Day 8 - The Doodle Has Landed

Jane left for work, and left me a delicious breakfast of veggie burger and grapes. I got up and made it down the hill (jogged about ½ way) and onto the bus and off at the Alte Bruecke (Old Bridge). I was going to be looking for Mike to get to his hotel, the Dubliner. I got to the Dubliner and it was locked up tight. Finally someone came to the door and I said that my brother was going to be checking in, maybe he had checked in already? And the guy (turns out to be Fergus) said, “Paulkovich? No, he’s not here yet.” Not even there yet and they already know his name.

Took a little stroll around and popped into a church just a short distance from Mike’s hotel. It was very beautiful inside, and someone was playing a magnificent pipe organ. (It was the Providenze Evangelishe Church.) Left there, cruised around a little more and found this weird, weird, weird candy store – from the windows you’d NEVER know it was a candy store – one window was completely indecipherable with stuff, the other one had a dummy in a dentist chair. On the floor around him were hundreds of dental casts. Then there were two of those things from old-time typewriters – the fanned-out things that hold each letter. Instead of letters, they had teeth on them. The candy store itself was a dim, narrow place just packed with people, and every kind of candy you can possibly imagine, all in jars. It was Wonkaland. I also saw Welch’s Grape Soda and Dr. Pepper. It is called the "Heidelberger Zucherladen."

Found a craft store where they were selling beads, and also a jewelry store with some lampworked beads. I should say, overpriced lampworked beads.

Strolled back to the Dubliner and was lurking outside when Fergus came out and said, your brother’s here – do you want me to show you where his room is? So I went up to his room (2 flights of stairs) and surprised him. He got the “big room,” hardly larger than his bed, but clean and comfortable-looking, with TV but no phone. The 2 flights of stairs is a wicked climb, believe it or not, but around one turn there is a stained-glass window with hand-written stuff on it - one side appears to be written in Gaelic, the other is in English, starting with "Soldiers are we..." (turns out to be the Irish National Anthem.) It made me think of the Woody Allen movie where Diane Keaton becomes a revolutionary and writes bad poetry.

I took Mike back to the church where I’d heard the organ, and the organist was still practicing. Surprisingly, we heard “Camptown Ladies,” some other American songs, and one that I can only think of as, “The Ants Go Marching Two by Two.”

We walked down to the Bismarkplatz and through Woolworths in search of an extension cord. No luck. So we decided to get some real lunch. There is a restaurant called “Gecko,” which has a logo which looks too much like a GE logo. Jane and I had joked that it was too creepy to eat there, so Mike and I decided to do it. I had a fantastic Thun Salat (tuna salad, nothing like US) and Mike had a good noodle dish. We had big beers with it.

Went into Kaufhof dept. store – I wanted Mike to take a ride on the glass elevator so he could see the castle. We took the escalator to the top (there are about 6 stories) and on one turn we saw these bras that were grey and white striped. We called them “prison bras.” On the next escalator, we heard the guys behind us talking about “manzierres” and “bros” (from Seinfeld.) We of course began talking to them. They were from Texas and Washington State. We had a nice Seinfeld conversation.

Got to the top and the glass escalator is now closed until 9/14. Bummer. Took the escalator back down.

We resumed strolling around the Hauptstrasse (I got to introduce Mike to my Save the Children Von Trapp.) We stopped in front of the University Library and admired the facade with its very cool "man faces." I also photographed a beautiful door with a woman's head carved at the top, very Art Nouveau. We saw a guy I had seen before - an Australian with a bicycle loaded high with junk. He was selling the junk to pay for his trip. It was quite a sight.

Later we met Jane for dinner. We decided on a Thai place and chose 3 different dishes to share (a shrimp pad thai, green curry and chicken, and a beef dish new to me.) We had them with Thai iced tea. The food was great, the iced tea was buh-sgusting.

