Adventures in Germany

A couple of weeks ago, a certain professor in Germany confirmed that he could see me on Friday of the same week--in the octave of Pentecost.  So I started immediately looking for a plane ticket up, and spoke to a woman who was so generous as to host me while I was in her part of the country.  In fact, she helped me figure out which buses to take to arrive at the good professor's house, and how to get back again to hers.  Her daughter has married an American and lives in Rome with a couple of children.  Her friend sent back presents for them with me.
 I also arranged to cross the country to visit a former classmate, and to go from her house to Nürnberg to find a manuscript on which I must work for my dissertation.  She arranged for me to attend part of a conference hosted by the university where she is working on her doctorate.

The best made plans of mice and men!

The trip up was good.  I managed to find an inexpensive ticket at the last minute with Ryanair, who kept us entertained at Ciampino making move from gate to gate while they decided which door they really wanted us to use.  I figured out the German automatic ticket machine at the train station at Cologne airport to get a train ticket to Essen where I was to stay the next couple of nights. 

I was very pleased to have succeeded at the Essen train station in getting all the other train tickets I wanted for my trip--including the one back to Rome, which was very particularly organized!

My hostess was away when I arrived, but she left a key for me with a neighbor, and what a view she had!

She was so kind to put up with me, and very helpful with finding and printing directions for me, and helping me get through German bureaucracy.  After supper, she took me for a walk along the shores of a nearby lake, and then made sure I was settled for the morning.  My first morning, she took me to Mass with her, helped me find bus tickets to Bochum where I was to meet the famous professor, and helped me pick out an appropriate gift before leaving me at the bus.  When she came home from work that evening, she immediately asked how it went, knowing how nervous I was about speaking with him for about four hours in German--a language in which I can barely put two words together!

I had to tell her that it didn't go at all.  The trip to his house was perfect--buses and trains seem to work quite well in Germany, as opposed to Italy.  I rang his doorbell at exactly 2pm, the hour of our appointment.  When he didn't answer the door, I telephoned (in case he hadn't heard the doorbell).  Then I just waited.  But not too long.  After a few minutes, a neighbor arrived with her daughter.  She explained to me that not only was the professor not home, but that I could not wait for him because he was not expected back.  In fact, when she switched into English in an effort to make the situation more clear, she said "He does not live any more in these days"--I suppose meaning to say he had been away from home for a few days, and she did not know what day he might return.  So, I found my way back to Essen earlier than I expected.  At least I still knew I had the manuscript to see in Germany.

The next morning I took a train across the country to Erfurt, to meet my former classmate.  There was no Mass in Essen that morning, because it was Saturday.  I figured I would find a Saturday evening one in Erfurt, though.  Since the conference my friend had spoken of was to end the same day I arrived there, I was surprised to find she had registered me and I was still in time for the last two talks.  What's more, those two talks happened to be in English.  After that, she took me around the city for the proper tour, including the cathedral, but there is no Saturday evening Mass in Erfurt.  The next day, after Mass, she took me to Leipzig and Halle to see some of the sights in the region.  Then, she gave me some movies in German--some dubbed, some German--to help me improve my language skills.  (In fact, since my return I think I've seen/heard the movie La Vita è Bella dubbed in German well over a dozen times.)  Then, back on the train on Monday morning.

River in Erfurt

Protestant church in Leipzig

map on regional train

My ticket to Rome started from Erfurt, but allowed a layover along the way.  So I took my layover in Nuremberg to find the manuscript I need in the library there.  I found my way from the station to the library with no difficulty.  The library staff was friendly and helpful, and helpfully explained that if I want to see the manuscript, I must write them a few days in advance, so they will be happy to have it ready for me under such conditions.  So, I left the library earlier than I expected, and went touring around the Altstadt (old town) of Nuremberg.  It is indeed a beautiful town, not withstanding that it was pretty well leveled in the last World War.  I wandered around, allowing myself not to know exactly where I was, and enjoyed finding myself suddenly in a medieval palace, or in an old market square.

Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Imperial Castle, Nuremberg

Apparently, Nuremberg is the birthplace of Albrecht Dürer

Then, I even found my way back to the station, by a completely different route than the one I had followed to enter the city, and caught my train to Munich.  I was tired, and when I arrived in Munich, even though I still had an hour before my next train (the overnight one) would leave for Rome, I decided that with the rain I would not be able to see anything anyway, and so I spent some time exploring the train station.  In my exploring, I came across a waiting room with a notice on the door advising only ticketed passengers to enter.  Not that anyone checked.  I entered and sat down for a few minutes, observing the handful of others in the room.  One I thought definitely did not look like a passenger.  Or maybe he was.  Anyway, he was stretched out under a row of seats, quite unconscious, using his backpack as a pillow.  I left the room shortly after I noticed a stream of yellow liquid pooling around him and flowing out from under those seats.

I decided to go early to the train.  And lo and behold, it was there and boardable, and my roommate for the night had already settled in our compartment.  So I wondered if I couldn't have stopped by even earlier.  I had specified in my ticket that I wanted a compartment holding up to three women, and I was assigned the top bunk.  The top bunk is nice, in that it has all the extra space for my small luggage, and because I can sit up in it.  It was also nice that my Dutch compartment-mate wanted to practice English a bit.  And even nicer that no third person appeared to take the middle bunk.

The train ride went very well, until we got into Italy, when we ran into delays.  A half an hour here, and a half an hour there meant that my new acquaintance was well over an hour and a half late at her stop, and thus missed her connection.  At least, there are several trains that daily go to Assisi, so I'm sure she managed quite well.  Since the train is German, however, she expects to get her money back on account of its tardiness.

Thus, in my trip to Germany, I did not get to see the professor in question, nor the manuscript.  Instead I got to see friends, a bit of German countryside, and some medieval cities.  German holiday?

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When I arrived back at my apartment on Tuesday, the mailman followed soon after with a letter from the professor, confirming our appointment for the previous Friday afternoon.  I attempted to answer the letter in German, and took the original together with my draft to my professor for assistance.  You can imagine he was surprised, too, to hear what happened, or rather, what didn't happen.  He moved into the role of private detective, made some phone calls, and then found me later that afternoon with the solution.  It seems that Tuesday morning, right after having confirmed with me Monday evening our appointment, Prof. Hödl went into the hospital.  He still planned to keep the appointment, and they thought they had things pretty well under control at the hospital by the weekend, when, Sunday morning he announced he wanted to say Mass for Trinity Sunday after a short nap.  He didn't, however, wake from that nap, and was buried today in his home town.  May the soul of Prof. Fr. Ludwig Hödl, through the mercy of God, rest in peace!