WSU Tenor Line

Here it is. The official post about the trip to Hof, etc. Read it well. I'll most likely edit it in the morning.

It all began back when Dr. Root announced that the Ogden Concert Band was going to be returning to Hof, Germany (Ogden, Utah's sister city) and asked who was interested in going with from the Weber State bands. It only took me a moment to decide that the trip was something I definitely wanted to do.

The trip cost $1550 for the economy version (add $300 more for the sidetrip to Salzburg, which I elected not to), and having taken on a second job in addition to my duties here in the library (and by duties, I mean refilling the printer with paper and staring blankly into space the rest of the time) really helped to defray the cost. Stupid, fraying cost. Why can't it have been nicely surged around the edges so we wouldn't have that problem. Snap. Tangent.

After the Spring '04 semester ended the OCB began holding rehearsals that included the WSU students.

Ok, more later.
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Ok, now it's later.

The rehearsals were held on Wednesday evenings and were punctuated by visits from the incredible Mr. Scott Sneddon. He is a former mayor of Ogden city and was in charge of leading the group on the trip, arranging for airline tickets, homestays, and performance venues. He would clue us in on little details of how to prepare for the trip and fun things to do and see while we were there.

Most of the music we played was fairly simple stuff. There were quite a few Sousa marches, and some other very American music. We held several concerts prior to the actual trip. One, which took place in the Band Room in the Browning Center, was for several of the people from the Hof city council and other german folks who were visiting Utah. There were two concerts at the Ogden Amphitheater, and one somewhere in Layton for some outdoor festivities or other. The one in Layton got severly rained out. We had to stop playing before we were 1/2 way through our lineup of songs and drive 1/2 submersed back to our respective dwellings. For the percussion, it was great fun trying to load and unload the equipment; driving was dangerous and quite the adventure. The concerts at the Amphitheater were simply hot and sunshiny.

Several days before the trip, I began to pack. And by that I mean what I actually did was think about beginning to pack. The actual packing didn't happen until Saturday the 17th for me. Then on the morning of the 19th (our departure date) I did some more packing and had my Mother drive me to the Salt Lake airport. On the way there we picked up Jarrett and made a few stops (Goldenwest Credit Union,

and Wal-Mart) to get money, batteries, Compact Flash, and breath mints, for all of which we were greatful later on.

On arriving at the airport, we unloaded our luggage, had my mom take a few pictures of us,

and then said goodbye and entered the building. We found the luggage check-in counter where several of the people in our group were already in line. Scott stood at the head of the line and we chatted with him for a minute. After checking our bags we proceeded to the gate to await boarding.

If you didn't notice it by now, I'm telling this in a very dry fashion. Good luck wading through it all. Perhaps I'll vary things a bit now and then with random comments, quotes, tangents, jokes, lengthy comma-delimited lists, etc. Maybe.

At the gate there stood an ATM which Rod Rippon and I both attempted to use. After sitting there for some time and chatting with those who were already sitting there,

more of the group arrived, including the Infamous Ward/Willoughby Gang. Ok, they're not a gang. But when they arrived, we got together for some Doritos and UNO, along with Nate.

When I say we, I mean Jarrett and I, who ended up rooming together and hanging out quite a bit on the trip.

The whole day, excitement had been growing, and sitting in the terminal only added to it. In cases like these, I don't mind a lot of waiting, because the anticipation and looking forward to such a trip is half the fun.

While playing games, Sarah and I realized that we both owned the same model of camera. Yay.

After a while, they announced that we would board the airplane. We did so.

It was a relatively short flight, on which I had a window seat and took several pictures.

I sat next to Arland. His daughter became ill while in the air and did not want to continue. So she and her mother decided to take a bus from Denver back to Utah, which I thought was too bad. Fortunately she seemed all right after we landed.

When we got to Denver we found our gate and checked in.

Then I went with Katie and Tiffanie to the Panda Express for grub.

Matt Cooper went on an eventually successful hunt for a Jamba Juice. After eating, it was back to the gate for more card games and relaxed socializing.

We eventually boarded the next flight which would take us to Frankfurt.

I had an aisle seat for this lengthy ordeal,

which was nice, since I could kind of stretch my legs out into the aisle if I felt like it. And I did. Lots. That's the only part of flying that ever bothers me, is when on a long flight I can't stretch my legs.
Shortly after takeoff I fell asleep for a little while, which was nice.

Fortunately for us the flight had a lot of empty seats. This made it so I could lay down for part of the flight in the empty seat next to me. It was extremely uncomfortable to try to lay down like that, so I didn't do it that much. But the empty seat next to me was still beneficial, since Jarrett came up and sat in it for part of the flight

and watched The Princess Bride with me, since neither of us found the idea of watching Dirty Dancing: Havannah Nights all that appealing.

When we finally landed, we disembarked

and headed through the unfamiliarly smokey airport

to pick up our bags

and go through customs so we could declare nothing. We then went outside to find our bus waiting for us.

It was a 2-story automobile with plenty of room to stand up in, at least on the outside of it. Once you got inside, it was a different story.

