Europe with joe
SUNDAY, 9/13/92: [Notes on back of puzzle, which unfortunately I threw out when I got back from trip! But then I DO find the puzzle in the stack of souvenirs, and all it says is: "10:01PM: Seven-hour flight; begin to move; 2/3 full; off at 10:25; pill at 10:35, forced to drink soda and THAT works at 12:25. Up at 9:20, also change my watch---TWO hours to go!" I must sadly admit that none of that makes much sense, but that seems to be what it says!] Joe came over here, I'd packed into two bags before he arrived, we called the car service and got to the airport over the BQE and the Van Wyck in FINE time, despite my worries, and found the Pakistanis with LOADS of luggage and a FULL plane, so we had to sit separately, which I didn't mind because I got a FULL THREE SEATS in the back, and the smokers didn't disturb me very much, but I DIDN'T realize that Pakistani Airlines doesn't serve booze, and I felt too self-conscious to get my Southern Comfort out of Joe's carry-on bag, so I just swallowed the Rohypnol with some water, told the stewardess I didn't want any dinner, and somehow managed to get to sleep about 11:15 local time, which would be 5:15 AM European time, but the flight was so smooth I never even felt agitated!
MONDAY, 9/14/92: Wake at 8:15 (which means I slept three hours) and breakfast on bread, and land at 11:05. Quickly out to car at 12:15 and drive toward Alzay, where we see an old castle and quaint streets. Then to Worms to the Cafe Lott, for lunch, which Joe wrote out for me on the first page of my notebook: Königen pastete; Gefult mit ragout fin; Toulouser art. (Viel zartes [tender] kalbfleisch und feinstes geflügel); Pear Helene; Vanilla eis w. Pear; Chocolate w. cream; Pear William; for 33 marks, and out at 2:45 to Cathedral, bare moth-eaten crypt, but ornate carvings of five sculpted orders. Leave around 3:30. Through to Speyer, finding "residents only" parking at 4:35 for the HUGE crypt and ENORMOUS church---LOTS of video and buying two books of Speyer and one of Worms. Walk around town for Einbahnstrasse, and NICE homes and neat neighborhoods, finding TRUTZPFAFF hotel, which we returned to at 7, had some Harvey's Bristol Cream, and down at 7:45 (I'm EXHAUSTED) for dinner: my GREAT Goulash soup and Joe's VERY hot and fatty beef consomme, my delicious pork and mushrooms in cream sauce with potato croquettes and Joe's breaded pork steak with French fries. Up at 8:45 and I COLLAPSE in sleep, Joe saying I SNORED various times and he WOKE for "construction noise" next door and loud noises upstairs for a short time. With earplugs I slept RIGHT through to 7:05! OVER ten hours for first time in MANY MONTHS.
TUESDAY, 9/15/92: Chat nicely with Joe about dinner, the hotel, and our sleeping till 7:25, which I jot notes from yesterday, and now at 7:35 he goes for a shower and I note two dreams: 1) Dick C., Dennis, a younger guy, and I are all involved in sex. Dennis has an even BIGGER cock that's quite hard, but a NARROW part at the base makes one wonder if he hasn't been STRETCHING it. Dick's cock is small but hard, juicy with cum, and sexy, and some of our sex-play involves him in a soapy bathtub and my pushing him FAR under for stimulating effects. Then I wake in darkness, have pleasure in the luxury of sleeping without worrying about the trip or preparations FOR it, and back to sleep for 2) going down to Mrs. J.'s apartment, with a GLASS panel at the side, and there's a YOUNG woman who looks like a young Mrs. J. and I say, "You must be her cousin," and she agrees. Then there's a crew of men in MY (different) apartment who seem to be tearing it apart for her possession, some of them constructing materials that are wrecking the place, but it all "seems right." Wake at 7:05, as I said, and ENJOY the peace of having SLEPT (offer Joe my spare earplugs) and write this to 7:42 and get up for breakfast. Good rolls, honey, butter in double-large pats, and GREAT hot chocolate, tough on burnt tongue from last night. Walk to Cathedral at 9 to look at squared (?) squinches and Egyptian-lotus capitals halfway up, and try to get to river past nice gardens (and Chippendale ad) but it's too far. Museum CLOSED its Salian collection and not yet opened its NEW collection, and the gold hat isn't part of the 6-7 rooms open to view, so our 2 marks rather wasted, yet we take brochures. Back to hotel to pay 153 marks, NO credit cards taken, and I say we’ve GOT to save CASH. Down dead end, out WRONG way and end up in NORTH trying to go EAST, and I DEMAND we get better MAPS. Joe HATES highway to Heilbronn, trucks too slow at 70 kph and cars too fast at 140 kph. Flat countryside and vineyards and grainy clouds that later clear up nicely. Through Crailsheim and get lost AGAIN, going WEST not east, and at noon stop in Schwabish Hall, since he wants to see the famous chandelier. Park behind church; great, old square with church on HUGE stairs and PERFECTLY picturesque town square and Rathaus and hotels and half-timbered shops. Down to FABULOUS DHF(?) museum in six houses on seven levels, including geology, farm life, elegant Rococo Musiksaal, rich sleighs, pistol-shop advertising signs, marble and alabaster saints and men eating LEGS, and SOUND tracks of horse-sleigh bells in attic. GREAT place and even a listing for the MASTODON tusk we saw in CHURCH. Out at 1:30 (GREAT views of bridges across hills and joining houses) and down to wurst lunch and my alcohol-less Claustholer (?) and his beer that made him decidedly loopy, but good for six-mark lunch on park border. Back to look at shops and overstay 1:07 deadline for parking to 1:30. Argue about right way to Gross Comburg and try and try two ways and finally find it, park, and girl tells us in English how to walk up. Students and school and few tourists. I remember chandelier, which Joe loves, and sexy pulpit-bottom men, but crypt is now less than I remember and the stonework on vestry towers (not seen before) Joe loves. Around "Rundgang" for plains and houses, and down to car and BACK to Schwabish Hall and AGAIN get lost looking for Dinkelsbuhl. Onto lesser road, which he likes, but goes to right curves too often and goes too FAST, only to be passed by locals going FASTER, but they KNOW the road. Dinkelsbuhl is LOVELY, with walls and GREAT wide streets and shops and St. George church and new ironwork and St. Sebastian altar and sexy tourists. Out to walk up hill to tower and down to dessert of vanilla sauce on apple tart for me and plum tart for him and coffee and hot chocolate for twenty marks. Back to car about 4 PM, he awake from coffee, and drive to Nordlingen, which looks quiet and BORING, so we climb St. Michael's tower, I take photos, and down at 6 to decide to leave for Nederbron, even passing THAT because there are no hotels, and get to Heidesheim; it's dark at 7 PM and find Rahn Hotel for 120- mark room that Joe's too exhausted from 292-foot tower to refuse. GREAT salads and toughish pork cutlet for me (but BIG) and good beef for him, his huge bread balls and much of my French fries uneaten in smoky dining room. They switch a 26-mark wine on us for a thin rosé-type that Joe dislikes but is OK. Up at 10PM and Act 2 of Peter Sellar's Cosi that I like and Joe sleeps through. At 10:30 I shut off TV and lights and he takes glasses off and I'm DEAD to sleep, room nicer than last night's for more marks.
