Hunt for the Red Baron

Photos are here!

I woke up early on Saturday and checked my maps to get to the Japanese bookshop I'd found online - and while doing so finally found the opening hours. It wasn't open until 10:00 so I hung around for a while and then headed in. I found it easily, and it has a good if small selection of books, magazines and comics with a scattering of Japanese food and 'fancy goods' like origami paper. I got a book of short stories by Miyazawa Kenji and one on 'How to be a proper member of society' (there are many of these quasi-etiquette books in Japanese), both on sale for 3 Euro. The full-price books are quite expensive, but all I want is some reading practice. I also got some writing paper, one of my favourite soft drinks and - after some advice from the very friendly staff - some powdered bonito stock to use in my nikujaga recipe. I stopped by the supermarket near the flat to get the ingredients, but they had no beef so it's going to be done with chicken this time.

Z was walking in to do his shopping as I was walking out, we stopped and chatted and I went home to get more information on Wiesbaden. Then at 1:00 we headed out! First stop was Hauptwache station, where we got the S-Bahn commuter service to Wiesbaden, which took just over 45 minutes. Google maps helpfully shows bus stops and what buses they're for, so after we coaxed some all-day bus tickets out of the machines we jumped on the No. 16 east to the Sudfriedhof cemetary. It was huge, spacious and much more like a park than a graveyard. The directions weren't great, but we eventually found what we were looking for - the grave of Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.

He's been buried three times - once by the other side, with full military honours, near Amiens, then moved to a state war cemetary in Berlin, then moved again after his surviving brother Bolko asked for him to be buried in the family grave in Wiesbaden when Berlin was divided and Manfred's grave could only be visited by special permission as it was right up alongside the Russian zone. Both Manfred and his other brother Lothar were awarded the highest honour in Germany, 'pour le Merit'.

We headed back to the main train station and stopped for an ice cream - it was an absolutely glorious day, and we saw a temperature sign saying 20 degrees Centigrade. Z had a chocolate and cream sundae that rapidly degenerated into a lake of chocolate, and I had a scoop of chocolate, mocha and amaretto. You wouldn't want to drive after the amaretto.

Then it was back on the bus, this time the No. 1 north to Nerotal, a hill overlooking the town. The main attraction - for me anyway - is the Nerobergbahn, Europe's only water ballast funicular! The traditional stepped cars operate as a pair, with the car at the top of the hill pumped full of water to weigh it down - the driver of the downhill car controls the rate of release of water to ensure the uphill car is pulled smoothly to the top, then the water is dumped at the bottom of the hill and pumped back up again to be reused!

We wandered around the top of the hill for a while, admiring the view and the stone amphitheatre (and the rope/treetop adventure centre, just like the one in Bracknell Forest) before setting off to find a church built on the hill. We initially went the wrong way - Z was foolish enough to let me read the map - and wondered how you can't find an Orthodox church with five gold domes on the top of a hill. We came back to where we started, realised where we went wrong and soon saw the domes glinting through the forest. The church was being restored so we couldn't go in, but the outside and the view were impressive.

After a calf-killing return up the hill, we got back on the Nerobergbahn and took the No. 1 bus to the town centre. It had just gone 6:00pm, so the shops were closed with only some cafes and restaurants still open. We wandered around the old town and saw the church and market hall, then opted to get back to Frankfurt for dinner.

We went to the Japanese restaurant we'd happened across while wandering around the city a few weeks ago, Iwase. It is tiny, and we just managed to get two seats at the counter between reservations - the place is booked solid. There are about 16 seats plus 8 at the counter, and it is popular! Compared to our other favourite, Iroha, it was expensive but definitely worth it. I had a tempura set (with rice and soup) and some fried aubergine, and Z had a large sashimi plate set. I paid 30 Euro and his was 38 Euro, but it was delicious. We got talking to the people behind the counter - who had already guessed where we worked, as they said the only foreigners who spoke good Japanese were from Nintendo. They actually said 'like a native', which I was most chuffed by.

The owner had actually met the previous two presidents of Nintendo when they were over visiting - and there were a lot of Japanese there as well, always a good sign. They also operated a Japanese bar system, with multiple bottles of the same thing with the owners' names written on them behind the counter. We will definitely be back, although it's not something we could do every week. After chatting over refills of green tea, we finally headed back via a different supermarket that has a much better selection - must go there instead.

So, all in all, a fantastic day. I'd definitely go back to Wiesbaden and explore the town centre. And Iwase is officially a new favourite place. It was a glorious day, I had company and all went well.

The shadow over it all was waiting for me when I got home - an email from a friend working in Munich, who was suggesting days to come up and visit. Nothing wrong with with that, except that he was leaving Germany for tax reasons and after a morning looking up various contractor and government websites, I think I may have to pay tax here too. Although the UK's tax year runs from April - so I don't become non-resident while I'm here - the German tax year is the calendar year and they consider me automatically resident for tax purposes after I've been here for 183 days. In theory I should be paying German tax on income earned in Germany regardless of length of stay, but if it's under 183 days they assume it's covered under the double taxation agreements with the UK. I may need some professional help with this one...