The Journey Home

On Monday we got to the Frankfurt Airport in plenty of time for our flight.  The Lufthansa flight was on an A380.  It's a huge plane.  We were sitting in the lower level where the economy seats were, in the middle section in the row behind the bulkhead seats.  Per Seat Guru, in the middle section, the two seats on the left don't have entertainment boxes under the seat taking up foot space.  Wrong.  Jim's seat had an entertainment box.  I offered to switch, but he said no.  What was even more annoying than that was in the bulkhead seats directly in front of us there were two infants.  Yes, two babies.  If one wasn't crying, the other one was.  Or they were both crying at once.  There were only very brief periods with no crying.  For 11+ hours.  It seemed like much longer.  Ugh!  We had never flown on Lufthansa before, and the itinerary indicated that there was 'no meal.'  It was quite the opposite.  The food just kept coming.  A snack, then lunch, another snack, then dinner.  And the drinks.  They kept coming by with soft drinks, water, wine beer, etc.  I had a couple of glasses of wine, to numb the pain of hearing the crying babies.  It wasn't enough.

Our flight took off a little late, so of course we arrived in San Francisco late.  Monte was there waiting for us.

Thanks for the ride Monte!!

It was good to get home.  I thought Riley was going to have a heart attack, he was so excited to see us!  Sleeping in our own bed was heaven.  When I woke up the next morning I found an email from Barbara.  Lufthansa was on strike Tuesday.  We got out just in time!

To summarize our trip:

We had a great time, even with the challenges and hiccups.  We enjoyed the time we spent with Nigel & Carol, Norm & Georgia, Sarah & Dave, Darcy & Pam, Phillipe & Anita, Jo and last but not least, Barbara, Danielle, Sascha & Dagmar.  As much as we enjoyed spending time with others, we equally enjoyed the time we spent on our own.  Jim is my favorite travel partner.

I enjoyed all of our destinations, cities and small towns.  Some places I would like to return to in order to explore the area in more depth.  It doesn't matter how long the trip is, it's never enough time to see everything.  I hope there will be more trips in our future. 

Frankfurt

Sunday morning...one last breakfast with Barbara and Danielle.  Then they took us to pick up our rental car.  It's the best one of the trip, a new VW Golf.  We had an uneventful 3 1/2 hour drive to Frankfurt.  The only negative part of the drive was our stop at a rest area.  The bathrooms were disgusting!  We made it to the train station.  Then the fun began.  The signs for the rental car area were almost non-existent.  Apparently there was a car parked blocking the driveway, as it wasn't visible.  It took €3, two trips into the station and a lot of aggravation to get rid of the car.  An hour after spotting the train station we made it to our hotel.  It's a 5 minute walk from the station.

Jo was waiting for us there.  After checking in and dropping our things in the room we took off for a walk around Frankfurt.  Jo and her husband own a company, Frankfurt By Foot, that leads walking tours and other types of tours.  She spent 6 hours showing us around Frankfurt, only stopping for a traditional German dinner.  Jim and I both had schnitzel Frankfurt style with a green sauce.  It was very good.  There is a halocaust memorial, including walls with little plaques bearing the names of the 12,000 Jews from Frankfurt who were sent to concentration camps.  Included in those were Anne Frank, her mother and her sister.  They were from Frankfurt.

  At 9:00 p.m. we made it back to the hotel.  We were exhausted.  But we still had to shuffle things around in our bags.  We are checking the big ones tomorrow.

I'm Not Ready Yet!!!

I can't believe it's our last day in Hannover.  This trip really has gone too quickly, and we haven't spent nearly enough time with the family.  Of course they may feel differently.  😊

Barbara got very little sleep last night and she had to take Sascha to the airport early.  She needed to rest. So after breakfast Jim, Danielle and I walked downtown.  First stop, the train station.  Only 1/3 of the trains are running.  The odds were against us, so we had the cost of our tickets to Frankfurt refunded and we will drive.  I'm sure many other people will have to do the same thing tomorrow, and the roads are sure to be crowded.

