Two DAYS IN AND SO MUCH TO TELL!!

I hope the first two day are not a signal as to what is ahead!  As you can see in the upper picture we were in good spirits at O'Hare Airport waiting for our 6:00 PM flight.  The unfortunate thing was that Greg and Sharon who flew on an different airline were not in the same terminal as us, so we didn't get to wait with them.  The people around us are on tour.  We hope to never be on a tour like that, wearing our nametags, etc.  We like being a little more incognito.  That may not be a good thing all the time, as you will see.  Anyway we were talking to some of the tour group since a few of them were from Missouri.  We told them about our bike ride and the many nice people we saw.  Shortly after this picture we began boarding for our flight.  About 12 people got on and then they sent them all back and said that due to mechanical issues they would have to replace this plane with another one.  They estimated that we would now leave at 8:00 PM.  This was going to put a little crimp in our plans as we were supposed to meet Greg and Sharon in Frankfurt at the airport.  Originally we were to arrive about an hour before them.  Now it looked like we might be an hour later than them.  We finally left O'Hare about 8:40.  We got some good tailwinds and landed around 11:30.  As we were in baggage claim I heard a page for Jack Davis.  I figured it was Greg.  However, I couldn't answer the page until we got out of baggage claim.

By the time we cleared the baggage area, of course Greg was gone.  I walked back and forth through the terminal several times while we had Greg paged.  Mary Kay waited near the information booth for him to come.  We didn't connect until about an hour later when Greg found Mary Kay.  We hadn't realized it but they were in another terminal a good distance from our terminal.  Alas, we were back together again and picked up our beautiful Mercedes rental car and headed for Cologne to meet Ian and Ruth.

Now the first Do Something for Others Today comes into play.  We made it to Cologne pretty easily.  However, we got off the autobahn an exit too early and really had no idea where we were.  We found a gas station/convenience store and thought we would try to get directions to our hotel.  Greg went in and was trying to get across to the attendant what we needed.  A man in a uniform came up and said he spoke English and could help.  Great!!  He began to tell Greg that we needed to go a couple blocks in one direction, then make a quick turn here and shortly another curving road make a turn.  I believe he could see that Greg was getting a little lost with the directions, so he said just follow me and I will take you there.  That was great, but to even add more to the story he was a policeman.  So we pulled up to our hotel with a police escort!  It was really nice of him, because it had to be three miles or so through downtown Cologne.

After a shower we decided to walk to meet Ian and Ruth.  They were staying with their daughter Sarah who is in Cologne working on a Doctoral program.  As usual we were late getting to them. They had expected us early in the day and it was about 4:30 in the afternoon by now.  We did find the apartment and met Sarah's fiance, David.  They had a nice everning meal planned for us at a pretty authentic German place.  The food was great and there was plenty of it, as you can see from Ian's Pork Knuckle -

The whole group had a great time together -

By the time the meal was over, Greg was beginning to feel some effects from his resent gall bladder surgery, so we went back to our hotel for the evening to get some sleep.  We all needed it.

We were going to meet Ian and Ruth "around" 9:30 the next morning to start the rest of our journey.  Well, by the time we got up, had a bite to eat and got on the road to meet them at the Hertz rental center (we had to pick up a van now that we had 6 of us) it was already 9:30 by the time we left our hotel - late again.  To make matters worse there was a little detour due to some road construction on the way and when we were going around it we got behind a garbage truck picking up garbage at every house and apartment building along a very narrow street.  We had nowhere to go so we looked with awe at the efficiency and art that the two guys doing the pickup used to finish their job.  By the time we got to Hertz we were maybe 45 minutes late.  Ian would tell you we were an hour and a half late, but he always exagerates.  We transferred luggage and I got my name on the contract so I could help drive and headed to the Europcar rental agency to return our Mercedes.  As we were leaving Hertz I mentioned that I wasn't sure where my passport was.  We made a quick search through our bags and decided we would look further when we got to the rental car place.  On the way I started having a bad feeling, as I couldn't remember having my passport after picking up our rental car at the Frankfurt airport.  oooohhh! 

