Hungary and Eastern Europe (not just Calvary Chapels).

Almost as soon as we arrived, we sat down with the students and staff and had dinner. After dinner there was a Koinonia evening fellowship. Kathy and I stayed for the worship and teaching, but couldn't stay up afterwards, since we were pretty tired from the trip. We excused ourselves, turned in and fell fast asleep.

Day 8: On to Munich

Today is Wednesday the 19^th of September, and we're leaving Bacharach and heading for Munich, where we'll catch a night train to Budapest.

We both slept really, really well and woke up around 7:00 AM. We got up, showered, and then went down to town to call Hosanna before breakfast (about 11:00 PM her time). This time we got through and were both able to talk to her for a few minutes.

By 8:30 we were back at the hotel for the largest breakfast we've had yet. When we first went down to call Hosanna, the dining room was completely full with the tour group members; when we came back, we were the only ones left, so we had the entire dining room to ourselves. Breakfast was coffee, rolls, cold-cuts, cheese, yogurt, scrambled eggs and some watermelon from Spain.

After breakfast I walked down to the TI (Tourist Information) office to check my email and the train schedules using the coin-operated Internet terminal. Kathy met me there around 9:00 and we stopped by the bakery and the supermarket to buy picnic fixings for lunch. The next train to Mainz was at 10:30 so we collected our bags, settled our bill (62E) and walked to the station to wait. The train to Mainz showed up a few minutes late and we walked right on. Again, we were the only ones in the entire first-class compartment.

When we got to Mainz we went to the Travel Information and Reservation area and asked about the next train to Munich. The helpful lady there printed out a schedule but we weren't able to make a same-day reservation. She told us that we could just try to get on, though, and see what happens. (This was for an InterCity Express or ICE train). The schedule she prepared for us involved a short trip to Frankfurt, a ten-minute walk to another area of the train station, and then the ICE train to Munich.



When we got to the platform, we waited a few minutes and then a different ICE train showed up, headed for Nurnberg, rather than Frankfurt or Munich. We decided just to hop on that one instead to see what would happen.

The car we boarded had only about a half-dozen passengers, but the seats all had different messages, like "Flug-Frankfort" or "Nurnberg-Passau" displayed in little LED panels below the luggage rack. We picked out a couple of empty seats and waited for the conductor. When she came through, she explained that these were the reserved seats (looking through the room, I could then see that the random seating pattern was because all of the other people were sitting at seats without reservation signs.) She also told us, though, that we could sit in a reserved seat if it wasn't reserved for that particular portion of the journey. Since we were getting off in Nurnberg, we sat down at a nice table that was reserved from Nurnberg to Passau, pulled out our groceries, and had a nice lunch of salami and cheese sandwiches and a couple of apples.

The ICE train to Nurnberg started out 15 minutes late (which is why it showed up kind of unexpectedly at our station) and was 35 minutes late by the time we got to Nurnberg. I guess that once the trains get "off-schedule" then the tracks are no longer synchronized, so the train has to spend more time waiting for other trains to pass, and gets further and further behind.

In Nurnberg we didn't even have time to leave the station. We had originally brought guidebooks for Nurnberg and Wurzberg and thought that we might get off and walk for a couple of hours before going on to Munich. Instead, we hopped on the ICE train to Munich (kind of an hourly commuter train with no reservations) and got there around 16:00 (4:00 PM). We checked our bags in a large locker and then headed out to explore the city before our train left at 23:45 (11:45 PM).

We used our guidebook to locate and walk down the crowded pedestrian mall to the central square, the Marianplatz. We waited around for a bit (with all the other tourists) to see the animated glockenspiel figures in the city hall clock tower at 5:00 PM. The town hall itself is being repaired and is covered with scaffolding, but you could see the glockenspiel through a little opening.

After that, we set off in search of the English Garden, the largest city park on the continent. Munich is really an affluent city. We kept walking past an endless series of "designer label" stores, one after another.

When we found the gardens, we went looking for a lakeside restaurant from our guidebook; instead, we found surfers! At once entrance to the garden, a large stream (or small river, I guess), enters the park under a stone bridge. The water comes through the bridge very swiftly, falls a little and then creates a two-to-three-foot standing wave about 30 feet in front of the bridge.



