You're Doing It Wrong

A few last thoughts and I promise I won’t mention the trip again unless I have to complain some more about Lufthansa not giving me my $70 back.

1. People all over the world will put their bag on the seat next to them on public transportation in the hope that no one will sit there.

2. People will travel halfway across the world to an amazing location and walk around looking at their phones.

3. Everyone looks ridiculous holding their phone up like plate to speak into it.

I just remembered one more story I didn’t tell. The last weekend we were there was a 3 day weekend in Germany. We went from Bad K to Frankfurt on Sunday evening. The train was unbelievably crowded. And there was no place to put giant bags. The overhead racks were only big enough for a box of donuts and between the seats it was too narrow. Meanwhile, there were at least 15 bikes in a car that I think was intended for bikes but maybe not that many. We crammed our bags in the bike area and then crawled over bags in the aisle and asked a lady to move her purse (she was nice about it) so we could sit down. She later left to see if there was a less crowded place to sit (it was a double-decker train!) and when she came back she said it was packed everywhere.

We ended the trip where we started: killing time in Frankfurt.

Except this time we didn’t mind so much since we weren’t so tired and we already knew the drill. We even knew where the cheaper lockers were to store our bags for the day.

The bummer was that it was a Monday so all the museums were closed. But we walked around. Found this Karmeliter Kloster with wall paintings and a garden.

Then we hiked up the stairs of the St. Bartholomew cathedral for the view. This fulfilled our cardio needs before spending hours on a plane.

The last thing to do was pick up a few last things at the store before we left. We had a terrible time finding them and later I realized it was like we were looking for Oreos and Nutter Butters at Nordstrom. We were on our way to pick up our bags when we found a bargain mart that had all my cookies and a fresh supply of Fisherman’s Friend.

Two giant trips in 4 months is a lot of travel for me, the girl who loves her couch, but it definitely whet my appetite for travel again. Gotta save some money.

Here’s the information on the Untere Saline in Bad Kissingen. Unfortunately, it’s in German.

I will explain as best I can.

I remember going here the first time I visited BK which was before I got married so almost 20 years ago. And I never heard about the place again so I thought maybe it wasn’t real.

In order to be a health spa in Germany you need one of these. It’s a giant barn-type structure filled with sticks and the mineral waters are pumped to the top and dribble down.

You stand on the walk and inhale the mist and it’s good for your lungs. I had a cough because for some reason my body decided that I wouldn’t have a cold for almost 2 years and then I would get one right before I left on a major trip. It wasn’t too serious as far as colds go, but I did have a nagging cough that didn’t want to let go. After the saline I didn’t cough much until after the plane trip home.

And it was a nice place to hang out with the mist and the peace and quiet. Hilla said it was one of her favorite places before she gave up driving.

It’s hard to see in the photo. It looks sort of mossy but the air is delightfully fresh.

This is part of the old town wall. Back in old tymes there were some bad people who wanted in and as a last resort, the townspeople threw bees over the wall to save the day. Or at least that’s how I understood the story. This statue honors bee guy.

Bad Kissingen is a known as a health resort but I would call it a retirement community with tourists.

Fahren means travel and one of the verb forms is fahrt. So every time I get to Germany and see the activities for tourists for fahrt-ing, I revert to my most juvenile self.

Strictly a Rundfahrt is a round trip. A Hafenrundfahrt is a trip around the harbor. A Stadtrundfahrt is a trip around the city. Our first day in Frankfurt I was already crowing about the signs.

“Our first fahrt!”

Hilla took us on a Rundfahrt around Bad Kissingen. We were the youngest people on the bus. There was no prize.

We stayed in a nice room in the center of town. Bob and I stayed in the same place in our last visit. Good breakfast, a decent sized room.

Hilla asked us if the room was okay and whether we had any problems.

I said: There was a man singing loudly outside.

She said: In your hotel room?

I said: Outside on the street.

She said: What a pity.

(I’m not sure if the joke is carrying but she was saying it was a pity we didn’t have singing man in our room. And now that I write it out it sounds creepy. But really it was funny. This is family humor.)

After the first night we learned there was a Kühlschrank (cold-closet; German is an amazing language when you get to know it.) on the second floor – an honor bar in the hallway. How long do you think that system would last in our country? It had bottled water and juice, beer, and red and white wine. You had a slip of paper in your room and you self-reported what you took. And we did.

Train station at Frankfurt Airport.

The day we left Bruges was our day of trains. (BTW – The Man in Seat Sixty-One and DBahn are great resources for train travel planning. Rick Steves is good, too.) We had a local train from Bruges to Brussels. An international train from Brussels to Frankfurt. A German train from Frankfurt to Würzberg and then a local train from Würzberg to Bad Kissingen.

By this point we were feeling like old pros on the trains so this was nothing although left to my own devices I would have gotten off at the wrong station in Brussels.

Train station at Frankfurt Airport.

We had a few small snacks but by the time we got to Frankfurt we were starving and we were only halfway through our journey. Our connection was at the airport instead of the Hauptbahnhof which means that the food choices were pretty slim. Erin went to the one food stand and found us some decent sandwiches and juice. I found a vending machine and bought a really gross banana flavored kitkat type cookie and some other crumbly wafer cookies. We felt better after that.

On the train from Frankfurt to Würzberg the girl in front of us was watching dubbed episodes of Two and A Half Men. I was so ashamed.

