Nice to Wiesbaden

So I'm sitting in the hotel in Wiesbaden looking out over...the dreary, cold German countryside. I flew out of sunny, warm Nice only a few hours ago. Welcome to Germany.

My travel today was without incident and I had no trouble navigating trains and public transit until here. That's because it was at the Wiesbaden train station that I once again encountered lying German taxi drivers. Now, of course, I am experienced in the ways of lying German taxi drivers so I made sure this one a) spoke English, and b) had an installation pass so he could take me to the hotel on post. He said he could take me right to the "hotel American base".

As soon as we were in the car he didn't understand a word and it was obvious he was pretending. Uh-oh. He then took me to the German road OUTSIDE the fenceline across from the hotel and said we were there. Oh, great. I got rather direct with him and said, "No! Through the MAIN GATE and then the HOTEL!" At this point he began muttering in German and we went to the main gate, where (of course) it turned out he didn't have an installation pass at all. So I jumped out, grabbed my suitcase, offered him a few words and threw him ten Euro. Then he started to protest because the fare by this time was up to over fifteen. So I offered him a few more loud words and asked in English if the main gate looked like a hotel to him. He pretended not to understand and drove off in a huff.

The gate guards were thoroughly entertained and actually encouraged me. They said afterward it is a continuous problem with local taxi drivers misrepresenting their access to post. I think they might have recognized him. They told me it was a twenty minute walk uphill to the hotel from there and, no, somebody couldn't just get dropped off across the fence and hop over.

Then something cool happened. Somebody driving on post rolled down their window and offered me a ride. All of a sudden I felt back in the USA. It was somebody all dressed up in a traditional German outfit heading out to Oktoberfest. He saw what happened and thought he would help me out.

So I'm here now and will soon walk to the PX to buy batteries for my camera so I can take pictures. Of the cold, scenic German fall.