Tuesday: I arrived very jet lagged into Germany on Sunday the 11th of August. The flight from San Diego via Houston was fine but I didn’t sleep a lot. I arrived in Frankfurt, collected my baggage and went to find the train. I had plenty of time so also hit the supermarket, knowing all stores would be closed in Bad Breisig when I arrived since it was Sunday. There’s an entire mall underneath the airport in Frankfurt. There’s also no elevator to get from the underground mall to the train platforms. Instead there are escalators which are pretty wide and luggage carts are allowed on them. I had a lot of baggage on mine so it was a bit interesting holding onto the cart as it rode up ahead of me on the steep incline (twice…there were 2 long flights of stairs), but I made it up and caught my train to Bad Breisg, via Koblenz. The ride to Koblenz is along the Rhein, very pretty, and lots of little towns dotting the riverfront.
When I arrived at the train station, the town looked pretty dead…definitely no taxis waiting! I was quite a ways from my hotel…walking distance but not with luggage. Fortunately I was able to reach the hotel and they came and picked me up!
Bad Breisig is yet another spa town in Germany. It’s not too big but is right on the Rhein River. The nearest large city is Bonn/Cologne (Koln in German). Cologne is famous for it’s cathedral; Bonn is the former capital of West Germany. There’s a bike train that goes for miles along the river and I saw lots of bicyclists on Sunday from the train.
I went by the club on Sunday. It’s only 5 minutes from my hotel by bike, perhaps a 10 minute walk along the river then through a park. The club though is right next to the train tracks. The other side seems to be forest. There aren’t many courts but another site is also being used, in Remargen. There was a cocktail party going on when I arrived and I saw several people I knew when I first walked in. I paid my entry fee then biked around the town a bit and crashed.
Yesterday I hit early with Heide Orth, who is an amazing player. After a nap, I played in the next town, Arnach, with Margreth Beyer who lives there. We had to stop for rain showers a couple of times but got in a good practice. The weather has been cool but nice overall. Arnach is the second oldest town in Germany and has an old wall surrounding the town. It has public vegetable and fruit gardens around the wall open to all residents to help themselves. It’s also famous for a high cold water geyser.
Today I hit again with Heide after finally getting enough sleep. I was scheduled to play Thursday but the draw was changed, so now I may not play till Friday even though the tournament is supposed to begin on Wednesday for my division. Interesting scheduling as always in Europe.