It had been raining just a bit

and the sky was overcast still. Attached to the bus was a trailer for hauling our luggage and instruments in,

which we loaded up. Then we got on the bus to wait for the loading to finish and the long (but not nearly as long as the flight) bus ride from Frankfurt to Hof to commence. Included in the price of admission was a free garbage bucket

which some people noticed by stepping into.

After sitting there for a while,

Jarrett came out and announced that his luggage, while in Frankfurt, was temporarily misplaced by Lufthansa (our airline) and that they would be sending it to him later, which they did. In his efforts to recover his bag, he did manage to acquire a pen and some Trolli gummis.

Fun stuff, eh?

The drive through the German countryside

was very nice. There is a lot of pine forest

and farmland,

dotted here and there with cute little German towns. The buildings mostly had red tiled roofs and white walls.

After driving for a while we stopped in the very old and attractive town of Rothenburg. It is a walled city with many archaic, 1/2-timbered buildings (many of which had flower boxes on the windows), cobblestone streets, towers, turrets, cafes, and shops. There they had a criminal museum which displayed many midieval torture devices designed for causing pain and/or embarrasment to those found on the wrong side of the law back in the day.

Ok, now I should go and do something else. So I will.
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On the drive there I somehow lost consciousness and was awakened by the sound of a loud loudspeaker just over my head. As the grogginess level in my mind decreased I became aware of quaint little German buildings, some of which I took pictures of.

As I became more coherent I started to understand what the guy with the microphone was saying - something about when and where to meet after our tour of the city to continue on to Hof.

We disembarked and wandered

into town

in a stretched-out string of straggling tourists. The wall contained several impressive arched entrances into the town

as well as towers and such.

Inside the walls the buildings were noticeably older than the ones without.

It was like stepping back into the middle ages.


I wandered for a while with Connie, Melissa,

and Sarah

in search of an entrance to the top of the wall, as Scott had informed us that it could be walked on (and in as we discovered). Along the way

we admired various little shops, fountains,

a church,

and the outside of the criminal museum.


We eventually found the entrance to the wall and spent quite a bit of time taking in the view

from atop the turrets and embattlements.

The wall had a lot of arrow loops

and oillets.

There were plaques set in the wall with many interesting names engraved on them.

There were quite a few picturesque features in and on the wall


and other fun stuff like signs

and crests.

Even in a centuries-old town, there still exists the plague of road construction.


We stopped after a while in a fruiterers for some sustenance, and then continued our walk along the wall, admiring the view.

We eventually made our way back to the bus to continue our trek.


Time to go practice for my lesson. More later. Also, I'll be adding thumbnail pictures in appropriate places in this post when I get around to it. With all CS classes (and band) this fall, I should have enough time to actually get that done as well as a show of the pictures before the next band trip. Chuß.
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It being later, yet too late to type much, I'll just say that after returning from the trip that when people ask me how it was, I can only say that I totally fell in love with the places we visited and that it was an incredible trip. Trying to answer such a question and describe the experience in a one-sentence reply is like trying to put the whole ocean into a water balloon. Doesn't quite work. For everyday conversation, spoken and written language usually works pretty well. But for the big important things it's somehow not enough.
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As you've undoubtedly noticed, I've gotten around to putting some of the pictures in here. It will take some time to get them all into the bucket and linked to the right spots in this retelling. But I does what I can.

After getting back on the bus we continued on to Hof.

There were some interesting things along the way.

We pulled up to the trailer park right next to the Freiheitshalle bus stop

to unload the trailer and bus and await our host families.

People were carted off in small numbers.

Eventually it was our turn and the Nine (as we referred to ourselves) took a taxi

on Stadt Hof's dime to Weißenburger Hof.

It used to be a nice hotel, but was converted to student housing. Since most of the students had vacated their rooms for the break between semesters there was plenty of room for us. Dave had a choice word to say when he found out that being on the second floor

meant that he had to haul his suitcase up two flights of stairs rather than just one.

Frans Anders, our host and the manager of the building, gave us a short tour of the building and showed us to our rooms. Our room

was directly above the entrance and had a cool window, which opened two directions and surprised Jarrett.

After we had unpacked and relaxed a bit, the group gathered and made our way to the bahnhof

to see if there were any restaurants in the area where we could sup.
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We found the bahnhof nearly deserted. Rod Rippon asked a couple of people who were there about food spots. We went outside

and took a taxi to a restaurant

which turned out to be not too far from our hotel and which was kind enough to stay open about 1/2 hour later than their usual closing time to accomodate us. The food was excelent (soup,

mineralwasser,

fish fillet, potato salad, etc.)

and other stuff.

After we ate we took a leisurely walk back home and slept.
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The next morning, Jarrett and I decided to go exploring around town. We first headed to the bahnhof where the dew was still on the grass

and the pigeons were sitting on their house.

After finding a map placard that showed where the tourist information bureau was, we decided we'd have just enough time to stop by there and see if we couldn't get a more portable map and some info about Hof. As we wandered we saw interesting things: a weird thing,

a church,

a school,

and the building where the LDS branch used to meet.

Then we went back to our hotel to have breakfast and say hi to Frans Anders, after which we walked

to the bahnhof

to meet the group and take a tour of the city by bus. We drove past a university

and went out where we could see a nice view of the whole town

including Theresenstein.

