We took a train to Oberhausen,
then to Dortmund to take the train to Bielefeld. The conductors were friendly,
babbling away in German. They wanted us to spend more than one day in
Bielefeld. We arrived there at 22:00. The N family was not listed in the phone book,
so we looked at a city map hanging in the station to figure out the route to
walk to Elke's house. Immediately upon leaving the station we got lost, not being
able to find the first street we needed. My attempts to ask directions in
German failed, because the people we asked only spoke English! We were
convinced there was an English convention in Bielefeld! We finally got headed
in the right direction and found the house in a lovely neighborhood of cute
homes on hills. But no one was home. We went across the street thinking to take
refuge in the church for the night. We used the bathroom facilities, then while
in the cloakroom, we heard people trooping down the stairs. We went upstairs ourselves
to learn that people apparently lived up there. We decided to return to the
station and spend the night on a train. We took one to Hannover, then stayed in
their station until the next train back to Bielefeld in the morning.
Thursday, August 9, 1979
We have found that vending
machines in German restrooms sell some rather intimate articles! After
re-arriving in Bielefeld, we immediately hiked back to Elke’s house. Outside
the apartment we met Elke’s husband, Uli, who was getting ready to visit Elke
at the hospital where she delivered a baby girl last Saturday night! So we went
along, also with their first daughter Rebekka, a little elf! We had a bit of a
wait to see Elke, but finally we were able to talk a bit, in English, which
made the conversation go a lot smoother with Kathy there and since I don’t remember much German.
Fortunately Uli spoke English well. After the short visit, Uli drove us back to
the train station (and he mentioned Bielefeld is building a subway). Kathy and
I found a bakery near the station to pick up brunch. Then we took a train to
Köln in hopes of getting a boat down the Rhein/Rhine
River. One doesn't leave until 7:00 the next morning, but we took a walk to
find the docks anyway. It was pouring rain. The Köln cathedral was right next
door to the station and the docks were a block away. Very centrally located! We
did some real shopping (socks and a rain poncho bought at Woolworth’s!) and
lots of window shopping in Köln to keep ourselves busy in the bad weather. We
found a hamburger joint to have hamburger and the hamburger tasted like pork
sausage. The sun came out a bit to let us photograph the beautiful cathedral. |
| Kölner Dom/Cathedral |
 |
| Heinzelmännchenbrunnen/Pixies' Fountain |
We wondered what to do with ourselves and decided to sleep on the train to
Karlsruhe, then return to Koblenz where we can take the Rhine boat trip down to
Mainz without paying extra fees for express service. Our Eurail Pass would take
care of it. We managed to get a compartment to ourselves on the Karlsruhe
train, and slept well. This journal is being caught up while we wait for our
train to Koblenz.
Next: Rhine River.
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