Holiday Escape

UPDATE: Since the first publishing of this post, a photo of a Volkswagen has been added.

As 2007 drew to a close I looked back on the year and realized that, as far as I was concerned, it SUCKED!

My intent for this post is not to make it a retrospective of the past year. But just as a refresher…

--In March it was determined that my father had a series of mini strokes in the prior months, and it was just such a mini stroke that my sister was finally able to witness that motivated her to take him to the Emergency Room where, after he was admitted to the hospital, it was later discovered that he has lung cancer.

--In April I finally made the decision to have my precious, old, decrepit Angel euthanized. A week later my father's peke-a-poo, Rosie, who had survived since my mother passed away in 1993, became ill and had to be euthanized.

--In September Mrs. Farrago and I decided to separate.

--And in October I moved out of the home I’ve known for the past 9 years and into a two-bedroom apartment.

So, as the holiday break loomed on the horizon I felt the need to escape the boundaries of my life for a while. I had considered the “Big Island” of Hawaii, as I really like that place, but then I figured that Hawaii is where a lot of people escape to during the cold weather of the holidays, so it was likely to be a zoo.

Then I thought to seek isolation, someplace where I could be totally alone. But since I had no interest in being dropped in the middle of the Sierra Nevada, I considered isolation in the figurative sense. To me that meant a foreign country where I would be culturally and linguistically isolated. I really enjoyed Paris, but going there at this point in my life would bring back too many memories of my times there with Mrs. Farrago. England, though I love that place, was out of the question because I couldn’t isolate myself from the language…and because remaining isolated meant choosing not to visit my good friend in Birmingham, which would have only brought me guilt.

So I thought of a place that I had been to that I really wished to revisit, and that place is Germany. I lived there for two years when I was stationed at a base there in 1986 and ’87, and I’ve hoped my frequent work travels would send me there. I came close in 2006 when I spent three days in Berlin, but there was no free time to explore, so it was a mere tease.

So, Germany it was! In the weeks prior I booked my flight, booked a rental car and booked hotel rooms across the country. I left Chicago on December 25th, hoping that travelers would be at an all-time low on THE holiday, but the opposite was the case!

I paid my airfare with my frequent flyer miles, and my frequent flyer status earned me a seat in what United Airlines calls “Economy Plus,” which means I got to sit in the section that gives an extra five inches or so of legroom to everyone. I did ask about the possibility of upgrading to Business Class, but I was told that it wasn’t allowed on fares purchased with frequent flyer miles. Oh, well. No biggie.

When I booked the ticket online I was allowed to choose my own seat, and the one I chose happened – without my knowledge – to be directly behind the “Crew Rest” seats, where some of the flight attendants are allowed to sleep during the middle of the flight when passenger needs are at their lowest. Instead of an extra five inches of legroom, I had about an extra three feet of legroom, which is about two feet more than I would have had in Business Class!

I was seated next to a German man who now lives in Chicago. As I told him of my itinerary, and of my plans to drive everywhere, he asked me what kind of car I had booked. I repeated to him what I had read on the economycarrentals-dot-com website: “Volkswagen Lupo or similar.” The friendly smile on his face morphed into a polite grimace, and the color in his face paled slightly. Then he said, “You might want to ask for an upgrade.”


The besmirched Volkswagen Lupo.

Upon arrival in Frankfurt and the subsequent shuttle ride to the Thrifty/Dollar car rental office, I was asked by the rental agent if I wanted winter tires. Germans are a little different from us when it comes to equipping their cars with tires. Where we generally choose all-weather tires for our cars and forget about them until they’re bald, Germans generally purchase two sets of tires. The expensive set is for the warm months and the higher demand for performance the Germans exact from their cars. The other set is designed to have a little bit more contact with the road and better handling on snow and ice. And in a rental situation, the choice for winter tires means an extra charge. I was going to forego the winter tires and take my chances until I saw the little notice, printed in English, that basically read, “Though it is not required by law to have winter tires on the car, should you have an accident without winter tires, your insurance will be null and void.” With my luck, I’d kiss the gate with the car as I left the rental lot, so I chickened out and said, “Yes” when the rental dude told me that the winter tires would cost me an extra 100 Euros for the duration of the rental.

When he heard my answer, he said, “Good. That will get you a nice upgrade.”

I was relieved to hear this because my flight seatmate’s warning had caused me a good deal of stress, as I had no clue what a Volkswagen Lupo was, or why it should cause such concern. With the rental dude’s words I was encouraged and hopeful that maybe I would step up to a VW Golf or something similar. Then the dude asked me if I was traveling alone, which I was, and then if I had a lot of luggage, which I did not. Satisfied with my answers, he stepped out to get my car. When I saw it, my jaw dropped, and I gasped, “No fucking way!”