WEDNESDAY, 9/16/92: Wake at 7 and lie to 7:15, about NINE hours' sleep. Joe snores and wakes at 7:30. We chat, he showers, I write to 8:15 and up to shower. Down to join Joe at 8:35 for four kinds of cold cuts (NOT an egg under the cloth wing of a dummy chicken) and a roll and mediocre hot chocolate. Check out (they TAKE his AmEx card, to his surprise and my pleasure, for 178 marks) and put stuff in car and drive up to Schloss Hellenstein at 9:35 to climb tower and look over cloudy town, then down to FOUR museums: 1) carriages in a four-floor granary with transparent floors in place, 2) the "regular" museum of fossils and native costumes and old artifacts and medieval clothes and toys and rooms, then to tour for 3) Romerbad in GREAT basement display, and to 4) Kunstmuseum to find that the new exhibit isn't done yet. To square for his coffee and my ice and we drive to Aalen to Thermal BATH by mistake first, then to town at 1:40 to find Limes Museum at 1. We FIRST thought the State Theatre might be the Limes Museum and parked there, so we went back and Joe noticed the State Theatre had a restaurant---chairs and tables on a closed terrace. I find door "Zur Restaurant" and it's OPEN, so I go up and the RESTAURANT is open. We order a snail Vorspeise and beer, knowing it will be light, and get a TINY piece of quiche that we fear IS all of it for 12 marks. Ask for the check and she's stunned: "Shee didn't serve our MAIN COURSE yet!" Good laugh! Finish lunch by 1:30 and get into the museum for stores and pottery and, yes, only ONE statue Joe thinks is PLASTER. Out about 2:15, WARM, and decide to drive SOUTH to Castle Lichtenstein. LOTS of traffic in Aalen and find directions to Schwabish Gmund for the hill-view of Hohenstauffen. Drive through and around Schwabish Gmund in heavy traffic and get caught behind trucks and he complains about diesel fumes. Try to cool car but we have not got an air conditioner! We're both exasperated before getting to Hohenstauffen, but the hill village, church, and shaded fields are nice as we go to the top, where the haze makes the view clouded. To hilltop in crowds, pee, and look at shirtless plump German in ice cream shop, and down to car to find directions to Goppingen on map and down to THAT large town, AGAIN getting lost on way to Kirchlin. Find Uhingen and at LAST a sign to Kirchlin, and there's a long slow road to ANOTHER awful town, and look for Owen, in hills and lost, looking at Neuffen and stark bluffs of Hohenstauffen about 5 PM. Through tiny Bewen and turn back and forth and FINALLY find sign for Urach, and enter town at 5:50, picking up hotel guide at information door, putting in 50 pfennig for parking and off to wander town. Pretty little place, some nice tourists, he loves the fountain and church tower, and into the church, of the Evangelists, at 6 for colored marbles and a nice pulpit-top. Out to feed meter at 6:18 and find a few hotels FULL, so we try a few more and THEY'RE full. He's walking exhausted and finally we try Ratstube for 115 marks and say YES! Back to just-expiring car at 6:40 and drive way around to parking lot and get into small room for booze and TV. I write a bit, watch news, and down to dinner at 7:15, no real SPECIALS, and I have Jagerwallet (?) beef, with GREAT spetzle, and he has fabulously tender and creamy calves' liver and pudding, both with big salads, and a decent red wine for 26 marks, for a total of 73 marks, getting close to $200 for total expense. He enjoys the group at the next tables and I fantasize manageress is gay with tall waitress as lover, and all CLIENTELE as gay. Out about 8:30 to walk almost deserted town, past Chinese restaurant, Four-Seasons restaurant, river and falls and border walk and school and old buildings and church-organ playing, and shops and kids in square, and posters and stations and back to center at 10 to look at TV again; they GOT the message that our room is for two, so we get two NICE towels and Joe gets a pillow and a quilt for his bed. To sleep at 10:45, again exhausted.
