Preparation (or lack thereof)

I read all of the reports on Club Hombre and checked out all the FKK notes in the topics section. The European section is a little sparse on this board; you can go a full week before a new thread appears in the chat section. But what information is here is good and I read and digested everything. One of the common themes was the degree of difficulty in which it is to find these clubs. For the most part, the clubs are in the countryside and renting a car was basically a must. One of the reports mentioned how easy it was to find all of these places if you just rented a car with a navigational system. I had the same thought even before this report appeared. I’ve rented cars from Hertz in the states with their “Neverlost” system and found it to be outstanding. I always knew where I was going and about how long it would take me to get there. So I really didn’t bother printing out maps like you can on www.map24.com which is a German map site far superior to Mapquest IMHO. I figured that armed with the addresses and a navigational system, I would make great time seeing as my flight was going to arrive at 9:30am on Friday. I was actually worried that I might have to wait outside until the first club opened at 11:00am. Boy, how stupid I was in retrospect!

I made a double reservation, at Avis (my first choice and I’m a Preferred Select customer) and at Hertz. I was a little leery about the navigational system that Avis would provide, because they just recently started to offer that in the states and in Dallas and Florida only.

For the hotel, again I made what turned out to be a monumental mistake (I think). Being a total frequent flyer mile whore, I booked two nights at a hotel recommended in the Frankfurt area on the Continental.com website. The rate was a reasonable 45 Euros per night.

I packed my medium Coach Cabin bag with 3 fresh sets of clothes and undergarments and my toiletries. I was after all, only staying two nights. And I wouldn’t be wearing anything but a towel for most of my stay in Germany.

I also downloaded and printed every FKK report from Club Hombre as well as the home pages for the three clubs I hoped to hit: Atlantis, Oase and World. This would turn out to be my saving grace.

So with this very light preparation, Thursday October 30 came soon enough and I was on my way.