A Crazy Weekend...

Whew, I'm getting tired just thinking about how much info I need to pack into this blog entry. Take a seat... it's going to be a long one...
So, on Saturday, March 1, Beth and I took off to Frankfurt for a Van Morrison concert. Here's hoping you all know who that is... "Brown-eyed Girl"? "Moondance"? Yeah? Early rock, but not "rock" as we think of it today... oh, no, certainly not.
Well, in the wee hours of Friday night (Feb. 29) or early Saturday morning, a massive storm hit Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. I mean massive. It was called Hurricane Emma, I understand.
Now, if there's one thing we know to count on in Germany, it's the timeliness of the train schedule. If the schedule says a train will leave at 10:41, be sitting on it at 10:40, because in a few seconds it will leave. A late or cancelled train in this country is rare, if not phenomenal.
Yeah... and that's why Saturday was interesting. The storm left trees on tracks all across the country, and in fact a high-speed train crashed into such a tree up north sometime before dawn Saturday. So by 10:00, when Beth and I arrived at the station (unaware of the size of effects of this storm), the nation's transportation was pretty much in disarray. We were there in time for our train, but with every single train to/from our station either massively delayed or completely cancelled, we were there for about 2 1/2 hours without any prospects of leaving. We actually got on a train once-- but then were told the chances and timing of that train's actually going anywhere were completely unknown. We were told to try a bus, but there were no buses going to Nuremberg, where we were heading. Finally a frustrated older lady that we'd been chatting with hailed a taxi, and four of us paid 20 Euros each to go 45 minutes to Nuremberg.
From there we needed a train to Wuerzburg. Happily, there was such a train leaving soon (only two or three hours after the train we'd planned on taking).
We arrived in Wuerzburg to find even worse delays and cancellations than we'd had in Amberg. The trains heading north had delays of one, two, even three hours. There was one train heading to Frankfurt (one, instead of several)-- but it was an ICE (express), and with the pass we had we could only use local (slower) trains. Beth found a ticket person and explained our story in pleading, sorrowful German. We got a stamp and signature. Wahooo!
So we waited an hour and then got on the very luxurious ICE. Woohoo. That train was delayed just a little by having to go a little out of its usual route... but at least since it was a faster train we didn't lose much time there! Luckily for us, we'd planned in three or four hours for sight-seeing once we arrived in Frankfurt. As it ended up, we had about 1/2 hour to spare before heading to the concert. Whew.
By the way, during this time we'd enjoyed a charming luncheon of homemade chicken curry sandwiches. Thank you, Beth!!!
We spent our 1/2 hour eating another round of sandwiches and drinking Starbucks coffee. That was my first coffee in six weeks!!! YAY.
Then we found the S-Bahn (kind of a subway-tram combo) and rode out to the other edge of the city. A short walk (on a now-calm night) led us and a crowd of others to the concert hall, and we arrived early enough to get a perfect spot in the standing-room-only room.
The concert was... fantastic. There are a lot of other words I could probably use to describe this fun, unique time. Admittance: I haven't attended non-classical concerts since I was about 8 years old. ...So this was definitely different.
Basically, put jazz, early rock, blues, and country together with a safe, fun, happy crowd, a highly talented band, and a "legend" singer who wears a hat and sunglasses now just like he did forty years ago... and you have Van Morrison in Frankfurt. He played some older, well-known pieces, then spent the majority of the concert playing his entire new album. All of it was fantastic!
The crowd was fun just to watch. It was made up mostly of couples in their 40s and 50s, with a good number in their 30s. There were only a handful of people my age. But considering that I felt more like one of the 30-year-olds, it didn't really matter. :) Anyway, everyone was obviously having just a happy, relaxed time: no rowdy behavior, no boredom, but a lot of foot tapping and hand clapping, and many sweets looks and hugs between couples during the romantic songs. :)
Well... anyway. The concert was great, and the weather was great for our walk back to the S-bahn station. We then made our way back to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) for some midnight Chinese food, then took an hour's ride to Aschaffenburg, just on this side of the Bavaria border (oh, yes, forgot to mention that Frankfurt is in a different state, Hessen).
We spent the night in Aschaffenburg... in the train station. Yes, that had been our plan the whole time. We arrived at 12:30 and left on the first train out, at 5:00. So we had a few hours to kill. First we locked up our luggage for safety, then enjoyed a lovely walk around the (safe) older downtown area. We did a lot of window shopping (since it was the wee small hours, there was no other shopping available, as you may imagine). When we'd finished that, we wandered out to the lovely (well-lit) park right near by, where we were delighted to discover a pond or moat and castle ruins! Every old building is well lit in Europe, and this was no different. It rose out of the black water just like you'd read about in a book.
Well, eventually the chilly air attacked us, and we headed back to the station (a little sorry to find that we'd only killed 1 1/2 hours!). We found a relatively comfortable (and safe) spot on the inside steps and pulled out our books. Happily, time flew faster at that point. When we finally stood again (in pain from sitting on freezing cold stone), it was 3:30! Hurrah! We considered going back out for another walk, but by this time it was raining outside. So instead we paced around the station, hung out in the horribly-stinky-but-warm bathroom (that's a story for another day), and generally enjoyed ourselves. About this time, I think, we both got the giggles. Delightful.
Finally around 4:15 we grabbed hot chocolate and fresh mini pizzas from the little food stand that opened at 4 (who knew that poor lady had to be there that early?). A few more people began showing up. We paced some more, quite warm and content now. And a little before 5 AM we boarded our train and headed south.
Now, the only difficulty with staying up all night in late winter is that cold is colder when you're running on no sleep. That meant that, while we slept soundly for the first hour or so of the train ride, we spent the next hour or so shivering intensely because the silly people had turned the heat off. Bah. It then got worse. Three hours into our three-and-a-half-hour trip, everyone had to get off (a few stations early) because of storm damage ahead. They told us to get on a certain bus, so we all piled outside (in what was by this time a strong and freezing cold wind) and tried to get on the bus. But just at that moment the bus driver received instructions to wait another hour before leaving. Hmm. Not only is cold colder when you're short on sleep, but shivers and teeth-chatters become more real than you would ever guess. Time for more hot chocolate and a few extra layers of clothing!
An hour later we all boarded the bus again. Beth and I were noticed by a set of jovial older gentlemen in the front of the bus, who spent the next few hours alternatively teasing and helping us. Quite the gentlemanly set, really. And oh so highly amusing... :)
It took an hour to reach our goal city, which was technically about 15 min. away.
Finally, there, we got on another train and continued the route south. Several of the older gentlemen were on that train, too. :)
Around 4 PM, having had no other travel issues (that I can think of), we arrived in Salzburg, Austria... only four hours later than planned. Overall, we lost about 7 hours of our weekend to storm-related delays. That was not nearly as bad as what was suffered by two of the others girls here, though; they'd had tickets booked for weeks to go to Italy this same weekend, but in the end spent 13 hours in the airport and never did get to Italy, just because the system was so crippled by the storm. :(
And that was the first large part of the weekend. With that I shall close. Austria belongs to another entry.