Friday, April 15, 2011
Nurnberg, Germany to Furth im Wald, Germany
Up at 7:00am, had another wonderful breakfast, though a bit on the small side as we just can't eat on the scale that the German guests do. Then packed, paid the bill, and off on the short walk to the hauptbanhof. Turns out that we were there early, it was a shorter walk than we thought, so we had a coffee at the McCafe at the train station.
Boarded the train to Schwandorf at 9:53, track number 6B. Left on time and got into Schwandorf at 10:59 after passing through lovely countryside dotted with small picturesque villiages and green fields, quiet country roads, and rolling hills topped with small wooded areas. Beautiful.
The connecting train left Schwandorf at 11:08, on time. Its destination was Praha (Prague, in the Czeck Republic) and it was very familiar as we had ridden this exact style of car when we had left Prague a year ago bound for Cronach. The corridor is down one side and the coaches consist of a series of 'rooms', windowed, with 3 seats on each side (3 facing forward, 3 facing backward) for a total of six passengers. All went well, Jan and I joined a compartment with two twenty-somethings in it. They didn't know each other, and the girl had her face in her Czeck-language book while the guy continually fed himself on an endless sandwich, chewing slowly and methodically while gazing out the window. There was one stop between Shwandorf and Furth and at that point a million school kids got on the train and bashed about in the corridor, raising hell. Quickly, the train slowed again and we knew we were approaching Furth. All the kids banged and bashed and crashed their way to the doors, and bolted as soon as they opened, the kids scattering in all directions. We found out later that the kids were just let out for Easter Break, explaining thier enthusiasm. I'll bet they'll be different in a couple of weeks, going back.
We exited as well, behind the kids, and met Sonja and Shane. Hugs and hellos, followed by a driving tour of the town (Shane rented a car in Munich) and then on to Dragon Lake and the ski hill and castle that sonja wants to buy and renovate for, oh, about six million euros.
Went to the Fellner Gasthoff (guesthouse) and Pub, had lunch, and got ourselves checked in. Turns out that we are the first guests of the new renovation, and the first ever in Room #1, now dubbed 'The Canadian Room'. Nice. The rest of the hotel is opening May first, and they are still working on it. Our room was 'almost' complete, missing a waste basket, soap, a lock of the bathroom door, some bathroom tile, a phone, and wireless internet. But it had everything else and was beautifully decorated including a cute little sign above the bed ... to the effect that flowers are the earth's way of smiling.
Had lunch in the Fellner Pub and were joined by Christian and Claudia.
At 5:00pm we (Jan and I, Sonja and Shane) headed to the Altmann Schloss. We had drinks and freshly baked pretzels with Shane and Sonja. Sabina and Edit came home and then we headed to The Kleber for drinks and dinner where we met Christian and Momo and some more of Christian's friends. Then Christian and his crowd left for a trip to Spain, and the rest of us headed to The Lacke for more drinks with Franz and Oma, our group now comprising Shane and Sonja and Sabina and Franz and Edit and Dennis and Jan. We joined Franz' Stammtisch (a German custom of permanently reserving a particular table for a group of frequent customers) and met Rudy who told us the tale of St. George and the dragon, and learned that the dragon has to die in order that good overcomes evil and Furth can live on. I was thouroughly in my cups by now, but sober enough to know not to argue with his very strongly held belief while in his country, his town, and his Stammtisch.
A wonderful evening, and Jan learned to drink Apfelschollie.
