Mark Knopfler in Wurzburg

Our Saturday began with the thought of walking into town for the farmer's market. But that was soon shot down as the clouds opened up. OK, this will pass, so we got in the car and drove about 90 minutes to the beautiful old city of Wurzburg. It helped that one of our favorite musicians was playing there in an outdoor venue that evening: Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits, album with Emmy Lou Harris, etc). We didn't have tickets in advance but thought we could take our chances and worst case, visit the city and its castle. We drove directly to the castle through constant rain but it let up when we got there. And as it turned out, the concert was there on the grounds overlooking the city.
While we were trying to find out where we could buy tickets, a young german girl heard our conversation and asked if we needed 2 tickets. It was serendipity so we bought the tix and went on a tour of the castle and it's museum.


When they opened the gates, we walked down to the venue which was a stage at the bottom of a sloping hill just below the ramparts of the castle. Of course, there were wine and beer stands, big pretzels, brats. We were festivarians yet again! We chose an Indian curried wrap large enough to feed everyone. About 2 hours before the concert was to begin, the looming rain started coming down. It began to look like a german version of Woodstock with rain ponchos and umbrellas everywhere. Pete wedged our umbrella between 2 wine stands so we could stay dry and still hold a glass of wine.
After about an hour, the rain let up and the skies turned blue and pink. (unfortunately, they wouldn't let me in with my camera, so my pics are limited)

At precisely 8pm, Mark Knopfler's band came out and started up. Apparently, concerts need to shut down at 10pm sharp in town. So, it was exactly a 2 hour set. Not just the trains run on time here, even concerts do. By this time, over 8000 people were standing on the hill in preparation. Mary made friends with a young man who was there with his dad. The crowd was a nice mix of people but mostly skewed to our age group. Another guy next to us was a huge, burly German biker there with friends. During Knopfler's signature song, "Brothers in Arms," this big man just started weeping while a girlfriend hugged him. We would have loved to know that story.

After many unprompted sing-alongs, the concert ended (on time) and the crowd walked down the hill to, what else, but a festival going on in the city below. Since I was driving back home that evening, we decided not to visit the festival and headed back to Wiesbaden. The autobahn was now dry and mostly empty, so I got a chance to open up to 200km/h (about 125 mph) for a short distance. Of course, I was passed!

It was a really good day. And we were able to achieve one of our goals - to experience and outdoor concert in Europe by one of our favorite musicians. At a castle no less. Priceless.

24 Hours with Good Friends

Just a few days after our Colorado boys took off for home, we were back at the Real Frankfurt train station to pickup our old friends from Chicago, Dan and Linda McCarthy. They had just finished a tour of Bavaria including seeing the Passion Play in Oberammergau. We were excited they carved out 2 days with us before heading back home. The timing was great - Germany was playing in the 3rd place match for the World Cup.

And, true to form, there was a festival in our Rhein River suburb of Wiesbaden-Schierstein. This festival is on a harbor off the Rhein and featured dragon-boat racing (what we know as crewing) and the usual mix of beer, brats, weiss-wine and a pastry called kuchen.

It was terribly hot all weekend - in the upper 90s with humidity. But, the beer tasted good (we held off til noon). Dan and Pete have known each other since they were 4, so we had a lot of catching up and stories to tell and retell. Mary and Linda have heard them too many times.


We all sampled the 1/2 meter Thuringer Wurst - very similar to bratwurst but spicier. Also had spaetzle mit sauerkraut, and Pete's favorite - CurryWurst.


We then took off for the scenic and authentic German Rhein town of Rudesheim.
The drive follows along the Rhein with vineyards lining the south-facing slopes and soaking up the ample sun. It was really hot!! As you can see, we mainly stayed in the shady spots of Rudesheim. Before we knew it, our friends had to fly back to Munich to catch their Monday flight to Chicago. 24 hours later, we bid them farewell in Frankfurt. On our way back to Wiesbaden, we realized how many new memories can be made in a short 24 hours.
Tschus!

World Cup Fever in Deutschland !!

The World Cup is in motion and there is no better place to be than in Europe for this event. Every bar and cafe has a big screen projector or LCD on a pole in the outdoor area. We had the chance to view the Germany vs Argentina match last night in a tent full of singing, screaming DE fans. Who ever thought soccer could be this exciting... the crowd would boo every time there was a shot of the Argentina coach... why? because when he played for Argentina many years ago, he scored a goal that took Germany out of the cup. Old memories die hard.


Our good friends from Boulder sent Sam and Ben, just fresh out of high school, for their trip of a lifetime to Europe. They made it to Wiesbaden just in time for the match. The night before, we got a call from Sam who said they just arrived in Frankfurt at the train station (hauptbahnhof) and there were no more trains to Wiesbaden. This was about 11:30pm so I said, no problem, I would drive down to pick them up... Frankfurt is only a half hour drive away. I forgot my phone, but no matter, the boys had no cell phone anyway, so all they could do was call our home phone from a pay phone. So... after 3 hours of searching all 4 train stations in Frankfurt, and many calls to Mary at headquarters from both parties trying to triangulate our maps... the boys came to a sudden realization at 4am: we are in Frankfurt a. d. Oder, on the Polish border with Germany. They took the first train from Berlin that said Frankfurt, but not "Au Main." Who knew there are 2 Frankfurt's in Germany!

Saturday, we picked them up at the train station an hour before the big match. They were pumped...in Germany during the world cup to watch their newly-adopted home team (and ours) with other Germans. The place was packed and it was about 95 degrees inside and out. Germany scored early and the place erupted. After each next goal, there was singing, flag waving, hugs and more beer.

After the 4-nill drubbing of Argentina (and repeated booing of their coach), the party spilled into Wilhelmstrasse and the singing continued. Guys with bullhorns would whip the crowd into a frenzy with chants and shout-backs.




The crowd would crouch down low, then spring up and shout! Absolute gibberish to us but we shouted right along with them. After awhile the buses were trapped on the street so that gave a good pulpit for the bullhorn speakers.



We are excited for Wednesday night semifinals ... Germany is pumped! Hans and Franz "want to pump - you - up!!" Down with the WALL.