Day 22 - Wiesbaden to Bad Homburg, mostly by train - Planned Spontaneity

July 13, 2018

Day 22 - Wiesbaden to Bad Homburg, mostly by train

A Tale of two churches

Marvin writing today: We decided to take a train from Wiesbaden to Bad Homburg since we couldn't follow a river anyway and it would give us time to explore more at each end.

Only the first and last bits of this track were on the bikes. The rest was on train, first from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt (the GPS lost it's signal) and then from Frankfurt to Bad Homburg

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We cycled down to the old town centre of Wiesbaden which was only a half a kilometer from our hotel.

This turned into a weird picture due to the building in the background. I am usually just reaching and snapping with my camera as we cycle by.

Church wasn't open until 2pm so we just looked from outside.

We just noodled around because there are some great parks in the city centre of Wiesbaden

We rode around to the other side of the casino / spa

We returned to the Casino/Spa and stepped inside for a look

Finding the right train and figuring out what the system is is always a challenge. In this case it wasn't hard to find the right train because we were headed to Frankfurt Main and that was easy to pick out. The tricky part was that this was the first train travel for us in Germany this year and I wasn't sure if we needed to purchase separate tickets for the bikes like we did in Belgium. So I hummed and hawed around with the ticket machine and then gave up and went and stood in line to ask the ticket information counter. The answer: First buy your tickets, then go look for a train. No need to buy an extra ticket for the bicycles. If the train is full of passengers, then a conductor may ask us to wait for another train. The express trains are the most likely to be full. The S trains more likely to have room for bikes

OK, so there were several S trains getting ready to leave and it was no problem. Cost to Frankfurt 17 Euros for the 2 of us. Bike cars marked at both ends of the train, lots of time to get on. Just one step up from the platform to the carriage.

We were able to get on the 'sleeper' car

OK, so getting off at Frankfurt was a breeze, a level exit onto the platform, elevator was big enough for both of us at once (this is relatively rare). Once upstairs it was unclear where we should be heading to get tickets for a train to Bad Homburg. Part of the confusion is that Bad Homburg is just a stop on the way to ?? and so I am looking for a train to ??

But the ticket machine has a search function and when i search for Bad Homburg it tells me which trains are available. The only remaining bit of confusion or doubt is that the place we are trying to go is really named Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and this is sometimes shown in full or as Bad Homburg or as Bad Homburg v. der Höhe and experience tells me that there are many names that look like they might be the same and then it turns out to be different places... I am one of those persons who always "sweats the details"

Oh well, we made it on to the right train and there was only one stop at any Bad Homburg type burg.

The station at Bad Homburg (after the adventure of getting down from the platform , see below)

(I wish I had pictures of what follows, but when I am problem solving I always forget to take pictures)

So by the time we reached Bad Homburg I had figured out that they always announced the next stop and which side of the train you would be exiting on in German and I had that down pat. I knew it would be a quick stop because at the small local stops they just stop for a few seconds while a few people get off and on. So we were ready and made the exit pretty smoothly (one step down). I get off as fast as I can and flip the kickstand down so I can help Erika (the bikes are very heavy fully loaded). Now we are on a platform with tracks on both sides and need to find an elevator so we can get under the tracks and into the station. We find the elevator and uh oh, my bike just barely cannot fit on it, with the front wheel turned completely sideways and everything corner to corner the back fender and little bit of the tire still is blocking the door. So the door keeps pushing on me, trying to close and I won't let it because I can see that it will try to crush the fender and it doesn't want to back off, but I am a farm boy from way back and it isn't going to win this battle. (I have never before known an elevator door that would keep pushing when it met resistance but this one did) Still it never touched the bike and it finally occurred to me to awkwardly reach for the panel and push the open doors button. OK, now with everything under control we decide to see if Erika's bike will fit which it just barely does and she heads down. Meantime I'm thinking "Okay, I really don't want to have to unload the bike just so I can bring it down the stairs. If it was an unladen bike you could just stand it up on the back wheel and load it in the elevator." And the farm boy in me says "What the heck! You can do that with a fully loaded bike, you know you can!"

Well I did. Erika was impressed ;-)

Off we go into Bad Homburg, a very pretty town (to us a city)

Right away we run across a church and the doors are open. Taking the train got us here much earlier before everything starts to close.

Now this first church is Catholic, built at end of 19th century, so pretty new by European standards. Lots of beautiful bright stained glass, lots of statues, paintings, etc.

One block further on we come across the protestant church built about the same time. This time the stained glass is more muted though still beautiful, there are a lot of wood carvings and a huge organ.

Not nearly as ornate as the Catholic one

However, when Erika sent me in to make sure I saw the organ pipes, I had the good luck to hear a soloist begin practicing "Ave Maria" with the organist. The acoustics are just exquisite ! I listened to about half and then rushed outside to send Erika in so she could hear some of it too. She then sent me back in to go upstairs where I could get a good look at where the organ is on the balcony. I couldn't help but think how much I would love to hear Kate or Emily sing in a setting like that.

Just another tower as we bike to our hotel

We are comfortably installed in a big room with a desk and double bed with duvets.

Once we had unloaded and locked up the bikes we went just down the street a block to a grocery store. In the morning a bakery almost right next to our hotel will be open at 7 AM.

We will be here for 3 nights. Tomorrow is Peter's birthday and he has let us know he is coming to pick us up at 11 AM. We are looking forward to seeing him, Astrid and the kids. Not sure if they will all be there, but we will see.

Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 959 km (596 miles)

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