I awoke early in the morning to meet with Brett Aho at the Freiburg Main Station on Sunday January 18th. It was nine o’clock when I rose up from bed. I was to meet with Brett at ten. I did not feel in the best of spirits when I awoke. I did not go to bed until nearly 2 am the night before and my stomach was turning and my head was in a daze from drinking and my ears hurt a little from the loud punk rock music of the night before (read my post, “German Punk Rock”). But I managed to take a shower and grab a slice of bread and an apple as I walked out the door and headed for the station.
Brett and I were headed on a journey to find the gravestone of a man from the mid-1700’s. Brett had spent his previous summer – summer of 2008 – wondering and bumming around the Midwest. He met a lot of interesting people but most interesting was an old man from Indiana that described himself as nothing more than “an Old Pirate.” The Old Pirate and Brett made good conversation. When the Pirate learned that Brett was traveling to Germany in the fall, he asked Brett if he could travel to an obscure city near Kaiserslauten to find his great-great-great – maybe one or two more greats – grandfather’s tombstone. The last name we were to find was Bauer (like Jack Bauer). The city was called Ulmet. The Pirate knew that the chances of finding the tombstone were unlikely, but he asked that if Brett couldn’t find the tombstone to at least take pictures of the town and the Church where the pirate’s ancestors may have attended. He paid Brett a considerable amount to complete this deed.
So we started on a train ride that would take four hours with four different transfers. We purchased two all day Germany passes that cost about 20e each. It was a good deal, but since it was the cheap package, we were only able to take the slow trains. Otherwise we may have arrived in Ulmet much earlier.
The train ride was nice. The country side reminded me of eastern Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains. From the colors to the mountains, the streams and the houses that dotted the landscape, and the trees, everything was so green. Some of the stations we stopped at were in populated areas with grand-stations full of life and commerce and others were in smaller country towns. Our longest layover was only about 20 minutes. The travel was comfortable and easy.
Brett and I had good conversation on the trip. Among our conversations was the fact that this form of travel was so easy and convenient. Why couldn’t it be done in the States? I think there are a lot of reasons why Americans are so resistant to such forms of travel and I think among the most pressing are the convenience and the privacy of the automobile. But it would seem most convenient and efficient to connect our main cities in this way. Still, I don’t regret my vote against Proposition 1A at this time in California. A state that doesn’t even have a budget to pay its own employees can’t be thinking of investing billions of dollars into railroad tracks. Perhaps at a later time this would be wise, perhaps 10 years ago it would have been wise, and I understand that the construction of a railroad may create jobs, but will our teachers, police and firefighters lose their jobs for such projects? I may not know enough about it, but it was on my mind as I rode the rail from Freiburg to Ulmet.
The train trip was broken down nicely. Brett and I talked for the first stretch. We went over the plan for the day and talked a little about his trip to the Midwest last summer. On the second leg of the journey we both slept. Then it was time for lunch. So Brett made us sandwiches. We drank coffee from Brett’s thermos and watched the pristine landscape pass on the last two legs.
Finally we got off in a city near Ulmet and took a bus the rest of the way. The bus dropped us off in the middle of a city center. The first building that we saw was a bar called “Zum Steineenen Mann,” which auf Englisch means something like, “The Man of Stone.” It looked very manly and tough. A knight on a horse was painted on the side of the building.
It started to rain and I wished I had worn a better coat than my black coat. I should have brought my down-jacket, but I was warm, I only worried that I would get too wet.
The rain came and went and we didn’t get too wet. We started to explore the city. Brett asked a man on the street where we might find an old church. The church was an old Lutheran Church, called the Reformed Church of Christ – or something like that. The man gave us directions but we had some trouble finding the churches. First we mixed up the directions we received and turned right after the bridge instead of left. We realized our mistake then doubled back and took the left. Atop a small hill was an old stone church. We were hopeful, but as we approached the door we saw a sign that said it was built in the 1800s. While it was an old building, we knew it couldn’t be the church that we were supposed to find since the Pirate’s ancestor died in the 1700s.
So we moved on. We took a few stabs in different directions before we finally decided to stop for a quick smoke of roll your own tobacco and another sandwich. It was near impossible to roll the cigarette in the freezing weather, but it felt very European and the sandwiches felt very Bohemian, so it was all good.
