Germany
6/10/00

On Saturday morning, I got up, packed up our camping equipment, confirmed with Anthony that Richard was expecting us in Prague around 4:30pm, and packed our stuff. We took a little too long getting ready, bumbled around at the post office in the train station before getting the clerk to understand our requests to mail our camping gear to the US, and then stood in an impossibly long line to get our tickets to Prague, only to be told by the non-English speaking clerk that it would be quite a bit more expensive than we'd been told the day before. We went ahead with it, as the train was scheduled to leave in less than 5 minutes, and ran to the platform, where we saw no train! "Maybe it's late," I guessed, but we asked some workers who said that no, the train to Prague was gone. We cursed a bit, then went back to the ticketing area to find out when the next train would be, and to try to change our tickets, because we had a very complicated route to get back to Frankfurt in time for our plane. Tickets from Leipzig to Prague then back to Frankfurt, we were told, would cost still more money! Finally, we settled with the tickets we already had, and got our new arrival time, bought a phone card, and went to call Anthony. After quite an experience in learning how to use German payphones, I got through to Anthony who was luckily still awake, and was able to call Richard to let him know to expect us at 6:30 instead of 2:30; then I called Anthony back to confirm, and we went wandering around the train station, which luckily housed a mall! At this point, it was after noon, so we bought postcards, and ate.

Our lunch left quite a bit to be desired! Someone told Donya to make sure she had some sausage and beer in Germany, so she obliged. I felt that mall-food would be bad, but she insisted that mall food is GOOD. I think I won that particular round! My fish was pickled, then fried, and was served cold. It's the first fish I've ever found that I hated!

With over an hour and a half to spare, we decided to leave the gross food behind, and headed up to the platform to wait for the train. We were taking no chances on missing this one! We sat in the heat and discovered that train station platforms are very hot. Finally, when the train was still not on the platform, and was due to leave in under 10 minutes, we started getting worried. Looking around, I noticed that people were walking down the platform and disappearing around the end. Donya thought maybe they were just walking down to get on the first class cars, but I realized with a sudden rush of horror that the train must be outside the station and wasn't coming up to the platform! We jumped up and ran the entire length of the platform (600 feet or more?), both of us in long skirts and corsets, and jumped on the train with about 2 minutes to spare! Then, of course, the train just sat there and left the station late. Grr! We think we probably could have caught the train that morning, if we'd been told that it didn't come up to the platform! We didn't know where to look for it, and we came very close to missing the second one! We got a train compartment, which we ended up sharing with a very nice Englishman, Robert Van Rhys (descendant of Rembrandt's uncle), who now lives in Dresden. Later, a German woman joined us.

Robert regaled us with stories and pointed out interesting vistas on the way to Dresden.

As it turned out, we were supposed to be on an ICE train, which are superfast trains, but for some reason we were instead given a much slower EC train, meaning that we were late and missed out connection in Dresden!

Robert was so wonderfully nice -- offered us a place to stay if there wasn't a train to Prague that night, helped us find the next train to Prague, gave us directions to walk around Dresden, and took his leave of us. We were (once more) alone in Eastern Germany! We wandered through the streets of Dresden, were flirted with by attractive men playing in the public fountains, and were stopped by some women who not only spoke English quite well, but turned out to know a Salt Lake City belly dance instructor whom Donya also knows! Creepy small world! We found a phone and called Anthony to have him call Richard and let him know we'd be even later, then made it back to the train station. We decided to take photos in a photo booth, and had a brief moment of panic as it took longer than we expected. I took the luggage to the platform and stood by the train, waiting for Donya to appear, which she did - but not before I almost panicked! Finally, we were on the train to Prague!

The rest of the trip was uneventful, except that Donya took off her corset and flashed a whole train station of people (well, she had on her bra, but it was still funny). She had an interesting spiderweb pattern on her belly. A Czech passport inspector inquired nicely whether we were going to Prague for a "sex party!" Our horrified reactions embarrassed him horribly; but we found out later that sex parties are perfectly legal! Gads! Oh, and the train broke down briefly, but we were moving again in about 30 minutes! The countryside was beautiful, green and flowering with foxgloves and many other colorful flowers, trees, and ferns. Up on many hills and outcroppings, we could see what looked like castles or fortifications! We also passed a nuclear power plant! Donya tried to read while I babbled and played with my camera.

Retreat | Onward