We continued on past a homely little prison

to a cool lake

where we relaxed

and went on a little walk to stretch our legs.

In the lake was an island with modern art on it.

We climbed some stairs

saw a bit of forrest

and then returned to the bus

to continue our tour of the town. We passed the opera house

and came at last to the rat house - I mean rathaus.

There a ceremony for the unveiling of a buffler

was in the making. As they set up, Mikell befriended a lady.

Or maybe it was the other way round. At any rate, some apparently important people said some stuff

including a guy that had a chain like a rapper (or a second mayor).

The statue was revealed

and there was much clapping and picture taking all around.

Then the whole gang went inside

for drinks

and a long-winded, bilingual speech

which some of us were lucky enough to be seated for.

After the speech a nice man provided us with food in the form of hot dogs.

Then we returned to Mr. Bus

and drove

to the little town of Mödlareuth, also known as Little Berlin for its having been divided during World War II. There we found a nice putting green

and took a tour of the artifacts preserved from that darker era.



We watched a film

about the town during the Cold War and then had a nice tour guide

come to show us some more stuff.

From there we drove to Theresenstein and went on a nice walk.


We walked past a groovy looking building

past the turnoff to the Labrynth

past a little pond

with big goldfish

to a garden full of foliage and color.


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On our way out we chanced to meet Ben's kin.

We walked to where we would board the bus

which took us back to the bahnhof.

After going home I put away the gifts given to me thus far that day

wandered around aimlessly in the hotel for a bit, and finally collapsed on my bed where I used the last of my strength to take a few pictures. The ceiling looked remarkably like the ceiling in my room back home.

Oh, yeah. And I drank a glass of water I got from the kitchen.

After a whiles we changed our clothings to our concert-type get-ups and made our way via taxi to the concert hall where we played our second-to-last (first) concert of the trip. I was proud of the trumpets for not playing a stinger and of myself for not conducting one this time. After the concert we sat on the steps outside the hall talking for a while and waiting for the rest of the Nine to exit the building. When they did, Rod informed us that Peter of Stadt Hof had offered to buy us dinner at the little cafe adjoining the concert hall, which offer we readily accepted. That meal was delicious and was the first time I tried the tasty orbs that Deutschland proffers alongside roulade (which was my main course that evening) and other such dishes.

Sadly, I'd forgotten my camera [I know, I know - shock! horror! amazement!], so the only images I took from that segment of the trip are stored in my mind.
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But if Sarah will let me, maybe I'll link up a few of the pictures from her camera here to visually depict the concert.

The next morning we awoke to find that Franz Anders had been there again and delivered our daily provender of good German bread, butter (real, of course), cheese, salami, milk (for the cornflakes from the first morning we hadn't yet finished off), juice, mineral water (yum), and pastries. It was always interesting to sit around with the group and chat about what we had done the day before or what we would do that day. Rod always had a few assorted bits of information about the culture or language, and Dave... well, Dave is just funny and cool.

Following breakfast we trundled off to the bahnhof to board the bus we would take to Praha (Prague). On the way out of town we passed a fountain around which disgruntled city workers were gathered as they attempted to remove from said fountain the effects of a midnight prankster's box of soap suds. We on the bus, on the other hand, were gruntled at the sight. If that's a word.

After driving through the beautiful countryside (including the odd nuclear facility... uh, I mean we didn't drive through the... nevermind) for a while we took a break at the Czech border where they checked (didn't check) our passports very carefully. We continued the drive through a light rain and took another break at a troll military practice facility. We passed vineyards and several run-down looking houses every so often until we finally arrived in the capital. There we circled a block past a set of statues of Kepler and Brahe while waiting for our tour guides. We eventually found them and disembarked. They led us to a largish set of buildings including a mammoth cathedral. It began to rain again, which was refreshing after a long bus ride. The rain let up while we were inside so that the only water that landed on my head when I exited the building came from the mouth of a gargoyle. We split up into two groups, one led by a quick old lady, the other led by a slow young lady. After descending slowly through the upper part of the city we ended up at a place where they let us change our money. The two groups met up again and began touring the lower part of the city. There was a cool guy playing crystal glasses with his fingertips on one of the bridges spanning the river, and lots of people selling trinkets and drawings. Across the river we found plenty of little shops, some selling crystal, some selling cranky shop keepers. Oh, wait. He wasn't for sale.

As we wandered we found little stands to buy souvenirs at. If anyone wondered whether it would be a good idea or not to buy any particular item, Sarah always had the answer: yes. There was a huge clock where the sun still went round the earth, plenty of plexiglass cows, and delicious ice cream. Some guy was trying to get tourists to have their picture taken with a snake, but really he just scared a lady. After a few hours of having our eyes amazed by the coolness of it all, (plus a pizza) we made our way back to the bus. Along the way we exchanged crowns for Euros and paused for a gaze at the visually impressive river. After Nate's marathon and cleaning out the people who were trying to sell us booze of cookies, we slipped into a slumber as we sped back to our awaiting host families' homes. At a stop along the way Connie and Sarah decided to do laps around the bus, which turned into tag with Melissa. Funny stuff. Prague was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip.