We walked from one side of town, where the bus had dropped us off, to the complete other side. And alas, at the very edge of town a few meters off the road across a bridge in which trains traveled beneath was an old church. Oh but how perilous those dates were. This church was built roughly around the year 1060, which made it too old, not to mention catholic and our Pirate’s ancestor was Lutheran. “Ein problem.”
So we moved on and went back into town to see if there was yet another old church to be found.
We discovered signs on the bridges that showed a little tank on our walk back. It was interesting; we had no idea why an official sign had a picture of a tank. But we eventually found out.
I don’t know the exact directions we took. But let’s say we started on the west side of town. The first church was in the center and the second, really old church, was on the east side, so we decided to take a road that took us to the south side of Ulmet.
We were all but ready to turn around as the houses became sparse and the fields grew in size. But then we ran into a married couple that looked to be roughly 35 years old. Brett asked them if there was any other church in the town. The husband said that he didn’t know of any other churches than the two that we had already found and his Frau agreed. We were out of luck, and it started to rain, and it was cold.
They must have seen the despair on our faces because they invited us into their home only moments after informing us that we were out of churches to discover. They asked us if we’d like a cup of warm coffee. They spoke English, so I told them that coffee runs in my veins, and that we’d be very happy to enjoy their hospitality. So we walked a few meters and into their home.
We exchanged pleasantries. The husbands name was Thomas and the wife’s name was Gabi. They lived in an old house on a hill. The home looked modern despite being over a century old. Thomas took us on a house tour. They had two sons, a 12 year old and a 7 year old. They were both playing video games when we were on the house tour. Thomas told us that he built a lot of the new rooms himself in 1993. He was proud of his house. It was obvious that he had worked hard to keep it up.
We went into the kitchen for coffee. Thomas drank Scotch with his coffee, so Brett and I did the same. And then we got into a conversation about Whiskey. Thomas favored Scotch whiskey and said that he couldn’t stand American Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey. He said it was too sweet and he enjoyed the smoky taste of Scotch. I defended American Whiskey, but conceded that it was a subjective argument on my part. The conversation was sprinkled with laughs as rich as the coffee.
More interesting, and much more important, was our conversation about the, soon to be, new American administration. Thomas was probably more against President Bush than he was for President Obama. He compared Bush to Hitler. I had to object to that; had Bush been Hitler, his party would not have been defeated. The mere fact that his party was defeated in the last election, further, the fact that we have term limits, dismisses that argument without having to go into any of the policy decisions.
But we could all agree that President Obama will be good for America, and that he has already improved the States’ standing in the world, or, at the very least, in the Thomas and Gabi household.
We talked a lot about the city of Olmet and discovered why there were pictures of a tank on the signs by the bridge. Olmet was close to a U.S. military base. Gabi’s family had lived in the city for centuries. We asked her if she knew any Bauers. She said that she didn’t, but that she’d ask her father who was napping in the basement.
Time went by and we had finished our coffee and moved on to a beer and then another beer and then it had become dark outside and we feared that our exploration was over. No luck, except perhaps a greater luck of finding two friendly people in a small German village.
Although Thomas and Gabi invited us to spend the night, we knew that we had to leave. It was hard to leave, they insisted and offered to buy pizza for dinner, but we had to go. I had my first classes the next morning and there were a few individuals back in Freiburg which Brett wanted to associate with for the night. Thomas was concerned that we were going to miss the last bus. So we downed our last beers and walked with Thomas to the bus station a couple minutes before the last bus was to leave at roughly 5:30. We said goodbye to Thomas and vowed to make an effort to see him again sometime.
Well we reached the train station to find that the next train out of town wasn’t to leave for another half hour. We walked up the street and found some old statues, but we mostly froze our asses off.
The train arrived. Brett and I studied from our books on most of the ride back. I think we both slept some as well. I ate my first kaubob (spelling?), which is Turkish fast food (think cheap Mexican food), at one of the station where we had a 20 minute lay over. The food was good, but my stomach didn’t much like it. I didn’t get sick, but I couldn’t eat the whole thing. I’m sure I’ll be fine after a few months here.
