DISCLAIMER: This was my first trip to Essen, to Germany, to Europe. My longest trip before was to Hawaii. This article is filled with my observations of cultural differences, of what it was like at Essen Spiel for two days, and very little game playing.

I planned my Essen trip about four months in advance. I simply went to Orbitz.com and had them set up the trip from Reno to Essen. I did not book my hotel from there: I went directly to the Moevenpick site for that. Orbitz set up a flight from Reno -> Dallas -> Frankfurt, then ICE train travel from Frankfurt -> Essen. Very convenient, but a little confusing with the paper tickets. (I contacted Orbitz several times to ask how they worked but not a single person could answer my questions!)

Tuesday-Wednesday October 16-17 (travel days)

I packed my 2 big suitcases full of large Styrofoam blocks, to take up space so that my empty cases wouldn't be damaged by the "throwers" and the weight of other luggage. (Worked out great!)

Got on the plane in Reno about 7am Tuesday. Loooong plane fight from Dallas to Frankfurt. I took some Ambien, but it didn't work. Knocked me out for a whole hour instead of eight. Next time, I'll take Dramamine--I know that works for me.

Arrived in Frankfurt about 9am Wednesday. Foggy. Found train station platform next to the airport...only had to ask for directions twice!

Problems getting on the ICE train in the "2" car. I sat in a seat, but was kicked out for reserved passengers. Wow, that wasn't clear! The train was pretty packed at Frankfurt (I think it came from Munich), but it thinned out as we got closer to Essen. Didn't see much of the countryside as it was foggy and zoomed by at 186 mph! Very serious country. No one talked on the train for 2 hours!

Got to Essen after 20 hours of straight travel (about 11am Wednesday).

Moevenpick Hotel got me right in. Took ten minutes and an awkward conversation with a maid to figure out how to turn on the lights; apparently you need to put your card in the slot by the door and give a firm push before the electricity comes on--weird!

Walked around the Essen pedestrian city center. We just don't have enough areas like that in America. Very pleasant. My first German food was currywurst from a street vendor--excellent! No one had my haircut (shaved nearly clean), and no one wore sunglasses! Stopped at the visitor center (right next to the Moevenpick) and bought two fair tickets for €14 each and it included subway transport.

Got a shower--very cramped. Nice hotel so far, but if you're overweight, you will have a very hard time showering at the Moevenpick. (Paul later showed that his shower is the same size at the Jung.) Took an hour nap. Ass is still numb from flying. A little worried. (It stayed numb for about 24 hours after travel!)

I found the Toys R Us about 2 blocks from the hotel. I bought Rat Hot on sale for €4,98. Will stop by later to buy Risk Express if not cheaper at the Messe (it was...).

Took the U11 to the Messe and met Paul Allwood (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/pallwood) just outside. I met Paul at OrcCon earlier this year. I hung out with Paul pretty much the rest of the time after that (we found that "texting" each other was an effective means of communication). You need a "class A" ticket to get from the Hbf to Messe (€5 each or a "4er" for €7,40). It was most kind of him to share his umbrella, as it was pouring and cold. We tried to sneak in to the fair at several entrances to no avail (it was the day before the Show, after all).

We took the subway back to the Essen City Center and checked out some shops for a while. We parted ways and I grabbed a riesebrat on a comically small bun for dinner. Except I asked for a rEIsebrat instead--a "journey dog"! That will teach me to ignore my sister's advice to just point and say "darf ich?" ("May I?")

I got back to the hotel and had an apple for dessert.

Thursday October 18 (Spiel day 1)

Got a good 8 hours of sleep last night. I had breakfast in the hotel. Heavy on meat and cheese, low on fruit. God, these people love their pig--so many different ways they eat it! Several pretzels to choose from also. Weird near-white pineapples. Apparently, you do not tip the waitress either.

Left for the fair at 8:30 (it starts at 10).

