Lodging for the Night

You can travel “on your own”, as David and I did, or you can take a tour, as I also did as I grew older and didn’t want to struggle with my luggage or try to communicate with hotel keepers who don’t speak English. There are advantages for both ways of traveling. .

One night, after a day of sightseeing in Bavaria, David and I drove from village to village without finding a “zimmer frei” (room for rent). I went into a bar and asked for help. A man stepped forward and assured me he could find a room for us. In the Opal I followed his Mercedes on narrow, dark, winding roads all over Bavaria, going back to all the places where David and I stopped before. Finally he found a private home which was willing to take us in.

This time it was a room with old-fashioned furniture and a bed covered with another warm comforter. The Germans, like the Scandinavians, have not discovered quilts and blankets. You sleep either without any cover or are smothered by a feather comforter.

The next morning, when we went down for breakfast, I was surprised to find the hallway crowded with eight or ten husky men in heavy coats and workmen’s boots.

After they left, David and I breakfasted in the kitchen with our hosts, a middle-aged couple. This man was the right age to have served in Hitler’s army. When I mentioned World War II, the man dismissed it with a wave of his hand, saying, “All in the past. Forgotten.” He and his wife were pleasant and kind to David and me.

Over thick slices of heavenly bread and jam, the man, who spoke a little English, explained about the men in the hallway. Construction of a pipe line from Russia to Germany had reached this neighborhood. Workmen occupied every available room for miles around.

When I went on a tour, a fine hotel provided a place to sleep every night. But on tours I never had an opportunity to talk to local people. And I never found a lobby full of Russian pipe-line workers.