Sometimes it’s the little things that make life so wonderful. I’m in Heidelberg on business; last night I routed through Stuttgart (by train) to have dinner with an old Army friend I’d not seen in 20 years; we’d been in a nine week course together way back when (thank you facebook, she is now a reserve colonel who happened to be in Stuttgart for a few weeks). It was great to catch up even if only briefly. So what happens between meetings here in Heidelberg today? Waiting for a cup of coffee I run into another of our classmates from that twenty year’s past “small group” of twelve. He’s now the head Chaplain for the Army in Europe and we’d not seen each other in probably ten years. I found it fun to note that his team seemed so amused at our past old guy musings. After a particularly successful day of meetings I returned to the hotel to find my key didn’t work but we’ll forgo the annoyance of the hotel expecting me to check-out a day early … if only because it’s out of consonance with the rest of the trip.
Heidelberg is an old and wonderful college town on the river Neckar; Mark Twain lost his heart in this romantic city, along with countless others. After a long stroll through the pedestrian old town I had a magnificent dinner in the company of John Grisham’s latest novel (thanks to my pal Gerhard, recently in England, who loaned me his copy) outdoors at a restaurant with a view of the old bridge (or more to the point a whole bunch of Japanese and American tourists). Beef tenderloin atop a mountain of roasted mushrooms and vegetables topped with Rucola and parmesan along with a wonderful local beer whose name I’ve already forgotten … the food was fantastic … and the lovely young waitress was nice enough to flirt with a middle aged guy.
Walked a mile and half back to the hotel along the river in the company of two coxed four rowing teams, several scores of college kids on bikes and quite a few runners, most of whom I’m happy to report I could probably more than keep up with (or perhaps the two beers at the restaurant were getting the better of my imagination). Got to view a great sunset to the over a yacht marina and made it bake to the hotel just as the storm clouds from the east started dumping rain. So here I’ll close, with a mini-bar beer within reach and ready to call it a night … tomorrow is an early train back to the grind-stone.
