Insel Rott

Hanging out in the Heidelberg hostel living room talking to Jurjen in Dutch and a few Germans over a cup of coffee, it's chill, I'll catch whichever train I'd like to the next town. Any time today is fine. This hostel is cozy and people are fun here.

Eventually, I get on the train. Nice break in Karlsruhe. Overall, the trains are an easy way to get around Germany, but they are not exactly economical. It's really starting to add up. Bicycle touring has that economical advantage.

The Freiburg Christmas markets are cozy like Heidelberg but I couldn't get into the swing of it. It's a new city to me and HD is still like home even after 43 years, it felt strange to stay in a hostel. I had this pull to just go home to my old apartment. I was looking for an event tonight in Freiburg but only found funk music. Later I came by the theatre and they had a Shakespeare play that had already started. Lesson: search online for theatre as well as concerts. That would have been good.

I talk shortly with a couple in German and the woman says "you are Dutch". I'm astonished, I know I don't sound native, but it wouldn't have surprised me if she would have said an american accent. The neutral programming happened 43 years ago, and those tracks are still as they were laid down back then, when I spoke more Dutch than American English, including the inflections and the muscle memory. Interesting. As I was walking home a women cycles by while singing opera in a beautiful voice.

Some photo editing to finish the day with a cup of tea while waiting for most hostel sleep mates to get to bed. I'm up early tomorrow.Read more