THURSDAY, 9/17/92: Wake as Joe gets up at 6:15 to pee, and lie a bit and up at 6:40 to shower and wash hair in the gel for the first time, putting peroxide on the good-looking toe, then Odor-Eaters, changing underwear and will change shirt, hoping to clean up gray one at Ruth's in Konstanz tomorrow. Out in heat from bathroom heater (hot water ABOUT gave out in good shower stall) and dress and back into bed to write, since Joe is STILL sleeping. He wakes at 7:45 but is snoring again as I finish to date at 7:50, eager for breakfast and to get into the day! Start reading In Between the Sheets in a chair by the bathroom door, the light from the bathroom the only one that wouldn't bother him, and he grumbles into his shower at 8:03, so I can put lights on and start packing. [Restaurant Waaghaus in Gottlieben: Three green cheeses: Fourme d'Albert, Roquefort, Blue d'Auvergne; and three creme Brillat basics: for Brie, Camembert, and Chevre. Lachsforellen (Salmon-Trout---fresh-water salmon-like glory for two people) and Perche Almandine; we started with Pfifferlinge (chanterelles) in cream AND pfifferlinge salad, then assorted rich cremes and fruits, mango soufflé, and poached pear (which was HARD) and cinnamon ice cream. Best for lots of laughs for 276 Swiss Francs.] Leave at 8:30 for breakfast and get lost (natch) leaving town and driving toward Lichtenstein, see it from below and photo it at 10, and up hills to find entry by 10:50, saying twenty minutes till tour. Lots of people in little rooms and great views. Out at 11:50 and down toward Castle Hohenzollern, getting there at 1 and having tour at 1:30 after walking up steep hill. Tour till 2:15 and have wurst and beer in open terrace and down toward Rottweil at 3. Climb hill to Hochturm and down to church, second church, and schnickel and tea at 4, then to Benedictine Monastery at 4:55, just closing, but we get in and out by 5:10 and start toward Baden Baden. Up to Fremdenstadt OK but to Bad Wildbad and traffic and twisty road and then TUNNEL under main part of town and BACK to park and look at Congress Hall and State Theatre and to Information desk and find that the concert isn't at Alte Banhof but AT Concert Salle IN Casino! Dash over at 7:50 and woman says, "Ruth!" and HUGS Joe and it's James and Susan from Regensburg for the show. I video three pieces and we're out at 10:30 to Casino restaurant. NO daily menu, and soup for 4.50 is TINY, but Italian plate is OK and special-for-us hot fudge is GREAT. Public-relations woman gets us a room "for 120" at 11 PM and Joe gets key and we're there at 11:40. I FALL into bed and sleep INSTANTLY.
FRIDAY, 9/18/92: Up at 7:50 and Joe's EATEN and there's no water. Breakfast and pay 150 marks, and I phone Auberge de l'Ill for 12:30 lunch! Drive 10:15 to Selestat and Illhaursen at 12:10. Groseille in champagne for Joe and kir for me in the garden, then GREAT dinner to 3 PM. Down to Colmar for Issenheim altarpiece and frescos and courtyard and photos and video and leave at 4 to get to car and drive to Frieburg at 5 to TERRIBLE traffic to 6, then hit main road to Konstanz and get in at 7:20, Joe almost falling asleep. She's not there when we get in, but arrives after Joe goes to john and I'm in the john. He wants no more food, so we talk, drink, and have meatballs and Italian sausage and bread about 9:30, and fix up beds and sofa in room and get to sleep at 10:40 after doing teeth completely, even though I'm exhausted.
SATURDAY, 9/19/92: Up at 7:40 and STILL feel tired. Shower and chat while Joe goes for cheese and ham and rolls, and we talk till 10AM, then we're out to walk town, seeing shopping centers and the old church, which Joe loves for sketchy frescos and old bronze plates he thinks are new. To train station for Joe to change $100 for 71 marks and 60 Swiss Francs for $50 each. I try buying three-mark plug but it doesn't fit and I return it as Joe realizes he has no passport! BACK to house and then to car and drive south to St. Gallen. I'm TIRED and haze is blocking sea and mountain views, but we get there at 1 PM and try for map at train station and I ask at hotel and try "Do It Yourself" on floor 1 for plug and STILL not get! Out to walk to the Cloister for two weddings outside churches and we look at smelly bar at 2:30 for restaurant and see fourth-floor restaurant in Movenpick and up for Joe's salad and my iced tea and ham sandwich and plum tart for 9.50, Joe's salad and beer 9.30, and to toilet and down to Cloister and past barrier to altar and GREAT choir stalls and inlaid wood and odd gray-green decor around dark paintings. Out to Stiftbibliotek and great carvings and old books and out in fifteen minutes to get into stark St. Lawrence church, then buy chestnuts and eat them on way back to car at 4:30. Lost AGAIN on the way back and drive through Goran and find road and Germany at last, and get in at 6 PM, she's back to say we have 7:30 appointment at restaurant. Dress in suit that I've SEWN because I RIPPED back on DOOR handle. Out at 7:15 and get to ROMANTIC restaurant at 7:30, on Rhine, but downstairs is loud and smoky. GREAT Lachsforellen and perch and good wine selections by Ruth and great food for 272 marks. Back DRUNK and bed 10:30 TIRED.
SUNDAY, 9/20/92: Up at 8 and Joe wants NO breakfast and I have rolls and juice (my mouth has acid sores) and ham, and we drive to Mainau Island at 11AM and walk over shallow, fish-filled, duck-covered waters to jammed, twelve-mark entry and dahlia wall where Joe and I put in "Tartan" for best flower for 2000-mark first prize. Photos of flower-animals and up at 1 PM to jammed diner, where I have kassler ripchen---ham/pork cutlets and sauerkraut and potato salad, while she has a salad and Joe has ravioli and we share a mixed dessert the waiter fought with Ruth about getting. Out at 2:30, full, and walk slowly and lethargically down to car, getting apples from an adjoining orchard, and drive to Birnau for Baroque church and singing, then out to Schloss Kirchberg for three 1.5-mark wine samples and vineyards and jammed tables to 4 PM. Then wait in traffic for Meersburg-Konstanz ferry for eleven marks from 5:15-5:40, and then over the waters from 5:40 to 6, and drive back home where I LIE DOWN from 6:15-7:15, and then up to dress and off to Arenenburg to find Heldenhof restaurant they'd liked before. In at 8:15 to be told it's too LATE for seven-course tasting menu with Rehmedallions, and they don't have venison as a SEPARATE entree, so they share the special lamb and I have veal and cream, rather boring, with spetzle and a GREAT flaming pear William dessert. Out at 10:30 and back by 10:45 and bed at 11:35 TOTALLY wiped out.
