A Note from Azure

I am now officially blogging from Germany. Alyssa, Mary and I decided to take our long weekend trip to visit my family who lives near Heidelberg. Our adventure began last night (Friday) when we departed from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, with all intentions of switching trains in Frankfurt and heading for Mannheim. Like most European travel, as I am coming to find, things did not go the way we had planned. After trying to decode several overhead announcements in Dutch and German, we finally were told in English that the train we were going to switch to in Frankfurt was having "difficulties" so we were going to pick up the passengers they were unable to get, causing us to miss our connecting train. When we finally reached Frankfurt, we had to run for the next train to Mannheim, narrowly escaping a 30 minute waiting period. Upon our arrival in Mannheim, which was almost an hour later than planned, we found frustrations using the payphones, making it impossible to contact my aunt or cousin. I eventually found them both, cool as cucumbers, having a drink at the train station cafe. "Calming your nerves?" I asked jokingly. My aunt jumped up and threw her arms around me and asked, "Do you have any idea what happened to the train before you?" I looked at her quizzically. She then went on to explain that the board with the departures and arrivals did not include our train, so when she inquired about its status at a nearby info booth she got quite a different answer than expected. The booth operator insisted that she get the English translation right, and my aunt, who is a wonderful woman but lacks patience but certainly not self-expression, pressed into her about the problem. The operator said, "Ok, it was a personal.... injur... injury (the version is so much better in person). My aunt then asked, "On the train?" "No" said the operator,"Over, over the tracks. The train ran over." Yikes! Our train had hit someone. My aunt's comment? "Of course Azure got on the train that ran someone over." Ahh, there's my cucumber.

We haven't experienced much of the differences between The Netherlands and Germany yet. Basically the train was like riding a big tram, and it’s a lot less crowded than it is Amsterdam. It's really great how they do announcements in three or four languages, something I think the US should consider, even if it’s broadening it to English and Spanish. It's just easier for everyone to have clear instructions that are as clear as possible rather than getting on incorrect trains and all that. There doesn't seem to be much diversity here, at least from what I gauged at the train stations. Most of the travelers were white males and females in their mid-30's, and the rest were younger, probably between 16 and 25.

While I'm here I'm going to try to pester my aunt about her thoughts on politics and the conservative wave that has hit Germany, so maybe that will help to explain some of the racial homogeneity. Well, I could go on and on but it’s lunchtime; perhaps some schnitzel with noodles. Oh come on, I know the Sound of Music is Austrian but I'm sure they have schnitzel here. Goodbye from Germany!