Der Vheels! (Click on any photo for a full-size view!)

It also had GPS, which the rental dude “threw in for free,” despite the fact that it’s built in!

From this point I will spare my reader the typical travelogue I have crafted(?) in the past. This trip was for relaxation and decompressing. I didn’t plan out my days with things to see or do, and the ensuing avalanche of photos such an itinerary causes. I slept in most days, allowing just enough time to catch breakfast before it was collected, and, since I started each day fairly late, and daylight disappeared by 4:30 each day, I took relatively few photos.

I stayed fairly centered in the country, driving first from Frankfurt to Berlin, then from Berlin to Düsseldorf, each leg thereof about a five-hour drive. From Düsseldorf I was able to take in Köln (Cologne). From Köln I drove to the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, and the region called Hunsrück, or “Hound’s Back,” where the base was when I was stationed there. And from the Hunsrück I returned to Frankfurt.


In case you ever wondered what the autobahn looks like...


Berlin


The pension-hotel Berolina, which
was more like a flop-house than a hotel.
My room reeked so badly of cigarette smoke
that... yup... all my stuff still smells
like smoke!



Your typical city scene: The Kurfürstendamm, Berlin's
Magnificent Mile, so to speak.



House of 100 Beers! I had a mind to try every last one,
but I had the rest of the country to see before I went home....



Germans go a little crazy with holiday lights, too, just
in case you were feeling a little self-conscious over your
decorative holiday excess.


Köln



The Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) is the city's main attraction. I figured that, it being the Sunday before the New Year holiday (or Silvester in Germany), no one would be out in the city, and I would have the place to myself. Of course, that Sunday happened to be the day Turkish citizens from all over Germany chose to protest some television show they found offensive. So I found myself in a swarm of Turks! They called it quits by dark, so I was able to get a few neat shots.






Hunsrück



Many towns that crop up near each other have adopted a hyphenated double name. Such is the case with towns that face each other across a river. The town(s) of Traben-Trarbach, on the Mosel river is a place I visited many times while I was stationed in the area. Above is a view of Traben, across the river from Trarbach. Any lover of white wine, especially German Rieslings, will be delighted to know that Traben-Trarbach sits right in the middle of Moselle wine country.


The restaurant Brücken-Schenke, which, loosely trans-
lated, means "bridge access," sits on the Trarbach side of
the Mosel and "guards" the bridge that crosses it.


A view from the vineyards above the town of Dhron
(Neumagen-Dhron). The entire Mosel valley
-- on both sides of the river -- is covered from
top to bottom in grape vines like these.



"Church For One?" I just can't figure this one out. On the
road between the Mosel river town of Treis-Karden
and Kastellaun.


Nine days after I left Chicago I returned to the airport in Frankfurt. Though I had flown non-stop from Chicago, I had booked myself back to Chicago with a layover in Washington, D.C. so that I could spend much of that last day in Germany. When I checked in I was of a mind to ask to be moved into the same seat I had when I flew from Chicago so I could have all that legroom again, but then I thought that was just selfish of me, so I didn’t. I received boarding passes for both legs of the trip home, but I never even looked at them.

At the boarding gate, as I waited with the rest of the USA-bound throng, a gate agent called my name out over the PA system. There is a desk outside the waiting area, and since I had my boarding passes I figured I had no need to stop there. A gate agent at the door had let me pass without question, so I thought nothing of it. Now, as I walked up to the counter to respond to being called out, I wondered if I had missed an important step.

The agent who had called my name saw me approaching, and said, “Mr. [Farrago]?”

“That’s me.”

She held up what looked like a boarding pass. “We have an upgrade for you.”

WOW! I had been upgraded to Business Class unsolicited! For a Trans-Atlantic flight! WOO HOO! It pays to accrue all your travel miles on one airline! I enjoyed the extra legroom, the slightly wider seat, the nicer meal and the free alcohol (one glass of wine with dinner) and finished Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Supremacy on the way to D.C.

After landing at Dulles International Airport I went through Customs and Immigration, collected my luggage, returned it to the airline to go back on the plane, and I headed to my gate. On the way there I purchased The Bourne Ultimatum, almost as much to see how far off the movies carried themselves from the actual stories as to follow the character to the end of his arc.

Before long, the gate agent there announced that boarding would commence in about five minutes, and I realized I didn’t even know where my seat on the plane was. I pulled out my boarding pass and was surprised as hell to see that I had been seated in First Class! All the way back in Frankfurt! WOW! A double upgrade! What a perfect ending to a wonderful trip!

Now I just want to go back.