madbaker | Notes from a vacation: August 24

Aargh.
Berlin to Kahla, and the Difficulties of Non-Communication

It was muggy (a thunderstorm finally broke around 4 AM) and the hotel didn't have air conditioning, as many don't. We didn't sleep very well. Then due to an unfortunate clock error, we got up at 7:30 instead of 6:30 - and we needed to leave the hotel by 8:00!
Rush rush rush pack. We'd packed most of our gear the night before, thankfully. We skipped the (included) breakfast, though; it wasn't portable. (Standard German hotel/gasthaus [guesthouse, like a combination bed/breakfast and restaurant] breakfast seems to be a wide variety of cold cuts, cheeses, and breads; along with yogurt, boiled eggs, and suchlike. But it wasn't set up to go.)
Rush rush rush to the elevated train, to the train station... and the train is late. Got to love the irony.

Since we suddenly had time, we went to one of the delis in the train station. I exhausted my meager German by ordering "ein kaffee". I should have swallowed pride and ordered in English -- I utterly failed to understand anything else the guy behind the counter said. Could be "black or white?", could be "to go?", could be "would you like a shot of cognac with that?" I handed him some money instead...decent coffee, and it's black the way I like it.

I couldn't find my sunglasses. I think I left them in the English hotel room, where I didn't use them in the two days we were there.

bonacorsi had done research giving us options on things to do. Since we had to switch trains to get to Kahla (a small town not far from where the wedding was taking place) she had arranged for us to spend the afternoon in Naumburg, mainly so we could see the Church of Peter and Paul (Naumburger Dom). It was built in 1028 but mostly dated to 1210 and 1250, so it's mainly Romanesque and Gothic architecture. We wandered around town for a bit and found the cathedral. It was about 11:15 so we decided to have lunch (breakfast had been a small container of apfelmuesli, or porridge with apples in it. Quite decent really.)

We sat down in one of the bistros by the cathedral and, for the first time of the trip, had a leisurely lunch. Thanks to the fuzzy upstairs neighbor, we had a food guide with translations for terms, so we could read the menu and specials board. I had trout and the wife had duck. There will be photos of the food at some point; not too surprisingly, we hadn't taken any food pictures in England...

The church was faboo and

bonacorsi got lots of pictures. It's not a pilgrimage site, but I think that we might be able to get away with "generic" tokens for Peter and Paul.

The train to Kahla left at five; we had no problems making this train, or indeed finding our gasthaus. One thing of note: no problem being an English-speaker in Berlin. Outside, though, in the small towns - yeah, that's a problem. They don't speak French, either. We were reduced to mime and pictionary. I asked for an iron to press out my jacket; I'm not sure if they'll have one in the morning, there's a service in the morning that does it, or something else entirely. (Note: it was something else. I don't know what.) Also, the wife had forgotten to pack the wedding invitation, so we didn't know when things started. We did know where, at least. There was another couple staying at the same gasthaus also attending the wedding, but we only knew them as "Dieter und Gisele." We didn't know their last names and were utterly unable to explain ourselves to the owners.

We had dinner there;

bonacorsi splurged on venison medallions, which was quite good. My pike was fine but not as good as the trout earlier. During dinner the owners' daughter came over, as she spoke English (I think they called her for help). We explained about trying to meet Dieter und Gisele and she passed the information on. About 9:00, there was a knock on our door - "Ich bin Dieter." They didn't speak English either, but we wrote "13:00, taxi" and agreed "Ja, ja!" Another obstacle surmounted.

Ah have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

What I read: Elizabeth Bear, Undertow