Went back to the Dubliner with Mike; all of us got in Mike’s bed and watched TV. Actually, we just ran the remote around the channels. Then we went to the upper bar of the Dubliner for “Quiz Night.” Fergus runs “Quiz Night.” Apparently he's on Dublin time, because it started about an hour late. We were doing pretty well (especially on American culture questions like, "what two actors are in these 3 movies: Raging Bull, Casino and Goodfellas.”) We made it though one round and Jane & I just had to go home. Mike said we did pretty ok on the first round and probably would have won the quiz if we’d stayed. Next week we will try again. By the way, I didn’t know Pavarotti had died until it turned out to be a question on the quiz. We have been totally out of the loop as far as news is concerned - no tv, no radio and no English newspapers. Next week I will try to read some news on the internet before the quiz.

Jane and I went back to Harlem, packed everything so we could leave from downtown Heidelberg the next day and turned in. Unfortunately, the neighbors were having a party so it was a rough night.

Day 12 - "Hot Sex Toys"

Jane left for work, leaving me a delicious salmon salad for breakfast. I took the bus, got on at the front and proffered my 5 Euro note to the driver, who looked at it for a minute, rolled his eyes, sighed, and finally snatched it from me and gave me my ticket. That’s it, brother. I’m not paying for another bus ticket. If I get caught, I am playing d-u-m. By the way, sitting at the bus stop has become pretty interesting - at my back is the Neckar river, where I often see big Rhineships, and across from me is a lovely chalet up on a hill, and a stone cross with a carving of Jesus (Jesus at the Bus Stop.) No church in sight, although there must be one. I took pictures of the cross and the chalet, and later in the week got some pictures of the Rhine Ships.

Picked up Mike from his hotel and we walked across the street and bought some grapes and the biggest, most beautiful blackberries I’ve ever seen. We walked down to the weird candy store where one window is a dummy in a dentist chair. We went inside. What happens is, you wait in line, and when it is your turn, you point at what you want and the owner puts it in a bag. The owner was in his 50s or 60s, and he had a beard combed into a Mohawk! On a side street we saw some really interesting vegetables, one looked like a cross between cauliflower and broccoli, with these weird, intricate florets.

We strolled down a back street and saw a curry take-out that looked like a good possibility for lunch, and we also found an English language bookstore (their card reads: "Presence with Word: Where Physical Meets Abstract). Down an alley there was a place called Brot & Salz. I was curious about it (it means Bread & Salt) so we walked down there. It turned out to be a church-run food pantry. I asked one of the volunteers whether they had any clients who speak English and he said, yes, there was an American woman, so I gave him a bookcrossing book to give to her.

We went down to the department store Kaufhof and Mike got a new “arm band” (wrist watch strap) and he did it all in German. We cruised back up the Haupstrasse. The Save the Children group is gone, but Medicin Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) has moved in. I miss my Von Trapp. Also, the strasse was teeming with LDS missionaries in their suits and ties. At one point there were about 20 of them grouped together and singing hymns in German in nice harmony. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Heidelberg! We also passed a store which caused Mike to take a picture. He has such a dirty mind.

We went to the Indian restaurant and had a great lunch for about 10 Euro total – I had chicken korma and Mike had chicken tikka masala.

We stopped into a liquor store to get Mike a bottle of cherry liquor, and we asked the owner why we had been unable to find any potato vodka in Germany. He said they don’t import it to Germany, it’s inferior to the grain vodka they import. At a little Chinese place I bought a tiny Lucky Cat for Nancy.

We needed Heidelberg Cards so we set off to find the Tourist Office we had found the day before. We finally located it, and I said to the girl, “I want one card, for 2 days.” I held up my index finger for “one.” Then I repeated myself and held up my thumb in the European way to indicate “one.” She very snottily said, “You don’t have to repeat yourself, I understand English.” So I said, I wasn’t repeating for you, I was practicing for me. Even snottier she said, “Puh. Practicing your English?” I said no, I was practicing how to show numbers; in the U.S. you hold up your index finger, here you hold up your thumb. She wasn’t ready to give in so she said, “in some cases.” Puh. Then, as it happened, they didn’t have any 2-day cards left so she sent us to the Rathaus (City Hall). Before I left I bought a Gluckschwein (Lucky Pig) for Jaime.

