27 Days Meandering Through Europe: Day 2

June 27, 2014 - Cologne, Germany

I woke up a bit late, roughly around 8 AM... I suppose it's early for some people.  Being in the military, it's been a lot easier to control sleep.  I've learned how to sleep virtually anywhere by now I think.  I didn't get down to the hostel's cafeteria until roughly 8:45 before they closed for the morning.  I read earlier about the breakfast's at the hostels and it was ringing true that the breakfasts, while free, were very sparse.  There were cold meat slices, various breads with jelly, butter and Nutella, basic cereals with tea, water and juice to drink.  I was coming with low expectations due to previous experiences in hostels back in the United States, and knowing that eating would mainly come through lunch and dinner for the next month.

Ground Covered in Day 2

After filling up on food, my mind was dreadfully on how and where to get my rail pass at Cologne-Bonn Airport.  The weather was mostly cloudy and threatened to rain at anytime it seemed.  Daytime Cologne was much more active than when I arrived late last night.  The nearby train station across the avenue was abuzz with people flowing in and out of the facility.  Parking was sparse when I arrived, so I parked the BMW across the busy avenue near the Hyatt Regency Hotel on a side street.

Church - Mainz, Germany

When I rented the car, I was suppose to rent it back in Mainz, but I was a couple hours north of where that city was.  I didn't know of any Europcar rental place in Cologne, but I wanted to drive the car for as long as I could.  But, first order of business, the rest of the trip hinged on obtaining this silly piece of paper that is in the form of a rail pass.  I pushed that key into the ignition of the BMW and turned onto the streets of Cologne towards the airport.

Some 30 minutes later, I was pulling into a parking lot outside the controlled access cargo warehouses in the middle of Cologne-Bonn Airport.  I was kind of lost on where to exactly go to get the package since I didn't see the FedEx building in the initial scouting.  I saw the cargo terminal where the planes drop off packages, but there was a strong gut feeling that it wasn't there.  I believe I wasted an hour or two of time to figuring out the FedEx building by walking around.

Foundation Sculpture - Mainz, Germany

This loss of direction lead me to the passenger terminal building to resolve this issue.  I chatted around to get some directions to the Germans Customs officials in the passenger terminal.  I found them eventually, but it lead to spotting the FedEx building smack in the middle of the airport runways after the Customs officials pointed it out to me.  This revelation discouraged me since it was in a controlled area... "How am I suppose to get inside there?  I am not a freight employee!  I'm not even German! I'm going to be a silly American trying to demand access for a package in that building!"  These negative thoughts raced through my mind, but I had to suck it up.  This is going be part of my story of seeing Europe, rail pass or not.  I had everything to lose, but everything gain if I just tried.

Entering the freight entry registration office, I walked over to get a number and nervously sat down in the closed lobby.  I saw through the glass double doors the Germans who stood on the other side to determine my fate in a few minutes. As my number was called, I strolled into the office, plopped my ass into the seat and submitted my application to the elderly German with my US Passport.  Obviously baffled, I began to explain my story of tracking my rail pass package to this FedEx facility and requested to talk to a FedEx representative on site.  He made a few phone calls to FedEx on site and eventually a FedEx employee, also an middle-aged German came to the office.  Once again, I explained my situation that I was Worrstadt earlier and they stated it was at this airport and FedEx Customer Service didn't know exactly where my package was, even though the online tracking was last this very airport.

Roger Ledbetter - 'FedEx Employee'

 'She had the audacity to ask why I was here, seriously, word for word, "Why are you here? This is a hub, not a pickup location.  Didn't you talk with Customer Service?"  At this point, repeating my story over and over was a broken record that I snapped in my head, but retained outward composure.  I didn't belong here, I didn't want to be here.  The customer resolution system was broken, resulting in drastic measures as getting onto a FedEx hub facility.'

They processed me an entry badge, becoming a temporary FedEx employee for a day! I followed the FedEx employee to his truck.  We didn't speak too much on the way to the facility, his English wasn't good and I didn't know a lick of German to have a half decent conversation.  It was a modestly tall building and entering the lobby, we both walked over to the receptionist who I repeated my story again to her.  I knew I didn't belong here, and was shortly whisked to a nearby office that must handled coordination of shipments.  I was quizzed once again, this time by a deep-voiced, young-looking German lady with tattoos.  She had the audacity to ask why I was here, seriously, word for word, "Why are you here? This is a hub, not a pickup location.  Didn't you talk with Customer Service?"  At this point, repeating my story over and over was a broken record that I snapped in my head, but retained outward composure.  I didn't belong here, I didn't want to be here.  The customer resolution system was broken, resulting in drastic measures as getting onto a FedEx hub facility."Ma'am, I don't want to be here anymore than you seeing me here in the first place.  If the system work as intended, I wouldn't be in front of you.  I did call FedEx Customer Service, they said it was held at Worrstadt and they didn't know why the package is being held up.  I went to Worrstadt, they said it was here.  I know it's here, I just need an explanation why the package hasn't been released. I just want my rail pass so I can enjoy the rest of my trip, visiting you wasn't part of the plan."