MONDAY, 9/21/92: Wake at 7:15 and finish her paté and rolls and ham for breakfast and get out at 9:25 to car and drive for blocks before I look for book for events and it's not in my bag! Joe says he saw it on the glass table. Drive back and door's open and I dash up to hear her in the shower. Rap and call and she opens and I'd left the book and pen with the France book with Jean-Jacques' number, which I'd tried Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and even Monday morning at work to find I haven't the right code. Brother never home either. Out at 9:45 and drive to Singen, then Schwennigen-Villingen exit at Daunaushingen to highway to Offenburg, where I think Strasburg AIRPORT is not what we want, but we have to go up to ACHERN, out of the way. BUT we cross Rhine with GREAT ease to France and find entry to A4, which we decide to take, AND Joe finally had a good shit (he had such stomach pains he thought he had an appendicitis attack RATHER than that he had to shit!) and we bound along on highway to Nancy, stopping for coffee and going ABOUT three kilometers for one franc, paying 100 francs in tolls and get out past Chalons-sur-Marne about 6 PM, down A23, new, and try to Montemenil but get road to Sezanne, the N4, and he likes the drive. Weather from Konstanz GRAY except SOME sun on Mainau and Birnau, and SOME light through Schwarzwald in AM, but clouds down again in France and at 7PM it's so dark I can barely read the Michelin. We debate staying OUTSIDE Paris and try Le Manoir in Fontenay-Thesigny but Joe refuses to pay 900 francs after almost driving OFF the soft shoulder in turning around when there was no arrow on route D402. Nice place but he REFUSES to spend over $60 and says, "I feel better, the rain [heavy, with LIGHTNING!] woke me up; let's go into Paris." Into edge at 8 and get lost five times before we stop at Hotel Notre Dame (Joe says, "It's cheap," and it's 1030 for a night, and I try "Hotel des Argonauts" and a CUTE guy says, "Only one single for 300" and I'm TEMPTED. Out to car and drive to Avenue des Etudes near University, which Joe knows, and we ask ABOUT six full and six too expensive hotels before finding Hotel Royal Cardinal for 356 including breakfast. Up to SMALL room and down to find Les Fontaines at the foot of the Rue du Pantheon, Eiffel Tower in distance. Students eat expensive food! Joe has Andouillet, which I hate garbage-taste of, and I have chicken in mushrooms, good with three kinds of potatoes, and have 3/4 burgundy for 75 francs ($15) and pay with Visa for 230. Back weary at 11 and get car and park in FRONT of hotel. Up and pee in WC, not sink, and fall into bed to wake, thinking someone's at door or on balcony, and sleep after peeing again.
TUESDAY, 9/22/92: Up at 7:45 and down at 8:05 after quick wash and find Picasso and Louvre closed TUESDAY! But d'Orsay is open. Find that breakfast is served in the ROOM, so back up to eat and clean teeth and out at 8:55 to go by car through HEAVY traffic to d'Orsay, parking at 9:35, and onto LONG line for entry at 10:15 for 31 francs. GRAND PLACE! INCREDIBLE sexy, sketchy Carpeaux drawings, models from Rodin, dozens of Renoirs, Seurat's "Circus," ROOMS of Gauguin, Rousseau's "La Guerre," and "La charmeuse de serpents." Signacs and Bonnards and Chauvannes and Sisleys and Vuillards by handsful. Chairs by Bugatti and cabinets with cockheads and statuettes and enormous bronzes and marbles. AND cute, dazed-eyed, teenage men! ROOM of 19 Gauchet collection Van Goghs! 32 Redons! 12 Manet pastels, 3 Millet pastels, and Chauvannes and Toulouse-Lautrec. Tourists looking out over Sacre Coeur. "What are they looking at?" "Oh, those three domes." 23 Cezannes, 21 Renoirs (including two dancers, the fat bathers, and fabulous silky portraits), 21 Monets. Down for lots of Corot (HUGE!) and price guides for 250 and 150 and decide 100 francs for GUIDE is enough. Joe pays for car at 11:36 and I sit at 1:15-1:20 to finish this and MUST pee and out to feed 12 francs till we meet at car at 3:30! Can't put receipt INTO car, so HOPE windshield is OK! Return to go back UP the six escalators to the OTHER "Little Tower" to see what THAT has beneath, knowing I can go to the Legion of Honor Museum after 2 PM if I get bored having seen EVERYTHING at d'Orsay: pastels, paintings, things, furniture, sculpture. AH, other tower is IMPRESSIONISM, which I saw. And the other tower WAS Guimard, but now it's empty. Video goes off AFTER Art Moderne room for Bernard property in 1909. The Rodin bronzes here have FIGLEAFS! EXHAUSTED by 2 PM and go out and across to Legion of Honor Museum and pay ten francs for entry and it's just French and foreign ORDERS and medals and famous people. Out at 3:20 because there's NOTHING more to see, and there's JOE---he'd gone to car at 2 to find slip STILL there under windshield wiper. We go to a corner bistro for a 1/2-liter beer for me for 32 francs and 1/4-liter Vittel for Joe for 16.50 or $3.30! Leave just before 4 (blue meter maid never shows up) and we drive circuitous way to Musee Carnavalet by 4:30, when it closes at 5:40, and Joe wanders around the Place de Vosges and has a coffee and looks at the menu at L'Ambroisie, with Lobster Bisque at 310 francs ($32!), LOWEST appetizers at 180 francs, and the lowest entree about 250 francs, going up to 480! Astounding! Joe says it would be $200 for dinner---you COULD squeak by for $100, but what would the WINE list be like when even a CHEAP wine in a CHEAP place is 88 francs! I pay 16 francs for Carnavalet, they wouldn't reduce it for only an hour, and I race through Stone Age things (some sexy Mercurys) in ONE house, then upstairs on "Seine Irate," of its floods of 1910 that covered base of d'Orsay and rooms in various palaces, and the 1970 flood that left the Park of Vert-Galant precisely awash! Across to OTHER side and guy asks for ticket AGAIN. I hunt, can't find it, and stalk off as he says, "S'il vous plait," and I retort, grimly, "No, s'il VOUS plait!" Race through old rooms, taking quick photos of Fouquet/Mucha interior/exterior and of Marcel Proust's bedroom. Out at 5:35, having see it ALL, and Joe's at the car. We walk past L'Ambroisie on the way to the Hotel Sully, where I spend ten francs for a "World Heritage Map" to catch me up to date, and out back to look at odd church and end up at Seine and Canal and new Opera House at Bastille. Find Bofinger on the way back to car and price 166-franc menu that starts at 7:30. It's 6:30, so we go back to corner bistro and have beers and look at men and d'Orsay guide and sexy foreigners (and LESS sexy Parisians) pass and get sixth or seventh table to be filled, and I have smoked salmon-wrapped egg en gelee and duck (toughish) in peaches (delicious) and good cheese-topped creamed potatoes and again peaches in red fruit for dessert, while Joe delights in (ALL) six oysters and lamb and Iles Flottant. He has house white and I have house red, OK, and had left neighbors on honeymoon from North Carolina and on right, Americans whom we ignore. Out at 9:30 but it's RAINING on way back to car, so we're back to hotel to find parking place on sidewalk just down street, and up to put on TV at 9:55 and it's a 65-minute LOOP for ARTE program starting 7 PM 9/28, rather fun. Joe falls asleep 2-3 times and I shut it off at 11 and SLEEP!
