Karlsruhe, Germany

Some random notes on a journey from St. Lous, MO to Karlsruhe, Germany:

A co-worker Elliot and I arrived on the 8 hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt at about 11:15am local. The baggage took quite a while to come through after waiting to get the passports stamped. So we walked down to the train station from where we would get a direct train for the two hour ride south to Karlsruhe. At precisely 11:55am, we purchased the tickets at a machine. The train we bought the tickets for was set for an 11:57am departure, little did we know the ticket machine was still a ten minute stroll from the platform.

Needless to say we missed it, so enjoyed a fine Bitburger Beer in the station before catching another train two hours later. We finally arrived in Karlsruhe at around 3:45pm. We managed to spot the street where our hotel is located on the tourist map outside the station, which was luckily a short walk away.

We checked into the Novotel then headed out for a much needed dinner at a local eatery. Some odd occurrences in Germany on a Sunday: As we were to later hear from those in the know, i.e. Germans; Germans like nothing better than to eat tons of ice cream and desserts on Sundays. We tried to eat at 4 or 5 different places, only to realize every table in the place was filled with Germans stuffing themselves with ice cream, strudels and other sweets.

German towns being exquisitely designed to be bike and pedestrian friendly, many were on the bikes enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. Elliot and I glanced over and saw a young couple rollerblading down the street...not an altogether rare site. But in their hands, heaping scoops of ice cream in large waffle cones. This, my friends, is Germany.

More to come from the Fingerhut motherland.