On the road with Jim and Pat: Hello from Ratingen, Germany

Hello from Ratingen, Germany

Sunday Evening; August 17, 2008 (fourth travelogue of this trip)

As was the case for the last two travelogues, this one is being written on high speed train as we travel from Karlsruhe to Ratingen Germany. Ratigen is Irina's home town (more about Irina a bit later in this travelogue).

Those of you who know me, know that France is not on the top of my list of places to visit in Europe (how is that for an attempt to be politically correct?). Well, I now have to admit that I had a great time in Paris! We got to see a lot of great places and the people seemed friendly and willing to help us.

We have been doing a tremendous amount of walking AND climbing stairs! It seems like everywhere we go, there are several flights of stairs. That is good for our health, but it has emphasized the need to be in better shape!

The cost travel to Europe is quite expensive. Hotels and restaurants have always been on the expensive side, but the real factor on this trip is the “soft dollar”. When we started out, the Euro cost 1.56 dollars. Since we arrived here, the dollar has improved a bit (1.47 dollars to the Euro as of 8/15). We knew going into this trip that it would be costly, but it could easily be our last trip and we wanted to travel here while we still had our heath and could walk up all of the d@$& stairs {grin}.

Now, a bit a background about our stay in Karlsruhe and Ratingen. In '81/'82 we had a German exchange student: Irina Koslowsky. She stayed with us for a year and attended high school with our girls. We have stayed in close contact with her over the years. She has visited us several times since '82 and we have visited her and her family several times as well. In March of 2006 (editorial correction: their wedding was 2005) we traveled to Karlsruhe to attend her wedding to Matthias Obert. When they found out about our plans for this trip, they offered to move out of there apartment and let us stay there for over a week. When they were in Colorado for our family vacation in June of this year, they helped us finish our plans for the trip. They are really super people!

We arrived in Karlsruhe Friday afternoon about 2:30 and Irina was there to greet us. She had ridden her bicycle from work to the train station. She walked the short distance to tram (street car) tracks with us to make sure that we got on the correct tram. She then rode her bike across town and met us at the tram stop for her apartment. In the afternoon we took a tour of the palace in Karlsruhe This was built 1715. It is the center of town and the streets radiate out from the Palace. We climbed to the top of the Palace (more stairs) and had a great view of the city. Karlsruhe is a city of 300,000 people.

That evening we had a great dinner on the patio of the apartment. Their apartment is very spacious and modern (built in the '50s on a foundation that was built about 1900 – the original building and most of the city was heavily damaged during the war).

Saturday we went to the farmers market at a town square. We had done this the last time we were there and it is a very fun activity! In the afternoon Matthias drove us to the Maulbron Monastery. This monastery was started in 1147. A book that Irina bought for us gives a great description of the monastery: “The Cistercian monastery conveys an almost unadulterated image of a medieval monastery complex enclosed by walls and embedded in a remote landscape”. It is a complete village that is still in use today. Instead of being a Catholic monastery, it now houses a protestant school and many of the town government functions. I have attached a couple of photos.

On the way home we stopped in a small town (Oberderdingen) and had a fantastic dinner at a winery. We each ordered different dinners and shared. This turned out to be a once-a-year festival. They had a band that we listened to for a few songs. They were singing American songs in English (“California Dreaming, Stand by your man, etc.)

As I write this, we are traveling beside the autobahn and we are going much faster that the cars are going (and as you all know, they drive very fast on the autobahn). We are going 291 KPH (187 MPH). On the autobahn some people drive at 200 KPH, but most drive closer to 160 KPH – 100 MPH). Our seats are just behind the train engineer, and we can see out the front of the train.