WEDNESDAY, 9/23/92: Wake at 7:45 and get act together by time breakfast comes at 8:05, and eat and brush teeth and out by 8:45 to pay 720-franc bill and lug stuff to car and take off in WRONG direction for Picasso, so we go to park first near LOUVRE and enter and "try out" Pei entrance and shops below, and back to car about 10:30 and drive to Picasso by 11, going through dozens of rooms of SORT of the same thing---he really DIDN'T care for the male body, and particularly the cock, at ALL. Lots of interesting early stuff. Cranach: "Judgment of Paris" has an ERECTION on a tree. And I get a SLIDE of it! Out about 1 and across to the Iron Museum Joe wants a catalog from, but it's closed. To car and get VERY lost getting out of town, losing an HOUR circling back to correct route to Soissons. ABSOLUTE madness: 1) TRAUMA out of Paris A1 to Senlis says SOISSONS and N2 to Soissons says SENLIS. We drive OVER an hour in a circle getting BACK to N2 through center of Bas-Minot. 2) We NEED gas going INTO Goshen and don't get it till I REMIND Joe on highway to Koln as we PASS a Shell at kilometer 20. By kilometer 40 we MUST exit and drive six kilometers to tiny town where they DON'T take cards and Joe HAS just 76 marks and RAVES at me for not getting cash SOONER, saying I CAN'T rely on CARDS. I'm feeling AWFUL (probably in part because of flight in four days) but ALSO because almost ALL restaurants have AWFUL long waits (though Rathshalle in Aachen gives us FREE beer and FREE salad, letting us out for 33 marks when it should be 40+). MADNESS. And it's 3:30 and we'll NEVER get to Koln by 4 PM! To Offermann via Friedrich Offermannstrasse at 4:30, and meet two women, and Henrike is VERY frazzled and busy, and Joe and she talk as I look through propaganda and decide at 4:42 to keep this up. He's telling me that I'll drive next time and that I should stop hawking him---he said I could take the car tomorrow and I said, "If YOU can't drive the car, how can I do it?" and he exploded with, "Who do you think's been DRIVING for the past two weeks??" So I said the wrong thing. Decide we DON'T want to stop there, and have lunch at a Michelin-discovered place in Villars-Carterets, quite good, with a 115 franc bottle of St. Estephe Joe orders that's VERY "barnyard," yet he LOVES it. Maroilles: cheese, and dessert guava at Villers-Carterets. Out at 3 and drive to Laon for the cows peering out of the belfry, and just before 5 check the Seven Deadly Sins gargoyles on the Bishop's side, the upper and lower old chapels given over to meeting rooms that we're chased out of, being told "Come back Saturday for tour." To old hospital basement to 5:15 and stop in restored hall of information office and get back on road to Aachen. Enter suburbs about 8, but Joe insists on stopping near the Dom and we seem to be able to only circle about it and I'm increasingly frustrated and ready to SCREAM after the "leaving Paris" debacle. He insists I find us on the map, so I open the door for light and try the glove-compartment light and the magnifying glass and locate us at last. Around the fancy Elizabeth Restaurant a SECOND time and thankfully find a parking place. Walk colorful center of town, Joe dragging, and we try two or three hotels and they're all full or too expensive, and we're around and down and it starts raining and I'm getting DESPERATE, when we see the Hotel Bristol and a VERY nice guy shows us a room on the street for 140, then a BACK room for 160, on which he halves difference to 150 the next morning. Walk ACROSS central circle to return to car, try to find BP station for parking but Joe finds a place behind and beyond the hotel. He's exhausted by 10 but I say I MUST eat, so we're back to Rathausplatz to find Ratstube closed, but nice Golden Apple open and he has lox and I have a good chicken-mushroom dish and three beers, and we return to hotel at 11:10, Joe really dragging, and fall into bed with light NOW through windows.