We got to the Rathaus and two really pretty girls sold us our Heidelberg cards. There was also a little art exhibit, some painter who makes great use of triangles. The Rathaus is in the platz near the Holy Spirit Cathedral, and across from the Kornmarkt. While I was waiting for Mike to use to the WC, I got a drink out of a really pretty water fountain that was carved from marble. While I was taking a drink I looked up and was amazed to see that there was a nautilus fossil embedded into the marble. There is a picture of the fountain, then a close up of the fossil.

After that we went to an internet café to check e-mail and so forth. We also stopped at a grocery and got the coldest bottled beers we’ve ever had in Europe. We found a keramic (ceramic) store tucked in an alley and went in - they had beautiful pottery and jewelry.

We coordinated with Jane to meet at the Bismarckplatz and go to an Italian place near there for dinner. We had gotten some leads on books released in Heidelberg, and some were near Bismarckplatz. We met Jane and walked around looking for bookcrossing books and checking out the restaurant. Decided to walk back up the Haupstrasse and eat at the Dubliner. On the way we stopped in a café where a bookcrossing book had been released and we found it!

We had a great dinner at the Dubliner – German specialties with great homemade “chips” (French fries) and good beer. It was one of the best meals we’ve had and very reasonable. Funnily enough, we at German cuisine at an Irish pub. Jane and I had gone to the restroom and there was a vending machine selling “hot sex toys” for 3 Euro. After dinner Jane ran down there and got one.

We went up to Mike’s room, totally rearranged the furniture so the bed was sideways and each of us could lie on it and watch a movie on Mike’s laptop. We watched Tootsie and then when Jane and I were leaving she passed the “toy” to me and I put it under Mike’s water glass in the bathroom. HAha.

As Jane and I were walking down the Haupstrasse this man came up to us and said, “May I ask you a question?” If he hadn’t been nicely dressed and with two women, we would have freaked out, he was such a “close talker.” Man!

We got back to the Chump Dump, watched our 15 minutes of City Slickers and went to bed.

Day 14 - Figgy Pudding

Took the bus (without paying!) to the Kongresshaus stop, which turned out to be the perfect stop to be nearest Mike’s crib. Too bad it took me all week to figure that one out. He was waiting for me with a pear. It was absolutely gorgeous out, sunny and with blue skies.

We went back to the funicular and took it all the way to the top again. This time we had a British girl as a companion. At the top, while we waited to come back down, we took some pictures, then had a wurst, and I had a coffee while Mike had beer. The weather was much clearer, so we got some better pictures of the view.

We took the funicular down to the castle stop. This time we wanted to find the mysterious footprint on the terrace. Local myth is that a knight was caught in the room of one of a nobleman’s wife, and to escape he jumped to the terrace below, leaving his footprint. It is red sandstone, and it truly looks like a bootprint. I also noticed an inscription on a fountain/horse trough - what intrigued me what that it was in Hebrew and in old German, and dated back to the 1700s. The inscription looks like it's Psalm CX:VIII, which should be Psalm 110, Verse 8, only there is no Verse 8 in Psalm 110! I tried variations (CXV:III) but the results didn't make sense. The only thing that made sense was Psalm 110, Verse 7, "He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head." So maybe it's from a bible version I don't know about, or the Germans count differently.

We then walked around the castle gardens, which are in the English garden style, and as it was a beautiful day, it was quite lovely. We got some very nice pictures of the gardens, and of the view from the gardens, which are quite high up. In other pictures in these entries you can see something that looks like a series of arches, like a Roman viaduct (there is a picture above of it). That is part of the garden, and should give you an idea of how high up the gardens are.

