We showered off the 10 hour flight, dressed in jeans (it was cooler than expected, I suppose, since it wasn’t over 99 degrees), then headed into the city. We needed a SIM card for our unlocked phone, but of course forgot our passports (anti-terrorism requirement and it is serious as it took a few minutes to confirm everything), so we did that this morning instead.
But we had to meet up with a new friend and his friends. Being a bit early, we had a drink at a dive bar (where the conveniently began speaking in German about ‘blondes’ but didn’t think I understood what they said; I actually don’t really but know they said ‘blonde’ and hopefully it was good) and then met them at Lucky’s, a place for good beer and karaoke. We had great chats, experienced the interesting karaoke, and then kept the chats going at another local place until they stopped serving...maybe 2am?
We walked back to the hotel. At one moment, we regaled at how quiet the town was. Seriously. The middle of a big “Main-Hattan” city, as they say due to the Main river that sneaks through it, and not a soul, not an engine, not a cry.
We slept like babies. We snoozed for so long that we felt stupid for setting alarms that early in the first place.
While at the aforementioned dive-bar, I turned on data enough to figure out that a train from Frankfurt to Munich took 3:30 hours but cost over 125 euros each. I guess we should have booked it earlier...so instead, I rented a car and we’d drive instead.
After we had snoozed enough, we got up and decided to walk to the car. OK the difference between 125 “Hanauer-whatever-strasse” and 525 of the same street isn’t one or two miles. It’s like 10 miles.
A long walk, a discussion, and a taxi ride later, we picked up our really cool Opel and drove back to the hotel, picked up our luggage that had sat “for like 20 minutes while we fetch our car” way too long as I tucked barely off the street and Ryan ran in and grabbed our suitcases.
We drove back into Frankfurt Zentrum so we could finish getting our German Phone Number (!!!!!) and Data plan, then a bit of food at Galleria Kaufhaus (it was ok), and after that it was time it leave the city.
Around 500 km or so...should take 4 hours...well, with construction, late afternoon traffic, and drivers who reminded me of Texans (you know, the stupid ones that leave A STATE in between themselves and the person ahead of them in case a beer truck decided to landed in front of them), it took us five an a half hours. Rental car (50 euros), taxi to the Rental Car (11 euros), and gas (60 euros) we ended up 100 euros ahead minus 2 hours or so. We did see the beauty of Schwäbisch country, Stuttgart from afar, some really cool cars, and I drove at over 100 mph for long stretches at a time in a really cool rental Opal with less than 1000km of miles on it.
The evening has been spectacular. Another 25hours hotel (living up to its name...et’s nearly 2 am again) that’s beautiful, and very very German. Lightening fumbles in the distance. The air is cool and Augustiner-Keller, a site of thousands of seats to enjoy bier and food, was welcoming. Deutsche menus, knowing claps of shoulders for the boys who returned from too long, the PffeferSosse stinging the tongue, the outdoor pissour, watching the German guys be themselves, the tourists flirting with their stumbles, and a chill walk back to the hotel remind us why we are here for six days.
Tschüss!!!
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