THURSDAY, 9/24/92: Up at 7:30 and he's showering and I take shower, getting water all over floor but CLEAN for first time since KONSTANZ! To great spread for breakfast, ALWAYS hot chocolate, and cold cuts and paté and cheese. Guy is VERY friendly and dials Doctor Offermann for Joe, and we're to meet Henrike at the factory between 3 and 4. Around town to try to find third museum after getting to Domshatz as it opens at 10 and to cathedral late for tour to choir for chest and ambo and top for throne, and out about 11:30 to bypass second museum. Go to Rathskeller for lunch at 1 PM, sitting at too-narrow-for-Joe table and moving to semi-corner, and lots of parties preventing us from being served until 1:50, and out at 2:10 with a free beer and free salad, still a lot at 32 marks. Back to car and go toward Cologne. Directions are pretty good but it's still a long, complicated way and we arrive at Red Cross station at 4:15. Meet secretary and then Henrike and I catch up while Joe has small meeting and we leave at 5, following Henrike (going over a sidewalk to pass cars waiting for the light to go straight, when we want to turn right) to lovely Waldhotel Mongold, and we hear some boys and Joe just wants to watch TV, so I go out 6:30-7:30 for lovely woods-walk with twelve kinds of over five hundred-of-a-kind mushrooms of white, gray, yellow, tan, red, and deep purple. Back at dark and he's just watched TV. Flip channels to 8:15 and go to PRIVATE room with a lit-for-us FIRE for 85-mark tasting menu of SURPRISING goodness: amuse bouche of paté, fish filets, soup, FABULOUS venison cutlets, and good berries for dessert. GREAT with kir and two wines. To bed to KONK OUT at 10!
FRIDAY, 9/25/92: Up at 6 and shower and get invited to hotel's breakfast at 7:15, but there's no time, since Henrike and Peter are to meet us at 7:30. My ride doesn't arrive by 7:40, so Henrike assumes Guy went to factory instead. Drive to factory and feel out of place, but Guy's not at hotel and Doctor Offermann invites me to the "family" breakfast, after I'd "requisitioned" three slices of ham for my only "breakfast." Sit across from engaged couple and between secretary and Henrike, and exchange glances with handsome Frank. Juice and my ONLY cup of coffee and Brie and rolls and speeches and cheers, then Paul and Frank drive me to Bensburg station and Paul buys me a 5-mark daily ticket to Neumarkt. Train comes and ride is woodsy and picturesque over river, then underground and I get off at Heumarkt. Walk across to Wallraf Museum JUST opening at revolving door at 10 AM, have huge hassle of paying 8 marks for entry, then finding it's NOT "Breughel to Titian," and pay for MORE for the 12-mark entry, holding up EVERYONE behind me on line. Huge exhibits, GREAT fatigue, and GOOD guide bought later. Through ALL Wallraf, avoiding loud kids and tours, and then out at 1 to Roman mosaics, with GREAT to-do over "Zu marke" "Close your bag" for "Two marks" for CHECKING bag. Race through, missing EVERYTHING in guide of note, paying 5 marks to get in and 28 marks for English book and out at 3:10 to dash to Offermann to find NO bus waiting for me! Cash $60 because of cab back to Hotel for tea, and get two marks EXTRA over 86.10 on list! Buy for 2.50 marks a PLUG that the guy ENLARGES for my American plug! Out to "Train 1" and FIRST one only goes to BEFRACT. Wait and sit and watch people and train comes about 3 and on for bright ride back. Off at Bensburg and it's RURAL. Walk two blocks, turn, three more blocks, and I'm back at Bensburg Kolner Strass! No taxis on LONG street. Walk despondently up hill, bag VERY heavy with books in it, and decide to go BACK to BP station and PHONE for taxi and THERE'S a taxi getting GAS. Quick seven-mark trip and one-mark tip to hotel and get key and told to get beer from fridge. Then Joe calls, saying, "Dress, we'll be there in five minutes!" Drink a beer and finish his pastry from yesterday's "lunch stop" and put ONE beer back, and down to find Mr. Hall and Doctor Grona in car. To Villa for milling in yard till 5:10, and in for Sekt and I sit and read guide through speeches and brass-band interludes, then see food and get THAT, and then the sister of Doctor Offermann and her husband join me and we chat, tour the villa, and go across at 7:50 for the concert. Most soloists goof, but cembalo and faggot are pretty steady. Wonder what LOCALS thought of it? Out at 10:10 and depend on Henrike to take us to hotel, but she has HER parents and PETER'S parents to tend, so she gets to women to return us to hotel. I check plug and it WORKS, and put on small battery to recharge it overnight.
SATURDAY, 9/26/92: Up at 7:30 and shower and have nice breakfast, chattering politics, with couple from last night---obviously THIS is the VIP hotel! Out at 9 to brush teeth and check out and my GLASSES-LENS falls out. Ransack bags for magnifying glass and screwdriver and fix it and out at 9:20 to waiting trio, and HENRIKE drives OUR car and parents follow. Around Cologne for 1/2 the ride and into Dusseldorf Ko-strasse parking and up to shop. Joe and I leave at 11 for museum, modern, pass one construction area, down to Rhine, buy ice cream, go to Landesmuseum 12-1:30, and out to meet Henrike at 2:30 and she takes us to Movenpick lunch at 3, where I "liquid out" on soup, iced fruit-yogurt drink, two glasses of wine, and mineral water for dessert, not finishing rosti and ham and cheese for lunch. Joe demands to walk, so we sit in Goethe Park to 4 PM, back to car to drive around town for a time till we see signs to Frankfurt. Drive and turn off at Limburg at 7, but see church, try hotels, and at 8:10 Joe refuses to pay 215 marks at Hotel Zimmerman for "last room." Out again to road and at Bad Comburg get off for a motel for 115 marks! Wurst and fries and potato salad dinner for 8 marks each, and STILL have cash left over. EXHAUSTED. Up to bed about 10:30, too tired to brush teeth.