The next morning we got up early and headed down to the local bakery for fresh pastries. Makes mouth's happy. Jarrett and I ate on the front stoop since the adverse person-to-key ratio shafted us into being locked out. But a guy let us in as he left. Later Misses Ward and Willoughby came by and we went exploring. We checked out a church, another church, the E-Center, a WWII memorial, a school, the train station, some cars, a cool fountain-thing, a weird fountain-thing, a walk leading to the river, some MMMmmm good smells, a see-saw, the river, and a stone lion in Theresenstein. Sarah and Connie's host mom picked them up at the Rat House and we had lunch at a nice little cafe near the churches we'd spotted earlier. Mikell tried to read the menus which was funny.

After going back to the hotel (some lady was walking her pet pig) and chilling out for a bit, we became inside our OCB shirts and walked down to the City Hall for the Grande Parade.
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Along the way we passed BG and Nate's abode. At the City Hall we met Connie and Sarah and took some pictures on the cement cubes. Their host mom kindly gave us some tickets to some of the rides at the Volksfest for later. Mikell again found her friend who dropped some water bottles from her appartment onto the head of a passer by. Scott handed out some American gear: good ol' western straw cowboy hats (made in Mexico) and plastic flags to give out to deserving-looking kiddies along the way.

After a bit, the parade got underway. A few people rode in US Army jeeps while the rest of us walked behind. We meandered through the town and took pictures of people taking our picture. The kid I gave my hat to threw it on the ground, which was hilarious since his mom thought he looked cute with it on. As we neared Freiheitshalle, we saw where Dave, Rod, & co. had gotten to; they were playing a bit of combo music on a pad of grass. The parade ended in a structure that looked like it had been built for just what it was being used for - partying.

We had reserved seating in the middle of the hall (I suppose they wanted to be sure we could hear what was going on on stage). Scott handed out cards good for free food and drink, and we sat for a while watching the other parade participants making their way into the pavillion. There was some good YMCAing and cheering for the other bands. I think WSU should get some glockenspiels like they had - hood ornament, tassels and all. I think maybe I have never seen our city's mayor start any public event off by opening a keg, but that's what Hof's did. We found that coasters could be used for more than just putting one-liter mugs on. They're also great for a low-stress game of Memory.

On that first day it wasn't nearly as loud and smokey and drunkey as it got later. But when we felt we had filled our guestly duties by staying long enough inside to not look rude when we left, we did just that. Outside we saw that the assembly of the Farris Wheel (and other rides) had been completed and so made use of our benevolently bestowed tickets on the motion-sickness enducing devices of sheer adrenaline and joy (the rides).

There was a ride that a few of us (myself not included) braved. It was run by a French dude that almost got killed by Mikell for spinning her and Matt too much. Hot Snow had fake snow, the Vild Maus was truly vild, the Flying Circus was a pain in the neck, Playball was ok, and the bumper cars were... bumper cars. But the very best ride by far was FreeStyle. I don't know how to describe just how fun that ride was other than to say that I've started saving my nickles and dimes. (Actually, if I had one of those in my backyard, that'd be the coolest. Then I could throw parties. The barbeque part of the party would, of course, be after the riding FreeStyle 10 or so times in a row.)

Anywho, after all that we relaxed on the Ferris Wheel from which there was a great view of the town. After re-entry we got some eis cream and then called it an evening. Walking back to our hotel we chanced across Amelia all by her lonesome. Fearing for the groups of 3 to 5 drunk guys she maybe would start to harrass if left alone, we stayed with her until her host family came by later. No, wait. Other way 'round. While waiting, BG broke a couple of glass bottles and Mikell gave a statue a bear hug. When we finally arrived back at the hotel, Rod failed to convince me not to take a picture of Dave asleep. Too bad I didn't dare use the flash for fear of him waking and being upset. Sometime after this point, I lost consiousness, presumably (my memory begins to fade on the less memorable moments) in my bed.

The next morning, for some reason, I took a picture of our shower. After breakfast we went with Rod to wander around some parts of town we hadn't been to yet. The day started with a light rain, for which we were prepared. We met the Elders who told us where services were held, walked through a park, and had a leaf race under a bridge. We walked along the river for a bit, stopped in to see the water park/swimming hall. From there we made our eventful way into the middle of town and met some of the other people from our group. After luncheon we busied ourselves trying to find the photo shop in the window of which were hanging our likenesses from the parade the day before. After failing in the attemp, Rod and I stopped by a florists, he for some flowers for his host family from the last time he visited Hof who he was going to visit, and I for a plant to brighten up our hotel room. Somehow the plant named itself Planty. I mean I named it that. But don't make fun. Rod and I also stopped and chatted with a couple that lived in an appartment a couple doors down from the hotel. I was surprized that I could make out much of what they said given the context. Danish and German are a lot more alike than I'd thought. At least when you're talking about the flowers the couple was growing and telling about why you're in Germany.