When we got to the rental car office we began a search of all the luggage and I asked the desk clerk to call the Europcar office at the airport to see if they had found my passport.  Greg looked in the Mercedes and everyone else looked through all the bags we had.  I was glad Mary Kay didn't have any thong underwear with her.  Not that she has any!  We looked through everything several times.  The Europcar desk clerk said she couldn't get through to their office, but gave me the telephone number.  I eventually got in touch with Lost and Found at the airport, but they didn't have anything.  It is now about 11:30 (so much for our 9:30 start).  We called the hotel and they had a maid check the room - nada.  We were just pulling out of the Europcar parking lot and I said I want to check the Mercedes one more time.  Greg took the passenger side and I took the driver's side.  Hooray - hooray, Greg found it on the passenger sice between the seat and the center counsole.  Hallelujah, let's get going.

We put Koblenz in the GPS of our new Mecedes van (great rental cars in Europe!!) and took off.  I had joked the night before that we didn't need a GPS, we just needed to head South.  Even if we got on the wrong road it wouldn't make any difference as long as we kept going South.  The GPS was great though it told us every turn and twist we were to make.  Mary Kay and I took the back two seats, Sharon and Greg in the middle, Ian - driving and Ruth - navigating? in the front.  I picked up my book and started to read.  About an hour into the ride Ruth asked me is I wanted to look at the map.  I said no that things seemed to be going well.  About a half hour after that Ian pulled into a rest stop.  Ruth had a little fear that we might be going North, instead of South.  Well, she was right!  We don't know what was going on with the GPS, because the little lady inside it didn't tell us she was recalculating once!  Greg asked an elderly gentelman for help.  He spoke NO English, and we speak American English and Aussie English so there was quite a communication barrier.  I have to give him credit though, because he gave us excellent directions - over and over and over - we just couldn't understand a word he was saying.  After about five minutes we convinced him that he had helped us and we knew where we were going.  We didn't have the foggiest, but we left anyway.  Luckily the little idea that we had turned out to be correct and we started our journey to Koblenz again.  Of course we had to go back through Cologne again, but at this point who is keeping track of our mishaps?

We had a great day of driving and driving and driving - we only took one more detour.  About 4:00 pm Ian thought we should take a little side trip into a small town along the Rhine River.  He thought we might find a winery and perhaps a nice little B & B to stay in.  Fifteen minutes later we were in the heart of a fairly large industrial city.  I think we did cross the Rhine (maybe two or three times) before we found our way back to the direction we hoped to go.  It was time to get serious though about finding a place to stay for the evening and to eat.  Ian felt that it might be a good idea to turn the mapquest over to Ruth to find this spot, since he had been so helpful in the last search.  Ruth picked a nice little town called Kehl right on the border of Germany and France on the west side of the Rhine (yes, once again we were searching for a plac on the Rhine).  This place did turn out to be great!  We thought about going across the river to Strasbourg, France - but found a great little Apartment Hotel with a French restaraunt right across the street.  We had a wonderful supper, but once again Greg couldn't quite make it.  Once he saw the food, he just couldn't make it and had to go back to the room.  We are hoping that he feels a little better each day - we thought it might be some of the rather heavy food and beer he had the night before, but tonight he didn't even get that far.

Tomorrow on the agenda we hope to leave early.  I wonder what time that will be?  I will let you know tomorrow.  If things go well we will be in Zurich, Switzerland for lunch and do some sightseeing there and then continue our journey towards Venice.  We have rooms booked there for Thursday and Friday nights.  Hopefully, all will go well.  I will let you know!

What do you hope for?  I did find one young man in the airport to ask this of - he was traveling to Ethiopia to meet his girlfriend.  They both work for a Christian agency that helps Ethiopian ophans sufferring from AIDS find homes.  It was interesting to talk to him about what they do.  His hope was - "That the Lord will return."

With that I leave you - and I am sure when the Lord does return - Doing Something for Others Today - will have been a good way of living your life.

I JUST TRIED MY SPELL CHECK AND WHEN IT CAME UP, NEARLY EVERYTHING I WROTE WAS IN YELLOW, WHICH MEANS IT IS SPELLED INCORRECTLY.  NUMERALS WERE OKAY.  AFTER SOME THINKING, I REALIZED THAT THE SPELL CHECK IS USING GERMAN SPELLINGS HERE INSTEAD OF ENGLISH.  OF COURSE, I DON'T KNOW ENOUGH TO MAKE A CHANGE IN THE DICTIONARY, SO YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO GET THROUGH MY MISSPELLINGS.  I HAVE TO GET TO BED SO I CAN GET UP EARLY.