House with Roman Wall - Zulpich, Germany

Initially, the FedEx lady didn't know why German Customs held up the package, but I revealed my military identity because I know I revealed it earlier to the Eurail people and FedEx Customer Service.  It took about an hour to figure out that the reason for the hold up that German Customs was treating the package as a military item, which it was totally not.  I was standing for the most part of that, but fatigue and hunger kicked in as the hours passed by.  I drank water from the nearby water dispenser to stay hydrated.  It roughly took another hour to clear up the confusion about the package so FedEx could take control of it.  Hope sprang up as she came back with papers to sign over the package to me.  Weeks of planning were paying off indirectly, but I vowed never again to relive this particular situation.  Escorted back to the lobby, the envelope went through the security scanner before I could finally get it within my hot hands.  I profusely thanked everyone there that assisted as I was leaving, escorted back to the van, and whisked back outside of the gate.

Carnival - Zulpich, Germany

I said my farewells to my German escort and walked back to the BMW.  I opened the car door and plopped inside and opened the envelope again.  There it was, my elusive Eurail pass... the keystone of this entire journey through Central Europe... my pass to further adventure on an already adventurous trip.  I was thinking, "Shit, it's finally on.  I accomplished the impossible... and I am so hungry."  In celebration, I just drove over the parking at the passenger terminal and celebrated with Burger King.  The whole ordeal took up the entire morning and early afternoon, I didn't leave FedEx until around 1:30 PM.  I needed to eat to continue on the day before I could drive the Autobahn one last time.

With the burden of obtaining the rail pass out of the way, it was time to relax and start seeing Europe.  I targeted the town of Zulpich, Germany, a small town built around and on a old Roman Fort just southwest of Cologne.  I was also testing my high speed land record on this stretch of Autobahn 1 around Zulpich.  I briefly stopped outside of the oldest part of town, signified by the ring of a wall surrounding this part of town.  It was quite exciting to see such fortifications outside of Turkey for the first time.  They had a garden walk around most of the parameter of the wall with sculptures and a small carnival park.  An interesting takeaway was this house that incorporated the wall as part of its structure.  I wished I hadn't had so much time wasted at the airport to explore more, but the afternoon was well underway and Mainz was calling after a couple hours lingering in Zulpich.

Historic Gate - Zulpich, Germany

I wove my way back onto Autobahn 1 and it was before turning south on Autobahn 61 that I attempted my speed record with the BMW.  By this time, I was comfortable driving consistently over 100-115 mph in the left lane.  The highway stretched out before me, invitingly to test out the speed of this car finally.  I gauged up to 125 mph as my low-end speed before gunning higher towards 150 mph.  It should be noted that things catch up quickly at such speeds and cars/trucks pop into the left lane without too much warning that are barely over 80 mph.  I wanted to be comfortably dangerous, always keeping enough room in front of me to adjust speed back down if necessary.  The electronic speedometer gauged me around 145 mph as my highest speed with the BMW.

'The Rhine carves its way and you can see picturesque towns hug the shores of the river. As hills rapidly rise up from the riverbanks, you'll see strings of castles perched on the top of the hills overlooking the river, with dominating their position over the Rhine.  This stretches onward for miles, I don't think I've seen so many castles just by driving.'

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to test later as rain plagued most of the journey on Autobahn 61 back to Mainz.  I still mostly felt in control of the car while visibility was drastically cut with how torrential the rain was on my way towards Koblenz.  When I arrived back in Cologne later this evening, I noticed while driving on the Autobahn, I passed the famous Nürburgring race circuit exit.  I didn't realize that the race circuit was in this region of Germany and cursed to myself for missing out on this racetrack.  Oh well, next time.

Picturesque Towns and Castles - Rhine River Valley

I turned off Autobahn 61 onto Autobahn 48 and Highway 9 towards the center of Koblenz.  The city reminded me a lot of Portland, but with a more Germanic and historic flare.  I didn't stop here, but I could already tell I was missing out on stopping here as I crawled in bumper-to-bumper traffic to the south end of the city.  Fighting the traffic rewarded me with a beautiful drive down the Rhine River Valley.  Driving Highway 9 as it hugs the Rhine River is one of the most spectacular regions of the world, in my humble opinion.

