France and Germany 2024

We were on the metro at 6:07 and at Gare de l'Est by 6:40 to catch the 7:25 train to Bamberg... a trip of 865 or so km. I had wanted to buy a Eurail pass for all our trains, but Anne thought it better to book and buy them individually, and she was right. Seats had to be reserved in any case on many of them, and for us they ran like clockwork.

It was two trains together, so the walk along the platform to find our carriage was 250m +. It streaked to Strasbourg, then crawled to Karlsruhe and then Frankfurt at 11 (or a few minutes late). We changed platforms for the Regional train for the last bit. It left soon enough (11:30) but stuttered along, stopping everywhere (even where there were no stations) so it reached Bamberg at 14:32... plenty of time to look around.

Bamberg is quite something. It is called the Frankish Rome, is built where two rivers meet, was first mentioned around 900AD, and is on the UNESCO world heritage list. It also has something like 8 breweries in the centre of the town. We have been here three times before, but always in winter, so summer was a new experience. The days are longer and the colours brighter... although it also brought lots of (mainly German) tourists. We stopped at a laundromat on the way, so did not check in at the hotel (Hotel Messerschmidt Weinhaus) until 3:30. It seems an odd name, but it is the building where Willy Messerschmitt (of Messerschmitt aircraft fame) was born and opened his first aircraft manufacturing business in 1923.

We have a lovely bright room, and it is almost right in the old town. We organised ourselves, discussed our options for Wednesday /Thursday (still tbd), walked around the town hall just to re-acquaint ourselves, then headed off to meet Max at 6:30 at a restaurant/brewery near his new house.

When I was an exchange student in 1975, I lived in Neumuenster (NMS), which is between Hamburg and Kiel. I lived with Max's family for perhaps half the year. Much of the other 6 months were spent with two other families, whom we will visit on Friday and Saturday when we are there. Max is a few years younger than me, but we got on well and keep in touch. Max moved to Bamberg perhaps 40 years ago, and began a website design business that did well. He married quite late (say 18 years ago) and has two children (13 and 11). Max was immortalised in the Great Bamberg Snowball Fight of January 2003, when Nico (in his first professional snowfight) was out-manouvered and hit by his own handfuls of snow, while Alistair picked everyone off because no-one could match his range. That was before we all had dinner in a brewery that made smoked beer.

Tragically, Max's wife died about 15 months ago. Dinner with us had to fit in with school and flute lessons, since Max is now Mr Dad, and it was always going to be a bit tentative, I thought. In reality, it was fantastic. We were bowled along by the unstoppable enthusiasm of 11 yo Jens, who has taught himself English by watching Mr Beast on YouTube, and was speaking excellent English at 120 words a minute. We were stunned - but not nearly as much as his father! His sister Ilka was shyer to start with, but she was soon in control, and the two of them talked to us in English until they had to go home at 8:30. We had seen Ilka as a baby...before she won last year’s Bavarian State Championship for Flautist for her age. The three clearly get on well, but on all of them it must be so hard.

The plan is to see Max again tomorrow so he can get more than the odd word in, maybe listen to Ilka's flute practice if the teacher allows and it is possible, and wander more through the town. We are also considering one of Max's suggestions for Wed/Thurs: Leipzig.

The Messerschmidt hotel is excellent. 1. Feels like a traditional European hotel, not American. 2. Big, bright, quiet and clean room, with excellent wifi. 3. Right in the town. 4. Windows that open and small balcony. 5. No tea or coffee, but that's about the only flaw. 6. Jumping ahead, the breakfast (when we had it) was great.

14,188 steps, 10.9km and 1 flight (which has to be wrong after the ups and downs at the stations...)Read more