Traveling to Germany Again
Brian has been working on his Ph.D. in Mathematics in Germany for the last few years, living there part time and with me in Western New York part time. I can’t wait for him to be done and living at home full time but the situation has allowed me to visit Germany three times. When I realized this would be the fourth time, it kind of blew my mind. Time slips by so quickly and busyness keeps you from really keeping track of it passing.
I booked another trip with Macs Adventure. Last time we hiked in Bohemian Saxony, a little bit south of Dresden. This time we decided to hike in the Leutasch Valley in the Alps. I’d never seen the Alps, but all the Tour de France footage I’ve watched made it a place I really really wanted to see someday.
I tried to do onebag level packing, even though I’d be traveling for 19 days. I managed 2 bags but didn’t check anything so I qualified it as a victory. I didn’t get as stressed about the packing as I had in the past. My grandfather passed away a few weeks before my departure and all the stuff happening around that distracted me from all the obsessive what-ifs and worries that I tend to engage in around travel. So it’s possible for me to not worry about something as long as something else is worrying me a lot more.
My travel to Germany was not without complication. The puddle jump from Rochester to Toronto was fun. A tiny plane, with only four people, and a super laid back crew. It felt like a private plane ride.
But there were delays in Toronto. I already had a 5 hour layover if everything went right but the gate kept moving and the plane got delayed and delayed and delayed again. We boarded at 8:30, four hours after we were meant to, so my 5 hour layover became a 9 hour layover, and then the plane didn’t take off for another 2 hours because of maintenance stuff, and crew stuff. I had a middle seat but my seat mates were pleasant and once we actually took off, I actually slept for most of the flight, without any assistance from sleeping pills or even wine. I was exhausted from a few stressful weeks.
I was supposed to land at 6:30 a.m. and Brian was going to meet me around 10. But we didn’t land until 11. And I somehow didn’t exit the airport in the normal place, probably because I didn’t check a bag. So we had a few minutes of confusion before Brian and I found each other. Then we hung out in the Bahnhof for a little while before walking to the Meininger Hotel to relax a bit. I was pretty tired.
The Meininger was a really cool modern little place. You had to stick your key card into a slot in the wall for the lights to come on, which meant you couldn’t forget your card, or neglect to turn off the lights.
We opted for snacks and beers from the grocery store for dinner. Sometimes going out to dinner feels like a big production, and we needed to be up early to travel to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to start our hike the next morning.