After changing once again into our concert attire we made our way to the bus at the bahnhof which would take us to our second and final concert of the trip in a little Czech town called Eger (Chub). After the hour or so long drive we found ourselves next to what Jarrett deduced was a library in a town that felt like the capital city of Vulgaria in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. There was hardly anyone about and only a few people even came to our concert. We had fun taking a few Helm's Deep pictures and wandering around the nearly deserted streets. The performance was held in a park bordered on all sides by appartment buildings. Since we had no percussion equipment but what we brought from the States, it was an altogether interesting concert. Dr. Root had me conduct Sempre Fidelis without a score (how unnerving) which was fun. In fact, the whole concert had a lighthearted feel to it. It was bordering on postitively informal. Children were playing across the park through the whole thing and most of the people who listened did so from inside the buildings around the area. Most of the audience proper (seated in front of the band) was composed of people that came with us on the trip. But who cares? It was fun, and we played our hearts out. After packing up and someone receiving some injury or other on the loading van, we goofed around and then headed back to Herr Bus. Kelly found it a practical impossibility not to try to annoy me, so I found a stick and named it Stop. Near the bus, we made a Stop sign. Uh, I guess you had to be there. I, for one, surely was.

When we arrived back in Hof it was too late to do anything but (accidently) ditch Rod and take some engagement pictures for Mikell at a Greek restaurant. When Melissa left with Paul before the rest of us, it gave us a bit of a scare, thinking she had been abducted by aliens or had fallen into an open manhole or something like that. But no, she had just left quietly before we realized it.

Ok, so the next morning dawned and we arose and got ready for a trip to the LDS meetinghouse in Plauen. After a thoroughly European train ride across the countryside (I miss those) we met the Elders once again and proceeded by streetcar. On the trolley-majig we met some fellow Saints headed to the same destination. They had a kid that was very funny for his incessant chatter to BeeJay. Ben's dad spoke in the meeting and I met the brother of Elder Merkel, the German who was in my MTC group. BJ and the Elders translated the meeting for us. Since the church was under construction they only had sacrament meeting, but it was good. We tried valiantly to pronounce the words to the hymns right.

After the meeting we used our return tickets at the appropriate time to travel back to Hof just in time to be picked up by Franz Anders who took us to a little get-together at a bakery owned by one of the homestay host families. We wandered around the adjoining museum-type-deal for a bit, then had a most tasty lunch. In the museum there was a music machine which was great fun. Scott drew us a map of Nurnberg where we would be the next day.

After the repast we drove to a castle which decided to close 15 minutes after we arrived. The castle sat atop a hill overlooking a quaint little town. At a cafe in the town we spotted Dr. Root and family. He decided that some pictures should be taken, which they were. A bus took us up a winding road to the castle in the courtyard of which a band was dress-rehearsing for a concert that evening whose leader had Cindy sing As Time Goes By without even hearing her sing, not even once, and this is an ill-constructed run-on comma-spliced sentence bla.

So after looking around the gift shop we pretty much just sat in the courtyard and listened to the music for a while. The music sounded well and wasn't too explosive. We found that if you are a sitting bird, you're not supposed to throw stuff in. Scott and Mikell can swing when they're In the Mood. After basking in the warm sun we walked back down into town, found some calendar cards in the street, and descended into the underground parking garage where we had left the van earlier. Shortly after we attained a speed of 180 kpm a motorcycle passed us, we were informed, doing 200. Back at the hotel we played cards, listened to the 1812 Overture, and feasted on Pop Tarts.

Next morning after visiting the bakery and Tux we bussed our way to Nurnberg where we saw a stadium where Hitler once gave a speech and where part of Contact was filmed (we were told). There was a nice big wall running through much of the part of town we drove through, and one of the cooler castles we saw on the trip adjoining it at one spot. After a jaunt around the castle we made our way down the hill into town. We saw a Keck store which I snapped a shot of for Ben, and a church. Then we came to a... well, a thing. It was a statue or monument of some sort. Scott had told us about it the day before, and had said there was a golden wish-granting ring on one side. Although I discovered that you don't need a golden ring to make wishes or to have them come true, it was still fun to click your heels three times and say wait a second. That's not how it works. You turn the ring three times and don't say anything - out loud anyway.

Nearby there was a McDonalds, the rest of the square (which was nice for just sitting on and eating or relaxing or whatever, as all largeish European town squares are), a smiling building, yet another nifty church, a bakery, [As I write this I am looking sequentially through my collection of pictures, so some of the things I write may not make sense until I get the links to the pictures put in. The patience of the reader is therefore requested in the matter. Enjoy Sprite. Thank you.] a statue of the legendary Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker, a river that looks at first glance more like BJ buying cherries than a river, buncha birds, some Spiderman-like carvings, still another church, and a marketplace. Time for going to sleep - stay tuned.
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BJ found a store that sold German DVDs. We continued to wander until we found a gold mine of culinary delight: Döner. After we indulged our tastebuds in this wonder, we went back to find the missing river. Yup - it was there all along. As the rain continued we made our way back to the castle and the bus, stopping along the way for pictures. They have cool fences in Germany.

