Well, things are going pretty good in my opinion. Last night I went out for dinner as kind of a fare well dinner for one of the office people, Manu. Her husband is one of the guides, so I’m sure I’ll still see her around sometimes. She’ll be having a baby boy quite soon here, so she’ll take maybe a year off, which is quite normal here. It was nice, but it’s always weird to sorta say good bye to people here as most of the expat community and tour guide community are not that permanent…just semi-permanent (usually at least a few years…but…not forever).
My tours have been very pleasant lately. I had a castle tour which was mostly backpackers the other day, which is nice…they can be very entertaining, but they don’t tip. That being said the very obviously well-to-do brits didn’t either. Goes to show you never really know, which is why I try to go out of my way for everyone. Good times, none the less.
I had a private tour scheduled Wednesday, but it appears a pipe burst in his kitchen wall. That’s a sure thing to ruin a vacation 🙁 He won’t be coming over, so I think I’ll be travel writing instead. It’s too bad as I was looking forward to the private tour. I normally don’t do much in the way of Third Reich history on my tours, but have been re-reading much of the Third Reich information in preparation and got a new book on the subject as well, which I finished reading just recently. Nothing really knew, but it’s good for a refresher sometimes.
Maybe he’ll visit next September or November and have better luck.
Also, it would have given me a reason to show someone the church of St. Anna, which I think is really cool as it was bombed…and restored…but they only had pictures in black and white…so when they re-did the church, the ceiling was restored…in black and white. I think it’s neat.
I haven’t done what I’ll refer to now as my “super tour” in quite some time, as most people want a quick 2-hour tour. To really properly see the city, I think you need a good 3 hours, if not more…depending on the group size, etc. Two hours is never enough.
Today I had a group of 2. From Milwaukee, even…so I got to rub it in that the packers just lost and yet I still got a good tip, haha. No, really, they were a great “group”, interested in everything, no walking problems, no language problem (what’s the language difference from Milwaukee to Owatonna, really?), and yeah…it’s a beautiful day, so it was nice.