10th and Lawrence Streets, N.E. Washington D.C. 20017
From: For4inVa@aol.com
Subject: How About Germany & France?
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 23:07:41 EST
Ok Elsie & Terry (2 Rays) and anybody else who wants to come along.
WARNING ! - I'm in a writting mood so this will be a long one.
Elsie, save this one for Sunday morning while your cozied up with your coffee.
Last May Bridget and I accompanied my parents on their 50th. Anniversary gift
to Europe. Now, the idea was for them to go alone, but my sister Marita
sugested that I go along so they would go. I decided to take Bridget instead
of leaving her here while we were on the 10 day trip.
Passports Please. Elsie , you should get a passport just to have it. Think
about it. It's an amazing document. Once you have one you'll know you can
leave at a moments notice. On a whim. Start watching the papers and surfing
the net. They'll have all kinds of travel deals during these cold months that
are upon us. Carry it around with you and pretend your a retired spy living on
the Delaware coast. Cool, huh.
We decided that we would only carry one bag each. We would use the old
travelers trick of saving your old underwear and socks so that you can throw
them away as you go along. My daughter had a fit. She had just turned 7 that
Feb. She told me, "Dad, you are not throwing away my underwear!" It must be a
girl thing. It didn't bother me at all. Who wants to drag around dirty clothes
with you. I packed a photographer's vest which has lots of pockets two nice
big ones on the inside, two pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, 3 shirts and a
sport coat that has hidden pockets that zipper shut. I got that appropriately
enough from a catalogue company called Travel Smith.
Now to the trip. Bridget and I started our part of the journey by train. We
took the last VRE out of Fredericksburg. To me that was quite exciting. Here
we are going to Europe and we start with a train trip. Not the Orient Express
mind you, but who cares. Once we got to D.C. we took the Metro to my parents
house in Brookland. They're just three blocks from the station. At the
appointed time my sister Marita drove us out to Dulles where we boarded our
plane and were off to the continent. The flight takes all night and we arrived
in Frankfurt the next morning at 7 a.m. This was now Tuesday and we would be
in Europe until the following Thursday. We deplanned and since we each had
only one bag and had stowed them in the overhead compartment, we were one of
the first through customs. We then went to the rental car desk and collected
our vehicle. No problem her Elsie, the woman spoke English. They did have a
problem though with the midsize vehicle I had arranged for. They didn't have
any. So, like the smart employee that she was and to send us on our way, she
upgraded our automobile to a "Mercedes". Oh ya, were cool, (Picture me now
dancing in circles jabbing my fingers in the air yelling, "Oh ya, were cool,
my ship has come in !) Well, that's what I felt like doing. On this whole trip
I couldn't help remembering the book I had read back in 7th or 8th grade I
think, "The Ugly American". I constantly tried to be on my best behavior. It's
amazing what you can do by just learning a few of the their magic words, "Good
Morning, Thank you, Yes please, Good bye" etc. Well we found the car very
easily and the lady had also given me directions to our first stop which was
just a few kilometers away. The town of Waldorf. No kidding, that's the name
of the town and it's a, "Nuclear Free Zone". Now, the previous September I had
let a woman stay at my place in Alexandria. She was from Frankfurt and was an
acquaintance of my sister Mary Grace who lives in Seattle. She needed a place
to stay while she did an internship at an international law firm in DC. Well,
I had no idea I was going to be headed to her country the following May but it
sure helped. I wrote to her first and explained everything. That we would like
something nearby to spend the first day. I figured it would be beneficial to
us all to have a nice hotel room to crash in after our long flight. She was
kind enough to make all the arangements for us and then she came and collected
us after work and took us to a nice restaurant in her hometown, Waldorf.
Before we left the next day I made arrangements with the hotel for three days
the following week. We had decided to spend some time in Frankfurt before our
trip home. Now, the reason we were headed to France was because of my mother.
Her parents had both come from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. And as
you all remember from your history classes the region went back and forth
between Germany and France during the 1st. and 2nd. World Wars. Now, my mother
had been corresponding every Christmas with a cousin who lived in the Alsace
part of France. Mom wrote in English and Helen wrote in German. They both had
to find translators. Helen is in her eighties so my mother was really looking
forward to meeting her.
We left the next morning and drove down through Germany along the Rhine. I had
brought maps along and had talked with a guy I work with at Metro who had just
come back from vacationing there. You know, all the maps are in German or
French. This came in handy since all the towns are spelt the same way. It took
us about 4 or 5 hours to make the trip. We only got lost once or twice and
just about everyone we met were very helpful. The town we were headed for was
Soultz. Helen had made arrangements for us in a little town out side of
Soultz. It was located on the side of a mountain.
We arrived at the Hoyel Marck that evening in time for dinner. The proprietor
was also the chef of the restaurant