Passed the ticket queues and got in and got a locker right away. Some bitch about the price: €1 every time you open it, but I kept it both days and it was invaluable! (I highly recommend this, as Paul and Rick Thornquist both encouraged them.) Glad to see that they even gouge you for bottled water in Germany: €3. Though she did ask me if I wanted a straw!

No one wore Hawaiian shirts like me. Well, maybe Tom Vasel, but I didn't see him if he we was there.

Paul and I had signed up for the English language demo of Agricola in advance. I didn't get in the game, but Paul played...for 3.25 hours! He was a little pissed; I don't think he liked the game all that much. Paul's more polite than me: I would have just excused myself after a couple rounds; he stayed for 13 rounds instead of offending the other players. The game may be worth checking out when (and if) the English cards are ever released. (Hey--the English cards were at the Show! But only for the demo, apparently--what a tease...)

Shortly after, we stopped at the Angelo Porazzi Games booth. I asked to buy BOL (Balls Of Light), and a warm Italian gentleman begged Paul and I to sit down and play a full game of it (all of 15 minutes). He already had his sale, but he genuinely loved playing the game with people. There was much laughter and silly rules voting. Figured out after a few minutes that we were playing with Angelo himself--great guy! I did pass on his LovePigs (Porcellini) game, but it seemed like it would be a good couples game.

I bought many, many games at the fair. I'll list them at the end.

Left the Messe at 7pm and had dinner with Jon Power (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/EYE+of+NiGHT) and Paul at DRAGO Restaurant. I had Schnitzel Fuhrmann, a Campari orange, a glass of Merlot, and apple strudel. Excellent food all for this local restaurant. Smoke-sensitive Americans beware not to eat there...or anywhere inside in Germany, apparently. Smoking is just a fact of life there. Yes, there was smoking at the show, and it went on in lots of places, but it just wasn't very smoky overall, due to the high ceilings.

No gamers at Arosa, went back to Paul's hotel, the Jung--it was packed. Played Tobynstein in the bar with the game's designer and his wife, plus Rik from Valley Games, Paul, and another guy from Ohio. Rik was a very talkative and amusing guy. I will take another look at some of the games at Valley Games are producing. He hinted that their ordering policies may be changing in the future!

I caught taxi back to the hotel about 12:15am (cab was €5,30 before tip). Didn't realize that the subway shuts down late at night. It was a full, but very good day. I went to bed about 1am.

Friday October 19 (Spiel day 2)

Woke up at 6 and got another €200 cash and breakfast at the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof--train station). Met Paul and used the luggage scale on his stuff--he mailed games back to England a few times!

Jon Power arranged private demos of Eketorp and Airships at the Queen booth for he, Paul and I. I liked both, but I'll probably wait on Eketorp for a little while. It seems like a very interesting game, but it runs everything with these simple card battles. Two opponent Vikings want to siege a third opponent's fort and must fight each other before the siege. Fight fight fight. I'll pick it up later, unless BGG users find more flaws. Giganten was similar to To Court the King, but different enough to warrant picking up.

Had a quick brat and Fanta for lunch. Man, why do I see Fanta around more than Coke--and sometimes bottled water--here? Speaking of bottled water...Americans, you'll probably want to ask for "still" water, not "table" or "sparkling" or another few names that refer to differing levels of carbonation. Don't be surprised if "still" isn't widely found.

Played a full game of Wadi. Fairly simple, short game, but the scoring seemed broken: I won and played pretty poorly. There are about 8-10 moves in the game, and I calculated that I got a third of my points on my last, very lucky move. Not my thing.

Stopped and had "spaghetti ice." It was a scoop or two of ice cream squeezed through a pasta press. They put that in a waffle cone with strawberry syrup and some white chocolate shreds, and it looks like a spaghetti dinner! I was wondering why the cone itself wasn't cold--I found out: the base was not filled with ice cream, but lukewarm, tangy custard! Yuck! Wacky Europeans...

Paul and I were taught how to play Perry Rhodan: Die Kosmische Hanse by a nice guy who had it set up at a table. Very interesting game and it's certainly worth looking into more. When I got back, I figured out that the teacher was its designer, Heinrich Glumpler!