We continued by bus to the place where Wagner lived and worked. At one point I'm all, "BJ!" and BJ's all, "Huh?" Funny. We found the Opera Haus across from a nifty fountain near some of the pervasive plastic pooches found all about town. The good Doctor was kind enough to foot the bill for entrance. The hall proper was one of the most extravagant rooms I've ever seen. They showed a very dim slideshow while the hardly understandable voices of a German couple orated, telling about the origins and history of the hall. Then a real live lady came and spoke for some more about it. I think it would've been more interesting if it had been in English. Still interesting though, and quite the eyefull. After that we wandered around town taking various pictures of sundry things.

After everyone finally made it on board, the bus continued on. Smarties in Europe are not actually Smarties. After we got back to Hof and chased the pidgeons we wandered our way back to the People's Party at Freedom's Hall. And I thought polka was a thing of the past. But these people loved it, and they loved it loud. So loud, in fact, that it's like "check this out, I've got something to say... Man! It's So Loud in here." After a drink we left the hearing-loss center and braved the rides again - particularly FreeStyle. I can't describe it but to say, in the words of a chipped French teacup, "You guys gotta try this thing!"

So after that we went and checked out the wacked out statue of a dancer in front of the opera hall, BG broke a police line, and we spotted a lineup of taxis waiting to take the intoxicated merry-makers to their houses. After the 3 Musketeers had some delicious dessert we retired to the Beer Garden for some game and tune time. Time for sleepy-by drew near and we meandered homewards.

Next morning it was time to board the bus once again for another adventure. This time we breakfasted on the way. We went not to this one place, but to a castle located a little ways away. Connie and Sarah's host mom was our tour guide that day. The castle was very interesting and full of amazing (probably all hand-made) objects from ages past. We first went up top to look out from one of the turrets, then made our way down through the courtyard to the entrance. The castle contained two rooms inhabited for a while by Martin Luther. On display was his very own drinking cup, set in the foreground of a wall painting of his personal crest. Yep - that's right. They still had his original tube of toothpaste there. (No, not that kind of Crest.)

The lady in this painting is pretty. Pretty creepy, I mean. There was a room exclusively decorated with inlaid wood. Fascinating and priceless. Then it was off, to rooms beyond, filled with countless heirloom pieces of everyday castle life. Glasses, shackles, swords, guns, vehicles, funny looking guy sticking out of a pillar, armor, weapons, and more. Arthur tried to pull a "sword" from a stone. This is where they had the second Olympic games, and this is all that's left of the event. We left the castle headed for eats at a 1-up on a hot-dog stand. Our feet waited patiently in line for the Mmm Mmm Good German sausage. Hum. What did we do next? Hum. Hum. Oh, yeah. We went to the Hummel Factory. There we saw a few huge and a plethora of small Hummel figurines. They showed us a creepy video of how they made them and the history of the lady whose artwork inspired them. We even got to see some people at work making them for real. Then we left. Yes. That is what we did.

Polo Joker!

The next stop was an incredible Baroque cathedral inspired by a person's account of 14 Saints visiting them. It was very different from all the other churches we'd seen on our tourism outings. Ornate. Light. Beautiful. In fact, the only weird thing was the one statue of the guy holding his own head. After quietly wandering in awe inside for a bit we went outside and sat in the sun. Nate and Connie found themselves camoflauged and singing their own theme song. We sat on the steps, Jarrett shaved with his camera, and when the bus came back Sarah directed us to the emergency exits. Then some guy almost ran us over in a tight spot.

That day also ended with us at the Folk's Fest. It was getting too smokey and dancing on the tables for us, so we enjoyed another döner out in the Biergarten. Since we were still a bit hungry, we decided to make the short 10 mile hike to McDonald's out on the outskirts of town. The next town. As we walked we found an unraveled piece of modern "art" and took a picture by it. The blur is BJ. Schmack. Wheatley. Ronald.

After we made it back (we took the long way from Freiheitshalle, too) we played What If until people came knocking on the windows. Then sleep took us.

When we awoke, it was morning. The morning of the big outing to the lake. After a hasty breakfast of not much, we were passed by Nate, BJ, and Blackie on our way to Katie and Tiffanie's place. Their host drove us out to the lake, around which we took a lesiurely walk. Afraid to pass the sunbathing old guys, we stopped at a grassy area to skip rocks and fail to throw a frisbee into the lake. After, as we continued, we passed a cornfield and a forrest growing all in rows (one of which was missing). The sound of cicaidas was in the air.

We found several boats, one of which was stuck in the sand of a deserted isle (playground). We passed a bunny on the way to the other boats. After a bit of lunch we embarked for a journey to a tropical location overgrown with strange metal trees. We tried valiantly to run this one duck over, but it was more maneuverable than we were. We had some blue candy and then left.

The billboard we had passed every day on our way to the station finally recieved its comeuppance by having us pose by it. I mean, it was pretty much asking for it. We chilled at the hotel for a bit and then stopped by Nate and BeeGee's pad and met their host. He was kind enough to let us wait out back. He told us some fun stuff and then we headed off to the Internet cafe to blog and watch a sbemail or two. Crying was funny. So much so that I nearly laughed hard enough to bring tears to my eyes. Then we stopped by the lebens middle store for sugar-based foodstuffs. We grabbed yet another delicious döner (except for me), stopped by BJ and Nate's again, and set up a LotRISK game at the hotel. Then we made ready for some fine dining at Connie and Sarah's place. Just before we left, the group that had taken a few days and dollars to go to Salzburg returned. Dave had acquired a sylin' new hat.

