The thing about travel is you set off on your journey feeling like you have all the time in the world, and then you blink, and suddenly it's the 18th of June on a trip that lasts until the 29th. It goes so very fast! But I am making it a point to seize every moment that I have left here.
We left early this morning for the Top Secret Birthday Trip of which I alluded to yesterday.
Probing questions were repeatedly asked by Embla as she desperately tried to determine the location of the surprise and activities that will be entailed therin.
"Pabbi, can't you at least tell me where we are going?"
"Why can't I know? It's an easy question!"
"Are we staying in Germany?"
We took a bullet train from Stuttgart to Mannheim and from there, switched to another train. Our final destination was to be Köln (aka Cologne) which is located in Northwest Germany, west of Frankfurt and not too far from the Netherlands.
By the way, can I state for the record that I love train stations. They are so much fun, and train travel here is both easy to figure out and PUNCTUAL (Because, German.)
Most folks go for wearing neutrals here-grey, black, brown-and realized I was rather colorful, as I sported a mismatched assortment of clothes: my camo/foral flats, bright patterned dress, Hawaiian flower backpack, and Aqua hoodie.
Then, I saw this lady, and I realized I was an Amateur.
Not pictured is her peacock handbag. This lady was rockin' it in a station full of grey, black, and brown.
The scenery on our train journey was stunningly beautiful. I couldn't believe it! There were more castles, churches and old ruins than you can shake a stick at. Every few miles you would see a new castle perched atop a ridge or in a field.
Taking pictures outside a train window is comparable to that Arcade game where you have to stop the light exactly on the number to win tickets. It's hit or miss, and if you're in luck, you will have the castle you wanted in the picture. Otherwise, you end up with an ugly depot building, or a light pole, or a graffiti laden wall.
But I managed to get a few halfway decent ones.
(someone took my camera...hmm...)
While on the train, we met an older fellow who has been a teacher for 40 years at a Catholic boys school in Louisville, KY. He was a very outgoing and interesting gentleman and as such, the two hours passed very pleasantly between chatting with him and playing cards with Embla on the table. He has been to Europe every year as long as he has been teaching and as such, is quite knowledgable about the area.
Our train trip followed the famous Rhein River, and he pointed out as we passed the same bend in the river that inspired the famous poem Die Lorelei, written by Heinrich Henrie. Who knew! The original German version happens to be printed out and stuck to on my bulletin board at home.
When you get off, BAM! There's the cathedral, right in front of the station.
Lunch was eaten at Nudelnhause, which was positioned with a great view as it was literally right next to the Cathedral.
I added three more churches to my visit list now, one of which was the aforementioned Köln cathedral, the largest cathedral in Germany.
Being the highly observant person that I am, ever since we had got off the train I kept seeing people go by sporting AC/DC merchandise- shirts, hats, leather jackets, devil horns, etc. We all wondered why, and when the sixth guy wearing a leather jacket featuring the logo passed us as we were in the cathedral (the CATHEDRAL!) we decided something MUST be up. George googled it.
"....performing June 19, Cologne, Germany"
No way.
In order to share the next story I must divulge a little known fact about me. As a matter of fact, I have the AC/DC song Back in Black as my ringtone. It's an inside joke, really, as I do like to wear black, but not for any evil reason, just because I like it.
When the girl in the foral pattern dress, ballet flats, and a pink glitter iPhone case gets a call and you hear:
"DA! Na-Na-Na, Na Na Na....."
".....BACK IN BLAAAACK."
It can really throw people off. I suppose this is a bit of my split personality showing, the floral/camo axis of my brain being manifest in a tangible way.
Our idea was for me to play it when one of the groupies walked past, just for fun. It didn't work, because the crowds here were so loud and they probably couldn't even hear it, but nevertheless, it was a good idea.
We wandered around the quaint streets, dodged the rain here and there, and even eavesdropped on a few tours, just for fun.
We went in this one church that was part of a monastery. It was the quietest of the eleven churches I have seen here in Europe- so quiet, in fact, that you could hear the water bottle sloshing in my backpack clean across the room. This was a true silence, and you could almost feel it settle in on you.
For a long while, it was just the three of us, sitting amazed at the echoes and acoustics of a place where any whisper could be heard from very far away, which we discovered shortly after entering the church. I tried out humming three separate notes and it was mixed by the echo into a chord. And of course, we giggled at the thought of what it would be like if a priest dropping a candelabra or something-ear splittingly loud.
I can't imagine what it would be like to sing in there, and the acoustics alone would be worth the few months' prison time undoubtedly required for *disturbing the peace* at a historic church. Let me tell ya, it was all I could do to not start up "Ave Maria" or somethin' while we were in there today. I may go back and sing on my way out the door or something so that they can't catch me.
George: "Embla, you can get married in one of these churches one day, you know."
"Aw that would be cool! And Margaret, you could be my...what's if called?"
"Yes! When you get married in one of these churches I'll be your slave....I mean, your bridesmaid."
We walked across the Deutches Brücke to see another church, which was not very crowded and had a very local feel to it. A few little old ladies had stopped in to pray on their way back from the market.
And just in case you didn't believe me, here is proof of the AC/DC
concert, stuck on a light pole right next to our hotel, which we checked into late this afternoon.
Our next order of business was the walk across the street to what George had described to Embla as a "carnival."
Except that this was a "carnival" featuring Taylor Swift.
Embla was very surprised to discover that we were indeed at a concert and not a carnival, but only after we walked into the arena, because when she saw her name on the tickets, she thought it was "just an ad." Cute. :)
I have a kind of aversion to guys that wear mostly black, are fond of skinny jeans, who wear their hair rather long-ish and who enjoy sporting a puddleglum-esque hat. However, James Bay, the opener for the concert (whose appearance I just described) was rather tolerable, I daresay quite good, when I decided to pay no mind to the previously outlined factors that impeded my interest.
It took me all of two seconds to go total fangirl once T. Swift walked onstage in a cute pink dress and started singing "Welcome to New York."
What can I say. The concert was awesome!
Swift is so down-to-earth and personal even in her concerts, and posses the unique ability to speak to a sold-out crowd of 15,000 people in such a way that it makes you feel as if you were sitting across from her at a coffee shop or something. It was that sweet and sincere, which is how she comes across as a person.
Then we walked back to the hotel and just crashed. More Köln to explore come tomorrow!
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