I had a chance to rib both Valley Games guys about how Container and Mordred were at Essen but not even close to available for my US preorder. Container showed up late yesterday (and was showing on the Fairplay list when I left). Both guys are very nice--and they brought Miss Canada to work their booth!--but they would only go so far as to say the rest of the games are traveling across the Atlantic to the US. I believe I slipped a Container-related joke in there...

Of the designers I saw at the fair were Reiner Knizia, William Attia, Ted Alspach, Friedemann Friese, Wolfgang Kramer, Bruno Cathala, Dirk Henn, Uwe Rosenberg, the Lamont Brothers, Martin Wallace, Richard Breese, Jay Tummelson, Ludovic Maublanc, Bruno Faidutti, Günter Cornett, Heinrich Glumpler, and Frank Nestel. And probably many others I just didn't recognize.

Left the show at 5pm. Said bye to Paul. He was an excellent guide and helped my confidence in getting around. (Thanks again, Paul!) Did a little gift shopping in the Essen Galleria and then picked up local dinner: currywurst and pommes (fries). I got a glass of Cab at the hotel bar.

Stacked up my haul and it was taller than me! Packed 38 and 42 pound bags pretty tightly (see below). Probably had room for about three extra Carcassonne-sized bozes between the two bags. Went to bed at 11:30pm.

Saturday October 20 (travel day)

Woke up at 5am. Picked up an apfeltasche and a wurstcroissant for breakfast (yum!).

Checked out at 6:30. I took the train to Frankfurt, and checked in at the airport. By the time I got to the gate, I walked right on the plane. Another long, rough ride--again Ambien barely got me 2 hours of sleep. I'll definitely take Dramamine with me next time!

I wasn't looking forward to a 5-hour layover in Dallas before going back to Reno, but when we got to the Immigration line, I was glad--because it was huge! Probably no more than a 30-45 delay, but I know a lot of people missed their flights because they didn't plan for this.

There was an hour delay leaving Dallas, so by the time I got back home about 11pm, I had been traveling for 25 hours. My bags arrived just fine.

Post-mortem

I'm noticing that there must be several nuances to the German language that must take time to master. On at least a half dozen occasions, I ordered something in German and they just stare at me like I'm speaking Martian. It happened TWICE on the hotel elevator! I get on with another person and I ask for the fourth floor: "fear" I say or "fear bittah" (phonetics here to get across my pronunciation). They stare like I didn't even answer. Then I fumble with English and gesture until they say "Oh! Four, ja!"

Outside of this, I had no problems at all getting around or communicating. (I still don't understand the seating on ICE trains...) In Germany, English is as prevalent as Spanish is in California. Essen is very friendly and very safe. Sure, there a few crazies and some homeless, but I expected that.

Also, it must be a worldwide joke: when people ask where I'm from and I say "America," 4 times out of 5, they say, "I'm sorry..." A world full of wise asses!

I ended up spending nearly every penny of my $1000 (about €670, unfortunately). Didn't need the other €200 I took out of the ATM. I only used my credit card for the hotel. Everywhere else, I used cash.

Mind you, this was my first time, and maybe my last for a while, due to the bad time of year for my work. That's why I filled two suitcases with games. You may not need the same amount of cash that I took. Mind you, that $1000 did feed me and pay for show and subway tickets, in addition to the games. Please know that the Movenpick hotel is very expensive, and honestly, so was the plane and ICE train for travel. I suppose you could do it on the cheap somehow, but I'm a big planner.

The www.boardgamenews.com preview proved invaluable. For the months leading up to Essen, I stopped there every day, and it helped me keep track of (and highlight) games I was interested in. I tried very hard not to pick up anything that was going to be released in English soon (so no Race for the Galaxy, Amyitis, etc.) Yes, I am hitting myself now that I didn't buy Kingsburg, as it seems like it may be a while before a reprint...but it was €49 for a game I did not play first (€40 for non-English). I will keep my eyes peeled for this one. I won't be at BGG.CON to try it out, unfortunately.

