Law Abiding Citizen

Thanks Delta!

Last time I was with my family we had this conversation where I was talking about how anxious I am. Being late and not being prepared are things that make me anxious. I manage my anxiety by planning, writing notes, keeping on top of things and being prepared.

I'm not suggesting that this is the best way to be. I'm just saying this is how I am and this is how I deal with it.

During the family conversation I mentioned that I always make sure I have gas and before I close my car doors or trunk I always check my keys.

My sister cracked up and said: I never do that.

The other critical thing to know about me when reading this story is that I do not have a spontaneous bone in my body. Someone could come running over and say: The ghost of Elvis is jamming with the Pope, let's go. And I'd be like: Will it be crowded? Is there parking? Do we need tickets? How long will it last? Should we eat dinner first? Maybe it's better to stay home.



The Passion Play in Oberammergau is a BFD. They only do it every 10 years and it's outside and like, 5 hours long. You can only be in the production if you've lived in the area forever and the men all look, um, rustic, so they can look natural. The play has been going since 1624. Read the history. I don't want to watch anything that takes 5 hours if it doesn't involve hobbits or jedis, plus it wasn't going on while we were there, but we did wander by a rehearsal and this donkey would not go into the theater. The bearded man with his carrot and gentle voice couldn't coax him. Even the dog couldn't help. They tried another door but the donkey was having none of it.

This is all a set-up for the story where I tell you that last night I was writing a check for my car tags when I realized that they already expired. I'm one of those people who can roll through a stop sign in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night and still manage to get busted for it. Life is much easier for me if I just follow the rules.

The notice came while we were on vacation and when I got home I realized I needed Bob's Drivers License number so I set it aside for when he returned. And then it got set aside again. So when I finally got around to dealing with it, it was already late.

I live in Washington. I work in Oregon. Automobile licensing is open from 9-5. The only way I can take care of it in one day is in-person. So I left work early. The express bus has a stop near the licensing office. I could jump off, get my tags, jump back on and get to the park-n-ride and be done with it. Easy.



This ski jump is in view of our hosts' home. The Olympics were in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936. I was able to take part in a senior ladies ski jumping class one afternoon. Just kidding.

Except I didn't notice the part about how I needed my smog test until the lady in the licensing office pointed it out to me. After I'd already waiting in line for a half hour. The old notices used to say at the top in huge highlighted bold letters: You need an emission test this year. Now they don't use color to save money. They just put it in normal type in a bulleted list right between: you need new tags and you need to write a check.

At this point it's 4:15. I still need to walk back to the bus stop and wait for the bus to the park-n-ride. I'm guessing that emissions testing closes at 5pm. It seemed impossible but I decided to try anyway. A bus I don't normally take but says "transit center" arrived a few minutes after I got to the stop. I jumped on. The whole time my heart was racing like I was about to rob a bank.

When I was looking up the licensing office locations the night before, there was a whole list of affiliate offices including some that didn't close until 6pm but I didn't print it out or pay attention because I was going to use the one by the bus stop. In my head I tried to remember where I'd seen one.



This was our second day and we were waiting in the Munich train station. I ran off probably to buy candy and when I returned I noticed the sign above Bob's head.

Meanwhile, unbelievably, I was back at my car by 4:35. The emission station wasn't too far away, but it was rush hour. I tried to take a short cut which failed but I was quickly routed onto the right path and I arrived at emissions testing at 4:47pm. Two cars ahead of me.

I passed the emissions test at 4:57pm. Woo! I had no idea going so close to closing was good strategy.

I finally remembered where I'd seen a licensing office: next to the liquor store I use by Safeway. Double-woo! I zoomed over there and by 5:20pm I was walking out with my tags.

Actually one tag because to save money we only have to do the rear plate now.

Whew. I can relax again.

More Trip Notes

German Train ticket purchased at Munich Airport.

When we were waiting to board the plane in Portland a loud buzzer went off. The guy who was taking the tickets closed the door to the gate and turned around and said, "Sorry. The flight is already full."

Then he smiled and everybody laughed. It was funny mostly because I don't often see airline personnel that playful.

He opened the door and started boarding again. Maybe there's an alarm if the door is open a certain amount of time? And as it turned out, the flight was only about 90% full and the service amazing.



72 hours of metro use in Amsterdam. You pass this ticket in front of a thingey when you board and exit and it beeps.

On the Düsseldorf to Munich flight half the passengers were hopeless amateurs. A lady was seated in the row ahead of us when we boarded. A passenger came to claim the seat and embarrassed, she moved to the row in front. A passenger came to claim that seat and embarrassed again, she moved back to the row in front of us. By this time the person who claimed the seat in the row in front of us had discovered he was wrong and moved. Then a woman and two daughters from a country we never figured out arrived to claim the row ahead of us.

