Thursday July 2, 2009 Mainz, Germany

We slept in a little later than usual, around 8:30. I slept later than Jon, which never happens, but I didn’t want to wake him up because I wasn’t sure what time he got to sleep. He was groggy, but awake by the time I got out of the shower.

We had a hotel breakfast and Jon started working while I went to figure out the rental car/gps deal. Loathe to use my phone here, I decided to head over to the Hertz dealer just a few miles away to see if they could give me a different car with a working cigarette lighter charger so I could get my GPS to work. I looked up the directions on google maps and wrote them down. I got the front desk to print out directions. And it took me over an hour to get there. I got lost about 7 times. When I finally made it to their offices, the sweaty guy behind the counter said he had one other car he could give me. He went out to check it and it’s cigarette lighter was broken too! He said all the cars were gone. I asked if he could ask around to the other offices in town and he went off on me about how there was no time to do that. He offered to call emergency road side assistance and give them my number to call if they had a replacement card. He sat on hold with them for 10 minutes and helped the other customers in the office. Finally when they were all gone and he was still on hold, he caved and called the neighboring office in Weisbaden. They had a car that I could switch with. The only problem—the highway was going to close in 8 minutes. He stared pointing me the route on the map on the wall. I asked if he had a copy of the map I could have and he laughed at me. I told him I’d get the map from my car. He said there was no time. (Apparently a theme with this guy) I told him getting on the highway with no idea of where I’m going doesn’t help me very much. I got my map, he pointed out the way, I drove there quickly and directly and had a new ride—a Kia Rio. Not an improvement in model, but at least my GPS was working. What a godsend that thing is.

I swung back by the hotel to pick up Jon and we went driving up the Rhein, towards Koblenz, to see some small villages and maybe a castle or two. We drove past vineyards and farmland and ended up in the town of Bad______. We walked around to see some of their special features. A bridge with stores on it. A panoramic hiking path. A park by the water way. And some crazy salt water spring spa. Where old people were breathing in the salt spray from salt walls and fountains. I stopped by the tourist information center and found out it was a health spa hot springs kind of resort town. They even had some weird crazy radon chamber you could sit in.

We had lunch at an outdoor café on the water. We were periodically disturbed by local kids jumping off the bridge and doing cannonballs into the water below. After lunch we headed back to the hotel so Jon could nap.

Once Jon was asleep and I got to IM with my dad, I went out to do some shopping. I forgot to pack shorts for this trip and its hotter here than I anticipated. Plus, I really only have one pair of shorts. Plus, I’d seen people carrying H & M shopping bags all around town and I usually have to hit that store whenever I see one. Plus, it had been almost a week since I went to the H&M in Minneapolis. So I walked down to the shopping district and found the store. I saw this interesting sign: Grosse is beautiful. I bought some shorts.

Then I went to have a glass of local wine out on the square near the beautiful city theater. Some woman was outside and her friends egged her in to singing some opera song, that rang out in the square. Then I went for a walk along the Rhein, and saw the sculptures along the water front park and all the lovers having picnics in the grass.

Then I stopped off at a corner store for a gyro and talked with the super friendly shopkeeper from Turkey. When I told him I was from Texas he lifted his arms up in the air and said, “Texas! I love you.” He sat down with me to dinner and asked me all kinds of questions. My favorite: “Does your husband have a cowboy hat?”

Then back to the hotel to deliver Jon his dinner and watch an episode of the Wire.

Some observations about Germany so far:

I know Europeans are supposed to be healthier, but I feel like people smoke more here. There are cigarette machines on the street everywhere. There are also a ton of bakeries, bars, and ice cream places. I see people walking around eating ice cream all the time. Also we saw a head shop that was also a grow shop.

So many different kinds of locomotion. I think I’ve seen more ways to get around here than any place I’ve ever been. The usual: cars, busses, bikes, walking. But there’s also light rail, trains, subways, scooters, and more. I saw a motorcycle with a roof. I saw a bicycle for two with one person recumbent and one person upright, I saw two straight dudes riding one bicycle. I’ve seen people doing everything on their bikes: talking on the phone, walking the dog, drinking. I’ve seen all kinds of miniature cars. I’ve seen people riding ATV’s around the city. I don’t think I’ve seen any rollerblades, though.

Tons of public art, going back centuries. Austin is a great down, but one of it’s biggest weaknesses is the lack of great and ubiquitous public art. And I’m not talking about those Gibson Guitars.

MTV here is awesome. They play music videos. And the station promos are hilarious. Other TV shows we’ve seen dubbed in German in just a few minutes of cruising around the tube: The Simpsons, Scrubs, and The Nanny. All hilarious.