My trip to Germany - Part 5
Our train arrived late in Frankfurt and we ran with about three dozen other passengers, luggage and all to another platform and our connecting train. You have to understand that trains are not usually late in Germany, so apparently, they had no mercy for the delayed traveller.
We left right on time for the Hessian province, panting and sweating and our short trip into the Middle Ages began. The Federal state of Hesse is full of ancient towns with monasteries and castles dating back to the early Middle Ages.
Just what I wanted to see on this trip.
I know this part of Germany well, because I used to study cultural sciences at the Philipps University of Marburg for over 4 years, but a very long time ago. I believe the university of Marburg is the oldest university in Germany (I stand corrected). So this is technically my alma mater (well one of them), but if I thought that I still knew my way around, I should discover just how long I hadn’t been here. So much had changed!
Our airb&b host lived centrally, but nobody could give us directions and we had no idea, which bus to take. So we walked along narrow cobblestone streets and then crawled up the last stretch. The flat building was halfway up the steep hill that is on one side topped by the ancient part of town and an amazing castle and on the other side a forest. The house, where we stayed was on the edge of the forest.
Our host was late, but we had made it - yeah!
For the next 2 days, we walked up and down this hill, visited the university and the house, built in 1436, where I used to live. All this in glorious sunshine. Everything always looks so much better in the sunshine, don't you think?
We explored the little backstreets along the river, had breakfast at my old hangout, which is now a posh eatery, instead of a cheap pub, and climbed bravely all the way up to the castle. Not for the faint-hearted, mind you, as it's virtual mountain climbing!
We celebrated our wedding anniversary with a meze platter at a vegetarian restaurant, sitting in the sun, watching students cycle past and I couldn't stop telling my husband, how I had once been one of those students in my heyday (when I had no idea that I would become an author).
On the morning of our departure, we took a bus to the station or so we thought. Instead of taking the shortest route, it took us a 1-hour sight-seeing tour through surrounding villages and we nearly missed our train back to Frankfurt.
Actually, in our haste we jumped onto the wrong train and stopped at every milk can until the next bigger town.
Well, that's one way to see the area.
Thankfully, the express train exhausted but happy to be on our way to my home town Karlsruhe.