SUNDAY, 9/27/92: Wake at 4:30 to shit, then at 6:30 to shower and change watches back one hour. 9:15 AM: leave hotel at 8 and drive toward Frankfurt and then toward Frankfurter Kreuz, then to [airplane symbol] Frankfurt. Then Joe MISSES a right to the airport and there are no MORE airport signs, and the next exit is either CLOSED or between narrow temporary stanchions. Get off and finally find roads to "Tor 1-21, Tor 22-35," and I panic. We follow them at random, Joe getting off at tower 33 and starts driving the perimeter of what might be a FREIGHT area. I say we MUST stop and ask directions and a handsome German writes "14" for the Budget turn-in. He almost misses turn AGAIN. I shout, "RIGHT, RIGHT, right HERE!" THEN we see "Car Return" and drive in and park NOT in "Nur Check-in" and I take mileage, though Joe says there's no reason to, and we're up to desk at 8:55 (clocks turned BACK an hour here last night) and get asked for form and mileage and time arrived, and I say, "Five minutes ago." Black family had elevator tied up with a loaded baggage cart for three minutes, and when we walked up to check-in counter we'd been told to walk up to level 2 for the Departure lounge. Walk up two flights again, since long queues wait for slow elevators, and I'm getting TIRED of lugging two bags. Into terminal and Joe stops and stares at Budget slip: $946.10 with insurance, quoted at 249 marks for first week and 365 marks/day, but CDW at 22.81 marks and PAI of 5.26 per 13 days for 296.53 and 68.38 marks MORE, and then a VAT of 14% for 116.19 marks MORE that I tell Joe we MIGHT be able to get BACK, about $80! We enter at A terminal gate 120, and directory says PIA is at B terminal gate 468, so we walk and walk and it's 9:06 (I fantasized airport would NOT change time and it'd be 10:06!), and we get to desk to be asked if we "reconfirmed 72 hours before." "No." "Then you were erased from the computer and we can't check you in till 9:45." I clarify it IS nonstop (NOT a stop in Paris or Amsterdam, per Grona), AND it's due in at 1:45 New York time---TEN hours? No, since we're BACK an hour, we went one hour CLOSER to NYC: 7 AM Europe WAS 1 AM USA, now 6 AM Europe and STILL 1 AM USA is FIVE-hour difference, so an EIGHT-hour flight, which FITS, and now around 9:45 there're only NINE hours before we might be in NYC!! Ten hours to home! CUTE guy in black jeans across from me, and I decide to get passes with both tickets. She needs to see passports, so I go back and get Joe and luggage, get a cart, and we're off to Gate 61, stopping for my pee and Grand Marnier for 46 marks, hope it's not LESS than $30 in NYC! Then passport control and guy tells Joe to go downstairs at 9:57 and I'm starting to worry about 10:25 departure! Things moving FAST---TOO fast to WORRY! I'd gotten Vicks and sleeping pills into bag. NO VAT return except on PURCHASED goods RETURNING to US. NOT on rentals! Then gate and security check (I LET film go through twice, saying, "So what") at 10:05, and people are LEAVING the plane, so when Joe says, "I'm AMAZED we're leaving on time," I say, "With people just getting off, I'd be surprised if we left before 11AM!" Joe says he'll go for coffee at 10:10, and I have to TELL him to take his boarding pass! It's HOT in airport and very HAZY outside. Really SUMMER, not seventh day of FALL. Took one Buspar at 7AM and now another at 10:25 as I feel tension mounting, reading McEwan and thinking of an almost FULL flight to NYC. Decide to switch current notes to back of McEwan. Still sitting at 11:01AM, transit passengers now re-boarding. We board at 11:05, getting LAST halves of ANY nearby overhead racks. Even with SECOND Buspar I'm TREMBLING as I write, POSSIBLY from strain of putting up bags. Move at 11:17 after neighbor HASSLES, SEARCHING for SOMETHING. NOW up to date at 11:23, about to take off, I moved into CENTER of center section, row 20, Joe in row 28. LOTS of babies crying and almost ALL seats filled. Now just the FLIGHT! Can I SLEEP? Thinking and hungry---having eaten and drunk NOTHING yet today and it's, by some measure, only 35 minutes from being HALF OVER. Taped messages say that flight came from Damascus and Islamabad! [From back of McEwan:] 9/27 PIA flight 717. Taxiing at 11:28 AM, only 6:30AM in NYC, due in at 1:45, but probably late, 4:45, having TRIED to sleep (pills after lunch, which wasn't bad: chicken curry with rice, mixed salad with French dressing, cheese and crackers, dessert). 4:50 announcement, off coast of Canada, landing at 2:30 NYC time: two hours forty minutes from now after five hours of flight for total of seven hours forty minutes, not bad. ALMOST 2/3 there: 2/3 of 7:40 = 920/3 = 307 minutes = five hours seven minutes, coming in five minutes. I wander plane and it appears EVERY seat is taken: children spread over two seats but their seatmate stretches out on floor. Toward rear there's a SHELF that's under the windows, convenient for small children's naps. CONSTANT child-noise, smoking everywhere and the intense Middle Eastern eyes of the rough-lean men. What About Bob followed a Pakistani film, and THAT was followed by James Belushi in Curly Sue, which Joe watches to pass the time. I'm NOT tired and I seem to have no ill effects from two Rohypnol and two Buspar in two hours, FIRST counting from 99 to 0 at least seven times with NO sleep, which makes sense, since I DID sleep last night and WHY should I sleep from 11:30AM - 6PM Europe time, OR 6:30AM - 1PM NYC time? Just hope I can stay awake till dark tonight to start acclimation, which should be finished Friday for the Adirondacks, which Joe says he doesn't even want to think about yet. I go to 16-passenger first class, two across in lower nose, and up spiral staircase to 16-passenger business class, the only one that seems to have spare seats, only 4 or 5. OTHERWISE the plane is JAMMED by people crowding aisles and mostly ignoring movies. Wish I could see the Canadian coast, but views outside showed gray clouds both above and below plane. At least it's been smooth, only two or three times were there the mildest possible bumps. Three kids behind kicking my seat, plucking at pillows, and turning lights on and shouting, and woman to left plays footsie before getting detailed advice on her entry card. Man's wife will NOT change her window seat with me. At 5 PM, 5 1/4 hours out of 7:40 landing, or two hours 25 minutes left, just 145 minutes, LOVELY. Not the WORST trip, but not the best. Pity I can't talk with some resident Arabian. At 5:42 the watches were set to NYC time of 12:42, so it IS five hours' difference. 12:45 - 2:40, just two hours! Sit for ten wonderful minutes looking at clouds over Canada, but at 1:25 they announce "an area of turbulence" and request everyone to fasten their seatbelts so guy takes his window seat and I return to mine. 75 minutes left! I'm to page 59 here. Now it's Tom and Jerry cartoons. Collect earphones BEFORE the movie is over! Do we start DOWN at 1:34?? Down in earnest at 2 PM, only clouds and haze visible out either side. Absolutely no IDEA how low or how far we are as I finish to page 93. Landing announced at 2:15 PM, 20°C outside. Land at 2:18, QUICK braking! EVERYONE gets up during taxiing, DESPITE constant admonitions. MADNESS! 2:25 still moving. [End of McEwan notes.] Then out, get bags, I get a cab that Joe shares to the subway station, and I get upstairs to unpack and collapse at the end of THAT trip!
