Day 1 - Wiesbaden

It has been a long day.  We left New York, had a 2-hour nap after our overnight flight and fought to stay awake as we walked around Wiesbaden with Ricardo’s childhood friend from Brazil, Paulo, their friend Marcelo and his husband Michael.

We went to the Wiesbaden Biennel 2018. I was amused that the two main exhibits were event spaces — a “shopping arcade” (grocery store) in a posh opera hall and an “autokino”  (drive-in movie theater) inside a concert hall that was ultimately forced to rework their installation when the state told them that they could not have real cars inside a building due to health/insurance concerns.  Now they have a ramp for people to drive their cars into the concert hall; however, the concert hall is now filled with antique cars that do not have engines or fuel in order to address the state’s safety concerns.  So people now buy tickets to go sit in the staged cars rather than driving in their own cars.

We went out for an authentic German dinner. I had gazpacho for an appetizer and we shared a German snack similar to pimento cheese that was served with soft pretzels.  For the entree, the guys all ate barbaric plates of mystery meat, potato dumplings, sauerkraut and rice. My vegetarian option was a dish called “Green Sauce” which consisted of three hard boiled eggs cut in half, three small potatoes that were peeled, boiled and cut in half all served on top of a plate covered with green sauce.  I was expecting something similar to pesto but it was more like a creamy chimichurri sauce. There was beer and some Apfelwein (hard cider mixed served either “pure” with 50% water or “sweet” mixed with lemonade) followed by homemade schnapps. A good time was had by all


HIGHLIGHTS

Julia - Sorting out our rail pass and Wiesbaden train tickets was a huge accomplishment.  One of my highlights was Rick figuring out how to read the train stop notifications so we knew where we were on the ride to Wiesbaden. When we arrived, we ate at the station and despite our hunger an fatigue, passed up all the American options and ate a commuter breakfast option (I had a brie sandwich and Rick ate a sliced chicken breakfast roll).  Of course, the real highlight was meeting Rick’s friends and immediately feeling like my friendship circle had expanded. Paulo, Marcelo and Michael are lovely and we had great conversation as we walked and talked and ate and drank.

Ricardo - Just being here and seeing Paulo again after so many years.


**Photos to follow once we have enough internet power to post media**