June 28 to 29—Germany! Meeting With Markus and Cologne (Koln)

Dear Family and Friends,

Thursday, June 28, we got up at 5 AM to finish packing and get out the door to catch the 6:45 AM bus to the Santiago de Compostela airport. Laden with packs and bags, we hiked about a mile to the bus stop, and Martha even had to run back up part of the way when her black overshirt fell from one of her bags. We passed some raucous students on the streets still enjoying the previous night, and joined the line of fellow backpackers headed home—mostly from their long Camino.

The bus ride cost us one euro 75 cents each, and it felt great not to worry about carrying change because we could spend euro in our next country, as well. We joined others in the stagnant line in front of the budget airline RyanAir’s check-in counter, waiting for a teller to join us. In the meantime, Martha saw another passenger check the weight of his baggage, and quickly checked to see how hers stacked up to the 15 kg limit. 18.5 kg!! Uh oh … and Dani’s was 17 kg!! Rain coats, toiletries, and more were soon stuffed in carry-on luggage and pockets to bring our packs down to 15 kg. Whew!!

We checked in with no problem and sat before the gate for an hour or so before quickly boarding with the other passengers in this sardine-style plane. No seats were assigned, and each passenger scrambled to get on board and quickly stow luggage as easily as possible (only about three people had trouble finding places to put their bags at the tail end of the boarding); it was a bit chaotic, but also pretty fast. We had no problems getting seats next to each other since we’d managed to be at the front of the boarding line. The flight took less than three hours, and RyanAir played applause and a commercial upon landing 15 minutes early stating they were the #1 on-time airline.

It was emotional to see the family members waiting at the airport to greet the Camino veterans returning from five weeks (certainly more if they had happened to start out from Germany!) of soul lifting pilgrimage. Smiles, hugs, and tears were exchanged as these trekkers exited the plane into the main terminal of the Hahn Airport and into the arms of their loved ones.

Now, Hahn may not be on your map, folks. Our friend Markus says it is ‘in the desert’—far from everything. (But not literally in the desert ... is there desert in Germany? Doubt it … but it is in the middle of nowhere for sure, and did not show up on Markus’ GPS.) Anyway, Dani phoned Markus—her friend from high school days back when he was a foreign exchange student from Germany in the West Chester, PA, school system. Dani was taking Japanese language classes in his high school, they hit it off (even going to the Senior Prom as ‘dates’ among a large group of friends), and have remained friends ever since. Martha had the pleasure of meeting Markus once before when he and his lovely girlfriend Steffi visited us in Clifton, NJ, years ago. Now, this sweet man had taken time off of work to pick us up from the airport and spend some of his vacation time sharing his friends and family with us!! We had been looking forward to this from the moment that we had purchased our plane tickets and learned that Markus would be around to spend some quality time together! Dani was often doing the ‘I get to see my Markus’ dance the week before our arrival, and it turned into a rapid two-step (imagine the PP Dance in hyperdrive) as we awaited his physical arrival at the airport just a few minutes later.

When Markus arrived, the two old friends hugged for quite a while. Dani pulled back and noticed how much more grown-up he looked now that the two had passed into their early thirties. ‘It took me a month to grow this,’ says the always-joking Markus while pointing to his stubbly-facial hair. (We learned later that he trims it that close.) We piled luggage into Markus’ car and still managed to fit the humans! We sat for a while discussing options for the day, finding it difficult to stay on subject with all of the catching up, and decided upon a visit to the town of Cologne (Koln).

Germans love pommes (french fries ... and ice cream and chocolate ... Martha has learned that her family is VERY German *grin*), and Markus needed a fix and to have some fun with the foreigners, especially since we speak no German. We stopped at McDonalds. Markus instructed Dani on how to order the fries, with mayonnaise and ketchup. Dani repeated the sounds; the woman behind the counter looked perplexed; Markus laughed and laughed! He had given Dani some regional dialect of 'french fries ... red/white' using a description of the stripes on railroad arms that come down to block traffic (or something like that), and recalled some of the moments when he first arrived in America and faced similar perplexed people when he was first working on his English skills. Martha took the opportunity to eat something, as well, enjoying some jalapeno poppers and a green salad. Dani avoided the American 'cuisine.'

Back on the road, we encountered the AutoBan for the first time. ZOOM! The entire road is not 'go whatever speed you want,' and it actually took us a while to move from the stated speed limits (ranging from 60 to 130 km per hour) to the open roadway where Markus opened it up to 160 km/hr or more (which is really around 90 miles/hr). At a rest stop, we turned off to take a look at the Rhine River valley. We walked under a bridge and across to overlook the expanse of the river and down to see the grapes freshly growing on the vine. Markus explained that this particular breed of grape must be picked in the middle of the night on the first frost, and that the owners of the plantation often have students on call to be awakened when necessary to stand on the hillside and gather the grapes that will one day grow up to be a rich and enjoyable wine (see photos four through six above; the following are all taken in our city destination).