We pulled into the Freiburg main station a little after 11pm. I was dead tired, but very glad I made the trip with Brett.
Brett and I were headed on a journey to find the gravestone of a man from the mid-1700’s. Brett had spent his previous summer – summer of 2008 – wondering and bumming around the Midwest. He met a lot of interesting people but most interesting was an old man from Indiana that described himself as nothing more than “an Old Pirate.” The Old Pirate and Brett made good conversation. When the Pirate learned that Brett was traveling to Germany in the fall, he asked Brett if he could travel to an obscure city near Kaiserslauten to find his great-great-great – maybe one or two more greats – grandfather’s tombstone. The last name we were to find was Bauer (like Jack Bauer). The city was called Ulmet. The Pirate knew that the chances of finding the tombstone were unlikely, but he asked that if Brett couldn’t find the tombstone to at least take pictures of the town and the Church where the pirate’s ancestors may have attended. He paid Brett a considerable amount to complete this deed.
So we started on a train ride that would take four hours with four different transfers. We purchased two all day Germany passes that cost about 20e each. It was a good deal, but since it was the cheap package, we were only able to take the slow trains. Otherwise we may have arrived in Ulmet much earlier.
The train ride was nice. The country side reminded me of eastern Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains. From the colors to the mountains, the streams and the houses that dotted the landscape, and the trees, everything was so green. Some of the stations we stopped at were in populated areas with grand-stations full of life and commerce and others were in smaller country towns. Our longest layover was only about 20 minutes. The travel was comfortable and easy.
Brett and I had good conversation on the trip. Among our conversations was the fact that this form of travel was so easy and convenient. Why couldn’t it be done in the States? I think there are a lot of reasons why Americans are so resistant to such forms of travel and I think among the most pressing are the convenience and the privacy of the automobile. But it would seem most convenient and efficient to connect our main cities in this way. Still, I don’t regret my vote against Proposition 1A at this time in California. A state that doesn’t even have a budget to pay its own employees can’t be thinking of investing billions of dollars into railroad tracks. Perhaps at a later time this would be wise, perhaps 10 years ago it would have been wise, and I understand that the construction of a railroad may create jobs, but will our teachers, police and firefighters lose their jobs for such projects? I may not know enough about it, but it was on my mind as I rode the rail from Freiburg to Ulmet.
The train trip was broken down nicely. Brett and I talked for the first stretch. We went over the plan for the day and talked a little about his trip to the Midwest last summer. On the second leg of the journey we both slept. Then it was time for lunch. So Brett made us sandwiches. We drank coffee from Brett’s thermos and watched the pristine landscape pass on the last two legs.
Finally we got off in a city near Ulmet and took a bus the rest of the way. The bus dropped us off in the middle of a city center. The first building that we saw was a bar called “Zum Steineenen Mann,” which auf Englisch means something like, “The Man of Stone.” It looked very manly and tough. A knight on a horse was painted on the side of the building.
It started to rain and I wished I had worn a better coat than my black coat. I should have brought my down-jacket, but I was warm, I only worried that I would get too wet.
The rain came and went and we didn’t get too wet. We started to explore the city. Brett asked a man on the street where we might find an old church. The church was an old Lutheran Church, called the Reformed Church of Christ – or something like that. The man gave us directions but we had some trouble finding the churches. First we mixed up the directions we received and turned right after the bridge instead of left. We realized our mistake then doubled back and took the left. Atop a small hill was an old stone church. We were hopeful, but as we approached the door we saw a sign that said it was built in the 1800s. While it was an old building, we knew it couldn’t be the church that we were supposed to find since the Pirate’s ancestor died in the 1700s.
So we moved on. We took a few stabs in different directions before we finally decided to stop for a quick smoke of roll your own tobacco and another sandwich. It was near impossible to roll the cigarette in the freezing weather, but it felt very European and the sandwiches felt very Bohemian, so it was all good.
We walked from one side of town, where the bus had dropped us off, to the complete other side. And alas, at the very edge of town a few meters off the road across a bridge in which trains traveled beneath was an old church. Oh but how perilous those dates were. This church was built roughly around the year 1060, which made it too old, not to mention catholic and our Pirate’s ancestor was Lutheran. “Ein problem.”