The Rhine carves its way and you can see picturesque towns hug the shores of the river. As hills rapidly rise up from the riverbanks, you'll see strings of castles perched on the top of the hills overlooking the river, with dominating their position over the Rhine.  This stretches onward for miles, I don't think I've seen so many castles just by driving.  While driving on by, I could see barges cruise slowly up and down the river and trains speed on by on either side of the river.  I was planning to drive the length of this magnificent valley, but time was sadly against me.  I did drive up to Boppard following an breathtaking bend in the Rhine River, my adventure beginning to take shape in this far away valley in Western Germany.  I broke away from the river and drove up the valley towards the Autobahn once again to rush back to Mainz by early evening.

Castle in the Middle of the Rhine - Rhine River Valley

It was roughly 6 PM when I arrived back in Mainz to end my time with the BMW.  If I had a bucket list, I just completed a couple on that list with this BMW.  One of the Eurocar representatives that happened to be getting off work was happy enough to let me hitch a ride to the train station since the weather happened to be torrential rain from the heavens that evening.  The region was experiencing several systems of thunderstorms as they rolled eastward as the tablet relayed this information to me earlier in the day.

Greetings from the Beautiful Rhine River Valley!

At the station, I returned to Starbucks to get the latest information on weather and some initial plans on Berlin before the train arrived to take me back to Cologne.  I waited patiently as a Intercity Express train bound to Dortmund via Cologne arrived at Mainz Station.  Boarding the train, it was somewhat crowded as I took a seat across the table from a middle-aged German in working clothes.  He definitely knew I wasn't a German, but we said nothing.  This my first test with the rail pass and the train was well on its way down the Rhine Valley towards Koblenz as the conductor reviewed my ticket pass and stamped off the first travel day.  What I missed of the Rhine River Valley by not driving the entire length was made up by the train zipping north up the valley.  As I said before, this valley is so amazing.  It's totally worth a visit, because if you miss visiting here, your Germany trip is woefully missing out on something wonderful.

Typical InterCity Express (ICE) train - Mainz, Germany

Unfortunately, once the train arrived at Koblenz, the conductor made an announcement that made most of the passengers groan, there might be a delay at Bonn.  I could decipher Bonn, but the statement was in German; however, the groaning is the universal cue of something is awry.  How long the delay... it was anyone's guess, but the money was the heavy thunderstorms affecting the electric systems of the trains.   We left about 15 minutes late out of Koblenz, continuing on out of the Rhine valley.  

The train has been delayed numerous times since leaving Koblenz.  We're behind an hour now, so much for the timeliness of Deutsche Bahn...  Weather and another train were blocking the final stretch to Cologne.  The Germans sitting around me joked around about their "perfect" train system.  The older gentleman sitting across from me this entire time spoke in English, thicken heavily with German, to me laughing, "Welcome to Deutsche Bahn!" The sun has finally set and it's raining heavier than ever now as this train is just arriving in Cologne after a delay of a couple hours.

Boppard, Germany

Luckily, the hostel was just across the street from the train station.  I got re-situated and pulled out the camera for some night photography of Cologne Cathedral.  I took a local S-bahn to the main train station on the other side of the river.  I scouted the train station for a bit for tomorrow and then got distracted by the large crowd assembled by the information center.  I don't think I've ever seen such an angry crowd of Germans at a train station ever.  My train delay must have not been the only train delayed because of terrible weather, seems a lot of people were stuck there for the night it seems.

'The Germans sitting around me joked around about their "perfect" train system.  The older gentleman sitting across from me this entire time spoke in English, thicken heavily with German, to me laughing, "Welcome to Deutsche Bahn!"'

Cologne Cathedral 

Anyhow, the rain subsided so I could take some shots of the Cologne Cathedral at night, it's a spectacular site at night.  It's impressive they could build such a building before complex machinery was available.  I saw earlier some of the pictures of Cologne at the end of World War II, everything around this building looked flattened by Allied bombing.  I toured around the area and there is quite the night scene not too far from the train station.  I wasn't in a drinking mode, but I was hungry.  At this late hour, the only thing open to cure the hangovers of Germans were a few Turkish cuisine places selling kebaps and pizza.  Upon further inspection, the Turkish immigrants tweaked their menu to suit their homeland tastes, which confused me at first after being so familiar with Turkish food in Turkey for so long.  However, the stomach doesn't care and just wanted a nice kebap, and so in this small restaurant I observed a late summer night in Germany with drunk people start filing out of the pubs as they were about to close.  

Cologne Cathedal and Locking Bridge

After satisfying my hunger, I decided to call it a night, walking over the Rhine on the Locking Bridge.  It is actually a train bridge, but with a sidewalk on either end.  There is a fence blocking access to the tracks, but there are thousands of padlocks on this bridge, to signify the relationship of lovers locked together.  It was an interesting site as I crossed to the other side back to the hostel.  Tired, I plopped into bed and dreaming of what would happen next. 

Locked for Life - Cologne, Germany