Apr 28, 2013 - Off To Frankfurt

7.15 start today. Still raining, as it has done all night but not too heavy. Said farewell to Peter our Polish/Dutch cyclist who was going to push on today despite the weather. Steady drive across to Frankfurt Am Main, mostly motorway after first 20 miles. Ethel (our faithful, if not trusty sat/nav) didn't like Frankfurt so we moved on through and ended up about fifty miles to the north west in Lahnstein. We found a picturesque site on the banks of the river Lahn close to where it links into the mighty Rhine itself. Another long day of...

Apr 10, 2013 - Layover in Germany & then on to Accra, Ghana

Flight was pretty bumpy for a while there, but we made it and they actually got my gluten-free meal right (rare). YAY! I did have a rather new experience in that the woman behind me put her feet in the seat back pocket and managed to move my bottom seat cushion every time she wiggled her toes. After repeatedly giving her nasty looks with every fidget (I'd have thought that would be sufficient), I finally told her she was driving me crazy & she eventually stopped. Sheesh! Sean got a chance to see some of the Sultanahmet area in Istanbul,...

Mar 6, 2013 - Navy in Frankfurt, Germany - Max's traveling teddy

Hello Everyone, After some sunny weather in Mexico, I have found myself in the city of Frankfurt am Main, in the state of Hesse, Germany, where it is still Winter. Did you know that the element, Hassium, is named after the German state of Hesse? Like many North American cities, Frankfurt has lots of skyscrapers, but it also has some older more traditional-looking areas. I've got some photos of both. Can you see me in the night time photo of the Roemer square? The European Central Bank is here and there's a huge Euro symbol downtown (see the...

Jan 11, 2013 - Frankfurt.

Friday, 11 January. På den enda timma som jag vistades på Frankfurts flygplats, medan jag under min vandring, säkert 1 km långa vandring från ankomst-gaten till avgångs-gaten. Kl 22.00 var det dags för ”the big Jump”, nämligen den 10 timmar långa flygningen till Bangkok. Till min stora fasa, upptäckte jag att jag hade blivit placerad mitt i planet, dvs jag satt inklämd mellan folk på båda sidor om mig. Jag föredrar alltid att sitta vid en korridor.

Jan 8, 2013 - Arrival in Germany

I arrived in Germany on December 14. My friend and future travel partner Petra picked me up from the train station in Villingen (I took the ICE from Frankfurt Flughafen to Villingen)and delivered me to my home town in the Black Forrest. It had been snowing and everything had been converted to a Winter wonderland. They had a hard time keeping all the roads open, it had snowed so hard. The following day it started to rain and by Christmas most of the snow was gone. i am attaching a picture of myself with all my gear on, as I arrived in...

Jan 7, 2013 - Leaving Weikersheim

We had the luxury of a really good (and late) sleep this morning. Our room was below ground level and so was very quiet. By the time we rose our hosts were both at work and the kinder at their respective caregovers. We got ourselves sorted and started on the task of packing for our return to NZ, adding to our existing pile the items we had left in Weikersheim for safe keeping! We actually discovered that we had plenty of space and weight to cope, and we had ourselves well sorted in about an hour. We drove down to the local supermarket to...

Jan 6, 2013 - London - Frankfurt

We have no pictures to illustrate todays story. Today was all about re-positioning. We rose slightly earlier than our habit in London, got ourselves sorted, and checked out of the hotel. We walked (with bags) to Victoria Station and took District/Circle Line tubes to Paddington Station. We arrived just before one of the Heathrow Express trains departed, and so were comfortably at Terminal 1 about an hour after we started. Having checked in on Ron's iPhone the night before, we simply dropped our bag and went in search of the VAT (tax) rebate...

Dec 29, 2012 - Frankfurt

We woke at 5.10am, quickly got dressed and met the girls on the way to the lobby. Because the hotel shuttle service doesn’t start until 6.00am, we had ordered a taxi for 5.20am. In good German style, the taxi was on time and we were at the departures lounge of Terminal 1 soon after 5.30am. We’d had a call late last night from Evania’s family in the UK – they were concerned that they could find no record of Evania’s booked flight into Birmingham! When we checked in it became evident that the Lufthansa flight she had been booked on no longer...

Dec 20, 2012 - Willkommen in Deutschland! Or, "OK, now try to figure out the German train system after 13 hours on a plane with no sleep"

To be fair, German mass transit (including signage, roads, trains, train stations, and ticketing agents) is fabulous. EVERYTHING is labeled, mapped, synched and on time. The ticketing agent we eventually found took one look at us and booked us on the correct train very slowly and politely in English. Looking back, I wish I could have appreciated the simplicity, as many of our other transfers in much smaller cities were considerably more miserable. However, after barely sleeping on Walter's first trans-continental flight -- he handled it...

Dec 19, 2012 - Countdown to Europe

Walter and I (mostly I) counted down to our Europe trip for months. I planned everything from destination cities and hotels, to train transfers and opening hours for the major sites. This process took a LOT of my time during my fall 2012 evenings and weekends, but it was worth it to save some money and pack in the most we could over the 17 days we planned to spend in central Europe. For us, this trip was the honeymoon we should have had (rather than the somewhat disastrous Mexico excursion of 2005). This was my 2nd trip to Europe, and...

Dec 16, 2012 - We made it to Frankfurt

Sunday 16 December Arrived in Frankfurt after 24 hours of flying and approx 10 hours in airports. No snow here but we did fly over lots of snow on the way. The Hilton Hotel was fine and the Frankfurt Christmas markets were a short walk away. What a wonderful sight. Stalls all set up with their Christmas decorations and lights making for a magical experience. Lots of Gluhwein aromas as well as the usual varieties of German sausages. Met a nice couple from NZ at dinner tonight. Tomorrow we are off to our favourite medieval city of Rothenburg.

Oct 30, 2012 - Getting Home

30 October Getting Home—A Process Two days before the safari ended, ADS called to get our info so they could confirm our departure airline reservations. Lo and behold, we found that on September 15 Precision Air had canceled our 8 a.m. flight out of Kilimanjaro Airport to Johannesburg and rebooked us for a 6 a.m. flight out. It was bad enough that we had to get up at 5 a.m. for the 8:00, now we were looking at a 2:30 a.m. wake-up call. So with that knowledge absorbed we continued with the safari. Back at Arusha and the Mt. Meru hotel the...