Travelogue 1995 / Episode Four

Travelogue Deutschland 1995 / Episode Four

Breakfast and Planning
Matthias' woke me up at about 9am this morning, I seemed to still have been a bit sleepy from the change in time zones. Matthias' and Christina met us in the kitchen with breakfast and especially rich coffee, which works wonders for waking up in the morning especially when you wake up seven hours earlier than usual. Today we talked about a visit to Marburg, north of Hanau. The city has a university, many old buildings and narrow gangways in the older section. Mats mentioned that at the top of the hillside that the city is built upon, theres a very nice castle and garden that would be interesting to visit.

Off to Marburg
Mats grabbed his backpack and we each included whatever we wanted to bring along for the visit. I took along my small camera and camera bag as well as my sketchbook. We all climbed into Martin's car, just outside of Mats and Chris apartment, and began the drive through Hanau toward the Autobahn. Traffic for the morning had been reduced to a normal pace so the trip to Marburg would be quick and jam free. An hour or so later, we arrived in Marburg. It reminded me of Tuebingen another university town that Martin and I had visited in 1993. The city itself is built on the Lahr river and the altstadt or old city is built into a hillside underneath the schloss or castle of Marburg. Martin parked the car near the river and we began to walk along the banks of the Lahr, which brought us directly to the main street running into Marburgs older section. Before we left the walkway along the river, Mats noticed that there were boats for rent and suggested that we could try them out a bit later if we wanted to. On the other side of the bridge across the river, we began our visit to old Marburg. Many of the streets are cobblestone covered and very hilly, making it more of a hiking trip than a walking tour. I especially enjoyed seeing the narrow streets and gangways that seemed to appear between buildings almost randomly.

Marburg Castle
Our first order of business was to climb the hillside to Marburg Castle. Fortunately for us, Mats had been in Marburg several times previously and knew the way up to the top of the city. We began climbing a few winding streets, then up several flights of stairs that turned left and right, stopping at crossing streets between stairways. When we had climbed about three-quarters of the way up, we stopped in an old Lutheran church perched high on the hill that overlooked Marburg. Inside of the sanctuary were several relics near the front of the church, much of the text written in Latin which made me wonder about the origins of the church that it once might have been Roman Catholic before the reformation. After looking around the church [and resting] for a few minutes, we began our climbing again. After another three or four flights of stairs, we reached the top of the hill and the castle. It was quite large and was built from red sandstone like most of the other castes built in the southwestern region of Germany. We had a look over the city from above, which was very nice, and then walked toward the courtyard inside the walls of the castle. We entered the souvenir shop and museum, but decided against entering the museum in favor of taking a walk down to a cafe and relaxing.

Street Cafe Bums
Yes, I know that I should be more of a tourist since I have only two weeks here in Germany but there are times when you must kick back and take it easy. Its my vacation after all isnt it? Anyway, we walked about halfway down the hillside and selected a nice cafe in the Marktplatz of Marburg. We each ordered a refreshment and I began sketching Gasthaus directly across the square from our table. It was a very detailed facade to draw those are the ones that I appreciate the best when I look back on my sketches. I have to admit that one of the things that I will miss most about Germany will be the abundance of street cafes Its a great way to sit and let the world pass by people walking past, cars and bicycles rolling by while enjoying a capucino. While Martin and Mats were talking in German, I was content to enjoy the atmosphere and scribble in my sketchbook. About twenty minutes later, I had a nice sketch of a Marburg city street. I stopped for a while and talked with Mats and Martin, then returned to sketching this time choosing a turreted coppola on the side of a building to my right. This one turned out even better than my first I told the guys that I had to get the rust out of my fingers and keep sketching. About an hour and a half passed [or maybe two] and we decided to take another walk around, this time exploring some of the odd gangways that are hidden between many of the buildings. Finding them was purely accidental they popped up almost anywhere and sometimes were only three or four feet wide. After some walking and exploring these gangways, we stopped at another cafe maybe three-quarters of the way up the hillside and sat down for another coffee break. As you can see, we were indeed Street Cafe Bums!

