On Wednesday I returned from an eight-day trip to Germany, one day longer than planned. I was nervous about leaving and re-entering the US, and if I’d known when I made my reservations how fast things would get worse, I might have changed my mind. The US border has long been a Fourth Amendment-free zone, but now it’s First Amendment-free as well. Fortunately, I seem too obscure to bother with.
Delayed flights have become common. The closest airport to my destination was Hannover, which is relatively small, so I had to change flights both ways within Germany. In retrospect, I should have found a direct flight to a major city and taken the train the rest of the way. Trains are also horrible for delays, but there’s almost always a next one the same day if you miss a connection. If there’s an ICE train (Inter-City Express, no relation to the US gang) to your destination, it will get you there quickly without airport annoyances. Fortunately, there were no problems with changing planes in Munich.
My destination was the Intermezzo convention in Bielefeld, but my first stop was Kassel. It’s a small, pleasant city with a lot of parkland and an assortment of museums. The main reason for my choosing this city was its connection with Louis Spohr. There’s a statue of him in the Opera Plaza. Curiously, it shows him conducting with his hands, when one of his achievements was popularizing conducting with a baton. The Spohr Museum is on the appropriately-named Schöne Aussicht. I was the only visitor while I was there. The guide showed me things I should see but wasn’t much for conversation. It showed a reconstruction of Spohr’s work room, many violins, a harp, a couple of pianos, and of course batons. A recording of part of his String Sextet introduced me to a work which I hadn’t known existed; I’ll need to check it out when I get the chance.
The Grimmwelt (Grimm World) was also enjoyable. It focused on the Grimms’ research in folk tales and for their dictionary project. I’d never realized how massive that project was; it still isn’t considered finished. A nice touch was a forest of speakers at very low volume; you had to pick one and get close to it, and each one told a different story.
The Museum Fridericianum was a huge disappointment. The building looks like a palace from the outside, but inside was just a sparse exhibit of what are called modern art objects. I’d call them toys. Not worth it at any price. A more enjoyable spot was the planetary walk, which has markers for the planets from Mercury to Saturn at properly scaled distances. I only went as far as Earth, since I’d already walked a lot.
The Hessenland Hotel was less than great. In the middle of the lobby there’s a step down dividing it, which could be nasty if someone didn’t notice it while carrying luggage. Granted, the hotel never claimed to be five-star, but would one soft chair in my room have been too much to ask for? There was construction right outside my window (not the hotel’s fault) and the tram passed less than 50 meters away, convenient but noisy. The breakfast was good and the staff was helpful.
If you visit Kassel, it helps to know that the “Hauptbahnhof” in the city center isn’t really the main train station. More traffic goes to the Wilhelmshöhe station, which is on the outskirts. There are lots of regional train connections between the stations, so this isn’t much of a problem. The trains also stop at other stations, so it often isn’t necessary to go to the Hauptbahnhof.
From Kassel I rode the rails to Sennestadt station in Bielefeld, which was close enough to my destination that I could be picked up rather than having to take a taxi to Haus Neuland. The Intermezzo filk convention, which was the reason for my trip, was absolutely great. Intermezzo started off as a clone of FilkContinental, with a different group of people running it in alternate years, but it’s developing its own identity. The earlier conventions were held in youth hostels, which means the facilities were less than luxurious. Bring your own towels and soap. Climb into a bunk bed to sleep. I’d given up on the fall conventions because I want a bit more ease at my age. Haus Neuland falls into a category that’s hard for me to describe. It’s not a hotel or a center for huge conventions, but it has guest rooms which are hotel-quality, good food, and good function space. I’ll be glad to go back if I get a chance. The only oddity was that the function space was in two different buildings, and the doors automatically lock around 10 PM. They solved this problem by the low-tech method of holding the doors ajar with a rock.
On Friday evening I gave a short concert set which was well-received. It included songs in German and in English.
One nice personal story: About ten years ago, I got to talking with a woman who was new to the convention and knew only one or two people there. It was a “friends at first sight” situation, not romance, if only because of the age difference between us. Later on I got her to sing, and she stuck with the German filk community. At this convention she told us all that she had married her boyfriend, also a member of the community, very shortly before the con. There was cake. She mentioned the incidents from our initial meeting, so I think I played a positive role in making her feel like part of the filk world, even though I was from a distant country.
The return trip started with a train ride to Hannover to catch my flight after an overnight stay. This is where things started getting messy. The train ran late and was re-routed so it didn’t go to the Hauptbahnhof but to a suburban station. From there I had to take a tram to the city center. I’m not sure if my Deutsche Bahn ticket actually covered the tram trip. It probably was valid, but in any case nobody checked.
I stayed overnight in Hannover (decent hotel but with too many stairs getting to the desk and the elevator) and then set out for the airport. When I got there, the departure display showed that the S-Bahn should have already left and the next one would be almost an hour later. Considering how chaotic the trains were, I went up to the platform anyway, and the train arrived just as I got to the top. Sometimes chaos works in your favor. My reservation had me flying to Frankfurt and then changing planes for Boston. The plane to Frankfurt was delayed; we were later told the aircraft failed inspection and another one had to be brought in. This meant I couldn’t catch a flight to Boston till the next day.
Lufthansa put me up in a Holiday Inn near the airport, bringing me there on the hotel shuttle. It was the highest-quality hotel of my trip. They even threw in dinner for free, even though my voucher from Lufthansa said it was an extra-cost item. My preparation was poor, though; I didn’t have my suitcase, and I hadn’t put enough stuff into my backpack. Someone to remember for next time.
I got back to Boston in due course, and I was nervous about the re-entry, given the direction the Border Patrol and Homeland Security have taken. My hope was that I’m far too obscure to count as a troublemaker. The huge line through passport control actually raised my hopes; with so many people to process, the odds that they’d pick me out for questioning were low. When I finally got to passport control, I was only asked where I’d been and how long. No one even asked me if I’d been on a farm, had goods to declare, or anything like that. Once I was out of there, the trip home was routine.
Will I go back to Germany again? I’d really like to, but it all depends on how the USA goes. I’m not planning to stop criticizing the government or soften my language, and it’s possible that will make me consider what activities are safe, given the tendency to talk about dissidents as “terrorists.” My citizenship should keep me safe, but citizens should be safe from ICE, and we know how that works. But if this was my last trip ever, my series of visits to German filk conventions has ended on a high note.