So today is Sunday. I figure I should go get some work done, since Monday will be wasted at the foreigner office trying to get a residence permit and Kindergeld (free money handout for having kids and being a resident of Germany). I leave the apartment finally at 8:30 and catch a U-Bahn (city train, slower than the big S-Bahn) toward the University. I figure I will catch the buss up to the University. However, after half an hour on the bus, it stops at a mall (not the University). Apparently, on the weekends the busses don't follow their routes. Half an hour later on the buss I am back at the bus/Ubahn/Sbahn stop. I catch the S-Bahn to the University and finally make it to my office, over 2 hours later. This would have been maybe a 10 minute drive. I love public transit!
So even though it was just over 2 hours to get here, I still call it three. They buried Jesus on a Friday afternoon then opened the tomb on Sunday morning and call that three days. Really it was more like a day-and-a-half, tops. From the book of Ed: "The third hour, he managed to make it four miles to work using public transit." Both are miracles. After an hour on the bus: multiple beers tonight.
Yesterday we toured some old castle. 300 years old, 420 rooms, blah blah. Nice flowers. After the walking tour, we decided to try to get to Ikea. Two stops up the S-Bahn and take a bus. We get to the train station and cannot figure out how to catch the 5 train. It looks like it does not leave Ludwigsburg on the weekend. At least not from the track we were on. We catch a train marked "Stuttgart Hbh" that I think should take us toward the Stuttgart main train station (Hauptbahnhof). It does, but it was an express train, no stops. It probably was DB regional train and we were not supposed to be on it. This time, we read the schedules correctly, and half an hour late we are passing Ludwigsburg on the 5 train on the way out to Tamm and Ikea. We get to the station and the elevator is broken. I carry the stroller down the stairs and the bus rolls off as we approach the parking area. Thanks for waiting! No problem, there are four busses to Ikea. Not on Saturday! That bus we saw was it, and it only leaves every hour. So we hop the train back downtown and finally get home. Luckily, we find a cheap Doner place in Marienplatz with good kebab and Pizza and walking distance. Total transit time from Ludwigsburg to home via Stuttgart Hbh and Ludwigsburg and Tamm and Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart Hbh and Fuersee and Marienplatz and Doner kabab and Marienplatz: way over 2 hours.
Friday night we tried to get to a party by public transit. Train to Hbh then take a bus. How hard could that be? Well, they have two routes for the same bus leaving from the same place, each going a different direction with different stops but both arriving eventually arriving at the same destination. I would give each route a different designation to try and distinguish one route from the other, but not in Deutschland. We head off on the wrong bus (right number) going the wrong way. I get us off at the first stop and we walk down Konigstrasse back to the Hbh and get on the correct bus. This trip was not too bad, but we got to the party 45 minutes late. If you count the U-Bahn trip out to the Aldi and back before we left for the party, this was way over three hours.
Friday I had a Eis Marzen at the party (once we finally got there). My host said it was from a special brewery "owned by the region". I think the word he was looking for was communist, Marxist, socialist, or maybe cooperative. Good beer, not too bitter or hoppy, but not super tasty. I had a nice dunkel weiss for lunch at the castle (very good, better than plain old Heffe Weissen) and a Stuttgarter Marzen Saturday night. The Marzen was hoppy but not too bitter, very good. Sunday night I only had a Schwaban Brau Helle.