We returned to the town on the funicular and had lunch in a Persian fast food restaurant (Persepolis), where I dropped a bookcrossing book. We shared a lunch of saffron chicken and rice. Next we headed to an internet café for a few minutes. I finished first so I ran out to do a little shopping - I wanted to pick up a pretty tablecloth for my worker bee Barbara, had my eye on a scarf for Mutti, and I had been trying to find a Heidelberg charm for myself. I stepped into a jewelry store I'd passed every day Schmuck Paradies) and a very nice woman showed me their array of charms. I selected a beautiful charm of the Heidelberg castle ruins - it was the perfect size for my charm bracelet. We had a lovely conversation, too. I left very happy.

Jane met us and we drove over to the other side of town (near the large modern campus of the Heidelberg University) to see if we couldn’t find some books which had been released. Not only did we not find books, but we had one hell of a time finding the place at all! The place we found was a large modern cafe full of students watching a footie game. No books anywhere.

We came back to a restaurant called the Merlin Cafebar, where I had met Jane last week, and sat in the Biergarten enjoying the weather. We all had great salads. They were having a summer special, sort of an "early bird" special, any salad 6e. As it became dark, they lit heaters under the umbrellas. It is so nice to be able to sit outside even though it's chilly out.

We walked back to town and on the way we saw a homeless woman laying motionless in the window of a Laundromat. I got a picture, of course. We also so a sign for parking, which was misspelled "Barking," and another cool sign which had monkey baby faces on it.

We stopped at the Penny Markt and Jane picked up a ten-pack of fig liquor miniatures for $2.99. We met an American student outside and while we toasted each other with our little fig liquors, he informed us that if you don’t look at each other when you toast , you’ll have bad sex for 7 years. Fortunately, we have perfected the “evil monkey toast,” which means you point AND look in the other’s eyes, and we expect to see it in general use in about 3 years when we return. By the way, Jane and I continued to knock back those fig liqueurs the rest of the time I was there - they were really yummy. We started calling them "Figgy Puddings."

We went over to the Dubliner and sat in the pub, and while everyone else was completely engrossed in a rugby game, and later a footie (soccer) game between Ireland and Russia, we three nerds played the word game quiddler, and I had a great cider blackcurrent beer thingy. There were lots of Irish and Brits in the pub, and next to us was a group of young Russian men. It was easy to tell who was winning.

Jane and I finally left, and on the way back we discovered that the homeless woman is a homeless man. It's so odd - he looks as if he will be losing his feet at any moment, they looked positively gangrenous. Here he is in a country where the medical care is free for everyone. It just goes to show you that you can't help everyone. It's very sad.

We drove back to the ghetto and watched the rest of City Slickers before retiring.

Day 15 - Hitchhiking and Doing Time

Jane left me a great breakfast, only I had inadvertently left the freezer portion of the fridge ajar and everything had frozen...got ready and left. This time, leaving Jane’s ghetto, I saw a young man also leaving, so without thinking, I asked him for a ride to Heidelberg! I’m hitchhiking through Europe!

He and another young man commiserated with me about the long climb down the footpath, and dropped me off at the Kongresshaus (City Hall). I was so excited when I got out, I wanted to call Jane right away and tell her I had cadged a lift, and realized I had left the phone at the ghetto.

On my way to meet Mike, I found the site of the original Jewish Temple in Heidelberg. Jews are first on record in Heidelberg history in 1372, but according to the sign at the site, they were persecuted throughout their time here, and finally, in 1940, were all rounded up and sent to a concentration camp in France. There is a new temple somewhere else in Heidelberg, but the site of the original one is now marked with stones, including a large stone marking where the Torah would have been.

