in which Germany is invaded, and a Break taken.
Tuesday 14 July 1998 - Baden-Baden, Germany
We leave Altenrhein at the crack of dark today and follow the Rhine north to Baden-Baden. This is a new airport carved out of an old Canadian air base. In fact, it still has grass-covered hangars and bomb shelters. What's totally cool is we've been given three days off here! I'm not sure yet where 'here' is, but I do know that I must do laundry soon or it's going to get ugly.
So we check into our hotel and set out to achieve German money and a laundromat. German money is pretty easy, there being a bank in Hügelsheim, the village we're staying in, but laundry is something of a problem. It helps if one knows the German word for 'laundry', but we lost my phrase book in Austria & no one at our hotel speaks english. Finally we drag the information out of the teller at the bank. There's a wasch-center in Baden. She even gives us the address.
Half an hour later, we're negotiating an incredibly steep, narrow street. We turn down an equally narrow alley, round a corner, up some stairs, and into a triangular courtyard formed by three houses which contains, against all expectations, a launderette.
The guy manning the laundry speaks no english. (I have turned into the spokesperson for our group since, at about a hundred words, I know 95 more words than anyone else.) We manage to get change, since no one had the foresight to stock up on 2-mark coins at the bank, then Karen and I leave Anne with the laundry-meister and go off in search of chocolate.
(At this point, I am about to strangle Anne. The forebodings I felt in England are coming true. As we leave the launderette, I hear Anne settling in for a nice chat with the laundry guy. Since she speaks no German, she is attempting the 'loud-and-slow'[1] method of communication, a time-honored way to make the locals understand, and which I have grown to despise.)
Karen and I find the walking-platz and a Godiva shop. Suddenly things seem better. I would have preferred to get a chocolate I can't get at home, but it's any port in a storm when these cravings hit. We wander the platz, and I find a paper shop that sells (happy day!) journals! I plunk down dm100 for a very very nice leather-bound one before my mind can do the math. This is followed rapidly by a fountain pen (I have a total weakness for fountain pens, and dm15 for a Rotring is a steal). As if this hour of sensual pleasures wasn't enough, Karen finds a pastry shop that sells pretzel rolls and gooey sweeties. Heaven!
My day is brightened further by the discovery that the bar at our hotel has Campari. I sort out the bizarre phone system to call Loki and Mimi, then collapse into the feather duvet with a sense of accomplishment.
[1] I.e., if you speak loudly and slowly, anyone can understand you.