On either side of the river about a dozen wet-suited surfers with short twin-fin boards lined up to take turns riding the waves. (There was no board/wet-suit rental concession, so I wasn't able to try it out myself. Kathy says I'm just lucky.) The surfers would get started by laying their boards flat on the river, pointing up stream, held in place lightly with their feet as they sat on the stone river bank. Then, instead of paddling, they would simply push off the bank and glide right into the wave, kind of like a skim-boarder at the Wedge.

Some of the surfers (all guys) were better than others, but there were no real beginners. (So, I guess Kathy's right; I'm lucky that there wasn't a board-rental concession.) Each rider would cut back and forth between the banks until they made a mistake and got washed downstream. Watching this gives you a really strange sensation; instead of wiping out and going forward over the falls, surfers who fall off get sucked back through the wave. It gives you the sensation of watching a surfing movie in reverse.

The very best guy could go for more than five minutes, doing all of the tricks: floaters, aerials, even some 360s. They were pretty impressive. After the surfers, we looked a little longer for the restaurant, but couldn't find it, so we headed back into the center of town. Munich is full of monumental museums, monuments and opera building. It's really impressive for someone from Southern California.

Still looking for dinner we walked back through the Marienplatz and looked at the stalls in the government subsidized Viktualienmarkt, Munich's "small town" open-air market. (The link is a neat 360-degree panorama of the market.) We didn't find anything there, so we finally went to the Stadt Cafe on the north side of the Munich City Museum.

This had a really nice informal European modern coffee-house atmosphere. Kathy and I shared a ham and cheese sandwich (which tasted much better than it sounds) and we each had a bowl of hot apple carrot soup which was delicious.

By the time we finished dinner it was dark. I wanted to locate the Hofbrau Haus so we could peek in and see Germans (or more likely American and Japanese tourists) lifting beer steins, dancing on the table, and listening to oom-pa-pa music: in other words, the stereotypical German beer-hall experience. I couldn't quite decipher the map though, so we just headed back to the train station about 9:30 PM.

At the train station we made a phone call to Judah at work, got some ice cream for desert (so much for my diet, I guess) and went and retrieved our bags from storage. Then, because we still had two hours before our train left, we went looking for a place to sit and read.

The Munich train station doesn't seem to have a regular waiting room (or maybe we just couldn't find it). There are seats along each track (out in the cold) but if you want to sit in the station you have to go to a restaurant. We went over to Burger King and got some fries, and, then a little later, a "Long Chicken" value meal, just so we could have a place to sit.

At 23:00 (11:00 PM) we walked out and sat by the tracks to wait for our train.

Day 7: Bacharach and the Rhine

Today is Tuesday, September 18^th. I slept pretty fitfully in my bunk-bed, since the mattresses were pretty thin. I woke up before 5 AM and read in my bunk until it was time to get up. It rained during the night, and, in the morning it was cold and windy, with drizzle but no steady rain.

Breakfast at the hostel was very good: sliced meat, yogurt, cereal (I had Sugar Crisps) coffee, rolls and cheese. We left right after breakfast (about 7:30) for the walk down to the boat docks. I forgot to bring a map (packed away in my luggage) so we navigated our way down the hill from memory, since the chairlift didn't start working until 9:00 AM. We kept looking for the switchbacks that went down the hill and never saw them. Finally, we came to a bus stop where we found a German woman who pointed and gestured explaining how to get on the bus. It cost 4,40 (2,20 ea) to go to the city center. Kathy tried to get off the bus at the river, but the same lady stood up and told us, "Nein, nein!". Apparently you don't get off wherever you want like you do with our buses.

We had only a short walk from the city center where the bus let us off to the boat docks; we actually got there 15 minutes early. We spoke briefly to the ticket agent who told us we could just walk on with our Eurail pass. The KD line operates a whole fleet of Rhine boats, including the 1913 paddle-wheel steamer Goethe that we took. In the picture, you can see the steamer as well as the fortress across the river.



The trip down the Rhine to our destination (Bacharach) took about four hours. We read along with Rick Steves "Rhine Blitz Tour" notes about the different castles and landmarks like the Loreley Rock.



We got to Bacharach at 13:30 (1:30 PM). It was drizzling just a little, but it was only a short walk to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Kraneturm which was part of the original fortified wall, and contained "crane tower" where cargo would be loaded and unloaded from barges going up and down the Rhine. The hotel was actually full with two of Rick Steves' tours, but when Kathy called the night before from Koblenz, they had just had a cancellation.

