Return to Germany!

May 2, 2006
We arrived in Frankfurt this morning after a rather nice flight, as trans-Atlantic flights go. I took a few Tylenol PM and slept the whole way. That was nice. We had a good tail wind so we arrived an hour early, only to sit in the airport for 3 hours waiting for one member of the group to get through immigration, which she never did (visa issue), so she was sent back to the U.S. to get that straightened out. Hopefully she will be rejoining us in a day or two, although I can think of few things worse that 3 back-to-back flights like that.

After getting everything loaded into the bus with Stefan our dreamy bus driver, we went to the chapel in Heidelberg for lunch. Unfortunately, Tim didn’t get to join us for today’s activities since he was with John collecting all the equipment from the freight area. It is nice to be back in Germany, and fun to go back to Heidelberg which I visited first about 20 years ago, my first time in Germany. It is a beautiful city, in the Neckar River Valley, with a ruined castle on the hill overlooking the Old Town. After our lunch we went on the German version of a “little walk,” which consisted of a high-speed hike up over 400 large stairs from the riverbank to the castle. It was miserable, considering the lack of sleep, stiffness of post-plane sitting, and general exhausted-ness. But it was beautiful once we finally got there. Then I split off with Becky and we shopped a little bit, ate “spaghetti Eis” and bought postcards. We then went to drop people off with host families, I ended up at a hotel since they didn’t have a family for me, which is fine. Tim and I get to share a bed, but it’s a bed, so I am content. Those of us who are at the hotel went to a German restaurant for dinner, and enjoyed sitting outside in the warm evening and eating good food. Now I am trying to stay awake just a little longer so I can sleep through the night and get on a normal schedule. Fun, fun.


May 3
Woke up, went to ALDI, my favorite cheap store and bought shaving cream for Tim and joghurt for me... yum. Then a delicious breakfast at the hotel... WHY, oh WHY can we not make bread like this at home???? Now off for our first load-in and show.