offline misery

Here it is, the Eve of Easter, and the bells are tolling from the Kölner Dom in the dark. Today was spent walking along the Rhine in Rodenkirchen trying to avoid being run down by the cyclists and watching the never-ending line of barges trudging up the Rhine and the ones slipping quickly downstream towards Amsterdam 672 kilometers away. Jonas Kári and I made some sand drawings with sticks that we traded back and forth. This evening passed while making a concerted attempt to get online, although the telephone plugs here are international standard, I think that the wiring sequence is different, so my modem couldn’t raise a dial tone. No one is home at dom so I can’t get any help, and I never did get Ira’s private telephone number here in Köln, and he is unlisted. The saga of trying to make it through the German system to get online continues to ring up failure after failure. Rather irritating, although if I had time, I am sure I could achieve the goal, I seem doomed to have to wait until Vienna at Mathias’ place or even Budapest at C3. Thank you Deutsche Telekom!