Our room was on the third floor, reached by climbing a narrow wooden winding staircase. We were right under the roof, with sloping ceilings and four small windows looking out over the city. Our room was actually a "triple" with an extra bed, but we only had to pay for a double. The owners had added a nice modern bathroom and shower. (Fatima told us at breakfast when the other guests saw how nice the new bathroom was, they had to do the same thing to all of the other rooms.)

After getting our room, we went for a walk to try and find some lunch. I had a 2-Euro bratwurst on a roll at the butcher shop, but Kathy wanted something more substantial, so we went across the street to the Bacharach Pizza and Kebap store, and she ordered the Bacharach Special pizza. (I had a few nibbles because it was actually pretty big.) Our total lunch bill, including drinks and my bratwurst, was 11 E.

After lunch, we walked across the street to the Italian Eis (ice cream) store and had cones and coffee. (I know this sounds like all we do is eat, huh?) I had the Reisling-ice, which is only found here. It tasted kind of like the daquiri-ice flavor from Baskin Robbins. After that, we took out our guidebook and followed it for a walking tour of the city.

We both really recommend the Rick Steves guidebooks, especially the self-guided walking tours. We saw all of the important sights in Bacharach, as well as several things we just wouldn't have found on our own, such as the observation tower just north of the city. (We would never have thought that you could climb it, even if we had noticed it. It just didn't look obviously open to the public.) As we went up to the observation tower, we sampled the grapes (both red and white) from the vineyards that surround the city.

After our walking tour, we went back to the room, and then decided to go out again and climb up to the castle overlooking the city before dinner. Today it's a youth hostel (and has been since 1926). As with the hostel at Koblenz, this one was filled with middle-school-aged children spending the week on a field trip.


After the castle, we climbed down past the ruins of the Werner chapel and then headed back to the hotel for dinner. (I know, I know, more food.) I had schnitzel and fries, and Kathy had a large chicken salad. The schnitzel was just great; salads though are "pre-dressed" and always seem to have more dressing than we're used to. You also don't get a choice of dressing like we're used to in the states.

After dinner we made our last run down down. We picked up a liter of diet coke and four scoops of ice cream this time (I had banana and rum-raisin). While we were out we called home but didn't get through, so we left a message for Hosanna. At 9:30 we climbed our three stories and hit the sack.

Day 6: Cologne to Koblenz

This morning, (Monday September 17^th), Kathy and I struck out on our own, with a little fear and trepidation. David drove us down to the train station and helped us find our train and get our Eurail pass validated. Even with David's help, though, he wasn't able to get the railway ticket clerk to understand that he was supposed to validate both pages of the pass and enter in our passports.

We found the train to Cologne from Seigen and got onto the first class car: large, 1^st-class-style airline type seats, arranged six to a compartment, facing both directions. The train was mostly empty. At the Siegen train station there were about 50 middle-school-aged kids, along with their parents seeing them off, heading of on an outing. They all got into the second-class cars, so we had ours to ourself.

When we got to Cologne (Klon), we went to the reservation area, and the clerk validated the second page of our railpass and told us how to find the next train for Koblenz. We checked our bags into the automated baggage system, which is similar to a locker, but very high-tech. You put your bags into a bin, which is then sealed and automatically transported to a warehouse. You're given a magnetic claim-check, which then reverses the process from any baggage check site in the train station.

The cathedral at Cologne is monumental. We took the "Rick Steves guidebook walking tour" and saw the crucifix from 936, the reliquary with the actual skulls from the three Magi (although you didn't get to see the skulls themselves, so I can't vouch for the authenticity), and the chapel of the Virgin, with an awesome painting along with the famous Madonna of Milan statue.

We didn't climb the 509 steps to the top of the south spire. Instead, we walked through the city, crossed the Rhine on one of the bridges, and had lunch in a sidewalk cafe by the river. All of the restaurants there advertised a 5,50 schnitzel lunch. Our waiter tried to steer us toward something else, but Kathy stood firm and said, "We want the special." It was pretty good, but "au natural" which is basically a pork steak.

After lunch we walked back to the station, claimed our bags, and hopped right on a train heading for Koblenz. Riding into Koblenz, we could see our first stop, the youth hostel in the old fortress, Festung Ehrenbreitstein.



