On the train from Frankfurt to Erlangen. We are passing some beautiful countryside, all hills and farms and trees. We are somewhere between Würzberg and Nürnberg right now, so I thought I would spend a few minutes catching up.
At the Philly airport I ended up pretty much having to sprint across the entire airport, because my new flight was Lufthansa,
whose terminal is, of course, on the opposite side of the airport from US Airways, and I only had an hour. When I arrived at their ticket counter to get my new ticket, I had a wonderful coincidence. There was a boy my age, Paul, who not only had been on the US Airways flight, but was supposed to have made the same connection as me, AND, it turns out, is a U of M EECS student heading to Germany for an internship. The world is super crazy like that sometimes. It ended up being really fortuitous, because he had done an internship in Erlangen two years ago, so he was a big help with everything from chatting about Erlangen to getting train tickets in Frankfurt.
I'm glad we ended up getting switched to Lufthansa, their planes are so nice. We got dinner and breakfast, and they have the TVs in the seats with free movies. This was a godsend because the cabin pressure was making my ears so sore there was no way I could sleep. I was in the middle of the middle row, so my legroom was almost nonexistent but luckily the people sitting on either side of me were both very kind. When we FINALLY got in to Frankfurt (I was beginning to feel like I had been on that plane my whole life), a woman sitting near to me said she heard I was going to Nürnberg, and wondered if she couldn't follow me to the trainstation, and thus Paul, Joanne and I became an airport trio.
Both Paul's and my luggage survived the change in connection, and customs was no trouble at all, just a quick passport check. Then we headed to the train station, which is connected to the airport. Paul and I got Bahncards (train discount cards) as well as train tickets, everything was very easy (I even managed to conduct my entire transaction auf Deutsch!). Joanne and I ended up on the same train to Nürnberg, and we said goodbye to Paul, who is currently headed for Berlin. We talked for quite a while about all sorts of things, but eventually she succumbed to a nap, which is what she is doing now. We are due in Nürnberg at 12:30, at which point I will catch a connection to Erlangen, and she is being picked up by her daughter-in-law, who she came to visit. Then I will be on my own, for real. I still need to get a cell phone, but that shouldn't be too difficult once I get to Erlangen.
There are so many wind generators here, spinning gracefully in the breeze. Everytime I come to Germany, I forget how much like Michigan it looks. Trees and farms and hills, just with more clusters of red-roofed houses. Now to import all my photos so I can start fresh when I get to Erlangen! Next time I write, I will hopefully be done traveling, at least for a little while. It's been 18 hours since I left home, and there's at least one more before I finally get to a place with a bed. Until then, here are some photos I took on the train!
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