I awoke at about 3am! As none of my usual focusing strategies helped me to get back to sleep, I resorted to my iPad for news and entertainment. When Michael woke up at 6am, I put on the news on my ABC radio app and fell back to sleep at last. (I suspect the agitation in my body was related to my ‘heat rash’ — apparently, if your skin on the outside is reacting to an allergen, then so does the skin on the inside (in the gut) — it makes sense to me anyway.

It was a travel day — we had to get ourselves from Munich to Baden-Baden in the Black Forest via 3 trains. The 20-minute walk to the railway station was slightly downhill, and so wasn’t too bad. The first class lounge was rather crowded, but we managed to each find a seat, but not next to each other. We ascertained that food was available, but worked out that you actually had to ask the waiter who was wandering around. At first, he just told me what drinks were available, only listing the food items when I asked specifically about food. (No wonder some travellers report on Trip Advisor that food isn’t available — you seem to have to know about it in order to ask for some!) I ordered a sandwich which was actually only half a sandwich, but a tasty snack which I saved for the train journey.

With plenty of time to spare, we headed down to the platform and boarded the train, initially sitting anywhere in first class, but then realising that we actually had reserved seats for the first leg of the journey. Again, wifi and power were available, and so we whiled away the time on our iPads. In Stuttgart, our connecting train was waiting on the adjacent track, saving us the angst of rushing down and up stairs/escalators. The final destination for this particular train was Paris, and so many people had reserved seats. As it was only half an hour to Karlsruhe where we were to change trains again, the system did not allow Michael to reserve seats when he made the online booking. The first class carriages were quite crowded, but Michael found a couple of seats for us, after initially inadvertently sitting in some reserved seats. Finding somewhere to store our bags was a bit challenging, as the luggage storage areas were already full, but we found some places to squeeze them out of the way. One of the vacant, unreserved seats that Michael found was a window seat in a group of four that were facing each other. When he asked if the seat was free, the woman sitting opposite on the aisle said no! Confused, Michael asked why not, and her reply was, “He [her partner] doesn’t want to look at your face for the next three hours!”. I could see Michael getting upset, and so I said that we were only going to be on the train for about half an hour. Then Michael said, “Well, he can just read the paper and not look at my face!”, and then asked the man who was sitting next to the empty seat, busily working on his laptop, to please move for him. Sadly, the woman had an American accent, reinforcing the negative image we so often hear about when it comes to to American tourists!

The German woman sitting nearby asked me what the fuss was all about. When I replied that apparently my husband wasn’t good looking enough to sit in front of them, the American woman turned around and basically told me to ‘drop it’, as he now had a seat! Later on, when I was standing ready to leave the train, the German woman commented that the woman was a narcissist. I added, “And she’s probably a Trump supporter too!”

Within the half hour, we queued up at the door ready to disembark. The German woman, who was also on her way to Baden-Baden, informed me that our connecting train was delayed. But then, an announcement was made in German informing everyone that the train we were on was now going to stop in Baden-Baden. She sat back down, whilst I rushed to get Michael’s attention — he was just about to get off at the other end of the carriage. We both indidually checked with the officials to make sure that the information was correct, and then found somewhere (away from the nasty American woman!) to sit for the next 20 minutes. I tried to get a message through to our friend, Astrid, who was picking us up from the station, but was not sure whether it actually went through on WhatsApp. 

Apparently, my message did get through, but Astrid didn’t see it until hours later! She was quite surprised when Michael popped up out of nowhere whilst she was on the phone, discussing with her husband, Michael (Micha), what to do about the fact that we hadn’t been on the train she’d expected us on. ..or on the following two that had come in. I brought up the rear, having used the elevator, rather than heave my bag down the stairs from the platform.

Once we’d settled in at Astrid and Michael’s flat and had some refreshments, we set off with Astrid on a walk up the hill to an outdoor cafe/restaurant where we planned to have dinner, to be joined by Micha and the couple who live in the flat downstairs — Marianna and Bernhard. It was an unusually hot night for Baden-Baden — most of Europe has been experiencing above average temperatures for the past 6 weeks. By the time we reached the restaurant, we were very hot and ready for a nice cold drink. Sadly, the place was closed for a private function, and so we headed back down the hill, settling instead for a BBQ in the back yard.

After a delicious dinner, we wandered up the path in the park that the house overlooks, seeking a good vantage spot for viewing the blood moon. Eventually, Marianna spotted it peeking through the hazy clouds. Whilst my compact Sony camera takes pretty good photos, it only has a 3x optimal zoom, and so the moon looks a little small in my photos. The others had more powerful cameras, and so I’ll have to add one or two of their photos later.

It was midnight by the time we got to bed — way too late for us! We hit the pillow and were out like a light!