The woman seated said: This row is D - B - F

Because that makes sense.

Finally there is more seat switching until she found her correct place in seat B, strangely placed between seats A and C across the aisle.

Air Berlin had, what seemed to me, to be extremely small seats. This coming from a person who my husband insists has no ass. I had to yank on the seatbelt to get it to click shut.

The flight was only 50 minutes but they did beverage service. The snack choice was wasabe chips or a chocolate-wafery bar thing. Bob waffled when offered a choice and the young lady whispered: You can have both.

On the drop down screens they showed fake views out of a fake cockpit.



Train ticket from the train station by the hotel to the airport.

When I was a girl they were called Madonnabes. And I think there was a time when No Doubt was huge and they were called Stefanabees. Now what are they called? Gagabes? I saw flocks of them in Düsseldorf. There's probably a more clever word than "flocks" but I can't think of it right ow.

- - -

In Bad Kissingen I thanked Tante Hilla (in her 80's, she would flog me for mentioning it) for being so generous with us.

She says: Pam, you can't take it with you. The last nightdress has no pockets.

- - -

Our train passes were for first class. There were a couple of times when we didn't know where the first class cars were so we sat in 2nd which is still pretty nice.

On the way out of Bad Kissingen we found the 1st class section which was about 8 seats in the front of the train with a clear view to the conductor and the front window of the train. It was spectacular.



My last dinner on vacation Zeppos

I usually don't like to ask the hotel or touristy places about restaurants because I assume they're going to send you to some generic craphole. That did not happen on this trip.

In Düsseldorf the hotel guy sent us into the Altstadt and told us there were tons of great places but he gave us two names as well. We found one of the places he mentioned and it was perfect plus they set a beer in front of me before I even asked. If I could marry a Düsseldorf restaurant (click on that link, it's awesome), this would be it.

In the Amsterdam history museum Bob asked the adorable ticket desk clerk for some suggestions telling her it was our last night in town and we didn't want anything touristy.

It took us awhile to find the place but Zeppos was really fantastic. We had fries with three different sauces and my entree was something with shrimp that was great.

The place had a bar that looked like an after work drink spot. It was a great way to end the trip.

Here are more of Bob's adventures after I left. Even if you don't have time to read, there are great photos:

Haarlem Highlights.

Some dork Atomium thing

Clare and the Reasons

A Few More Haarlem Notes.

Small Hotel Room

Here I'm standing on the bed and leaning against the window being unhelpful as Bob looks at a map and tries to figure out the plan. At this point I'd learned enough about the controls to make shower pod and toilet pod lighting green.

Before I do my post about our tiny hotel room I need to add something that I meant to put in yesterday's post.

Yesterday when co-worker returned from the coffee shop he told me that the barista had randomly asked him if he liked Ratt. "You know, the heavy metal band."

Co-worker indicated that he did not and the barista expressed great enthusiasm for this band.

I've been to this coffee shop a number of times and I possibly could have given birth to this barista yet I am impressed at his wide-ranging knowledge of 80's music.

"I have Ratt's greatest hits," I told co-worker. "I can loan it to you."

"That won't be necessary," he said, all grumpy and ungrateful.

"And you know what?" I added. "Last night my pajama shirt was my Ratt New Year's Eve concert t-shirt from 1985."

He didn't even have a response for that.



This is the hotel closet meaning just a rack with two hangers.



This is the toilet pod. You pull those two "doors" around until they meet in the middle and hope your knees don't bump. Nothing private in here. You can kinda see the sink at the right.



Here I'm standing with my back against the door. You can see the TV above the bed and the tiny shelf on the left wall. The shower was pretty cool. The toilet "doors" are frosted but not the shower. That round thing up in the center is the showerhead. There's also a handheld sprayer. They provide two kinds of soap: daytime and nighttime. I preferred day. Bob used a blend.

I stupidly didn't get any photos of the downstairs area with the bar and couches and work areas.

One night I sat downstairs and had a beer and wrote in my travel notebook which I did an overall crap job of keeping up with. There was another man working and he asked to use my pen.

When he returned it he commented on how old fashioned it was to be using a pen and paper.

ARGH! We live in a world where pen and paper is considered old fashioned.

Don't Stop Believin'

The Hamburg UBahn system map at best station name ever Straßburger Straße

Bob didn't finish his EMusic downloads so he left me 19. I downloaded the Journey Escape album. I'm going to learn how to burn it to a CD and listen to it in my car and drive around for hours, just like when I was 17. I can't wait.

