Sunday, July 3, 2011

Post ITiCSE Day 4 Winningen to Darmstadt

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View of Winningen
We went down for another big breakfast – eggs, sausage, multigrain roll, muesli, yogurt and an orange. We walked to the train station to find the times – the hotel clerk was unbelievable unhelpful. We finally asked a villager if we could take our bikes on the train to Koblenz and they were free because it was the weekend.

We went back to the hotel and set off for a geocache at the site of witches’ executions in the 1600’s. We asked a local for directions to Hexenhugel and with no English he was much more help than the innkeeper. We walked on paths up through wonderful vineyards and great views. At the top there was even an airfield! We came to a woods path where we saw the Hexenhugel monument and Judy spotted the cache!

Back to the hotel, where we checked out and walked our bikes to a café where Judy had coffee and tried the local red wine. We walked our bikes to the train and took off for Koblenz.

Luckily Judy checked in at the staffed visitor center where she found out we had to take the earlier local train in order for our bikes to be allowed, so we didn’t get to tour Koblenz but hd a slice of pizza

The train ride to Mainz was almost too fast to follow Rick Steve’s commentary but it was fun to read about what we had ridden by. We took our bikes to the shop. While I was in the train station (ran into Dennis Bouvier and Raven) the bike guy came – perfect. We had some time to spend, so we had a coffee and a cherry strudel. The train to Darmstadt was 20 minutes late so we got to the hotel just at 5 when the reception opened!

We retrieved our bags from Stefanie’s room and checked email etc. in our own rooms which were the same ones we had been in before! We then headed into town for the festival which was unbelievable. So many rides, food and people – Wauseon homecoming times 50!

Judy and I ate at the Biergarten I had eaten at the previous Sunday. She order Frankfurter green sauce which turned out not to be a sausage but eggs – the name Frankfurter modified the sauce! I got another fish salad, and this time the fish was fried but good. We walked a good portion of the carnival but not all.

Back at the hotel we talked to Stefanie. We talked more before going to our rooms. I showered and went to bed about 11.

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