09 July - LeTour in Pforzheim

What a crazy day!

We awoke early, at 6am, to get a good start on our day. We ate our fruestueck (our last German breakfast, Lynne was so sad...) and then packed up. We were at the train station at 7:30. We put our bags in a locker and headed to Pforzheim, about 30km away. It took a while to get there, maybe a half hour or so. We got there just as the madness was beginning. The entire town was decked out for the tour.... another umpah band was warming the crowd up to "Da Do Run Run", "Ob La Dee Ob La Da" and some Abba tunes, all dressed in old German attire. The fence wasn't as croweded so we got a good spot, just in front of the train station (we got there just in time, so we didn't get to find the team vehicles for signatures... sorry Stacy!). We also managed to miss the official Tour de France vehicles that come by to sell official gear. It is odd but they don't have a stand anywhere that you can buy that stuff, it is ONLY when the vehicle comes by and you have to act fast. So, we missed that but got there in time for the parade.

Across the way was a Native American family with a big American flag, and we stood next to two American girls who were studying in Goetingen for a year, we had a nice conversation with them. Robby taught them how to use the high speed shutter on their digital cameras and promised to email them some of his pictures later.

Just like yesterday, the sponsors drove by and threw stuff out, but this time we managed to catch some stuff (pens, keychains, bottles of water, gummi bears). It was just as crazy as the day before, but less people and a much older town. No big screen TVs this time and a much more smalltown feel to things. When the tour riders passed they weren't going as fast so we got to see them, and I got a good picture of Lance in the center of the peoloton.

After the madness left we wandered around a bit, but had to catch the 12:13 train back to Karlsruhe, then catch the 13:00 train to Koeln, which would lead us to Amsterdam. The timing was tight, but we made all of our connections in just the right amount of time. A few times there we both said "Thank God we're in Germany where the trains run on time..."

In Koeln (Cologne) we had an hour layover. We figured this wasn't enough time to do anything but were very happily surprised to find that the famous cathedral is only steps from the station so we actually did have time to walk through it a bit. Truly amazing. It was huge, even bigger than Speyer, but had the same cozy feel as the one at Worms. We were so happy that we got to see the three famous Gothic cathedrals of southern Germany. Gorgeous.

We were in Amsterdam by 8pm, got some tram tickets and found our hotel Prinsenhof just fine. It is a very local little place. Clearly the proprieter has his apartment in part of the building and then runs a 10 room inn in the rest. He doesn't answer his bell after 8pm so he left a note on the door of the hotel to "check with the bar at the corner". Sure enough, the very friendly bartender had an envelope waiting for us with a key, a nice note, and coupons for 2 drinks at the bar. What nice hospitality!

We met up with our good friend Claire (who just moved to Brussels for work and came up for the weekend to see us) afterwards and then had some drinks at our local bar downstairs.

Family, please note that there is no phone in our room and no phone or lobby at the hotel. It is minimal! So if you need to call, leave a message with the owner and we'll get it when we can. Email might be the best way of getting to us...

Right now we are posting from the free internet kiosk at Lynne's conference. It is especially nice because the keyboard is American. No funny characters in funny places!

Off to eat dinner now. More from Amsterdam later.

xxx

L and R

Pforzheim Webcam
Pforzheim Nordstadt Webcam
Going to see the beginning of Stage 8 of the Tour de France in Pforzheim, then take the train to Amsterdam.