Holiday greetings (yes, holiday) from the Frankfurt Airport Sheraton, where we'll be spending a few hours (very few, as I'll explain in a bit) before beginning the long & arduous journey home tomorrow. As with almost everything over here, the airport is being renovated and expanded, so much like our first day in Saarbrucken it took us a bit to find our way around. But now we know where we're going, and since we have to leave at an inhuman hour tomorrow, that's a good thing.
Right?
As I had mentioned, it's a holiday over here. Well, it's two, actually, and because of that most businesses and schools are closed. It's Ascension Day, and it's also German Father's Day. They always combine the two and give everyone the day (or the weekend) off, thus allowing anyone who's a father to celebrate in the most German of ways.
You see, according to tradition (and Wikipedia), German fathers celebrate the day by dressing up in weird clothing, putting a bunch of beer in a wooden wagon, hauling said wagon to the nearest park, and then drinking the beer until they pass out.
I can see why it's a national holiday.
Because of that (and a ferocious rain storm) we couldn't do much in Saarbrucken before we left. The skies did, however, clear long enough so that we could attend one final practice of 1 FC Saarbrucken, where, after being there four times, we started to notice a few things. One was this group of people--
We've dubbed them "The Kaffee Klatch". From what we can tell they actually show up to every practice the team has, although it never seems they're actually watching practice. They just spend most of their time chatting and drinking coffee. I guess they're like any group of older people who sit around and tell stories. They just do it while a professional football team is training.
The other thing we noticed? Well, because it was indeed a holiday, there were a lot of families with kids there. One, in particular, caught our eye--
His parents were sitting several rows behind us, while he wanted to move up front so he could see everything going on, bringing with him a calendar, an autograph book, and a Sharpie, so he could have players sign stuff for him.
It was actually kinda cute. As was this--as practice was wrapping up and the team was coming off the pitch, the new Most Important Man in Loraine's Life, Tim Civeja, waved and smiled at her.
That made leaving Saarbrucken just a little bit cooler.
Our home for these past six days was Saarbrucken's Motel One, the tenth Motel One at which we've stayed while in Germany. We like them because they're kinda funky, and this time around we scored a great room--
One of the highlights of staying at a Motel One is their breakfast spread--
And, like all Motel Ones, they get their funkiness from tying a part of local history into their hotel. For instance, the one we always stay at in Leipzig commemorates the protests there that led to the downfall of the Berlin Wall, while the one in Saarbrucken also deals with a wall.
In their case, they have part of the old city defensive wall running right through their lobby--
You really don't see that at a lot of hotels. So if you're ever in Germany (or Austria, Scotland, or New York City), check out a Motel One.
Tell 'em Jim & Loraine sent you.
Since we did spend most of the day driving, there really isn't too much more to report, although before we left Saarbrucken I did take care of a tradition. The first time Loraine and I went to Europe, back in 2004, my niece Mallory was 6 years old, and desperately wanted to come with us. Since her mom wouldn't let her, we did the next best thing--we took along a bookmark she had given me and took a picture of it, just to show that she had indeed come to Europe with us. Well, Mallory's now an adult and a young business owner, but you know what?
She still comes to Europe with us each and every time we go. So Mallory, here's where you were hanging out in Saarbrucken--
Okay. Now the "fun" part begins. The first thing I need to do it to arrange all the chocolate we purchased into the containers I brought, so I can carry the most important pieces in my backpack and laptop bag and leave the lesser pieces in checked baggage. And typing that line reminds me:
Here's today's wall of chocolate--
Once I'm done Tetris-ing all the chocolate into the containers, we'll try to sleep a little bit. Our first flight leaves at 6:10 tomorrow morning, which means we have to get up around 3, which is actually 9 pm Thursday night in Marquette. We fly from here to London, stay there a few hours, fly from London to Chicago, spend a few hours there, and then (hopefully) end up in Marquette 24 hours after we woke up.
It's not the best way to spend a Friday, but I'm guessing it beats passing out from drinking too much beer in a German park, right?
The London to Chicago leg of our flight has free wi-fi and eight hours of time to kill, so I'll post one more of these epics with a bunch of pictures and stories I haven't used yet. After all, there are worse ways to pass a little time, right?
(jimkoskimqt@gmail.com)
Have a good trip back.
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