Our ride arrived and we piled into the van, off for another Adventure. The house was near a woods and was quite the nice place. We enjoyed a bit of Steinway and drinks on the sun porch. Ananas is great stuff. Dinner was scrum-diddly-umptious. After we ate we toured the house and sang some songs. It was probably the most relaxing evening we had on the entire trip. After it was over we returned to the hotel and cleaned up the unplayed game. Then we packed a bit and slept.

The next morning we finished packing and bid a fond farewell to our small room with its big European style.
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When we arrived at the bahnhof some of the host families were already there, dropping off their peoples. We gave the keys back to Frans Anders and took a picture with him. There was much to-do about getting everything on the bus since we would not be using the trailer anymore. A lot of instruments and luggage that failed to fit in the baggage compartment on the bus found its way into seating areas. This made it a little more cozy, but there was still plenty of seating to go around. As we left town we passed the police station easter egg peeling, the sign that isn't so good for hiding behind to surprise people, this one house that looked cool, the McDonalds we'd eaten at after our hike, and the dear old nuclear facility. As time passed the day grew brighter and people fell asleep. As we neared Mannheim we passed the only steamroller that I saw on the entire trip. Entirely too funny. We went over a cool suspension bridge and stopped at a place for something. To eat. I had Burger Kingdom food and hyldeblomstsodavand or whatever its called. Then we went for a short walk to stretch our legs and talked about the coming excitement of Paris, towards which we were about to continue careening. There was more playing of Phase Nine Plus One and we found out that you can't stand up on a moving bus in France or you might get ticketed. After passing the border we took another rest stop and Matt made fun of Mikell a bit. We passed more border-type stations, ate cherries, and saw a site where the French and Germans battled each other in the second World War. After that it was pretty much just a lot of bugs on the windshield (as I found out, thanks to Shelly who wanted a good picture of a roadsign saying how many kilometers away from Paris we were), wacky modern "art" along the roadside in the form of colored shapes every few miles. Oh, yeah - and this funky spherical puzzle. We also had fun with Scott's Book-O-Conversation that had a bunch of questions that were fun to think about (If you were rich what would you have in your front yard to greet visitors, who was the most influential American in history, if you could be any Disney character which would you be, if you got stuck in a room with nothing but a spatula and a dozen hyenas what would you do... that sort of questions. Uh, except for that last one. I kinda made that one up.) The other interesting thing we saw before we hit the city was the strange appearance of roadsigns directing exploding vehicles of different colors to go in different directions. This we found amusing, to say the least. And outright hilarious to say the most.

After going through a tunnel and along several Parisian streets we stopped across from our happy li'l hotel - Hotel Le Saint-Maurice. We unloaded and dragged everything over to the lobby and up the elevators. As I stepped off the bus I saw Kelly Root, who had gone with his parents by night train the day before rather than taking the bus with us. He helped haul stuff and we put all the instruments in a room on the ground floor that had been reserved for us. The lobby was comfortable and would serve breakfast for us the next few mornings. After finding our rooms and strategically positioning our suitcases within them (helps to keep people from stealing them) we checked out the room and relaxed for a bit. Planty found a perch on the windowsill.

A few minutes later we got word that Dr. Root wanted to show us the way to the nearest Metro station. We went downstairs and, after informing him that six of us would be going off on wild and crazy, yet safe, adventures rather than following him around the whole time we were there, we followed him up the street that we would be walking along every morning and evening of our stay in Paris. I'm sure we made quite the spectacle. (I always find it convenient and applicable to refer to groups of foreigners of which I'm a part as a travelling circus.) We passed a fountain and some nifty buildings with statues. Also a couple playing ping-pong on a public permanent table set just for that purpose. Presently we came to the Metro entrance and down we went. Dr. Root explained which stop was ours and so on and so forth. Sarah had us buy tickets and, with a spring in our step, we ditched the group and took off. As Sarah consulted a map a pair of interesting musicians entertained (or annoyed) people in the next car. Our Adventure du Jour: going from yonder (our hotel) to thither (the Tower).

When we finally reached our stop we ascended to the surface and, crossing a few streets, found ourselves in a large gravel-y park with lotsa trees. On our left we noticed the moon just coming up over a grand looking building. The Tower rose up over the trees to our right as we walked towards a fountain. We reached the end of a path that led straight to the Tower and took a few pictures. Sitting on the steps of a monument-looking thingy were some people playing African hand drums. As we started walking towards the Tower, suddenly reality started to go out of phase. The nearer we got the bigger the Tower got and the less real everything seemed. Later we compared the entire thing to a dream. The Tower was always a small icon on postcards or on history book covers. It couldn't be real. And yet when we walked up expecting to see the small object we were so familiar with we found a colossal steel structure, looming over our obviously unconscious heads. If my mouth wasn't actually hanging wide open the whole time I'm sure that's what the part of my brain that controls my muscles intended, it's just that it never got the message through to my jaw; all the lines were tied up trying to wrap themselves around this new wonder.

Did I mention that the Eiffel Tower is pretty cool?