Again, it was a gorgeous day. Mike met me and brought me a pear, and we headed first for an internet café so I could e-mail Jane about the phone situation so we could make our plans for meeting later. (Jane ran home at lunch and retrieved her phone.)

In my e-mail there were two surprises - I had received invitations from not one but two German bookcrossers to attend their bookcrossing meetup the following night! Apparently they had received Release Alerts about the books I had been leaving all over Heidelberg, looked me up on Bookcrossing, and found that I was from the U.S. They both (independently of one another, I was to find) wrote and suggested that if I was still visiting Germany I might like to join them for dinner and a meetup on Friday night. I jumped at the chance and told them that my brother and sister, both of whom are also Bookcrossers, would be joining me.

Mike wasn't done on computers, so I took a walk and went into a nearby toy and antique shop. There were wonderful photos - I am always intrigued by antique photos, but I didn't buy any. Mike joined me in the store and we looked at some of the toys.

Mike and I decided to tour the University Museum but first, in the Universityplatz there was a Markt going on – a bakery markt! There were about 6-8 kiosks with all manner of baked goods, and one guy even had a portable pizza oven where he was cooking flammenkuchen. There were lots of samples, too, so we went around and had a few, including some tastes of new wine, the seasonal and slightly fermented wine which tastes more like fruit juice. We had a delicious bread and nut loaf thing.

We went into the University Museum where a helpful guide set us up with headsets and little palm-pilot/iPod like thingys that you could enter the number of the exhibit into, and you would not only have an English explanation, but also a really clear picture (very helpful when they were talking about the pictures on the ceiling of the Old Assembly Hall.)

The first floor of the exhibit was mostly about the history and distinguished faculty of the school (Heidelberg University was the third University, after Vienna and Prague, to be established in German-speaking Europe.) It even included information about the impact of the Nazis on the University. I have noticed at various museums and sites that the Germans do not shrink from telling about the harm the Nazis caused.

We were next sent to the second floor, which has the beautiful Old Assembly Hall. Much of the time you are not allowed up there because it is still used, but our guide let us go. There was a class being taught, but we quietly sat in the back and took in the beauty while we listened to our guided tour iPod.

Next we had to leave the building and go around to the Augustinstrasse to see the old Studentenkarzer (Student Prison.) At the turn of the century students who were disorderly, made fun of police, drank too much, disturbed the peace, or just generally acted like they lived in Delta House, were sent to the prison, where they lived on bread and water for 2 days, then they were allowed to have food (and beer) brought it. Apparently it was a badge of honor to have spent time there, and few students didn’t “do time,” While they were there, they decorated the place by writing on the walls with watercolors and candle smoke, leaving their portraits and many sayings. There was even a drawing of my boy Perkeo! They named their rooms – Palais Royale, Sans Souci, etc. The drawings and writing remain and are really cool. There were some photos of the actual students there as well.

Walking back from the Student Prison, we saw the best street performer we had seen so far, The Rat King. We watched him for a long, long time! As you can see in the pictures, he was dressed as a rat, with little ratty teeth. He would reach across with his umbrella and get a hold of women. One poor little Japanese woman was walking past him and not paying a bit of attention when he nabbed her. I wish I had my camera rolling then! She nearly jumped out of her skin. I did get him on video, be sure to check it out. (Sorry I can't figure out how to turn the video right-side-up. You'll have to turn your head.)

We returned to the bakery markt for a bite of lunch. We decided to share a flammenkuchen - they are sort of like pizza, but on a more cracker-like base, without red sauce. They are usually around the size of a large dinner plate. We ordered ours from the man who had set up an oven right in the Platz - and when I went to take a photo of the oven, he made me wait while he put a flammenkuchen on a paddle and posed for me! We ate our meal with white new wine, which was delicious.