I also downloaded Ca Plane Pour Moi. No collection is complete without that song.

Bob is home. My souvenir cough has now moved into its last dastardly phase where I just have endless dry hacks that veer close to gagging. I'll be happy to be done with this.

This weekend I need to finish Game of Thrones. Only 75 pages left. And I have 6 more Gilmore Girls Season 4. And a story to finish.

That's it: 1 cough, 1 book, 1 TV series and a story.

Wish me luck.

Tulips

Amsterdam flower market

Tonight when I drove home I could see all kinds of tulips in the neighborhood. Even my next door neighbor has tulips.

None of my tulips have bloomed yet.

It seems like everything in my yard is always two weeks behind the neighbors. It's not fair.



We found the Amsterdam flower market by accident and I was completely overcome.

I ran up to a giant bulb display and hugged it and told Bob: I want all of this.

I know, he said.



They had bulbs you could buy that were approved for the US but I was traveling with the world's smallest bag and I would have had to carry the bulbs around with me for the rest of the day.

It was a tough choice but I passed. It looked like all the same stuff in the local catalog and I think all that stuff comes from Netherlands anyway.

Next year I'm buying a ton more tulips.

Things to See

Davidwache police station on the Reeperbahn.. It was nice to finally be running around Hamburg on our own so we could look at all the stuff we wanted. My Dad's family lived in this police station a long time ago.

I should be more organized about the way I'm doing this to avoid repeating myself later but I can't get it together quite yet.

My Sweetheart has checked in and as far as I can tell he's averaged about 4 museums a day plus churches, exhibits, government offices and a concert one evening.

I have a picture of him when he was a tiny baby and he's holding his head up with his eyes wide open looking around. He came out of the womb not wanting to miss anything and he hasn't changed.

The things that attract you to your partner are the same things that drive you nuts about them. I'm glad he's getting to see all this stuff and I'm glad I'm not being dragged around with him.

For my ideal vacation I don't mind a museum or two but then I like to sit around and relax. He thinks sitting around is boring. Even when we were in Reno he managed to find a museum.

He'll be home on Thursday.

Great Food Product

We flew into Amsterdam and took a train to Dusseldorf.

The next day we flew from Dusseldorf to Munich and then took a train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

There was a huge snowfall and our flight was delayed so by the time we finally arrived at the Munich train station we were starving. We ran through one of the food shops grabbing everything that wasn't nailed down.

I discovered this ingenious food product. It's a little cup with a dollop of Nutella in one half and little bread-like sticks on the other.

At first it was too cold and the Nutella too hard so my sticks kept breaking. I put the cup on the heater in the train car and a few minutes later it was melty delicious. And the stick-to-Nutella ratio was perfect.

I wish I could buy this here and take it in my lunch. I guess it wouldn't be that hard to make myself but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

Spotty Progress

Main Train Station in Hamburg

I've been trying to finish a story. This is the same story that I've been pulling my hair out over for the last 100 years. I think it's coming together I'm just impatient.

Meanwhile, I'm still working on photos along with a bunch of stupid administrivia.

I'm back in the real world tomorrow.

Woo! Up at 3am

We passed this creepy ad when were were on the train. "Did I just see a little blonde children-of-the-corn girl flipping me off?" I asked Bob. Later we saw it again in the train station and I grabbed a photo.

I stayed awake until about 2 minutes past 8pm last night. I got two solicitation phone calls in the evening and I was afraid the phone was going to wake me if I went to bed too early. One call wanted to know if I wanted to send letters to all my neighbors asking them to donate money to some cause that I guess I've supported in the past. How many ways can I say No?

Now I'm up and completely overwhelmed by all the photos. I have about 400 of mine plus 300 of Bob's (from just the first few days). I don't know where to start.

I'm enjoying my souvenir chest cold which is no doubt thanks to running around wet with cold feet and hours spent in public transportation. I hate getting coughs because they tend to stick around for weeks.

I made sure to cough on all the horrible children running around on the flight yesterday.

There's a bus from the Portland International terminal to the regular terminal and there were three men who got on and sat by me. One of them said the flight wasn't so bad and I must have made a face because another one said: You look like you don't agree. Were you sitting near all the children?

Today's plan is to drink peppermint tea and continue re-acclimation. Also do some writing and yoga since I just took two weeks off and I need to get my groove back.

Have I explained that Bob is staying in Europe for another week? Here are two posts from Bob's first day without me. Haarlem Part I and Harrlem Part II.

Honey, I'm Home.

Berliner Tor Hamburg Subway Station. In case you can't tell: I'm sitting in the subway car taking a photo out the window of the station name on the wall.

