Okay, we're winding down, less than 24 hours before I get on a plane and endure the 11-hour ride home, and, honestly, I was itching to go. I'd padded the tail end of the trip with an extra day, originally because I wanted to go back to the Munich Stadtmuseum and get a photo of the painting of the naked gnomes examining a human foot... not really practical, so I went to Cologne instead; but Munich or Cologne, my body and brain could feel the stretch, and were impatient to be home. For all the things I love about Germany, my inner grump would pop up with three reasons to love California. Even while I toured the Cologne cathedral (recommended) and the Roman/German Museum (even more recommended), the nagging inside kept getting louder... home, home, it repeated. I was starting to lose it a bit, frankly. And then a miracle happened.
My train back to Frankfurt was late. Oh, this wasn't anything special; over the course of the trip, the trains have seemed to get later and later -- on time on Wednesday, 8 minutes late on Thursday, 30 minutes late on Monday. But today, it was 80 minutes late -- for a 65-minute trip. And there's nothing that could make an Amtrak customer feel more at home than a train delayed by longer than the trip takes.
Odd how simple things can make one happy. I was happy as I ate a combo-preis meal of Schnitzel, Kartoffelsalat and soda of my choice, calm as the Regional train 7 lumbered slowly through the 'burbs (the stop right before mine? Zeppelinheim!), and whistling happily as I walked down Farmstrasse to the Albatros Hotel.
Which had overbooked & didn't have a room for me.
Oh, they found me a room & drove me 5km to a tiny place in nearby Mörfelden, and promised to pick me up tomorrow morning (hope so!). Apparently the Albatros got caught up in the same huge wave of financiers descending upon Frankfurt that had already booked every single downtown bed and was now engulfing the suburbs & displacing the less than aggressive and the not-well-connected. And you know what? I'm cool with that. But I probably wouldn't have been if the train hadn't been late. So that's kind of a miracle! Now I'm going to get a frankfurter from that dodgy stand down the street.
Oh, yeah, the title of the article. This place has 3 billion TV channels! Most of them are home shopping. Including Channel 178, it seems.