So we moved on and went back into town to see if there was yet another old church to be found.
We discovered signs on the bridges that showed a little tank on our walk back. It was interesting; we had no idea why an official sign had a picture of a tank. But we eventually found out.
I don’t know the exact directions we took. But let’s say we started on the west side of town. The first church was in the center and the second, really old church, was on the east side, so we decided to take a road that took us to the south side of Ulmet.
We were all but ready to turn around as the houses became sparse and the fields grew in size. But then we ran into a married couple that looked to be roughly 35 years old. Brett asked them if there was any other church in the town. The husband said that he didn’t know of any other churches than the two that we had already found and his Frau agreed. We were out of luck, and it started to rain, and it was cold.
They must have seen the despair on our faces because they invited us into their home only moments after informing us that we were out of churches to discover. They asked us if we’d like a cup of warm coffee. They spoke English, so I told them that coffee runs in my veins, and that we’d be very happy to enjoy their hospitality. So we walked a few meters and into their home.
We exchanged pleasantries. The husbands name was Thomas and the wife’s name was Gabi. They lived in an old house on a hill. The home looked modern despite being over a century old. Thomas took us on a house tour. They had two sons, a 12 year old and a 7 year old. They were both playing video games when we were on the house tour. Thomas told us that he built a lot of the new rooms himself in 1993. He was proud of his house. It was obvious that he had worked hard to keep it up.
We went into the kitchen for coffee. Thomas drank Scotch with his coffee, so Brett and I did the same. And then we got into a conversation about Whiskey. Thomas favored Scotch whiskey and said that he couldn’t stand American Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey. He said it was too sweet and he enjoyed the smoky taste of Scotch. I defended American Whiskey, but conceded that it was a subjective argument on my part. The conversation was sprinkled with laughs as rich as the coffee.
More interesting, and much more important, was our conversation about the, soon to be, new American administration. Thomas was probably more against President Bush than he was for President Obama. He compared Bush to Hitler. I had to object to that; had Bush been Hitler, his party would not have been defeated. The mere fact that his party was defeated in the last election, further, the fact that we have term limits, dismisses that argument without having to go into any of the policy decisions.
But we could all agree that President Obama will be good for America, and that he has already improved the States’ standing in the world, or, at the very least, in the Thomas and Gabi household.
We talked a lot about the city of Olmet and discovered why there were pictures of a tank on the signs by the bridge. Olmet was close to a U.S. military base. Gabi’s family had lived in the city for centuries. We asked her if she knew any Bauers. She said that she didn’t, but that she’d ask her father who was napping in the basement.
Time went by and we had finished our coffee and moved on to a beer and then another beer and then it had become dark outside and we feared that our exploration was over. No luck, except perhaps a greater luck of finding two friendly people in a small German village.
Although Thomas and Gabi invited us to spend the night, we knew that we had to leave. It was hard to leave, they insisted and offered to buy pizza for dinner, but we had to go. I had my first classes the next morning and there were a few individuals back in Freiburg which Brett wanted to associate with for the night. Thomas was concerned that we were going to miss the last bus. So we downed our last beers and walked with Thomas to the bus station a couple minutes before the last bus was to leave at roughly 5:30. We said goodbye to Thomas and vowed to make an effort to see him again sometime.
Well we reached the train station to find that the next train out of town wasn’t to leave for another half hour. We walked up the street and found some old statues, but we mostly froze our asses off.
The train arrived. Brett and I studied from our books on most of the ride back. I think we both slept some as well. I ate my first kaubob (spelling?), which is Turkish fast food (think cheap Mexican food), at one of the station where we had a 20 minute lay over. The food was good, but my stomach didn’t much like it. I didn’t get sick, but I couldn’t eat the whole thing. I’m sure I’ll be fine after a few months here.
We pulled into the Freiburg main station a little after 11pm. I was dead tired, but very glad I made the trip with Brett.
Below is Brett Aho's video doc. of our trip
The country looks very nice! You guys are very adventurous. But you did take a picture of a gravestone, so who's is that?
ReplyDeletesounds like you guys are having a good time over there. Keep up the blogs, I'll be reading.
ReplyDelete