We all slept amazing well in our Bacharach inn, had a very complete breakfast there, packed and caught the train to Mainz, then Darmstadt – Dan’s home for two years. We just missed our connecting train toward Dan’s old research lab (GSI) and took an Uber instead after putting our luggage in lockers at Darmstadt’s train station for the day.
At GSI, we were greeted by Joachim, Dan’s old professor/boss, had lunch in a very new cafeteria, and got an extensive two-hour tour of GSI from Joachim – including Dan’s old experiment. It was a perfect visit for Dan and he enjoyed sharing his old lab with Tammy & Noah.
After saying our goodbyes to Joachim and taking the bus and street tram to Darmstadt’s Luisenplatz center, the day continued to be amazing: we took a bus to Dan’s old home, a 20-unit historic building, and got a very special tour from Sue, the current caretaker of the building. In addition to the nostalgia, Sue took us all to the top tower of the building, very off-limits, from where we could see as far as Frankfurt from the open-air tower. It was magnificent and surreal!
We then explored Darmstadt’s pedestrian city center before getting dinner at Enchilada, a Mexican restaurant that was there 20+ years ago when Dan Iived there. Dinner was good but heavy, and after some delayed train drama getting ourselves to Heidelberg, we were happy to check into a very modern Hilton, where we all fell into deep sleep with our dark and quiet room.
Dan – Tammy – Noah 
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