Das Boat
After all of our relaxing, we thought it was time to do some physical activity for a change of pace. We returned to the river and rented a rowboat for an hour. It was fun to float along the river and thats exactly what we did with me at the oars. I had never rowed a rowboat before only canoes, so I had a very difficult time dealing with the left vs. right problems caused by rowing backwards. After a bit of struggling, I got creative and turned the boat around so that I could at least see where I was going. That idea worked much better, but the oars were still backwards and I could not get much thrust out of them. Then Mats took over which was good because he had rowed these boats several times before and was able to get us really moving. Some kids had passed us in paddleboats, so Mats decided to try and overtake them. He began rowing furiously thrusting us forward through the water. Within a few minutes we had caught and passed the kids, pedaling along with their mother. One boy saw us coming up on them and cried out to his fellow kids to kick in some Kiddie Turbo Power but Mats rowing was too much for them and we flew past their boat. We turned back about half an hour out on the river and Martin took over the rowing duties for a while. He was a pretty powerful rower as well, extending our lead on the paddleboat kids even further.

Alternative Rowing Techniques
About ten minutes before the boat rental period expired, we did a little experimentation with the boat oars. I had accidentally pulled on out of the pivot and thought that it might be fun to row canoe-style for a while. Mats and I were able to keep a pretty good speed with that method. Mats had an idea to try rowing Commando-style where two guys [Mats and I] sat on the seat and each have an oar so that there is twice the power from each oar. It worked great, and we went the fastest of any other method. In fact, we went to quickly that we almost ran into a swan that was swimming the other direction as well as a few groups of ducks in the river. I imagine that they had never seen a boat move so quickly on that river! As we neared the rental office, the operator yelled out to us Hey one at a time! so I stopped rowing and moved to the front of the boat again. I guess we probably broke the speed limit on the river.

A Last Snack in Marburg
It was about six-thirty when we finished our boating excursion and we were a bit tired from all of the rowing so we decided to call it a day in Marburg. The walk back to the car went quickly and when we arrived, we had a small snack and some mineral water from the cooler that Martin had brought for our trip. It was about seven when we began the trip back to Hanau. The Autobahn was open again [rush hour had finished probably at five or six] for the trip back, so Martin put the pedal to the metal almost the whole way back to Hanau.

Mats Favorite Turkish Kebap
In Hanau, Mats wanted to buy dinner at his favorite Kebap house [Kebap is very similar to Greek Gyros, but slightly different in ingredients] so he guided Martin through Hanau to a side street where we parked and walked into the restaurant. Inside the little place, there was a little Turkish man who asked Mats what he wanted, then spoke the order to the workers behind the glass window, in Turkish. The head chef then began slicing meat from the rotating spit and quickly added lettuce, garlic, tomatoes and a white cucumber sauce. Mats would not let us pay for the food, slapping down twenty D-Mark bill refusing any money for the three kebaps. On the way to the apartment, I asked Mats who the guy in front of the window was whether he was a waiter or just someone keeping busy and being friendly to the customers. I was surprised to learn that he was the owner and always stood in front of the window, treating the customers with very friendly service. Smart businessman, I thought. At the apartment, Christina joined us for dinner and jokingly complained to Mats and us about the garlic in the kebap [she doesnt like the smell of garlic] while we enjoyed our dinner. We told her about the days events in Marburg between bites of our tasty but smelly dinners.

Plans Finalized and A Last Night in Hanau
It was late when we finished dinner and I needed to call Andi about details of my upcoming visit for the wedding when to come, phone numbers and so on. Important details were worked out and he mentioned that there was still quite a bit that they had to do before the wedding on saturday the twenty-sixth but that he was looking forward to my coming. Mats, Chris, Martin and I sat in the livingroom together and talked about a variety of subjects over coffee. It was nice to spend some time just relaxing and talking with my friends since we are not normally able to, because of the distance. Mats showed us his and Chris mountain bikes, which they like taking on vacation wherever they go they were both very nice. He also told us all about his crazy younger brother Jochen and his bike-breaking experiences [Jochen rides his own bike *very* hard] over the last few years. It was late when everyone retired [eleven-thirty or so] and I stayed up for a while after that to catch up on my journal entries while they were still fresh in my mind. It was too bad that we only had a day and a half together, though it was really quality time. So, tomorrow we are off to Heidelberg to visit with Martin's friend Wolfgang and see the city.

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