Germany 1988 - On Our Own

TUESDAY June 21, 1988 This was our real venture on our own. We had said goodbye to the Ihlows' and we were going to see how we would do in the coming weeks. We went for breakfast and felt quite comfortable with the procedures at the Mag Hotel. After we ate, we packed our things and by 11:00 we left the hotel to go to the bank, the grocery store and to get some gasoline. One of the few simple things was to buy gas as most of the stations were self service. With the exact amount of the purchase displayed on the pump, it was no effort to go inside with the correct amount of Marks in your hand. There was one difficulty in one town where the pump generated a ticket that had to be taken inside. Luckily Bob was watching another driver complete the pumping of the gas and then reach inside a small opening on the pump and take a small piece of paper inside to pay the cashier. We had become comfortable in the few days that we spent in Mainz and we were very glad that we would be returning here after we completed our German tour. Peter had given us a listing of suggested cities and we had written the name in the front cover of our new road atlas. We had also purchased a pink highlighter pen to mark the routes that we

planned to take. Our first stop on the list was the city of Bonn. This was the capital of West Germany. We had problems finding the information center. We then decided to find a parking space, which was also a challenge. We finally succeeded in our parking efforts and we walked to an information center. We went to a department store to pick up two cups and a knife. We would use the cups for bottled water and wine and the knife would get good service to slice rolls and spread peanut butter for our many lunch snacks and cut apples for our nightly snacks. We had hoarded two plastic spoons that were used for snacks of yogurt during the day. We were not very impressed with what we saw in the downtown areas; there were many young people lounging around. We walked around for a little while and decided to have lunch at a MacDonalds. This was our first experience with an American fast food facility. About the only difference was the fact that space is at a premium in the city, so there was the normal service on the first floor but the eating facilities were on several floors. During the lunch we decided to find a hotel between Bonn and Koln and then come back in the morning to investigate Bonn. As we attempted to leave the city, Bob got on a "no-entry" road and found ourselves driving onto a pedestrian plaza. We quickly turned around and headed north. We saw many fuel oil facilities on the way to Koln but did not find any B&Bs. By this time it was late in the afternoon and we got caught in traffic. We decided that maybe we should head back toward Bonn, but in doing so we found a hotel sign over the entrance to a small bar. Bob went in and was shown a room on the third floor for a rate of 100 DM. The room was clean, but it could have used some new paint. The view was of some other roofs. The entrance and stairway made you feel a little uncomfortable. The hallway on our floor was very dark and we had to walk by several rooms to get to ours at the end of the hall. It seemed that the other guests were semi-permanent as they were cooking in the rooms. We did hear quite a lot of conversation noise from the room next to ours. We found as we continued our travels that most of the rooms did not have closets. Instead they had wardrobes; some of them were quite elaborate. In this room there was a large unit with mirrors on the inside of the doors. Bob made the mistake of opening both doors at the same time and the weight of the mirrors tipped the wardrobe over. We quickly learned to open only one door at a time. But the Bar/Restaurant downstairs was very good and the people were very friendly and helpful. When we placed our dinner order, the waitress asked if we wanted to have some "mice." We did not understand what it was, but she was quite insistent so we agreed. When it came it was corn and we realized that she was trying to tell us "maize."