After a resoundingly fine and dandy snooze, I awoke on the Thursday morning of July 29th around 9.30.  Being fitness conscious and believing my body to be an Temple (complete with full bar and smoking section, open 24 hrs) I began my day as normal.  That is to say I "worked out", or rather I watched a video of some other people sweating and stretching while I had me a cold coke and a smouldering Ernte23.  After 5 minutes I was done, and was so pooped I used the remote rather than walk the 1.6 metres to the tv set.

Breakfast was on my mind.
Off to the buffet, which began at 6.30am and ran until 1.30pm.  I miss those breakfasts!  I began with the usual 12 meats appetizer and of course a fresh croissant, some apricot marmalade (grown on marmalade trees on the hotel grounds) and called upon Mimosa Boy to keep my glass topped up.  The sun shone again in the sky for the fifth straight day.

Later, just in time for lunch at 10.30 we were joined by Carol, and we could not let her eat alone, so we loaded up our plates.  I had 12 different meats, some of them swimming in gravy, cheese or tomato sauce.

I put on eight pounds in the week or so I was there, mainly in the form of dead animals and beer.

As we were relaxing and pondering our next meal, myself knowing full well from the drive down from Frankfurt that there were still many uneaten animals in Germany and so there was no need to worry about the meat supply, an attractive lady sidled up to our table and asked if we needed a ticket for tonight's Meistersinger?

We didn't.......but.......  We had friends near Frankfurt who might be interested!  Phone calls were made.  There was only four hours until the curtain rose, but nonetheless the answer was a resounding "Ja!" and a man named Eugene put pedal to metal.

While the others went for a walk downtown, I took my sweet time preparing for Die Meistersinger.  What a luxury it was to be unhurried in dressing.  Now and then I would walk to the window just to make sure the Festspielhaus was still there.  I was also thinking about a day off from attending the opera, churlish as it may seem, having longed to be there:  it was almost too intense!  Normally I go for months or even a year between Wagner operas.  Now they were lined up day after day and there was little time to sit and reflect.

I was looking forward to Meistersinger and how could I not be?

The blue ticket was there on the dresser one moment and in my wallet the next.

Although the hotel was thoughtful enough to put out finger sandwiches and champagne each afternoon before the off, I passed them by as I was now in "Action Mode".  Once inside the car, a comfy Mercedes sedan, it was just a matter of minutes driving along leafy streets and up the Green Hill to the parking lot which was free.  Today as before, we had a table booked at the restaurant and sat outdoors sipping coffee.  We were expecting a visitor who was driving from Frankfurt and were holding a ticket for him.

Time ticked away.  The trumpets and trombones came out to the balcony to play the opening theme to Die Meistersinger and it was soon time to go in.

Among the crowd I spotted Eugene, who is from Ohio but has lived in Germany for more than half his life.  He had been held up by traffic but was here, breathless.  We had no time for idle banter.  We pointed him to a door and off he went to his first Bayreuth performance.

I took a deep breath and girded up my loins for Act I.