We had pretty much decided to do a boat trip up the Neckar the next day, so we walked down to the boat dock to look at the ships and get a copy of a schedule. As we were walking along, I saw a "Hunde Toilette." Those wacky Germans! Even if a dog could lift his leg that high, I don't think he could read it! And speaking of wacky Germans, we found a flier for the Rockatini club, which said, "God Bless Rockatini! Every Fucking Friday!" They sure know how to get to a point.

Walking back up to the Hauptstrasse, we stopped at the Havana Bar overlooking the Neckar and had a drink. It was beautiful out, and there was a large butterfly bush right near our table. It was loaded with butterflies and I got a nice picture of one. We watched the Rhineships and the tourist boats going up and down the river.

We walked down the Hauptstrasse to meet Jane, and there was a beggar, a young guy, with the cutest sweetest dog. Mike got a picture of him (the dog, not the guy. Mike takes pictures of DOGS and GIRLS, mostly.) I took a detour and bought Mom a pretty scarf for her birthday - very German-looking with eidelweiss flowers on it.

Jumped in Jane's convertible and sped off toward the town of , to a restaurant Jane knew of called the "Zum Anker." The restaurant is right on the Neckar river, about 20 minutes outside of Heidelberg. The village of Dossenheim is so tiny you are through it in a minute. It is also very VERY rural. We sat outside on the terrace of the restaurant. Immediately next door is a farm with a big old barn. That's the barn in the picture with the umbrella. We watched a farmer and a small child go back and forth on a big tractor. Talk about country dining! Jane and I watched as a woman at a nearby table got her food...it was a huge bowl of some thick white stuff. It came with bread. We asked her what it was, and it was CHEESE! A big honkin' bowl of cheese. So of course, we had to try that. All of the food was very good and fresh, and we enjoyed it with German beer. I had delicious pumpkin soup, and of course I released a book. After dinner we walked down to the river. Some folks had set up a little getaway right at river's edge - a few lawn chairs and a table. Looked like my kind of spot.

We drove back to Heidelberg, parked, and walked back to the Dubliner to await our second Quiz Night with Fergus. By the way, Fergus looks just like Wallace of Wallace and Gromit. Ask anyone (meaning Mike or Jane.) When he grins, he has those sort of empty pockets on either side of his smile, just like Wallace. The resemblance was remarkable.

I had more or less become addicted to the black currant cider by then, and had a big ice cold glass of it. It's alcoholic, but you would never know it. Quiz sheets were passed out to all of the teams, and the quiz began. Most of the teams seemed to be American, with maybe a few Irish and British participants. Fergus had just gotten back from a trip to Prague, so he threw in a few Prague questions, which made Jane and me happy. The Paulkovich team, which we named "Team Dorftrottel," (Village Idiot Team) aced the entertainment questions, natch. But the rest of the questions were HARD! I couldn't believe people were answering them. Really difficult world politics questions, lots of European sports questions-you know we were totally Lahm Arsch (lame-ass) at that. Also, we thought we were terribly clever giving our team a silly name. But when it came time to name the winners, the teams were "Save Britney" (as in Spears,) "The Crotchless Panties" and "Tits." As Nigel says, "There's a very fine line between 'clever' and 'stupid.'"

Jane and I left when the quiz was over and walked back to the car, only to find that Jane had gotten a ticket. WRONGLY, I might add! We took pictures so she could submit some proof. Oh - and before we left the Dubliner, while Mike was still enjoying a beer, I ran up to his room and left (under his pillow) a gay porn magazine I had found on the street a few days before and which had Jane and I "eeeuuuuuuwwwww-ing" ever since. We wanted to see if he'd say anything about it the next day. Jane surmised that he would triple bag it, put it in the bottom of the trash can, pile garbage on top, and then put it out in the hall before he could sleep. She was very, very close. And he did say, the next day, "you guys know anything about ...." Poor Mike. He thought he was going on a sedate vacation with his two sisters, and he ends up in a fraternity initiation. "Thank you, sir! May I have another!"

Back to the ghetto for another 15 minutes of a Mr. Mom before going to bed.