The countryside of NW Germany is open, with intermittent open land separated by small towns and rolling hills. Wind power is used widely and the towering white windmills often appear close to the roadways instead of 'out of the way' on the tops of distant hills in a row as in Spain. To help us figure out whether to head to Frankfurt or Cologne (Koln), we quickly called our buddy, Vince, from Markus' cell phone to see if his wife was right and that he might be in Frankfurt that night, too! Alas, the world traveler was in Brussels, but it was still a real treat to hear a voice from home ... the first in a month and a half. So, we headed into Koln since Markus had friends there and it was closer to his parents house.

Wandering the streets of Koln, we stopped for ice cream (watch for a theme here, folks) on our way to tour the Lindt Schokolade factory located along the Rhine at the South end of town. Narrow, beautiful, quaint houses lined the path by the Rhine, often touting hotel space; restaurants displayed billboards with the day's specials, inviting passersby to outdoor seating for afternoon food or libation.

The Lindt Schokoladen Museum and factory (yup, that's German for chocolate folks, and Markus and Dani were in HEAVEN) is a wonderful collection comprising descriptions of the history and 'discovery' of chocolate in the South Americas during early colonial times, a working factory where you can see some of the Lindt chocolate squares (such as the one you receive upon entering the complex) being created and packaged, and artifacts from different chocolate providers globally. Martha and Dani read some of the English descriptions along the way, but Markus particularly enjoyed eavesdropping on the guided tour undertaken by a group of students ... and then sharing his learned insight with the two of us. Perhaps most astonishing was the idea that every German consumes an average of 10 kg of chocolate per year!! That's a lot of cocoa!

Back on the streets and away from the luscious smells of melted cocoa beans, we searched for a place to stay for the night, appreciating Markus as he talked price with the hotels along the Rhine. Even 65 euro a night was a bit steep for us on this trip, but one of the kind hotel managers mentioned that we might want to check with the local tourist information station, so we headed towards the Dom (the grand cathedral of Koln) and over to the Info building that faced it. Lo and behold, the tourist office was able to book (for just a three euro fee) a cheap hostel for us in the student district! YAY! Dani was a bit concerned about noise level after seeing the Spanish students still loud and rowdy on the streets in Santiago that morning; we needed a good night's sleep. The tourist office lady, Sabine, assured us that it would be more quiet than our next-cheapest option, and Markus said that German students were not noisy like that. So, we procured two nights at Meningen for an average of 49 euro 10 cents per night. Happy to have somewhere to lay our heads, we could then enjoy the rest of the evening in town!

South of the Dom is a pedestrian street lined with stores, and we headed in that direction, stopping at a cooking implement store where Markus perused a knife sharpener and spoke with one of his friends, who was to meet up with us after work. Soon, Jochen appeared, a bit shy at first but with smiling eyes and a willingness to share about his life, his work in the past in recreational rehabilitation with juvenile delinquents and currently at Globetrotter sporting goods, and his passion for rock climbing. He, too, was an exchange student in America, spending his time in California. His English, even after many years, was fantastic, and we were perpetually thankful and impressed with Markus' friends' language abilities.

Now a foursome, we searched for dinner, deciding finally on a loud and pleasurable German Beer Hall !(Yay!) As soon as a beer glass was empty in that place, the waiter would come by with a refill (until you placed your coaster on top of an empty, that is). The waiter was quite a guy, joking with Jochen 'not to yell at him' when he politely asked for another beer. At one point, he said, 'Oh, that beer looks really good,' and Martha made the mistake of offering him one, which he downed quickly, adding the additional beverage to our tab! Who would have thought he'd do THAT!? We saw him down another at a nearby table, as well, and then grab his large belly and laugh about its cause. Dinner was fantastic: Martha ordered bratwurst and Dani ordered “meatloaf” which Markus explained later was a meat dough that actually rises in the loaf pan while cooking but tastes more like a hot-dog.

Well fed once again, we left the loudness of the pub to sit by the Rhine until late into the night, drinking good German beer from nearby pizza shops. (Did you know that if you're in Koln, you can drink a kolsch beer and pee out two alt beers, but if you are in Dusseldorf, you can drink an alt beer and pee out two kolsch? Amazing!) Markus and Dani caught up on common friends while Martha picked Jochen's brain about the country's school system and the challenges of getting a degree during times when university was free for everyone for the first four years, and how that system is changing now. Finally, Markus drove us out to the hostel, which was a delight and our best abode yet: super quiet, Gummy bears on the luscious pillows, soft beds, CNN on the tellie, and the promise of the best night’s sleep in LONG time. We love Germany.

