6 July 2007

A second day off in Mannheim

At 3:00 A.M. Benny's doorbell rang. It was the person he had been expecting sometime from the Hospitality Club. This is an organization similar to the Warm Showers List but for all types of travelers, not just cyclists. The young woman put her big bag down in the hallway by our stuff, talked to Benny for a few minutes and then hopped into his bed with him right next to her. This is Europe afterall.
We spent most of the day working out our arrangements for changing our flights and renting a car to get down to Nice with the bikes and gear. Today, of course, was a very nice day, no rain and plenty of sun. We walked to the car rental place to be sure we knew where it was for our pickup tomorrow and to check on the size of the station wagon we had rented. On the way back we picked up some bread and ingredients for a big salad and we threw together a dinner for Benny and Anna, the young woman who came in the wee hours of the morning. She is from somewhere in East Germany. She was gone all day at the university taking an exam to try to get into their music school. She plays the saxophone. After dinner we walked to Mannheim's castle where a group of music performers all from Mannheim were putting on a concert. We stayed outside the castle where there was no charge to listen to this loud rock music while John taught Anna how to juggle. She wasn't very interested at fir!
st but once she got the hang of it, which was pretty quick, she was very into it. We took a short walk around town, had some ice cream at Benny's and hit the sack.