Saturday I left Mt Tremblant, drove to Montreal (first leg, about two hours) and got ready for the second leg of my trip to Baden Baden. I went through Customs in Montreal which was pretty easy, (Global Entry) and found the Air Canada lounge, which was pretty empty and very nice compared to US domestic lounges (two kinds of hot soup, sandwich makings, hummas, salads, cold drinks, cookies, etch). The second leg was the flight on a regional jet to Newark. I was on the left side of the aircraft so had a good view of NYC in the distance, and even saw the Statue of Liberty.

Leg three was Newark/Frankfurt, after a four hour layover, which I used to catch up on some phone calls while the phone was in the USA and I walked around the terminal a bit. The EWR/FRA flight was uneventful, fast and comfortable. My luggage arrived in Frankfurt and I was in the train station before 10 am (given that the flight was scheduled for a 9:20 landing, that’s quick).

Leg four was Frankfurt Flughafen airport to Baden Baden, which actually were legs 4 and 5, FRA to Mannheim then Mannheim to Baden Baden. Leg 6 was a taxi to my hotel.

I got to my hotel at 2 and had a hit set up for 3, so I had lunch, then unpacked my bicycle…which was broken. :-(. Also, nothing is open in Germany on Sunday and I found out that Monday also was a big holiday, so I’ve been hoofiing it around town and to the courts the past two days. Fortunately, Stephanie from Baden Baden said she knows someone from the Club who can fix the bike tomorrow, Tuesday.

I hit with David from Spain for about 90 minutes. it was hot! My hotel doesn’t have air conditioning, but I do have a fan (actually, I think it has some air conditioned rooms, but I don’t have one of them.) David is in the men’s 55 and is a very nice player, the 9th seed, playing his first international ITF seniors event, though he plays a lot in Spain. After practice, I watched the final 2 1/2 sets of Nadal v Djokovic. I had dinner at the club walked back via Lichenthaler Allee which is very pretty.

I had an 8:30 am practice match today with Tillmann, with whom I practice here nearly every year. Tillmann and I had a good practice, just over two hours and it was really warm today, 97! I walked into town to get a sandwich and cold drink…no grocery stores of any kind were open though, only bakeries and restaurants.

I practiced more later, watched Mark Pepin from Canada  play (he only arrived today and he lost, was rather jetlagged) , and got a ride back to the hotel. It was along day but quite pleasant.

I found out I don’t play till Thursday, but I have plenty of practice set up till then. Hopefully my bicycle will be an easy fix too.

Here’s the link to the draws (click on “order of play” then draws or “matches” to see the schedule and results.

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