SUMMARY
SUN,SEP 13: Depart on Pakistani Airlines at 10:25 PM from JFK, finding that this Moslem airlines serves no booze with which to take my sleeping pills!
MON,SEP 14: Land Frankfurt 11:05. Get four-door car rental and get lost three or four times on inadequate maps; to Alzay for castle and quaint streets; to Worms for lunch at Cafe Lott, then Cathedral and crypt; to Speyer for HUGE crypt and ENORMOUS church, stay in Trutzpfaff Hotel for great dinner there.
TUE,SEP 15: Speyer: Cathedral and river and gardens and Museum; to Heilbronn, then at noon to Schwabish Hall, great church on stairs and half-timbered houses on town square, modern town-museum in six houses on seven levels, and to bridges over river, wurst lunch, and Gross Comburg for chandelier and crypt and Rundgang. Lovely Dinkelsbuhl and desserts. To Heidesheim for Rahn Hotel and Act II of Peter Sellar's Cosi Fan Tutti on TV until 10:30 and sleep.
WED,SEP 16: Up to Schloss Hellenstein for two museums: carriages & handicraft, Romerbad in great basement, and hard-to-find Kunstmuseum not open yet. Aalen for thermal bad and Limes Museum. Lunch in State Theatre. Hohenstauffen to climb to castle ruins. Thru Goppingen to Bad Urach, pleasant town, wander streets, hotels full, find Ratstube for good dinner, more walking, bed 10:45.
THU,SEP 17: Drive up to Castle Lichtenstein for tour, and Castle Hohenzollern for tour and lunch. Rottweil for tea, Hochturm, churches, and Benedictine Monastery for sculpture. Drive through Bad Wildbad to Baden Baden and Ruth's concert, dinner in the Casino, and small hotel for a morning-waterless room.
FRI,SEP 18: Lunch at Auberge de L'Ill! Colmar for Issenheim altarpiece, then drive to crowded Frieburg and get to Konstanz at 7:20 and chat: Ruth feeds me.
SAT,SEP 19: Stroll Konstanz: church, shopping, money-change. Drive into Switzerland for St. Gallen and Cloister and church, lunch in top-floor Movenpick restaurant, back for Stiftbibliotek and St. Lawrence church. Buy chestnuts, get lost, back to Konstanz and Gottlieben for Restaurant Waaghaus.
SUN,SEP 20: Mainau Island for dahlia wall and flower arrangements, lunch in garden dining area, then to Birnau for Baroque church, to Schloss Kirchberg for wine-tasting, then Meersburg-Konstanz Ferry. To Arenenburg for Heldenhof Restaurant for dinner with great flaming pear William dessert. OUT at 11:35!
MON,SEP 21: Drive via Singen and Donaushingen to Offenburg, cross Rhine at Achern, dine in restaurant overhanging highway, drive through Sezanne and not take Le Manoir in Fontenay-Thesigny, into Paris for Hotel Royal Cardinal and dine in Les Fontaines, and uncomfortable thinking someone's entering our room!
TUE,SEP 22: Picasso and Louvre closed Tuesday! d'Orsay Museum fabulous; Legion of Honor Museum mediocre; lunch in corner bistro; I tour Musee Carnavalet while Joe walks Place de Vosges and L'Ambroisie; dine in Bofinger and see ARTE TV.
WED,SEP 23: Wrong direction to Picasso Museum, so we see Pei Louvre entrance, and Joe's Iron Museum is closed after Picasso. Totally lost leaving Paris, end up with good lunch in Villars-Carterets; to Laon for Cathedral and restored old hospital-hall, then onto highways to Aachen and Hotel Bristol and dine in the Golden Apple while we're both exhausted and walk colorful center to hotel.
THU,SEP 24: Domshatz when it opens at 10, Cathedral for choir and chest and ambo and throne, and through house-museum. Rathskeller for VERY slow lunch and out at 2:10 toward Cologne. Follow Henrike to Waldhotel Mongold, where I wander through enchanted mushroom-filled forest before EXQUISITE, GREAT DINNER!
FRI,SEP 25: "Family" breakfast at Offermann's plant, driven to Bensburg station for train to Heimarkt and Wallraf Museum for "Breughel to Titian" exhibit and many other rooms; then to Roman mosaics, train and walk and taxi back to hotel to dress for Sekt and dinner in Town Hall and Baroque concert across the street and women drive us back to hotel.
SAT,SEP 26: Henrike drives us to Dusseldorf, where Joe and I see a modern museum, construction sites along river, Landesmuseum, back to Movenpick lunch and liquids; we walk town and park before leaving for crowded Limburg and go toward Frankfurt until we find a hotel and wurst at Bad Comburg on highway.