Our time near the Black Forest was over. Cath and I drove back to Frankfurt. Driving in a foreign country is stressful, even when you’re not doing the driving! Despite asking, our car didn’t have GPS. The car hire company was supposed to enable it. I registered with VW and connected to the car but the navigation couldn’t be enabled unless I became an owner, which I wasn’t. So I used Google Maps to navigate. This was mostly fine. We stopped to top up the petrol and got to Frankfurt a few minutes after our return time.
The car hire place was near the hotel and main station. I dropped off my luggage at the hotel then walked with Cath to the station. She took the train to the airport to return home.
I hadn’t been to a library and found that I could use the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek — the German National Library. There were some complaints on Google Maps about getting into the library, the friendliness of the security and library staff, and the locker system.
The library website had a page for first-time visitors. Everything was explained! To help the process, it recommended registering online, taking 2x€2 (large locker) or 1x€2 (small), putting everything (including food and drink) in the locker except book/laptop, etc. You had to pay €5 for a week’s use or €25 for a year’s use. This seemed straightforward. Some people had objected to making students (over 18) pay to use the library.
It took about 15 minutes to get the library. I put my rucksack in the locker and went into the actual library. The librarian said there was a pay machine outside. The machine was to pay for various library services, such as photocopying and membership. I paid my €5, went inside and gave my receipt, signed a declaration for usage and the librarian gave me a library card. It was all straightforward. I told her that people were complaining online about how difficult it is. We both laughed.
It was a lovely airy library with lots of desks with plugs. The WiFi was free.
I spent a few hours on my blog and sifting through photos. I also started reading my new Kindle book by Stefan Zweig.
Last year, I was in an Oxfam (charity) bookshop. Sometimes, I buy novels because their cover/title appeals to me. Covers are not chosen randomly: publishers have their target audience in mind. You really can judge a book by its cover!
There was a book, Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig, staring at me on the shelf. I’d never heard of the book or the author. I bought it. I ended up loving the book! The story is unusual and engaging, the characters are realistic and their inner thoughts complex but relatable. Sometimes I have thoughts and I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks this. Sometimes I can’t even put my feelings into words. It’s good when a book does that and you can say, “Yes, that’s exactly how I’ve felt!”
For me, Stefan Zweig is one of the best observers of human nature. His psychological insights are often profound. I was happy to discover him. He’s become one of my favourite authors.
Since reading the book, I’ve gone on to read Chess (a novella) and The Post Office Girl (his other novel, published posthumously). Most of his fiction consists of short stories. I have a collection (book not Kindle) of them waiting for me at home.
When I was with some friends last year, I was raving about Beware of Pity. Some of them had heard of the author. One even had the German version, unread, on his bookshelf for 20 years! He went on to read the novel and liked it too.
After finishing my book on the history of the Habsburgs, I wanted to read more about them and about Vienna in the early 20th century. I was delighted to see an online recommendation for Stefan Zweig’s autobiography: The World of Yesterday. I bought the Kindle version. For some reason, it was only 99p. I guess there aren’t many people buying it!
Stefan Zweig wrote in German. There are various translations of his books. All the books I’ve read have been translated by Anthea Bell. I don’t know German so I don’t know how faithful her translations are. However, she’s a very good writer and now I look for her translations.
The National Library is open until 10pm. I left about 8.30pm and headed for a restaurant. I got the tram from outside the library. Opposite me on the tram was a young woman knitting. She was making a scarf for her dad. Her mum was British and her dad German. She had been raised in Germany but had been to England a few times. We had an interesting chat before I had to get off. I told her where I was going, Heppy, and she replied that the food is good there.
The restaurant was near Bockenheimer Warte, which I went to when I first arrived in Frankfurt. Like all the other diners, I sat outside. After some discussion with the waiter, including whether I wanted cubed potatoes and rice, we finally agreed on something with falafels. When it came it was a good sized portion and tasted good.