I was there to buy games not play them; I think I racked up a total of three plays. In this way the trip was a success. I should very much like to go again, but it probably won't be next year. Next time, I'll probably try harder (sooner) to get a hotel closer to the Messe. The Moevenpick was great but also filthy expensive (damn worthless US dollar!).

My net haul (after mule games): Mykerinos: The Nile, BOL (Balls Of Light), Gondoliere, Expedition, Tonga Bonga, Top Race, Akaba, Cairo, Logistico, Caylus Premium Edition, Attila, Antler Island, Einfach Genial Knobelspass, Feurio!, Mr. Jack Extension, Pyramiden des Jaguar, Verflixxt hoch 2, Rat Hot, Mogul, Ca$h 'n Gun$ - les Yakuzas, Ca$h 'n Gun$ : Live, Airships, Animalia, Passe-trappe, Risk Express, League of Six, Galaxy Trucker, Medievalia


Before packing:


After packing:

Nice report. Loved to read it.
Some comments from a native.


Getting kicked out for sitting on reserved seats could have happened to me too. Usually VERY discret those "Reserviert" markings.

Bout the talking on a train: As you Noticed: ICE is quite expensive and therefore nearly only business and higher class travel.
If you go on a "normal" IC train, or maybe even a regional train (RB or RE) you'll be happy for every calm second.


Have seen this (or similar methods) to prevent guests from having light and air condition running all day, while not in the room all around the world. So not a german idea maybe


Waiters in germany DO have something you can call income without the tips already unlike US or Canada. Still you're not getting rich as a waitress.
Giving tips at a buffet (as usually hotel breakfasts are) is very uncommon in Germany. If you're served at the table you'd give 3-5% maybe more if really good.


In Germany on 1.1.2008 nationwide smoking-restrictions will come along.
In most places it won't be allowed anymore.
Some of the restaurants might have extra rules with smoking- and non-smoking rooms (not just areas, but seperate rooms).
I'm really looking foreward to this.


German isn't an easy language. But most of your problems might have occured out of the astonishement of a non-german native speaker actually trying to speak german.
In the elevator maybe you could try "vierter" [fear-tah] instead of vier like you'd say fourth (floor) instead of just four...
No working guarantee though

Don't worry if some things stuck you as strange...we Austrians also think Germans are strange in some aspects, and too serious-minded (at least in public).
And we're just a few hundred miles away.

PS: And my fellow friends from Germany, don't take me tooo seriously!

My attention was caught by the title of this thread. This was our third Essen and we go to Germany for 2 weeks each time to travel around first and then to end up at Essen. We travel by train so have seen a large part of northern and central Germany.
Now I might need to whisper this bit since I don't want to panic the Germans as they obviously have yet to notice - they've eaten all their pigs! We've yet to see a single live pig anywhere. I guess they ran out some years ago and no-one's publicised it for fear of a national panic. I guess they're just using up what they had stored but it will run out anytime now and who knows what they may do then! Pig rearing countries of the world look out!

My "trick" for the ICE train is to reserve seats at a table, then we can play games! It was very comfortable and pleasant.

Last time, we got "group" tickets for just 3 passengers and they were about half the normal price. We had to get them well in advance though to make sure they were delivered to us on time.

Regarding tipping, what I had been told before going was that basically you just "round up" to the nearest Euro and you hand the waiter/waitress the tip telling them that it is for them rather than leaving it on the table as I would in the United States.

The way reservations are shown on the ICE trains is that the reserved seats are marked with the town a passenger will board and the journey on which it will be taken. So if you leave the train before that passenger boards, you can use the seat. Or if you see a passenger leave the train and no reservation shows up in the (small) display above the seat after that, you can take that seat. I recommend taking reservations; it will cost you almost nothing extra. On the other hand: I once boarded a train after a change in Germany and was looking for my reserved seat, as it was announced that the reservation displays were out of order, so each traveller just took the seat he could get and found convenient!