Bruges was interesting, it was smaller version of Gent. Or that was my perception. One minute you’d be wandering through mob city tourist-ville and then you’d turn the corner and a find a quiet little cobbled street. There would be someone loading a baby stroller into a car and workers taking materials from a van. There was the same central square with over-priced, but decent restaurants. Canals with boat rides. Horse drawn carriages. This is the most touristy thing, the horse drawn carriage – do people really like it other than it’s a thing to do on vacation?

By the end of the first evening we felt like we’d seen it all. We toyed with the idea of hopping on the train and going to Ostend on the coast. One drawback was that the train station wasn’t very convenient to our hotel. We finally decided against it because the weather was changing and we were afraid it was going to be too stormy and we’d just be wandering around trying to stay warm and keep the sand out of our eyes.

We did a lot of walking and wandering around the park. We bought bags and bags of candy and sampled everything. It was terrific.

Even my Auntie who has lived in Europe for 90 years asked: why Gent? How did you even think of going to Gent?

Well, I bought a little travel book with: Brussels, Gent, Bruges and Antwerp. Gent is a university town and sounded nice.

It was.

One of the articles I read online said it was the less Disneyland version of Bruges. This turned out to be an accurate description. If you’re planning to go to Belgium I would suggest skipping Bruges and go to Gent instead. Well, depending on what kind of travel you like. I don’t like herding around in mobs of tourists if I can avoid it.

Gent felt like a real place with real people wandering around going to restaurants by the canal. I didn’t feel pummeled by tourism. Plus we had our most expensive but most lovely hotel. Our hosts were two young men who honestly seemed like the highlight of their life was visiting with their guests and telling them about Gent.

It’s been years since I fantasized about living in a foreign city, but Gent, I would love to try.

One of the notes I wrote to Bob was that it even smells better! Our hotel room had a delicious room freshener. Pineapple?

We did a lot of walking around, simply enjoying the area. We did go check out the Adoration of the Lamb which is an extensive altarpiece undergoing restoration and very interesting.

So what’s in Belgium?

I heard this question more than once before we left.

We have family in Germany so we’ve made a number of trips and visited most countries adjacent to Germany. We’ve never been to Belgium.

The day we arrived in Brussels was the worst weather of the trip. It started raining when we left the train station. It was a short walk to the hotel but it was the kind of rain that you don’t want to be walking in, especially with luggage and in an unfamiliar place.

Since I was already inhumanly tired and hungry, the rain was especially soul-crushing and for a few moments I wept quietly to myself and thought: I hate traveling.

But we found our hotel and found food and adult beverages and all was well soon enough.

We slept through the night and woke up at 8:30 thinking we had mastered the time change. (Actually, I think Erin woke up closer to 7am.) We went to the hotel breakfast and attacked the hot beverage machine. Fifteen minutes later, we were fine.

The weather was gorgeous. We wandered over to the Grand Palais which was tourist central. Maybe Americans aren’t going to Belgium but everyone else is. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. We got our city passes (museums, public transport) and wandered off. Visited the history museum. Turns out I knew NOTHING about the history of Belgium. I’m too embarrassed to elaborate.

But here’s a tidbit: King Leopold I looks like Bill Compton

We also did the underground archeology tour which was fascinating but a little hard to visualize.

This is one of those inexplicable tourist things. Everyone needs to take a picture of this dumb statue. It’s a mob scene in front of it. It’s famous for being famous.

As you can see, I took a picture, too.

At the Fine Arts Museum there was this one painting that I thought looked like a totally crazy pants lady with her eyes rolled back. It looked like the cover of a 70’s horror novel. The description said it was a religious painting and explained the symbols. Erin and I weren’t convinced.

The day we were leaving I wanted to make sure we got our moneys worth out of our museum card so we went to the Beer Museum and the Chocolate Museum. If you go to Brussels: Don’t waste your time. At least at the beer museum you get a free beer which I didn’t have because it was 10am and I couldn’t afford to ruin the rest of the day that early.

I’m fascinated by this locks of love thing. The Internet says this bridge is called Eiserner Steg.

I heard about putting a padlock on a bridge for the first time this summer. In Paris there was a bridge where they had to cut them off because the locks were collapsing the rails.

But some of the locks are years old so it’s not a new thing. Also it’s clearly an enterprise because many of the locks have fancy engraving.

It’s sort of sweet but then you have to wonder how many times kids sneak back there with bolt cutters.

Nothing like trying to keep yourself awake after a couple of long flights. We kept telling ourselves that being outside was going to do it for us and we’d reset our clocks and be acclimated in no time.

We took turns deciding that we were fried. One would rally the other.

This is not the first time I’ve had to kill time near the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt. Bob and I did the same thing and did the same walk along the river.

There were museums opening up but Erin and I didn’t think we could handle wandering around a museum when we were desperate to just keep our eyes open.

Twice we were approached by teenaged girls. I’m so cynical I expected a scam, but it also could be that two middle-aged ladies in fleece are safe to approach. In either case the language barrier kept it from going too far.

Finally we were at the train station. I was worried that it would take me awhile to remember how navigate the transportation, but only about 3 minutes.

I don’t think of myself as a great traveler. I’m usually timid and anxious but this trip I felt pretty comfortable most of the time. And I was happy to be there.