This is a late update on my recent jaunt back to Europe -
On 23 June I took a quick trip to Cleveland for a wedding and then back to Minneapolis on the 24th where I met up with my colleague, K, changed planes, and headed to Amsterdam. We arrived on Sunday around 12:30 with time only to get through customs, freshen up, and on to the KLM cityhopper that would take us to Frankfurt. We arrived in Frankfurt around 3 pm - which, of course, was about 8 am body time. K got our rental car and off we went to our final destination, Trier.
We arrived around 5:30, having come through some dramatic lightning and light rain. We checked into the delightful Alstadt Hotel and got settled in. Should you find yourself in Trier, I highly recommend it. Perfect location, great rooms, terrific breakfast, and very reasonable. We went up to Tarforst for dinner at Weinstube Gehlen where I had a terrific whitefish and boiled potatoes. I’ll say right now so that I don’t keep repeating myself, I didn’t have a bad meal here. That includes the tiramisu eis.
I couldn’t quite believe that I had left Minneapolis at 1:30 on Friday and by the same time on Sunday I had flown to Cleveland, attended a wedding, flown back to Minneapolis, flown to Frankfurt via Amsterdam, and driven to Trier. Three flights, about 6000 miles, less than forty-eight hours. I’m not used to this kind of travel, but it’s worth it to visit Europe twice in one month!
On Monday we had meetings at the university beginning at 8:30 am. In the afternoon I got “K’s tour” of Trier including the Porta Nigra, the Dom, etc. That evening we had a 6 pm meeting with the faculty to give our presentation, after which we had dinner at a nice place in town – small sausages/wurst, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut – where K would have liked to hit on the server. She didn’t.
Tuesday we had a meeting at 9 am to see the video conferencing system that will allow a class in Saint Paul and a class in Trier to communicate with each other in real time and with a visual, as well as audio, connection. Now all we have to do is get the equipment in place on our end… Afterwards we zipped over to Luxembourg where we visited the American Military Cemetery and the grave of General George S. Patton. Then we went to the Germany Military Cemetery, just down the road. K has been here several times, most recently with her class of first year students last January.
Story from that trip: After seeing the U.S. cemetery where grave markers have either a cross or a Star of David on the top, student goes to German cemetery and says, “Uh, why don’t any of these markers have the Star of David?” Me thinks there may be a problem with K-12 history education.
Then we went into the city of Luxembourg and strolled around. It is really fun to see the original city wall, the buildings that sit down in the valley along the wall, and to actually see and hear from French. Note to travelers – if you are visiting this area of Germany by car, get your gas at the border in Luxembourg. What was 1.38 euro in Germany was 1.13 in Luxembourg. Tax differential. We came back and had a late lunch at one of K’s favorite places in Tarforst. I wasn’t going to leave without Jaegerschnitzel and pommes (French fries)! That was my favorite meal when I lived in Germany. We had a 7 pm meeting with a member of the faculty in Trier and then went to meet other folks at a café. When they finished eating we went to yet another café and watched some of the Spain-France World Cup match.
World Cup fever is beyond that I’m capable of describing. With Germany headed into the quarter finals and being the host nation, perhaps you can imagine what it’s like. We actually tried to change our tickets so that we could stay for Friday’s game, but were unable to do so.
So, back to Tuesday night. We left before the game was over – France won – and wandered back to the hotel. This morning K woke up feeling quite ill so we postponed our 9:30 meeting until 1 pm and I went shopping while she tried to rest. I bought some Birkenstocks that I had been eyeing and picked up a few trinkets for the family. K was feeling a bit better, the drugs having kicked in, and we had a quick lunch and headed to our fun and productive meeting with a couple of faculty who we hope can come to our campus next year and teach a short-term course. After that, more shopping, some currywurst for supper, our last tiramisu eis and back to the hotel to pack.
So, that’s it, my travels to Trier… and Cleveland. Next on the calendar – Saint Louis.
