My trip to Germany - Part 2

“What do we do now?” We had to take the tram to get to our hotel in Wiederitsch and none of the ticket machines at the Leipzig train station took our Euros.

“I’m sure we can buy a ticket on the tram,” my husband said.

“Okay, let’s give it a try.” The ticket machine on the No. 16 tram did not work either. I had a trade visitor’s ticket, but my husband didn’t. One of the passengers saw my predicament.

“Here,” he said I’m going to take your husband on my ticket. I’m allowed two passengers.”

I didn’t know what to say and offered the man bookmarks, I was carrying in my purse.

Apparently bookmarks were not a rare sight in Leipzig, especially not around the time the book fair took place. “Don’t worry,” he laughed. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“People here are so nice,” I sighed.

The hotel was fully booked and we prepared to share a one-bed room, because my husband had decided to accompany me at the last minute. We were comfortable, but the hotel upgraded us to a fantastic double-bed room after one of the guests had to leave unexpectedly the following day.

We could barely afford the home-cooking, the hotel offered at their restaurant, so we stocked up on German foodstuff at a nearby supermarket. Mackerels in tomato sauce and viennas and even bio goat’s milk and delicious bread spreads. We kept everything in a little fridge in the room and didn’t touch the liquor.

Every room at the hotel sported an amateur-painting of a truck, hauling a car out of some ditch and it turned out that the main business of the owners was tow-trucking.

I took a cool shower, because the oil heating was only turned on that afternoon and made my way to the fair grounds, while my husband wanted to stay at the hotel and explore the neighbourhood.