I'm home. I'm tired but happy. I'm going to eat some soup and watch some Gilmore Girls and then stagger off to bed.

Amsterdam: Vacation is Finished

Sadly, I haven't secured a job as a towel girl for one of the Dutch soccer teams so I'm coming home tomorrow.

Another action packed day. I'm so tired I can hardly see straight. The hotel said that the airport shuttle will only take me if I bought the ticket in advance. That's a stupid system for a hotel shuttle. I'm taking the train instead which is cheaper but I have to haul my bag over to the train station and now that it's stuffed with candy I'd rather minimize the amount of humping it around.

Almost done.

Today we went to the History Museum. The guidebook didn't make it sound like much but it turned out to be awesome AND not filled with squirrely teenagers. Every museum has been overflowing with squirrely teenagers and their skinny jeans and loud whispers and obliviousness.

I'm going to run upstairs and charge my iPod and try to stuff the rest of my goodies into my bag.

Many photos when I get home.

Amsterdam Day 2

There can't possibly be any tort law in this country.

The entire transportation system is an accident waiting to happen. Cars, pedestrians, bikes, trams, trucks in total anarchy. I get the feeling that anything goes although I did see a guy get busted today after zooming his motorcycle through a pedestrian area.

Today there was a crew tearing up the street which was just one lane. The Dutch don't pay someone $30 an hour to hold a flag and wave everyone around. The cars just drove up on the sidewalk to get around it. And the people and bikes just got out of their way.

Bob and I both had to watch for a minute to make sure we were understanding what was happening.

Also every restaurant has the bathroom in the basement and the stairway is practically a ladder.

A great day although a tad long and food deprived. It was sunny! And probably hit 45 degrees! All the Dutch people were sitting in the sun smoking cigarettes and smiling.

* * *
More on the hotel. It's like a design experiment. It's called citizenM. The first floor is like a giant lounge with all kinds of tables, chairs, couches, TVs, work areas and food/bar. We've spent our evenings there before going to bed and it's nice. I guess it's not so much a tourist hotel as a business traveler hotel.

The room has it's own computer thing where you can set up your lighting, music, window shade and so forth.

Last night at midnight the alarm went off. All the lights came on and the sound of stampeding elephants. I'm not making this up. I woke up and was thinking: what the hell? It can't be morning yet. I waited for Bob to deal with it and finally elbowed him because he was sleeping through it. This morning I figured out how to turn it off so there won't be a repeat performance tonight.

Also you can pick the color you want for the toilet and shower pods. It is the world's tiniest room but we like this place.

One more big day tomorrow. More museums and I'm sure lots of wandering around completely lost.

Amsterdam

We practically sprained our arms patting ourselves on the back for picking such great hotels on the Internet and then we arrived in Amsterdam.

This the most tragically tiny hotel room in the world. I'm trying to take photos but it's so small I can't get back far enough. It doesn't have a closet, it has a towel-rack thing where you can hang your coats. There is one shelf that's big enough for three of Grandma's knickknacks. There's a drawer under the bed where Bob could fit his suitcase after he took out the extra pillows and towels.

At one point Bob was trying to find something in his suitcase and I had to sit on the toilet to get out of the way.

However all was forgiven when Bob discovered the giant TV screen above the bed with about 100 channels of free grown-up movies. We already saw a clip that involved two girls frolicking on a speed boat. So yeah, the world's smallest hotel room with the giantest TV.

The trip is still going great. We had a great time in Hamburg and got lots of time with Tante Irmgard.

One of our cab drivers asked about our trip and we explained what we were doing and he said: Oh the relatives tour.

The relatives tour ended this morning.

We arrived in Amsterdam at 3pm and found the hotel, ditched our stuff and then went into town and got our local public transportation passes and some museum tickets. We found a fantastic meal and have returned to the hotel.

The only bummer is the weather. The weather is wearing me down. I knew we wouldn't have great weather on this trip at this time of year but I didn't anticipate that we'd be lucky if it hit 40 for a high during the day. I'm always cold. My feet are cold. My hands are cold. We've been lucky on precipitation. We've missed a lot of the worst of it until today. Cold hard rain. I had to wring my hat out. Yahoo weather tells me that the rain stops after today. Yay.

This hotel has free terminals so I might check in again but we have two full days in Amsterdam and then I go to the airport first thing Thursday morning.

Bob is waiting for turn so I'm off for now.

Bad Kissingen, Germany

Happy Birthday Mom.

Every time we get over-confident that we know what we're doing we screw up.