We then strolled around the old section of Hannover.  There are some really nice old buildings.  We stumbled across a flea market, then stopped for tea at Danielle's favorite tea house.  We walked backed to Barbara's for a rest. 

We were meeting Dagmar for dinner, but we got to the area early for a walk.  It is quite pretty in Hannover with some wonderful outdoor areas. This is a large lake area that Hitler forced people to dig out from some swampland -

We had a fantastic dinner together at an Italian restaurant that looked out to the lake area.  We all returned to Barbara's after dinner for a fun evening full of laughter.  I'm really going to miss this.

I've Been On Vacation Too Long!

I don't know how to edit my entries and apparently I don't know what day of the week it is either.  The "Hannover" entry was for Friday, not Saturday!!

Hannover

Cousin Sascha will be arriving from Cologne Saturday at a yet unknown time, so we couldn't venture too far.  But first, we had to take care of some business.  The trains are going on strike.  Again.  It won't end until early Monday morning, so our train tickets to Frankfurt on Sunday are worthless.  I had to rent a car and we will drive to Frankfurt instead.  Our outing mainly consisted of going to the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen.  It is internationally famous and is the largest baroque garden in Germany.  It is very reminiscent of the gardens at Versailles.  Even though it is Fall here and most of the color is gone from the gardens, they are still beautiful.

We have all had very late nights, so we went back to Barbara's to rest, prepare dinner, and wait for Sascha to arrive.  Around 9:00 p.m. Barbara and I headed to the train station to pick her up.  I wanted to have as much time with her as possible since it will be the only night I see her. She leaves early in the morning to fly to Rome.  After we returned to Barbara's we talked about many things, including a family reunion in Yosemite next summer.  Let the planning begin!!

Sascha drove us back to Dagmar's.  We stayed up talking to her.  Yep, another late night!  Tomorrow is our last day in Hannover.  The time has passed far too quickly.

Germany - Family Time

On Wednesday morning we caught the 8:00 a.m. train bound for Cologne.  We had to change there for a train to Hannover.  We weren't sure what would happen once we got to Cologne, as the train strike was to start at 2:00 p.m., and we would be on the train to Hannover at that time.  The time passed quickly on the first train.  In Cologne I was hoping to get a quick glimpse of the huge cathedral, located just outside of the station.  Our train arrived at platform 3, and the train to Hannover was to depart on platform 2.  Those platforms share the same space.  Perfect!  Jim offered to stay with our bags so I could run outside. Wow!!  The cathedral is enormous!  I took some photos, but the sun was in the wrong place and they didn't turn out well.  When I retuned to the platform Jim was talking to a man who had asked him for help. On this trip we have been asked for directions a number of times.  Hmmm...maybe we don't look too much like tourists after all!  Our train arrived and we got on.  The sign on the platform said the next train to use the track was cancelled because of the strike.  Departure time came and went.  We weren't moving.  I got a bit nervous, but finally we were on our way.  As it got closer to 2:00 our train stayed for what seemed like a long time at one of the stops.  Was this the end of the line for us? Barbara and I began texting with each other, trying to come up with a plan for her to pick us up.  I asked the person who was selling coffee about the strike, and were we going to make it to Hannover.  She seemed shocked that I would ask, but then assured me all was okay, for Hannover.  We arrived late, but we arrived!  I'm not sure if the train ever made it to Berlin.

Barbara and Danielle met us at the train station.  It was so good to see them.  I last saw Barbara in 2010 when she and Sascha came to Bavaria to see us, and I last saw Danielle in 2009 when she came to visit us.  We went to Barbara's house for a bit, then she took us to her sister, Dagmar's, house to drop off our luggage.  I was a bit nervous.  Would we be able to communicate with her?  Yes!  She speaks English fairly well.  I was unsure since my Uncle Jack told me that his former sister-in-law didn't speak a word of English.   She was very welcoming, showing us our room, where our towels were, etc.  We returned to Barbara's, having dinner and then talking until after midnight.  She took us back to Dagmar's, where we chatted with her for awhile, then got a good nights sleep.

