L Rizzy's Adventures: Weekend trip to the Harz Mountains

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Several months ago our Aussie friends here told us about a great place in Germany that we had to visit. They said that the little city was very cute and quaint and that you could take a steam train to the top of the mountain nearby. So in December L Mama scoped it out and we found a nice train deal as well as a cool hotel that had a wood fireplace and free breakfast. We booked it for the middle of February.

As the weekend approached, L Rizzy started to cough and sneeze more than usual. Then his nose started to run like Ben Johnson on steroids and his voice changed. Instead of high pitched nonsensical babbling, he had a smoker's cough and sounded a bit like Clint Eastwood on hardcore drugs. We debated not going- we could cancel the hotel up to 24 hours in advance without penalty. But, alas, we decided to go. Had we stayed in Leipzig L Riz still would have been sick.

So on Friday we boarded a train and headed out of town. We had a changeover in Halle that we nearly missed and then had to spend the entire train ride from Halle to Wernigerode standing up. Once we arrived it was quite a nice town. We caught a cab to the hotel and on the cab ride I saw on my old iPhone map that the cabbie was taking us the OBSCENELY long way to the hotel. Not to be deterred, we paid the fair and checked into our hotel. We checked out the bar downstairs where L Mama quickly became friends with the roided out meat head bartender. In his defense he was quite kind and spoke decent english. For dinner we found an Italian place in the town square which was really good and super cheap. When we went back to the room we found out that our lights weren't working and they had to call a repair man at 10 at night to fix them. Once fixed, though, we immediately went to sleep to rest up for the train.

Well, the night was long my friends. L Rizzy was all over the place in his crib and grunting and snoring like a howitzer. We did not get great sleep. We did, however, have a great free breakfast buffet. L Rizzy seemed a bit worse so we decided to bag going on the train and instead walked around out side for a good portion of the day. L Rizzy got some great stroller naps and we saw the train twice, taking some decent pictures. That night we had Italian again (cheap and good is a great combo). Our sleep Saturday night was better and we were hopeful L Riz was turning the corner.

The next morning, after a great breakfast again, we decided to take the video camera to the train station to tape the steam train (the results are below as a youtube link- I'd advise watching from 9 minutes on as that part is the steam train. The other parts are me musing and knocking down ice cycles). We then checked out and caught a cab to the train station. This cabbie took us even more out of the way. Right before we were about to board the train, though, I realized that I did not have my key chain. The look on L Mama's face and the words that came from her mouth could be best described as "ferocious." We walked all the way back to the hotel, got the keys and walked again to the train station. Thankfully our tickets were open for the entire day so we caught the next train home (albeit 2 hours later than expected).

It was a nice weekend out of town and despite L Riz being under the weatherr he was a trooper as always. On the train ride home I started to feel a bit achy and my throat a bit scratchy. As I write this I am sitting on the couch in the semi fetal position, surrounded by used tissues, hopped up on cough medicine, and sweating through my t-shirt. Happy Valentine's Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsY4x8yKIPk&feature=youtu.be

And for the record, 4 degrees Fahrenheit is actually negative 16 degrees Celsius.