September 20 to 21—Goodbye, Hot and Humid SE Asia, Hello European Comfort!

Dear Family and Friends,

Thursday, September 20, we took in the final glimpses of Thailand as we made our way to the airport and the airplane back to Europe and the comforts of Germany. Up at 5:30 AM, we caught a cab for 250 baht plus a 20 baht tip (less than the 300 baht it would have cost us to take the bus), arriving at the airport by 7:40 AM. (Of course our last taste of Bangkok cabbies was just a fun as our first—as we negotiated with him, telling him we could pay 250 baht for the cab or just wait for the bus, he said, “OK, 300 baht. OK, 150 baht each. OK, 200 baht each.” We moved on from that cabbie to one who might think us capable of doing simple math!)

Once we had checked into the Lufthansa terminal (and asked to make sure that we did not again have seat that did not recline like on our 11 hour journey to Thailand), Dani napped while Martha went to spend the last of the baht on a croissant that she was able to share, and a soda that she forgot that should could not bring past security to share with Dani. As we sat, eating our croissant, we talked about our weight loss during these three months and the challenges ahead in keeping it off, especially in the meat, potato, and beer-rich land of Germany. Our general plan of attack was the share a main meal and split a salad when dining out … if we could find a salad, that is.

On the 11 hour flight back to Europe, we encountered another episode that caused distress and sleeplessness: “Tall” people behind us who requested that we not recline AT ALL!! Well, we have friends who are taller than six foot five inches, so we know how difficult it can be for tall people when flying, so we respected their wishes, except for a few hours of sleep when Martha reclined because she otherwise would have had no rest whatsoever. Upon arrival, our angst with the couple increased, however, as we saw them from across the room with their luggage … and they were not tall at all! (Well, everyone is tall to us at our five foot three inches, but STILL!)

When we landed, we had some confusion as to how to get to the Dusseldorf town center from the airport, finally figuring out the railway system after some time. Dani had ot head out to find change since the automated machine for tickets said that it did not give change, but then did anyway! We found a map from the information desk (LP does not supply one for Dusseldorf), and the train took us quickly downtown.

We did not have habitation for the night, figuring that with it being a weeknight, there would be little problem. WRONG! Martha left Dani with the luggage while she walked among the quaint downtown lodging options, only to be turned away time and again because of a convention in town. The kind receptionist at the Opera Hotel made some calls for us, however, and we were soon downtown, though paying an arm and a leg for the night at 118 euro! Glad to have somewhere to settle, though, we walked the couple of kilometers beyond the city center to Room #409 of Minotel Antares, exhausted by the time we arrived.

But, HOO DOGGIES! What comfort there is in the ‘civilized world’! The beds were so luxurious, all soft and comfortable. Chocolates on the pillows and duvet covers on the blankets— so warm and comfortable. Luxury! And what was this weather that chilled the skin as we walked down the block for something to eat at a local doner kebab place? Fall? We enjoyed our meat and salad on a pita as locals watched a game of foosball (soccer) on the tellie. Didn’t seem like anyone’s favorite team was playing, but it really doesn’t matter, they get sucked in anyway.

Before bed, we stopped at the Internet café to look into our options to get to Berlin in the morning, opting instead to book the same hotel for the next night so we could see more of Dusseldorf, slow down for a day, and have time to find a decent hotel price in Berlin. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the non-convention price for the hotel was half what we were paying for this night at 59 euro!

Back at the room for a hot, hot shower (they give you soap and shampoo and everything here) before bed at 11:30 PM (that surely felt like 4:30 AM)!

Friday, September 21, Dani was awake at 5:30 AM (her body telling her it was 10:30 AM with the five-hour time shift from Thailand), staring at the ceiling and drafting proposals to big corporations and the UN for solving the world’s energy crisis. Her plan? Let’s use the excess sunlight in Africa to build solar power stations and provide power to all of Europe!! MOO WA HA HA HA!! While waiting for dawn and Martha to eventually awaken, she saw a tree outside with red leaves (omigosh, is it autumn?), typed out notes from the last few days, and filled in her Excel sheet to begin planning for the rest of trip.

Martha had trouble staying asleep while Dani typed because the rest of the room was so quiet. In fact, the whole town was quiet, especially in comparison with Khao San Street in Bangkok. Even with the window open, we could not hear the cars on the streets outside. Early, we were up, showered, and headed down to the hotel’s breakfast buffet among the many suits who were finishing up their conference and about to head home. The breakfast was wonderful, ample, and made us wonder if we would in fact be able to maintain our weight loss: chocolate in the cereal, sausage that wasn’t a hot dog, and as much coffee as we could stomach!

With our free day in ‘D-Town,’ we walked down towards the Rheine River and up into the Old Town (Altstadt) section to explore the old buildings and see the statues and people jaunting about. We stopped at a church and walked through the “Carl Market” to see the open-air wares being sold, taken again with the differences between the markets here versus those in Asia—especially the simple things like refrigeration, gloves, and wares off of the ground. After a couple of hours wandering about in the chilly air, taking in the people and the small town atmosphere, we sat to warm up with one of the local Alt-style beers. We also stopped in at the tourist information office to learn what we could about the train options to Berlin. No go, as the tourist information office had only details about adventures in Dusseldorf, but recommended that we go underground to the train information station to see what they knew.

So we did, but went through the wrong entrance and never did find the train information stop at that time. Jet lag was setting in, so we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap in our cushiony beds. The Internet that was supposed to be available at the hotel was ‘still not working’ so Dani took a bath while Martha clicked away on blog stories and watched CNN, hearing the distressing news that the dollar had fallen to an all-time low against the euro and that the political situation in Myanmar was heating up considerably.

Rested, we returned to the Internet café across the street to reserve a hotel for our next-day arrival in Berlin, but did not purchase train tickets quite yet, hoping that the price might be better if purchased in person instead of online and unsure of exactly when we would get going to catch the train in the morning. We walked back through Altstadt to a restaurant recommended in the guidebook, called Llerige, that served tapas and its own local brew. We found it packed with locals on the inside and even spilling into the square across the street, where additional tables and kegs had been set up. At ‘just’ 3 to 4.50 euro per plate (which still felt like a whole lot to pay after our one-dollar meals in Asia!), we figured the portions would be small for these appetizers, but boy were we wrong! The German tapas-style dinner was huge! We managed to gulp down all of the large blood-sausage, bacon on bread with butter, potato salad, pickle, boiled eggs served with mustard and vinegar, and chopped pork salad. Hmm, meat and potatoes for dinner. Maybe we’ll get vegetables tomorrow? Overstuffed, we enjoyed a long, slow evening stroll back through the town to our hotel.

In love and light,

Martha and Dani