Thursday came, and we didn't know exactly what was happening.  Would Sascha arrive from Cologne?  When?  As it turned out that if she was coming it would be later, so after breakfast we discussed what to do.  I said I was interested in going to Bergen-Belson Concentration Camp.  It's fairly nearby.  We decided to combine that with a stop in Celle.

On the way to Bergen-Belson we saw something very interesting.  There were motorhomes parked along the side of the road from time to time.  Barbara explained that they were prostitutes waiting for business.  There was a woman sitting in the front passenger seat in each one, and there were lights.  I guess to signal whether they were open for business or if they were already occupied.

We arrived at Bergen-Belson and it began to rain.  It seemed fitting.  They had an interesting and informative exhibit, along with testimonial videos from people who had been there and survived (obviously), or had lived near there, during the time the camp was in operation.  They didn't have gas chambers or ovens there, but many people died due to the starvation, disease and mistreatment.  Among those that does were Jews, Russians, Polish, and even people who were deemed to be "work shirkers."  After viewing the exhibit, we went outside to walk on the grounds.  The rain became heavier.  And we could hear loud booms of guns.  Or probably cannons actually.  There must have been a military base close by.  It was a bit frightening because it seemed so close.  

Anne Frank and her sister Margot died at this camp..I have been to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam twice.  It was very moving to have been where she once lived, hiding from the Nazi's and eventually being caught, then being where she had died.  

We decided it was time to leave, and headed for Celle.  What a cute old town.  It would have been nice to spend more time there.

We went back to Barbara's, and had another very late night talking about all kinds of things.  Danielle and I are hatching a plan for a family reunion next year.  I hope it works out!  We got back to Dagmar's after midnight, then chatted with her for awhile.  I really like her.  Tomorrow Sascha arrives!

Last Day In Paris

We leave Paris early tomorrow morning.  Sniff, sniff... I hate to go, because I do love this city.  Even though there are frustrations dealing with big city issues, there is just something about this place that keeps me wanting to come back for more.

This morning we walked over to the Grand Mosque in the 5th Arrondisment.  It was built after WWI and during WWII they hid Jews and helped them escape the Nazi's.  I've never been in a mosque before and I found it very interesting.  Not knowing the customs we were a bit intimidated.  We didn't want to offend anyone.

We then walked a couple of blocks to the old roman arena.  It's very close to the apartment we rented on Rue des Boulangers.  We tried to see it on that trip, but it was winter and it was locked up.

We had to walk past our old street to get to our next stop.  I loved that apartment.  We would be staying there on this trip, except the price went up so high we can no longer afford it.

Our next stop was the Army Museum and Napolean's Tomb (Musée de l'Armee).  The Hôtel des Invalides is a former veterans' hospital and an army museum.  It also houses Napolean's very ornate tomb.

After we finished there we had one more important task.  We had a little shopping to do.  We are taking some macarons to Germany.  I hope the family likes them!!

But first, one last look at the Eiffel Tower.

It was time to call it a day.  We are all walked out.  We will be happy for the long train ride tomorrow.  But first we have to get our things together to go.  I spoke to my aunt Barbara and we arranged how she would pick us up from the train station in Hannover.  She said her sister has more room at her place, so we will be staying there.  Dagmar doesn't speak English.  Yikes.  Then she called me back to tell me that there may be a train strike tomorrow.  If it happens, the trains will stop at whatever the closest station is after 2:00.  Our train is supposed to arrive at 2:28.  She told me not to worry.  If we get stuck at a station she will pick us up there.  Fingers crossed the strike doesn't happen.