We took some cash with us on the trip and, not knowing how much to carry, started out with more cash than euros – none of those in fact. I visited a machine in Rota, Spain and got us enough to get us moving in Germany. As I was getting ready to go down and explore the mall attached to the military hotel (did I mention there is a huge mall attached?), Steve came rushing into the room. “I found a Bank of America, main branch downstairs! We can exchange our money there.” We rushed down and presented our military ID’s and passports and, most importantly, our BofA cash cards. All was well until the young lady looked at our ID’s and realized we are retired. “No, no. All you can do is cash savings bonds.” Steve grinned and said, “No, it’s all right. We have our account with Bank of America.” A manager came up and told us that, while they have the name, they cannot let us use their service. They said we could do it at the base exchange. So we did.
I was excited by some of the shops and we decided to do our shopping on the next day before we left. We had decided to stay an extra day in Ramstein because we were tired. Also the fact that we had to travel to Frankfurt to get our rail passes gave us a good excuse. We ducked into the express shop and grabbed some water and the all-important gummi candy. I piled the stuff on the belt and showed the lady my ID. Retiree, shot down again. We’d have to go to the American Embassy and apply for a customs card. I do love gummi candy, but not quite that much.
Yesterday morning, bright and early, train schedule that I had pulled off the internet in hand, we began our trek. We caught a train to Kaiserslautern and on to Mannheim. We were so impressed with the trains – lots of room, easy to navigate, big leather seats. We changed trains in Mannheim and set out for Uhm via Stuttgart. We sat in the station for a bit at Stuttgart. Have any of you ever ridden the Alpine roller coaster at Disney World? The one that goes backwards? Our train began to slowly roll out of the station – backwards! We looked at each other and wavered between hysterical laughter and pure panic. We had passed a really big Bosch factory going in, still quite a ways from town. We passed it going backwards and I said, “We’ve seen this! I know we’ve seen this?” Presently the young female conductor came by and Steve started, well, sort of shouting, “UHM? UHM?” She was smiling and nodding and saying, “Ya! Uhm.” We were trying to give her hand signals that meant backwards but she all but patted us on the head and said, “Uhm, ya.” Finally the train took a large curve and broke out into beautiful hilly farmland.
As we pulled into Uhm, we were getting hungry and had plenty of time. Because we were pulling three rather large suitcases (don’t give me a hard time about overpacking – one had Steve’s inflatable bed for the plane trip), we began to look for an elevator. We finally found a really long ramp at the end of the platform and went underground and came back up, slowly, on the other side.
I had to go to the bathroom and Steve got directions for me and sat with the luggage in the terminal. I followed the signs that showed both men and women around a corner and down the stairs. I came upon a gate, beyond which were the men’s and women’s bathrooms. There was a sign that said “.5 euros” and a little German woman came scurrying out, big smile and I shrugged to let her know I had no change. She continued to smile to let me know she didn’t care. I pulled out my little passport case and got a 20 euro bill and gave it to her. She opened the gate and motioned for me to follow her to the office. She got my change.
I learned a very few German phrases before I left, general stuff, but I have been afraid to even utter a “guten tag” out loud. So I got really brave and said softly, “Vielen dank?” That means thank you very much and it’s usually not a question. She grinned really big and said, “English?” I nodded enthusiastically and said, “English.” She said, “NO.” But we both fell out laughing and had a moment anyway.
Steve and I went back down and up the two ramps, a shout-out to Steve who pulled all the luggage up, and settled down on a bench to share a sandwich. A train pulled in and back out (backwards again) and we enjoyed people-watching. We chuckled as they began to run by us. Then it occurred to us that we did not have full view of the entire platform. Our train had been hidden from view by the other one and it was ready to pull out of the station. Steve and I started to run with everybody else and heaved our bags up and in. The train was packed with skiers and kids. Not a seat to be seen. And the panic must have still been on our faces because they all stared as we made our way to the front of the train, helping us by and opening doors for us. We finally found 2 seats in the first car. We had a suspicion that they were first class but I could honestly say I didn’t see a sign. Of course I wouldn’t have understood it anyway. The conductor came through and I handed him our rail pass and waited to get kicked out. He just nodded and smiled and moved on.
I’m closing out for now. This makes me tired just reliving it and I know you’re tired of reading it. I’ll add more later.
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