The fortress was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system, Festung Koblenz, by Prussia between 1817 and 1832 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area that had been invaded by French troops repeatedly before. The fortress was never attacked.

Unfortunately, even though we could see the hostel from the train, the train kept going and the station was quite a ways away from the hostel. Kathy was already pretty tired from walking all over Cologne, and wasn't thrilled to be walking four or five more miles to get to our bed. It took us at least an hour to get across the river to the foot of the mountain (about half-way there). The Lord had mercy on us though; rather than walk all the way around, we turned a corner and found a precarious chair-lift taking riders to the top of the hill for a few Euros.

At the youth hostel, our room was waiting; unfortunately, it was also occupied by six other backpackers. They gave us another room and we went out to explore the fortress. Do you remember those middle-school children on the train platform in Siegen? Guess who we met running down the halls of the hostel? There were actually three groups of 60 early teenagers staying there, and it was pretty loud.

After dinner (which we ate at the hostel; we weren't up for climbing down the hill to explore Koblenz), Kathy and I talked about the difficulty of getting from the hostel down to the river, and we decided not to stay a second night. We got out our guidebook and Kathy called the first listing and got a reservation in the town of Bacharach further down the Rhine. That means we have to be up early to try and get over to the 9:00 AM Rhine steamer, our transportation for tomorrow.

Day 5: A Day of Rest

Today, Sunday, we slept in (no more jet-lag), and got up for the second service at 10:00 AM. The church service was great; the worship was lively and the Bible lesson was really inspiring. Nick (the pastor) preaches in English, with a translator, so the service has a certain cadence, sort of like a traditional African-American church service where the audience is expected to regularly respond to each point.

After service, we visited the book store and then went out to lunch with Dave, Inga-Lill, Nick and his wife Sue. Before we knew it, it was 4:00 PM. Nick had to dash off for the evening service. Kathy, Inga-Lill and I went over for the worship portion of the service, and then went home to get packed, (and catch up on this blog), while Dave stayed behind to do some video-taping.

Tomorrow morning we take off for the Rhine.

Day 4: Heidelberg

Today, Saturday, we went on a field trip with the Bible College students to visit Heidelberg. Heidelberg is about three hours south of Siegen. The Bible College chartered a 50-person bus for the trip, which was completely filled. We followed along in a van.

Our first stop was at Calvary Chapel Heidelberg where we picked up our guide, Matthias. Next we made our way to the Heiligenberg, or "Mountain of Saints" overlooking the city from the North. This fifth-century BC Celtic fortress of refuge and place of worship on the is one of the oldest identifiable settlements in this area. The picture shown here is a 56-meter-deep pit that dates from that era.


In 863 the monastery of St. Michael was founded on the Heiligenberg inside the double rampart of the Celtic fortress. Here's a picture of the tower built in approximately 1094, from that monastery that overlooks the valley.



Also on the Heiligenberg is an unusual Nazi edifice - a "Thingstätte." In early Nazi quasi-religious Völkisch ceremony and Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) ideology, a "Thing" was an open-air gathering of the people, harking back to old Germanic pagan gatherings. Some 1200 "Thing" sites were planned, but only about 40 were built, as the Nazi hierarchy lost interest in the "Thing" movement in 1936.

Here's a picture of Kathy and I looking down into the ampitheater, and, on the right, is a picture of the same ampitheater on the day it opened in 1935.

There are more complete monastery ruins above the Thingstätte. Here are some of the students exploring and taking a break.

Modern Heidelberg

After our hike, we drove down to the city and let everyone explore for a few hours. The main street of the old town was crowded with tourists. We found a Lebanese cafe and had schwarma, falafel, and humus for lunch.

After lunch, Kathy went for a Starbucks, Dave and I got a gelato, and a student (Ben S.) went to see a golden mime perform.

Once everyone was refreshed, we headed on up the hill to Heidelberg castle. This was a pretty steep climb, and we're still a little sore a couple of days later. Here's a picture of one of the facades, and the view over the valley.

Finally, we finished off by taking a ride on the River Neckar, which was very refreshing. The picture on the right was taken up in the castle.

Then, it was time for the ride home. We spent the evening watching a movie about Lonnie Frisbee (a little biased, I thought), and eating baguette pizzas. A perfect ending to a perfect day.