MY VISIT TO ANSBACH GERMANY 1990

 This subject came up the other day. I thought I had written this story sometime but I could not find it. . It is a great memory so here we go. 

 In 1990 my work friend Andy (Honeywell Clearwater FL) and I went to the World Cup games in Turino Itally. We had made the deal to go 4 years before on a business trip to Minneapolis, were we hunted down a little bar that was playing the final 1986 World Cup Game in Mexico. We made a promise to go to the 1990 games.  Saved up the money over the 4 years and went. 

 Without looking it up in my note book I believe we could only get tickets so up through the ¼ final games. So we left after or before the ¼ finals. We were there about a month. It was.GREAT We travled there and back separately for some reason. 

 To get back I traveled from Turino Italy to Frankfurt Germany on the train to catch my plane to the US. I had a Urail pass, My trains path was Turin, Verona then to Frankfurt via Munich, Nurenburg (as I recall) . I noticed that Ansbach was a little ways west of Nurenberg so I decided to take a little side trip and visit Ansbach. There is an Anspach north of Frankfurt but it was out of the way. I went there years later with Tommy. 

 It was a night ride from Verona to get to Frankfurt. It would be overnight to get to Ansbach. When I caught the Frankfurt train in Verona I wanted to find a ‘cabin’ so I could catch some sleep. i.e. not full of people. I found one. It was occupied by a man and lady. I figured they were related. Turns out they were not. The lady was from US and traveling to meet or had met family members. I don’t recall where the man was from. He spoke English well so maybe from the US. It was an interesting meeting. The man eluded that he was some kind of a spy. The lady was traveling in coach with scruffy cloths. She said she did not like traveling in high class with nice cloths as it tempted people to steal from her. We were able to convert the seats into 3 separate sleeping places and I slept pretty well. 

 Now comes the Ansbach story, finally. I arrived in Ansbach in the morning. I got me a room in a ‘run of the mill’ little hotel near the train station. The room key was a BIG ol door key with a big card attached. I turned the key in and they hung it in a box hanging on the wall behind the desk. It turns out, as you will see, that I should have checked more about the hotel key rules.

 I walked around Ansbach checking things out. It was a neat small City. Picked up a couple post cards and mailed them home. Finally late after noon I found a little bar restaurant near the Hotel and train station for relaxing and some food. 

 There were a couple guys sitting at the bar. We started chatting as I had a beer and something to eat. They were convinced that I was USArmy from a nearby base. I finally convinced them that I was on my way home from the world cup games. Told them my last name was why I stopped there. There was a jug of some kind of German ‘Schnapps?’ on the bar and they started buying me shots. We all, including the bartender, became very friendly and it was very enjoyable. I had bought 2 or 3 World Cup T shirts in Italy and decided to go down to the hotel and pick one up and give it to the bar.

 I got my Big OLD LOCK type key from the desk, went up to my room, got the shirt, turned the key back in and took the shirt to the bar. They loved the shirt and hung it up near the bar. It turns out a few days later that Germany won the 1990 games. As it started getting later I decided to head back to the hotel and get a little shut eye as I had to get up early in the morning to catch my train. It was probably around 11 pm or so. 

 I got back to the hotel and LO AND BEHOLD it was locked up tighter than a drum. I pounded on the door, hollered etc but NO ONE answered. I started getting worried and started looking for a policeman or someone to help. NO one. I climbed a gate in the rear of the hotel into what may have been a parking area. Started hollering again, that I was locked out and needed help. Lo and Behold a young man about 2nd floor opened his window “what is wrong?” in clear English. I explained, he came down and opened the front door to let me in. "" MY KEY was LOCKED in the little wooden box on the wall behind the desk (I assumed). I could not get it open. There was was NO NONE AORUND I went into the near by kitchen and found a BIG spoon. Ah this might work. I managed to pry the box open and got my key, whew!!. "" I got a few hours sleep, Got up early (about 5 or so) packed up, left my key on the desk, no one was around, and went and caught my train to Frankfurt. Got on the airplane and made it home ok.

 What A great, and interesting trip. And of course, the Ansbach visit was just part of it.