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After a rainy, cold and downright miserable August (weatherwise), let’s have a wonderfully sunny September like last year!
Much to her chagrin, Christina’s home 
You’ve been missed, lady!
I had a fantastic weekend and hope you did too.
Commentress Steffi made her way down the hill to the city Friday evening and we had a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant that I had never been to before. We had three hours of great conversation about anything that came to mind (work, languages, travel, movies, etc). A superb start to my weekend!
(Secret: She shares my love for the charming city of Bonn)
It rained heavily that night, so I wasn’t sure if the baseball games on Saturday would happen or not. I woke up at 8h and it was still quite overcast, but at 8.15, the clouds parted and it became sunny! Hooray!
I took the 11h16 train, which left me 67 minutes to do some cycling around Bonn before the games. Actually, I didn’t just do some cycling, I also went to Globus and bought Ziploc baggies! I also found a 100cm umbrella at Rossmans for €2.54 (less than the baggies) and figured that it might come in handy at the barbeque on Sunday. Little did I know.
I arrived at the Capitals’ stadium at 12h50, had a brief chat with Sh and then sat down behind Jn and Ml for a bit of a chat before the game began. Since it was a playoff game, they played the (German) national anthem and then the game began. So did the rain.
It rained for most of the first four innings, stopped for a bit and then rained on the fifth inning and then stopped for the rest of the games.
The Caps got off to a slow start and at the top of the 5th, the score was 3 – 0 – they were losing. However, a rally happened and at the end of the bottom of the 5th the score was 3 – 5! Hooray. Unfortunately, they ended up losing and the final score was 11 – 8. The second game was tied 0 – 0 at the bottom of the 7th and the other team ended up winning after hitting a run in the 8th. The Bonn Capitals were out of the playoffs and everyone on the home side was quite sad about that, a few people in tears.
So, baseball season was over for me. Granted, there are more games to be played (and I’ll probably attend a few), but MY team won’t be in them.
This was the first year I had become an avid supporter of baseball in Germany, and more importantly, the Bonn Capitals. I attended all of the home games except one (because of a training course), met some of the other regular fans (a few of which have become friends), learnt the players names and cheered them on. Being that this was my first full season, it would have been great to see them go on to the semifinals and eventually the finals, but the reality is that that won’t happen. So, while I’m lamenting my team being out of the finals, I’m still appreciative for the good times I’ve had at their games.
Going to Capitals games was a high point in my year. Cycling, being outdoors, anticipation, meeting new people, enjoying a sport I love, sitting in the blazing sun on lazy Saturday afternoons, cheering my lungs off for the home team (and the away game in Cologne), singing Take Me Out To The Ball Game, etc. What a great time! When I think back to my first full year of baseball in Germany, that’s what I’ll remember and I’d like to thank the players of the 2006 Bonn Capitals team and their head coach for a weekend of fun.
After the games, Jn and Ml invited me to their local pub for a beer, so I gladly obliged. They’re a married couple about my age that I met through our mutual love for baseball and hope to see them more in the future. It started raining as we were walking there and continued to do so for most of the evening and night. We had a beer and then I cycled back to the Bad Godesberg train station and caught the last express train (RE) home at 21h03 (all the trains after that were local trains (RB) and are only slightly faster than walking at best).
Another great thing that happened that day was that my good friend Mark called me from the USA. We did a bit of catching up and then worked out dates for his possible visit to Europe in a few months. We both totally hope it works out.
I woke up on Sunday and was happy to see that it wasn’t raining (but was quite overcast), which is always a good thing when one’s going to a barbeque. However, that only lasted til I left my flat. Drizzle happens.
The train to Darmstadt was on time for once. It’s the usual on I take when I head south and is almost always late. When I bought my ticket, DB had given me a timetable that had me changing in Frankfurt with an hour layover. After realizing on Saturday morning that it shouldn’t take me three hours to get to Darmstadt, I stopped at the school to use the internet before leaving for Bonn on Saturday and found out that I could get there in 1:49 instead with two changes – one in Mainz and one at Darmstadt Hbf for the minor train station closest to Jen and Sparky’s place. I ended up sitting at a table seat across from a student in Bonn who is from Mexico and speaking Spanish for a good deal of the ride. Unfortunately, my Spanish is suffering due to lack of practice, something I’ll have to change soon. The chauffeur was waiting for me and whisked me back to their loft where the queen of the manor was waiting with a big smile on her face.
After about thirty minutes, Tatiana arrived, family in tow. This was a treat for me as hadn’t read her blog before Jen told me that she’d be coming the week before, so I knew very little about her. She and her hubby (now known as Ad) turned out to be lots of fun and also quite interesting, and their offspring was adorable.
Jen was cooking up a storm as usual, and was also quite insistent on it being an American barbeque which, of course, meant starting out with munchies. Chips, fritos, French onion dip, tortilla chips and nachos. Since it was American time, we talked about things in the US, how our lives were in Germany and a host of other topics and Sparky even hung a US flag off the balcony. Due to the fact that I have very little contact with Americans and Americana where I live, I have to admit that I love ‘American time’ with friends, even if I’ve just met them. I don’t have to explain jokes, I can talk about various parts of the US and people understand what I mean, etc. The number of things that US expats in Germany have in common (experiences we’ve had, conversations with friends back home about living abroad, etc) is quite noteworthy.
