Exhausted from a 10 hour overnight flight in a country where we didn't speak the language, we hopped in a cab where the cabbie took the scenic route to our quirky old hotel and collected his hefty fee. We found ourselves blinking into the sun at The HotelAm Berg:
The Hotel AmBerg
A friendly German fellow greeted us and escorted us up creaky stairs to a simple room (with a shower!) and handed over the skeleton key for the door. I thought the place must be haunted but the ghosts seemed friendly enough and we settled in for our one night stay.
The first photo I took in Europe, the view from the room in Frankfurt
We decided to salvage the rest of the day and went to find something to eat. I will never forget the beautiful roses in the front yards of every row house, the stone streets of the wine district where we stopped for a drink. Cigarettes are sold in vending machines and the smell of marijuana hung briefly in the air around every corner. Everyone was kind to us and we never did find anything to eat. we stopped at a Shell station (oh that beautiful, yellow bastion of America) and bought some snacks. The labels were written in German and we had no idea what we were actually buying and we sat on the couch in our haunted hotel room happily eating what turned out to be plain potato chips and sipping sparkling water.
I didn't realize until looking at this picture later that there
were American flags in the windows of this little pub
Our first real meal in over 24 hours was delicious!
Just one short day in Frankfurt
The next day we boarded a bus to an airport town outside of the city. Imagine my surprise to find that just outside of Frankfurt there are acres and acres of fields. Somewhere in the first hour my mom fell asleep and somewhere between jet lag and wakefulness I became hypnotized by the steady lull of wheels on pavement, by the passing blur of green, and by the kind of moment that comes so rarely that you will hold it in your heart forever.
There is something amazing about listening to a language that you do not understand and as the men behind me spoke to one another in German I thought I would slip into dreaming. But I just listened and was able to find that quiet place that isn't worried or confused. That sees things crisper and cleaner and even more beautiful then they might be when overlaid with stress and anxiety. And in that moment my mom snored, just a little, and I looked at her and I smiled. My mom is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen up close. And she looks the same to me as she always has; and I saw clearer little things I hadn't noticed before. A few white hairs laid against her temple and were tucked behind her ear. There were a few lines in the olive skin next to her eyes from too many smiles. I could hear her laughter and her voice. Her opinion and her love that I always seek and find. There is nothing in the whole world (and I know, because now I have seen it!) more precious than a good mother.
They say we all become our mothers and I can only hope that it is true. Everything I hope to be is everything my mother has been, always.
I learned a lot more on my trip than I even knew :) And now, more gratuitous photos from Germany.
I went on an early morning jog about 3 miles down this path along the road
in Lautzenhausen. All along the pavement there were slugs! I didn't figure that out
until I was stepping in them.
LAUTZENHAUSEN