As we walked we passed some French guys playing boulles on the dirt. How... authentic. The huge strip of turf between the building and the Tower was occupied with people just relaxing, chatting, drinking, playing volleyball, and whatever else people do when there's a park by an unbelievably tall thing. We stopped in what we were surprised we found ourselves able to muster - more awe - to watch the tower start to twinkle. We passed under the most impressive figment and crossed the street, passing a merry-go-round and crossing the Seine, we found a crepes stand on the edge of a giant ice skating rink. There was more picture taking, Tower oggling, and food eating. Before we woke up we walked slowly back to the Metro, napped on the way back to our stop, and went mesmerized back to our Best Western hotel on Rue de Paris and, at last, laid down and closed our eyes for a few hours.
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Early the next morning (as early as we could manage) we headed out again. This time our menu included another seven courses of Paris Tourism with fun to drink - free refils! We began by hopping on the Metro and speeding towards the Centre George Pompidou. When we arrived we quickly located the museum and looked around the outside of it. There were some interesting pieces of artwork in a fountain. And stuff. After we looked at that for a minute we headed back to the Metro for to travel to the Louvre. Ah, the Louvre. How do you pronounce it?
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The Metro stop opened up into an underground hallway filled with shops. We walked down the hall and into the ticket sales and information area. In the middle was a huge inverted glass and steel pyramid. After looking around for a minute we bought spiffy passes that were good for three-day and would get us into all the major museums in Paris. We entered the museum proper and, after looking at a few halls of little items that were not to be photographed we went out into a huge hall filled with white marble statues. We proceeded through room after hall after gallery of statues, paintings, tapestries, ornate decor, furnature, vases, murals, relics, and other really really expensive things that weren't for sale. Some of the paintings were huge. Sarah told us there was a room that you walk in and you're just awed by the huge paintings and every room we went into that had big paintings we asked here if that was it. Nope. It wasn't. Until we actually got to the one she was talking about and we were so tired by that time that we'd forgotten to ask. We saw the Egyptian scribe statuette, the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo. And a buncha stuff Napoleon (not Dynamite) owned. We learned that French people take off both shoes and one sock when they're going to die on the battlefield in the vicinity of an artist. Ok, the Louvre is HUGE. You can never ever ever look at everything or your eyes will fall out. After we looked at 0.00000047% of the items in the museum we went back to the entry/exit area and climbed the cool freestanding spiral stair and found ourselves in the big glass pyramid. Willy Wonka pushed one of the buttons and the whole pyramid shot through the roof. Or not.
As we left we saw other peoples from the OCB group just arriving to begin their tour of the place. Across from the middle section of the building (if you can call it that - it seems a bit too big to be called a building to me; maybe small connected city would be more accurate) stands an arch that I only remember seeing on Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego because Urtha Brute or someone stoled it. We crossed one of the many bridges over the Seine and, passing a street "performer" (paralyzed mime), arrived at the Musee D'Orsay. This dude was playing more music than seemed possible. The Musee D'Orsay is more reasonably sized, but it was still pretty big. Some of the art there was from more recent eras, like the mock city under glass and the weird paintings that you couldn't really tell what it was. There were quite a few famous paintings there as well. After that party we had luncheon by the side of the building while some peoples tried to sell bottled water to passers-by. And paintings they hadn't painted. We walked for a little while more and then arrived at the Cathedral Notre Dame. The inside looked like a lot of the other big churches we'd seen on the trip. The huge rosary windows were most impressive. We went back out after a bit and stood in the line to climb the towers. Little Timmy is this many stairs tall today.
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After a few (hundred) steps we reached a little gift shop where the famous Quasimodo supposedly took his gypsy-gal Ezmerelda when they were threatened. A li'l door opened out onto the roof from said gift shop where they were doing some restoration work on the building. After (quite) a few more stairs we reached the roof and walked around looking at gargoyles and admiring the view of Paris. I still can't quite get over the fact that we actually were in PARIS. Way, way too cool. We found a little door that took us up some more steps (wood this time) to the belfry where I was reminded of a joke my scoutmaster told us when I was about 14. The punch line is, "No, but the face rings a bell." Aha ha ha ha ha. Whew. Guess you had to be there. All the ants looked like little people from way up there. We climbed more stairs to the top of one of the towers. There was a great view from up there as well, and a screaming purple monkey. No really.

When we got back down to earth and un-dizzy we wobbled over to Saint-Chapel which looked unassuming enough from the outside. Inside is a different story. As I walked in I was looking at my camera as I had been for much of the trip and so entered the main room and stood there a second before I looked up. When I did I almost fell over. That room is so cool. It's like a hundred degrees in there but it's still sooooo cool. When we'd had quite the eyefull of that we found a restroom nearby from which we were warned not to drink the water. Then we took a ride on a spaceship from War of the Worlds (the Metro) over to Place Charles de Gaul for to ascend the Arc de Triumph. We walked around for a bit and looked at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Then we climbed more stairs than we thought were possible to fit into a building even that big. When we were leaving we happened across one of the dudes who came with us on the trip. He took some pictures for us. Then it was time, yes, time to take a walk. A wonderful walk down Champs Elysees