Berlin 2002-7-8

Returned to Berlin…more exploring and hanging out with Maggie. A grand city and the weather could not have been better.

Paris 2002-7-10

Back in Paris. I’ve never been here in July, but wow, the tourists are just overflowing the place! Any aspiration of just entering Notre Dame were eliminated by the queue. The Musee D’Orsay wasn’t even on this strike this time, but the police had closed off the sidewalk because the line was so long. Some other time maybe… It was les soldes, the sales that made the difference. Everything was shockingly cheap, even in euros! The hostel as Jules Ferry as always, a bunch of Spanish Party headed Canadians and Danish girls. A good advertisment for Scandinavia I must say. The tragic thing was that I spotted a Playbill advertising a performance of L’Estro Armonico for the night I was leaving. I may never see it performed. The night bus ride wasn’t so bad however, because I sat next to the most beautiful French girl. She was studying German, but we conversed in French (she let me speak French!) Alas, she was getting off at Augsburg, one stop after me…

Cologne 2002-7-14

The ’97 roadtrip started almost 5 years ago to this day, and here is Volkmar and I giving Jana a ride again. But this time it is only so far as Koeln, but such is the flow of time. And actually, it is really Volkmar giving us both a ride, since he’ll be driving the Bus for this trip. But it’s all highway, it’s all good.

We arrived at Cologne in the early evening with the expectation of staying the night and getting an early start on the day to catch the ferry. We checked the ferry times, booked passage and then, under Jana’s wisdom, headed out after dinner. I tried to stay awake as long as possible, which didn’t turn out to be that long. Volkmar held out a bit longer before we stopped at a rest station near Bremen.