"Leider" is never good to hear...

No pictures today because unfortunately I'm short on time- it's after midnight already due to some mishaps today...

Yesterday (Sunday) morning Levi and I left Frankfurt and grabbed a train to visit Danny and Dana in Bamberg. We left Uncle Roland's house with plenty of time to get to the hauptbahnhof since our fiasco of waking up late the day before. Unfortunately as we were walking through the snow-blocked streets, I realized my wallet was missing from my coat pocket. I knew I had had it at the house because I had been counting my money before, but now it was nowhere to be found. I headed back to the house and after a few minutes of frantic searching finally retreated downstairs and said bye to Wally who was in one of the living rooms.

I was completely stressed only to find that Wally had my wallet- it had fallen out of my coat pocket when I had leaned down to hug her goodbye just a few minutes earlier! I thought our trip to Bamberg was finally in the clear, but the U-bahn was running particularly slow due to all the snow on the train tracks that morning and it took foreverrrr for the train to come by Uncle Roland's house to take us to the hauptbahnhof.

Luckily Levi and I didn't miss our train and made it to Bamberg that afternoon. We visited with Danny and Dana for a few hours then headed into Bamberg for dinner. We had an early morning though for the next day (Monday) (today!) so we didn't stay up too late. Danny had work at the base at 8AM the next morning, but was dropping off Levi and I at the train station so the two of us could head to Nurnberg for the day.

After a quick (45 min) train ride to Nurnberg Levi and I followed the Rick Steves' travel book's self guided tour and headed through Nurnberg's Old Town. We passed through the old Nurnberg city gates, the craftsman market, St. Lawrence's church, the Holy Ghost Hospital and added to our gluhwein mug collection with some awesome boot shaped mugs before shopping at the Christmas Markets.

Nurnberg is supposed to have one of the most famous Christmas markets in Germany and even our gluhwein mugs claimed it was a "Christmas City" not just a market. It really did end up being everything we expected and more. Endless rows and rows of stalls. More stalls than any other Christmas market we've been to yet. We did a bit of Christmas shopping and ate "Nurnbergers," baguettes topped with meat and cheeses, and chocolate covered goodies.

We finished off our tour by walking out to the Nurnberg castle and passing through the Albrecht Durer House. That past hour or so in Nurnberg it was actively snowing LARGE snowflakes and our coats, hair, hats, etc were covered in snowflakes or pretty wet. Nonethless it was a lot of fun. The castle grounds were cold and the tour of the Albrecht Durer House was a bit strange (luckily we got a realllyyyy good student price though) and before we knew it we were heading back to the train station. After Danny got off work him and Dana headed to the train station to meet us in Nurnberg and we peroused the Christmas markets before heading back to Bamberg.

Or should I say, attempting to return to Bamberg...

Just 25 minutes or so into our train ride back to Bamberg the train came to a stop. We weren't at a train station so it was a bit strange. An announcer came over the intercom and it turned out that "leider" (unfortunately) our train was being stopped/delayed for 30 minutes. 30 minutes? okay not too bad I supposed...but then 30 minutes slowly passed by. And the announcer came back on to say again, "leider..." unfortunately the train was being delayed for another 20 minutes. ANOTHER 20 minutes? Okay...I guess our train would be 50 minutes arriving to Bamberg? The total train ride is only about 45 minutes, but it was still early and while we were all hungry, we didn't think it would be too much longer.

A short while later the announcer came back on again. Keep in mind all these announcements are in German and we had difficulty understanding all the announcements, but Danny did pick up on a few words- unfortunately, Nurnberg, busses coming. Judging by the angry groans coming from the rest of the train passengers, we knew something was definitely wrong. Everyone quickly exited the train and while we weren't sure why, Levi, Danny, Dana, and I all followed them out of the train and out to the road. Supposedly there was a bad accident further down the train tracks and now busses were supposed to come drive us. Truth? Probably. Where exactly? Definitely not sure. All of this information was given to us through word of mouth from other English speaking passengers.

Before we knew it, survival mode kicked in as the train passengers began to panic (or at least we'd like to think so). A few busses came by to pick up passengers, but we were hesitant to get on one of them since we weren't positive where the busses were going. The last thing we wanted to do was get stuck out in the middle-of-nowhere Bavaria where we were. Plus people were totally going nuts rushing the busses, and running to meet them to ensure a spot. So we waited. And waited. And people-watched. And strategized. And waited. Very hungry. and Confused.

Finally something odd happened and people began rushing back towards the train station. Another train. A train that would take us along our original route back to Bamberg. Could it be true? Alas, 2 hours after our train was originally scheduled to be BACK in Bamberg, we were leaving to head back to Bamberg. Within 30 minutes of leaving we were back in Bamberg. It was nearly 10pm and were starving. We grabbed a cab from the train station that dropped us off at the army base where Danny's car was and we headed in search of food.

Leider the only thing open, fast, and easily accessible was McDonalds. It sounded like a greatttt meal to me in my head though I think my stomach is definitely paying for it now. Anywho, one giant bacon burger and curly fries later, we're back home. Tomorrow we return to Nurnberg, but this time to witness for ourselves some of the horrific history of the Nazi power in Germany during WWII.

Just bitte (please) let the trains run properly this time.

love, stine