Friday, June 29, we awoke later than expected at 9:30 AM, just in time to run downstairs for the enjoyable breakfast buffet included with our stay at the hostel. Dressed and ready for excitement, we walked more than a mile to the Dom to enjoy the beautiful stained glass and tapestries. The cathedral may not have been larger than those we'd seen in Spain, but it certainly felt more immense in size since it stretched from end to end with open space not blocked by a central altar as in the Spanish cathedrals. As we were exploring the golden casket that supposedly contained remains of the three wise men, we were asked to vacate the area behind the altar and were and invited to sit for the noon prayers, which we did. They supplied the service in English, which we tried to follow along with the German text, but had some trouble. Everything we witnessed in Germany was automatically compared to Spain at this point, and we were taken with how much more we enjoyed this 15 minute service than the previous full masses in Spain. It seemed as if the quick 15 minute prayer service kept the priests fresh to enjoy their job and bring a bit more 'umph' to their celebration. Or maybe it's just the tone of spoken German that brings the 'umph'!

After the service, we continued our walk around the splendid Dom interior, and were particularly taken with the lower-level of the stained glass in this building, spending many moments staring at the imagery and identifying the Bible stories depicted by the artists, marveling at the glass showing children and characters in German attire, and enjoying the diversity of the styles of the artists. The floors in the Dom around the sides and back of the altar were made of repetitious, dainty mosaic of leaves, the church, and other additional tributes to the gift of eyesight. This building, as so many others we'd seen in the last month or so, was being renovated in sections, and one ceiling looked as if it was in the process of receiving an entirely new work of art! Priests in red walked around the church with donation buckets hung around their necks (although not during the service) to inspire folks to assist in the ('always,' according to the guidebook) ongoing repair of this enormous cathedral.

The Dom's history is particularly interesting, since it is one of the only surviving centuries-old structures in all of Koln after the city was bombed by Allied forces in WWII. The Dom withstood the onslaught because it was used as a landmark to aid in navigating the town's destruction. It is so large that Hitler had wanted to turn it into the train station; but he kept is as a church, and the train station now lies right next door to the Dom.

Martha had asked the outdoorsy Jochen about 'outside the city' havens where we might spy some greenery. He recommended a series of land-lake hiking areas that arch around the NW of town, so we were headed that way for the afternoon. We started our walk, however, with some coffee and one of the sweet apfeltorts from a local bakery. Hmmmm ... apple cake and frothy cappucino. During our slow stroll through town towards the Green Space, we found on the map that we were right next to Jochen’s Globetrotter store, so we popped in to find him. Oooooh, love this place! What a fantastic store with its six levels encircling an open area below that housed a five-meter deep pond used for testing boats and for scuba lessons. We 'eye spied' Jochen on the bottom level with the sleeping bags, running back and forth between customers, constantly busy and looking extremely knowledgable and helpful. We watched as a couple of customers walked away with happy smiles and their purchase. But what focus this man had. We sat on the edge of the pool waiting for a break in his workflow, and he did not notice we were there, so we finally forced ourselves upon him for a quick hug hello while a man zipped himself in to test one of the bags.

Back outdoors, we walked West, off of our map of the town but towards the park areas he had shown us the night before on the map. Koln's layout radiates out from a central point on the Rhine in rings built in specific periods, and with two large rings devoted to green space. By this time, we realized that we needed some lunch, but there was nothing to be found for a while, until we finally popped into a takeout shop ... about two hours after we realized we were hungry. Martha enjoyed a gyro with an amazing shwarma meat atop tzatziki and (surprisingly-good-with-this-dish) saurkraut and Dani’s random selection turned out to be breaded fried chicken with french fries. Yummy and filling.

While walking towards the greenery, too much fried food sent Dani’s stomach upside down. We managed to enjoy the Wild Park, with pettable goats and sheep, exotic birds predominantly from Africa, and roaming deer cousins. A little lost upon leaving the Wild Park, it took us quite a long time to make it back to the hostel, where we intended to shower and refresh before heading out for the nightlife. However, Dani's belly was really taking a hit at this point, so the night turned into watching CNN, watching the bomb scare in London as it transpired and they learned more about the botched attempts to unleash two car bombs downtown, and a very early night of sleep.

In love, light, and deep hope for a safer world,

Martha and Dani