A Long Journey to No Where and Nothing

I'm going to start out by telling you that this story is not going to be one of success.  Mission NOT accomplished.  I did not find that which I was seeking.  So before you get your hopes up, just know that it doesn't work out.  At all. 

Now that you're prepared, I'll tell you how the day unfolded.  

Thursday morning, Fritz hopped on a train to Bonn, the capital of former West Germany (when Germany was reunified in 1990, Berlin became the new capital).  He had a 2-day conference to meet with the people who are giving him his grant.  This meant that I had to entertain myself for the next 48 hours since my partner flew the coop.  

I started the day out right by recording a silly kid's song for my former colleague.  She is an OT who doesn't do a ton of singing and asked if I would record some of the kids' favorites from when I was working at the school in Washington, DC.  With "All the Little Ducks" successfully recorded,  I decided to work on some adult songs.  

It wasn't long before I realized I could really use a capo.  For those who don't play the guitar, a capo is a little piece of plastic and rubber that you hook over the neck of the guitar to raise the key of the song you are playing.  Very handy.  It allows me to sing songs that would have otherwise been too low for me.  

It was about 2:40 pm at this point.  Plenty of time to find a guitar store, buy a capo, and get back home.  So I went to googling.  Based on my search, I noticed there were several guitar stores in Frankfurt, though none of them were very close to me.  Admittedly, Frankfurt doesn't seem to be a super artsy city, but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a single guitar store downtown.  Google maps told me that if I took a train, a bus, and walked for 15 minutes I could get to Peter's Guitar Shop in a total of 58 minutes.  No problem.  I grabbed my coat and my camera and headed out the door. 

Two stops from my destination, two Deutsche Bahn Sicherheit (German Train Security) stepped onto the train.  This happens every so often.  They come to make sure everyone riding actually has a ticket.  They fine you and kick you off the train if you don't have a ticket.  Luckily, Fritz and I bought monthly passes to ride the train as often as we want, so I'm never worried when they come around.  I pulled out my pass like I've done before to show them that I've paid my fare.  

I was expecting him to check it and hand it back to me.  But instead of handing it back, he said something to me in German.  I smiled and asked if we could speak in English.  He translated and said I had the wrong ticket.  I told him I bought the month pass.  And he explained that my pass is only valid in the city.  Apparently the train line I was riding went out of the city proper and into the suburbs.  Oops!  

"Are you a tourist?" the security guard asked me, talking over the heads of an older German couple sharing the booth with me.  "Do you have a passport?"

Of course I did not have my passport.  I had my New Jersey driver's license which he took and examined.  Completely embarrassed and also a bit worried about what they were going to do with me, I crafted my most sincere explanation about how I didn't realize I needed an additional ticket and I had planned on getting off at the next stop.  I asked what I should and he looked at me and said, "Yes indeed, what should you do?"  

Please don't arrest me!  Please don't arrest me!  I thought as he stared down at me with a stern expression.  "Make sure you get off at the next stop and pay for a ticket when you come back."  

Phew!  I'm free!  They let me go!  I got off the train as quickly as I could making sure to nod to the officers in a gesture of appreciation and to show them that I was following their instructions.  That was a close one! 

On to the next leg of the journey.  This is the part where I am supposed to take a bus one stop.  Except I figured that if my monthly pass wasn't good on the train, it probably wasn't going to work for the bus system out here either.  Not willing to pay for a bus ticket that was only going to take me one stop, I decided to walk it.  In the city, bus stops are usually only separated by a few blocks anyway.  I doubted that the bus would really save me that much time.  

I started walking through what I suspected were the wealthy suburbs of Frankfurt.  

Pretty houses with slanted roofs and picket fences lined the quiet street.  

High walls and leafy shrubbery obscured my view from spying in at people's homes. 

I walked and walked, and I started to realize that maybe the bus would have been a good idea after all.  I reached the edge of the fancy neighborhood as my google walking directions lead me to a dirt walking path.

I walked. 

And I passed fields, and gardens. I passed gated property clearly marked.  The sign above translates to: 

Warning: This is not a dog toilet. 

Noted. 

It seemed like my directions wanted me to actually walk straight through some fields.  

So I walked. 

I passed an old man and his energetic dog. 

I walked through the woods.  

I passed strange gated gardens.  

I walked through another town with shops.  I thought, "I must be getting close now."  And then the shops turned to homes again. 

Kept walking.  

And then, finally, in the middle of a quiet neighborhood, I saw the sign!  

Peter's Guitar Shop!  I made it!!! Of course this looked nothing like I had imagined, but the sign seemed professional.  I walked through the front gate to find a very residential-looking building.  

I walked up to the second gate, but when I turned the handle, the door was locked.  To the right were 3 door bells, the top one was Pete's.  Before pressing what looked like someone's personal doorbell, I thought I should translate the yellow sign that was hanging on the gate.  

Basically, this says Pete is sick.  Come back on Saturday.  

Defeated and still without a capo after my journey, I turned and started the long walk back where I would certainly pay for my train ticket home like a good American tourist.