We took a late train back to Koblenz from Berlin. We were 20 minutes late getting into Koln, then our connecting train was 20 minutes late, so we were running 40 minutes late. Got back to Koblenz around 1 a.m. Then we could not get Mary's car out of the parking garage. We were already exhausted. The machine, in the parking garage, would not take Mary's credit card. Went to another machine on the other end of the parking garage. The credit card slot was sealed up. She had some Euros, but it only took low denominations, so she ran out of her cash. She needed to pay 45 Euros. She had fed the machine 35 Euros, then she ran back upstairs and into the train station, to the ATM, and got more cash. While she was gone the machine timed-out and spit out a receipt for 35 Euros. She came back and put her ticket in the machine and it said she owed 45 Euros. She managed to feed it 35 more Euros, before it would not take more of her money. She ran back to the ATM and again the machine timed out and spit out a receipt for 35 Euros. She has, now, paid 70 Euros, but it won't validate her ticket to allow us to escape the parking garage. We had already use the phone down there, but nobody answered, and we used the big buzzer and nobody answered. We looked to see if there was switch somewhere, that would open the gate. We tried to see if we could get another ticket at the entrance, but it would not give us one. Mary and I went to find the station police. They came down and checked out the situation. The young policeman asked Mary if she didn't want to try spending even more money on the situation, which was not much help. The older policeman, went back to the office and got his car keys, then he drove his car out and back down the ramp. He got a new ticket and gave it to Mary. If you leave within 5 minutes of getting the ticket, there is no charge. Free at last! It was 2:30 in the morning and we only saw two other vehicles on the road out of Koblenz. Pete was asleep in the backseat, and I was trying to keep Mary company in the front seat. I would nod off, then wake up and say, "Are you okay?" Mary would say, "Yes, Mom." I must have done that about 15 times. Boy, were we all glad to be back in Clausen. It was around 4 a.m. We all slept in late.
We finally decided to go out to lunch at the Greek Restaurant in Wittlich, which was closed on Tuesday, the week before, as it was their "day of rest". It turned out to be closed on Wednesday, August 29, for some other reason. Blah!!
We went and ate at the cafeteria at the home improvement store there (sorry I cannot remember the name of it). I managed a decent gluten free salad, and nobody starved. Mary did take a different direction when leaving the Greek place, and finally found the fabric store, she had seen on some other occasion, long ago, in Wittlich.
It was a small shop, but they had a load of cool stuff. They sell sewing machines, had a classroom, lots of knits and sweatshirt fabrics, drapery fabrics, and my favorite cottons/quilting cottons. Mary bought some nice cat drapery fabric to make curtains for two of the dormers at her place in Clausen. I bought about 3 yards of fabric and some zippers and colorful elastic. You gotta get the colorful elastic, wherever you find it!
Then, we went back to peaceful, beautiful Clausen, where Mary drug out her sewing machine. We plugged in that two-ton adapter, so we could plug in her iron and sewing machine. She made one curtain for her upper dormer window. It turned out fab! It was so relaxing just hanging out at her place.
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| This is the little café/store across the street from Mary's place. |