The Germans that had been invited started arriving around 13h and eventually it was time to light the grill. No sooner had Sparky and Ad got it lit than it started raining. It’s amazing how things like this happen. So, Ad took charge of the burgers and went to work. He added seasoning, topped them with Worcester sauce, onions and peppers and stuck them in the oven. The finished product came out absolutely delicious! After our appetites had been satisfied, Jen stuffed some birthday cake into us. American birthday cake! With the moist inside! You know, the Betty Crocker kind that is scrumptious. One of the German guests had brought some kind of German cake also, so some ate that, but I think that most went for the American birthday cake or both.
People started leaving around 18h just before the rain started again and I was taken back to the train station at 20h to catch my train home. I had an unavoidable one hour layover at the Frankfurt Hbf during which time it stopped raining, so I made the best of my time by wandering around and doing lots of people watching (train stations are great for that). My train home arrived twenty minutes late, but I knew it would due to the fact that it’s the one that I always take back from the theatre and cinema and has never been on time. However, with the weekend I had had I decided not to let DB ruin it (also, it started raining again right after I walked into my building).
All in all, a wonderful weekend in which Germany definitely didn’t suck. Other than DB, the weather and the Caps losing, the only negative thing that happened this weekend was noticing that the leaves on trees in Bonn had started changing colours on.
Autumn truly is upon us.
What, if anything, does this photo say to you?
Baseball playoffs have started and the Capitals are in them. They finished regular season play in second place in the north division and played their first post season games last weekend, winning one and losing one. They’re playing two more tomorrow and will advance to the half finals if they win both! If the two teams split the games then there will be an additional game on Sunday, which I hope doesn’t happen due to the fact that I already have plans for Sunday.
It’s a bit odd how it works, though. There are two divisions (north and south). In the quarter finals, the first place team plays the fourth place team in the other division and the second and third place teams play each other in a ‘best of five’ series. The winners advance to the half finals and after the Caps make it there, I’ll let you know how that works (because I don’t know).
So, join me in cheering the Bonn Capitals to victory!
GO CAPS! KICK SOME MAINZ ASS!
Copenhagen:
Wonderful;
Very expensive;
Lots of castles, churches and other sightseeing opportunities;
Very expensive;
Great people watching;
Very expensive;
English spoken everywhere.
Very expensive.
Air Berlin:
Late;
Airbus and Boeing planes – the former have more legroom;
Got a sandwich and a cup of tea on both flights – something unheard of on cheap airlines;
Duesseldorf Airport
Designed by somebody that doesn’t use airports frequently;
Lack of good signage (has signs that lead to nowhere);
Not actually on Deutsche Bahn’s line like Frankfurt and Cologne, despite what DB leads you to believe (use Duesseldorf Hbf and take the S-Bahn directly to the airport instead);
No long lines for check in or security.
Copenhagen Airport
Luggage takes a long time (even if they actually put it on the right belt);
Confusing security check and very long lines;
Very long lines at major carriers’ check in windows, not so for cheap airlines.
Overall:
Great trip, great city. Definitely visit (and bring lots of money with you);
The best part was seeing relatives I hadn’t seen in a couple years and hang out with them, even if it was only for two days. We saw every castle (but only went in one due to how expensive admission was – €9 – €11 per person), took lots of photos and discussed ‘relative stuff’, our travels and also nothing in particular.
Jen! Hope you have a good one, sweetie!
So, in the spirit of Calvin:
42 days til Madrid
75 days til Paris (probably)
85 days til Barcelona
92 days til the Whiney Expat Bloggers Meet-Up.
128 days til Thailand
Come one, come all!
There’ll be a Despite The Weather, It’s Still Summer picnic/barbeque/joint birthday party at Jen and Sparky’s place (Darmstadt) on 27 August for anybody that wants to attend. Come for potato salad, hamburgers, chips, etc.
Bring your umbrellas and dress warmly so that we can stand (outside) together in Autumn Strike solidarity! We’re not ready to let summer go yet!
On 3 August, I made an afternoon trip to Ahrweiler. A friend lived in a village near there and moved to Stuttgart three days later, so I went out to visit her and see her town (she had been telling me that it was worth a visit, but we had always spent time together in my city).
I’m quite glad that I did because it is an absolutely lovely town. Lots of old timbered houses, etc. Quite charming.
While we were out there, I saw an advertisement for an exhibition called ‘The Bunker’ at the city museum. It turned out that a large underground bunker had been built in the early part of the 20th century and was used in World War 2 and also the Cold War. I was quite interested in seeing the exhibition, but the museum was closed by the time we got there. Seeing that it ended on 13 August, I had to work fast.
First of all, I contacted Belinda, who lives out that way to find out if she’d be interested in seeing it. It just so happened that she was, so we set the date of 10 August to meet up at the Ahrweiler train station and go from there (I had to work til 9h that morning and also again at 16h30, so we planned it during my break – it’s an hour train ride each way).
We exchanged greetings (with big smiles on our faces) and the headed off to the museum. Of course, being Belinda she had been knitting while waiting for the train and also had brought me a delicious piece of cake that she had made. The exhibition only cost €1.50 and I think we both agree that it was well worth it and we’re looking forward to seeing the Bunker once it opens as a tourist attraction in 2007. After that, we wandered around Ahrweiler for a while chatting about this-n-that and then found an Italian place for a good lunch – all while the threat of rain was upon us.
After lunch, we wandered around some more and parted ways with enough time for me to catch my train back to be sure that I got to my class on time.
I have to say that Belinda was exactly as I had pictured her from her blog – friendly, a great conversationalist and a lot of fun to hang out with, and I’m looking forward to seeing her again.