We took a train from GAP to Munich. An ICE train from Munich to Würzberg. Our itinerary said Würzberg to Bad K. Except I guess we were in the wrong car and the train did a saucer separation and we were on our way to East Germany. Bob asked the conductor and he sent us on another train back the way we came and then we transferred to another regional train. What's that? 5 trains?

We arrived and took a taxi to Tante Hilla's. Since we were late she had rounded up a neighbor to drive to the train station to look for us. The cab driver pulled over and she came over and told him where he should park. He pulled to a different spot and he unloaded us and she came over and showed him where she wanted him to park.

I was intentionally vague with Hilla about where we were staying but by the end she had to find out and had already phoned them and informed them she was local and her niece was coming and to prepare the best room and so forth. I should have recognized the look on the guy's face when I told him my name.

We have a lovely room and I slept through the night for the second time since we arrived. My dysfunctional sleeping has made the jump over to the new time zone perfectly.

We've had a great time so far and I am well fed and drink a half gallon of beer a day. I bought some Prinzen Rolle and put them in mz hat and then got crumbs in my hair. The drawback to packing a small bag is I don't have room to carry all the cookies and candy I want.

Hilla asked if we wanted to go to dinner or if we wanted Rouladen at her house. Of course I wanted her cooking but I didn't want to be too much trouble. "I already made it," she said.

We're taking a break here and then a rest at the hotel and then over to Hilla's. She wrote down the instructions for the bus including writing a note we can give to the bus driver so he knows what to do with us.

Tomorrow we're off to Hamburg.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen:

Current Weather Conditions.

The German keyboard is laid out all different and I've had a few liters of bier and it took about 15 minutes to type that URL so there will be no more URLs in this post.

We arrived at Schiphol Airport Friday morning and waited a few hours before catching the train to Düsseldorf. At the time I was mad at myself because this was supposed to be a big money saver and now we were wasting so much time sitting around. But it turned out okay. We had good adventures and were forced to stay awake and stand on breezy train platforms

I forgot the first thing we do everytime we get off the train in a new city: get completelz lost.

It was the train station's fault. They had a giant map with a red dot that said you are here. It should have said: turn around and go out the other door and you are here.

We finally found our hotel and the desk guy directed us to a fabulous restaurant and we ate our weight in wurst and potatoes and returned to our room and I fell asleep at 7:15 and when I finally woke up it was light outside and I got up to check my watch and it was 8:10. Our plane was taking off at 10am.

Team Pam and Bob sprang to action, shampooed, packed and were at the front desk in 30 minutes. The cab arrived 5 minutes later and we were in the terminal about 20 minutes later. We zoomed through check in and then to airport security.

This is the most organized, efficient country except for local airport security. The weekday business travelers at PDX would eat these people for lunch. We could have gotten 100 passengers through in the same time it took 2 dozen to get through in Düsseldorf. And we didn't even have to take our shoes off.

Flight was delayed 1 hr 40 because of huge snowfall in Munich. Then we got out of the gate and had to turn back because of technical problems. Then the technical problems were fixed. Actually the Captain's exact words were: hopefully the problem is fixed. Just the confident speech I want to hear before take-off. Then we had to get back in line for take off. Then there was a delay unloading the luggage.

We finally got to the train station and then another 45 minutes for our regional train.

But we got here finally. yay. All the Neuner girls are taller than me now. Luis nicely pointed out that he wasn't but I'm sure when I see him in August that will have changed. There's lots of snow and it's pretty.

This rearranged keyboard has reduced my typing to about 15 words a minute so I will stop here. Possibly more later.

Window Washers

Fox Tower, downtown Portland.

Three Bits

Did you read that Americans only clean their refrigerators once or twice a year?

If they meant, take out the crisper and cheese drawer and shelves and scrub out everything with water and baking soda, then yeah I only do that once or twice a year.

But they mean throw out all the old ooky stuff that no one ate.

I do that every week. There is nothing past date in my refrigerator, ever. There is no container in the back with an unidentified substance covered with mold.

The food lives in there. Why wouldn't you want it sparkling clean?

Right now it's almost empty and I scrubbed it out this evening. You could do heart surgery in there.

* * *

Our dryer has been broken for a long time. If there's any time on the dial and the dryer door is closed then it would be on. So you had to turn it off using the dial.

Today I threw some stuff in and turned the dial and it didn't work. I was opening and closing the door and turning the dial around and around. I thought it was broken.

Finally I hit the "push to start" button and it worked. So now broken is fixed.

* * *

I'm all packed. I've been working on traveling with smaller bags. On this trip I'm not even taking a backpack in addition to my main bag. Just one bag small enough to carry-on. Eventually I'm going to get it so that all I travel with is my ID and a ziploc bag with a single tube of moisturizer.