Here Nor There

So, wasn't somebody in Germany recently? That's what I heard.

First stop in Ürzig, tiny vineyardy village in the central-westish part of Germany (I cringe because my geography might be somewhat haphazard... I tried to copy/paste a wormtrail representation of my voyage across Germany from googlemaps, but damned if I can figure out how to do it). I got a ride from Lille to Ürzig with a cook from the cantine at Faidherbe, who owns a house and a few grape vines there. We arrived on Sunday evening, the 26th, and on Monday morning (after sleeping off my German wine buzz) he gave me a driving tour of the vineyards in the area:

Can you believe that? It's like preschool for wine. Aiming vaguely for maturity, one day, if all the different stages of growth are survived. It's tragic. All the grapes that fall and are squashed before harvest! All the wine that is lost under the boots of cultivators!!

Most of the vineyards I saw were on steep slopes slanting towards all the villages below. I asked if this meant that all you had to do for a "table wine" was hold your wine glass out the window. He said, "Uh, no."

Apparently making wine takes a lot of work.

From Ürzig I took the train to Würzburg, and the journey took me through a few rail hubs, including a changeover in Frankfurt. I only had about twenty minutes to get from one train to another, just enough time to run outside and take a picture of the first building I saw, which was probably the most un-German place in the whole of the city: an Irish pub underneath a Halloween banner.

At least I got this photo of the inside of the Frankfurt train station, to prove that I'm not just recycling photos from Dublin...

Würzburg was pretty great; we stayed in an acceptable (if dwarfish) hotel and ate the BEST EVER breakfast buffet on the one day that we managed to rise before noon. Würzburg is home to a some pretty fantastic castles (as far as castles go), and I have about fifty million photos from all of them, which makes selective blogging kind of a tricky business. So I'm just gonna post one shot from a castle, of a painting on the ceiling above the Grand Staircase of the "Würzburg Residence." We managed to stick ourselves onto the tail-end of a guided tour, and learned that the elephant in this picture looks kind of odd because the painter had never actually seen an elephant, but had only heard stories about the beast. Somehow, I find this incredible.

A lesson in similarities: Chocolate Pig!

Statue Pig!
We drove from Würzburg to Füssen, where we climbed (uh, took a bus, actually) all the way up a modestly large mountain to Castle Neuschwanstein, or "New Swan Stone" Castle, built by a [supposedly] eccentric Bavarian king in the 19th C, who defied tradition by hiring a painter instead of an architect to design his abode. It was INCREDIBLE. It was also used as a model for the Disneyland castle. On the day that we ended up on Neuschwanstein's doorstep, the weather was cold and misty, and it felt like we were ascending straight into the sky. Totally amazing.

THIS WAY TO CASTLES!

This is what the scenery looked like from up there, on our Supremely Misty Day. Apparently there's a mountain and a famous lake out there somewhere. Who knew?!

The castle itself:


And a professional shot, to give you the whole idea:

I mean... HOLY COW.

I took about fifty bazillion pictures of the place, including this one, which also shows the totally mind-boggling 260km/hr car. Apparently this car is featured in some Playstation game, so everywhere we went 10-year-old boys unhinged their jaws and released their headlocks on each other. It was a lot fun, but also seemed kind of anachronistic against a backdrop of Bavarian castles... I guess that's just a burden of the 21st Century. How do you travel to these places without seeming completely out of touch? There were horses and buggies to get up the mountain, but they were only for the rich & idle.


Afterwards, had some true Bavarian food... white sausages with sugary mustard and such good beer...

In Füssen, it snowed!!!

And saints slayed dragons!!

We also drove to the city of Ulm, where Einstein was born! Which we didn't know, until the hotel's single public computer (with a very messed-up German keyboard) told us, thanks to Wikipedia.

I spent my last German day alone, exploring Ulm and waiting for my train out of the country. To be honest, I was a bit freaked out about where I'd sleep that night, but then I found this guy. He stalked up to me with this where-have-you-been, I've-been waiting-forever kind of impatience, and his massive purring offered much reassurance.

BUDDY!!!
While wandering Ulm with Mr. German-Cat at my heels, I found some decently photograph-able paths next to the river:





I ended up taking a train to Paris that night, and meant to catch the connecting train to Lille immediately after arriving. OF COURSE, the train from Germany was late, and I missed my train to Lille by about 500 miles. I stood in the middle of the Gare du Nord at 11pm and thought, this would be an appropriate moment to freak out, and start crying for people at home, and their protection and support... instead, I staggered with my luggage over to the single human being still standing around at that time of night in the train station, and one thing lead to another until, finally, I was safe and sound in a hotel room paid for by the train agents. If I sound self-congratulatory, it's only because I know how narrowly I missed a full dissolution into panic and homesickness. And yes, as a relatively inexperienced international traveler, I congratulate myself on that.

Paris hotel room, where, after an unpleasant experience with a fellow elevator passenger, I triple-locked my door and had an uncomfortable sleep.... but really, by the time I got here, this room felt like an oasis. I think its lay-out has been branded in my brain under the heading VARIOUS SANCTUARIES IN THE LIFE OF MEGAN with triple exclamation marks.

I finally made it home (to Lille) in the tiny hours of Saturday morning, and I've never been more happy and proud to collapse unto a 2ft x 4ft bed and call it my own.

OH MY GOSH it's exhausting uploading photos! I took about twenty different breaks while waiting for this post to be ready. I used my breaks to have political debates with our resident American, which weren't so much debates as each of us falling all over ourselves to proclaim our love for Obama. I fall into the crush on Obama camp while he is in the less shallow, much more responsible good-policies pool. Let's all cross our fingers for Tuesday.