Freaky Friday

For the last day of class, Rob took the students up to the Reichstag. They had stalled and stalled on giving our group a time, and then finally came through the very day everyone was leaving.
Once there, in the rain, they found out that they would not be going up the dome because they were cleaning it again. Rob took a chunk out of one of the guards when he found out that they'd yanked him around, stalled on the visit, dragged everyone out in the rain in the middle of packing and then still denied them access to the dome.
For shame! This was one of the very best parts of Berlin during our last visit. Now it is a complete disappointment. I'm going to go buy the Angela Merkel Paper Doll and she will not wear the Marilyn Monroe outfit. Noooo! She will wear Charlie Chaplin until this is fixed!
The students were cheering. They have come to rely on him for putting Germans in their place.
I would have cheered too, but I was waiting at home for the Hermes man to come.
This is because the Germans are geniuses, the Reichstag notwithstanding.
After our experience with our luggage in London vs. our weekend trip to Dresden with only backpacks, we determined that we were not going to take all of our suitcases on this transitional, long weekend trip from Berlin to Tübingen. Even if that meant throwing them all into the River Spree. We went to the friendly Deutsche Bahn rep at our local station and she told us that for the bargain price of 16.80 per bag, this great company would come to our door, load up our luggage, take it wherever we wanted and deliver it to our door at the other end. SOLD!
Next she told us that Joss and I could get a second ticket from Berlin to Nürnberg shaving off the most intensive day of the trip and saving everyone else's sanity. Score two big ones for the McFarlands!
So Rob, the students and our three kids took off in the rain and headed out to Eisenach in Thuringia.
They went by train. You can pay extra when you book your tickets and get a reserved seat. Rob had done this for the entire group, but when a train isn't beginning where you get on, there may already be some disorganized slouch person sitting in your seat -- as there were when the BYU group got on en masse with all of their luggage. Rob got to boot out multitudes of German omas and other surprised travelers who had settled down in their seats. It was yet another reason that the students think he's the bomb.
This is the medieval gate of the city of Eisenach. They were lucky enough to leave the rain up north.
They visited the Bach house.
And said hello to the man himself. They checked into their hostel, had dinner there and settled down for the night . . .
. . . when the fire alarm went off. Rob, the students and the kids all came outside to see what had happened. It was about 10:30pm and all of the hostel workers had gone home for the night. So Rob decided they should probably call the fire department. The firemen showed up looking for ROHbert Fahhrland (he always has to explain his name as "McFarland like McDonalds" which they've at least heard of) and reported to him when they finally determined that it was just a false alarm.
Maddie and Sebi, going to bed far too late.
Their very organized things which their father put out for them.
And Will and Rob, turning in after a very long day in assertiveness training.

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