DRIVING, RIDING, ALL AROUND THE TOWNS

FRUSTRATIONS ABOUND!


Two days ago Doug left me the rental car. I was fairly confident that I knew how to drive a shift since so many of the trucks in my fleet were standard. I did pretty well, except for the narrow streets, not knowing what the street signs meant, and then having some "A-H" behind me overly use their horn! The little villages here are very beautiful, but trying to figure out which of the windy streets you can actually enter is a mystery still. I have found sites that tell me what words mean for various traffic directions, but not one yet that tells me what the-blue-circle-with-the-red-half-cross-through-it-and-two-white-arrows-pointing-in-different-directions(and the myriad of variations thereof) mean. I drove up one street, uphill, because one of those signs seemed to give me no other options. It turned out that strasse (street) was a deadend. I turned around and started down the steep hill. I believe I've noted previously that there are outlined parking spots on either side of the road. Not on both sides opposite each other, just sort of wherever (I'm sure someone figured out where to put them). I started down the hill and a car turned the hairpin turn at the bottom and wanted to come up. I was where there was no place to pull aside. I don't know what the German etiquite is for the up-hill/down-hill pull over ...and I couldn't remember what it was on the backroads of Vermont.  He stopped, so I proceded to ease my way down intending to make that right hand hairpin turn since I figured it was ok to do so....well in the meantime, Mr. Nice is being encroached upon by two others who have made the hairpin turn and instead of waiting are now trying to get around him.  Remember, these streets are at best a car and a half width (and little European cars, not the US honkers).   There were now three cars blocking the entire intersection of four intersecting roads.  I just faced them all down and shrugged my shoulders!  I PERSONALLY DO NOT BACK UP HILLS!  It was finally sorted out.  Unfortunately, I was eventually lost.  I did find a really interesting industrial place; took a nice road that ended up at what looked like either a ferry stop or a bunch of other cars lined up all wondering how they were going to get across the river!  I made a u-turn there and tried to retrace my steps.  I saw on a hill a huge ediface, maybe castle, and found its entrance.  I have a nice photo of it and the very stern looking knight on its gate-post, but haven't yet figured out how to post a photos.  If anyone knows how to do this on blogspot, let me know.

Ultimately, my driving experience ended in frustration big time because I was about a half hour late finding my husband's company building.  I had been there before as a passenger and even noted that the directions that the company gave him were missing one important component...but we didn't write out the correction.  So it took me three tries in rush-hour traffic to finally see him standing in the drizzle curbside!  I'm sorry Doug!  We had a company dinner that evening and I got to meet the team from a number of countries, so everything was good, except I have no desire to drive again.

HAVING NO DESIRE TO DRIVE AGAIN SO SOON,  I decided today to take the public bus into the city of Mainz.  I wanted to check out the main train station since I hope to travel between towns seeing the sites via train.  I also wanted to find out more about their trains that go like 200 miles an hour!  Unfortunely there were very long lines of people who actually knew where they wanted to go...and I decided I could call later.  The train station has a Pizza Hut and a McDonalds....how odd.  They had lots of other shops there too which took a bit of my day up looking through them. 

I was able to find someone to answer some questions for me through an interpreter on which bus to take to see the Dom Cathetral which is like in the center of Mainz and 1,000 years old (I'm sure only parts of it are that old, but still...).  There is a museum attached and it is only a block away from the Guttenheim Museum of the famed printed page.  I was told to take any bus because they all go past the Cathetral.   So I got on the first bus (I had a day long ticket) and asked the driver if he went to the Dom...he said yes.  But he neglected to tell me that the stop would not say "Dom Cathedral" , so I pretty much rode that bus for roughly an hour and a half through Weisbotten (sp?), and several small villages on the opposite of the Rheine River from Mainz, until finally coming back to the same bus stop I started from!  No Cathedral...and he didn't even ask me why I was still on the bus.   By this time it was getting fairly late afternoon, and I didn't think it was worth going site seeing since the Dom would close in a hour or so.  So I got on one of the two buses that pass through Finthen where we are staying.  I passed my stop and went to the end of that line.  That particular driver asked me where I was going!  He and I became fast friends as he spoke enough English to get a kick out of the fact that I pretty much spent the day riding busses around towns. 

I'm back at the apartment now having spent the last two hours trying to figure out how to use the washer and dryer.  I even took photos of the dials and made two trips to the hotel lobby (a couple of blocks from the apartment building) to figure it out.  I'm not sure I've got it right yet...but Mangus (the nice, speaks English desk clerk...whom I think hid his giggle from me when I showed up with photos) drove me back to the apartment building and walked me through the washer-dryer instructions.  Well, we'll see...I understand I should not expect much from the dryers.  That will cause a problem with jeans for sure.

I JUST MIGHT GO BACK INTO MAINZ SINCE THE BUSES RUN LATE AND GET ME SOME DINNER...JUST SO LONG AS I CAN FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET BACK BEFORE THE LAST BUS LEAVES!  I did find out from that second nice bus driver where I needed to get off for the Cathedral...and it is the stop for their pedestrian mall/shopping/restaurant area.  I think I can find it this time.  Dry run for maybe tomorrow's attempt to finally visit the Dom...that is if I have clean underwear!