Mainz Germany

[Kristie]

So, as you probably noticed from the pix.pilotfamilies.com, I went traveling this past weekend on a 2 day journey over to Germany with a coworker of mine. it was actually 4 days, but it takes a full day to travel over there and a full day back = 2 days in country.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take too many camera pictures because we made one VERY LARGE mistake.... we checked our main luggage in at ATL, got bumped off the first flight and put on the final flight to FRA.. and somehow (gee, wonder how it would have happened..) our bags didn't make it onto the last flight with us. We figure the ground crew took the bags off of the flight we were supposed to be on (since we got bumped) and left them sitting around too long, thereby missing the flight we WERE on. Either the ground crews are too busy and don't have enuff people or they were just being plain lazy cuz it was only an hour between flights. but anyways...murphy's law hit us 4 times this weekend...

We didn't make the first flight (murphy's law #1), we were set for biz elite on the final flight (we were #1 & #2 on the non-rev listing)...but the gate agents put the platinum/medallion members up front since coach was oversold.. therefore, we ended up in coach (murphy's law #2). because we were bumped and ground crew wasn't on their toes with our bags, our luggage didn't go with us (murphy's law #3)...because we didn't have our ducks in a row with knowing the train schedule, we didn't make it up the Rhein as we had planned and since we had to buy necessities to get thru a day minus luggage, we lost a lot of much needed tour time(murphy's law #4).

so, we learned some pretty good lessons! Coach really isn't that bad going overseas... the only problem i had was that the seat cushion was flat (didn't know i could change it out).. thereby making it uncomfortable to sleep in for too long in one position and it was difficult to get in/out of on a consistent basis to stand up or go to the restroom etc. the food was pretty good, I actually got some excellent sleep from time to time and heck, in the end.. we got to where we wanted to go!

We learned that we CAN live without having all of the regular things we use on a daily basis.. we found a drougerie (drugstore) and bought some soap, shampoo, german underwear (very comfy!!)and some other essentials to get thru our first day minus luggage. We learned we can live out of a backpack for 2 days with just the minor necessities. we learned that it's very important to NOT check luggage in going overseas.. but it's ok to check it in coming back home - since eventually, if it doesn't travel with you, it will get home! hahahaha

I learned to bring at least one plug converter with me so i can charge my cell phone since the drugstore didn't have any converters. I learned that a sparse hotel is actually the bomb of all hotels!

We stayed at Hotel Konigshof right near the train station in Mainz ( Hotel Konigshof Website )... sparse hotel, only offers the essentials, but extremely friendly staff.. and very comfortable for a european hotel! I really enjoyed it there and will definately recommend it! It did have internet access for 8Euro's for 24 hrs with television, NICE hot shower (good water flow, albeit small showering area - 2x2) which is important to me, esp the first day.. free brekkie and overall, a really great hotel! It is situated next to a casino & cabaret but I didn't see it as being in a bad area of town, even though the locals called the train station the "bad area" of town...interesting how their defintion of "bad area" is different from what we americans would think of as a "bad area"...but I would definately recommend the hotel!

Each day, we hit at least 5 bars and drank at least 5 different types of bier (in a sense, bar hopping) and on Friday night, we met up with a local who knew very little english while we knew very little german.. we all tried to communicate using Rick Steve's German Vocab guide and all i've got to say is IT SUCKS! DO NOT buy that book! I mean you would never ask someone "what planet are you from" now would you? sheesh.. i was never so embarassed in my life after trying to communicate using german and/or english and that book!!!! never the less, we were able to talk music and bier at least.. our newfound friend showed us a couple of new/better bars and a heavy metal club as well... well, to me, it looked goth but it was actually a heavy metal club! so we had a good time with that...

Saturday, DH decided to join us.. so we picked him up at the airport and we were able to pick up our luggage as well... but since we were leaving the next day (today), we didn't even use anything in the luggage (interesting huh?!)...so saturday was spent trying to get up the rhein, only to find out the east side of the train line was down for maintenance and it was too late to catch the west line.. so we found some food, went bar hopping again and watched the town put up their christmas market festival that was starting today (we missed it [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]).. I got some pretty good photos and will put them up when i get a chance this week...

if anyone has any questions, let me know! this one was definately an experience in murphy's law!!! haha but it's good to know that i can live off of the minor essentials and that I CAN suvive a coach overseas flight! hahahaha