The halfway point - Returning to Frankfurt

Monday 2 July 2012  - Half way through our travels and on the way to Frankfurt

Day 80 and 79 to go

It is hard to believe that today marks the down hill slope of our trip with half of our adventure now behind us and so much completed in that time. Now we have a month in Europe galavanting around in another camper van but first on to Frankfurt.

We were awake by 8.15 and up and organised soon after. We wandered down to the breakfast room for a quick bite before returning to the room for the last minute pack and clean up. With our bags sorted we checked out of the hotel and again dragged them behind us over the brick paths to the nearest tram stop on Rokin.

When we finally had a tram going to Central station stop for us we heaved the bags aboard and crammed in with other tourists. The trip was only short but we were thrown around in our travels! When we reached the station we continued to drag the bags behind us, locating a ticket machine and then making it to the platform where we jumped on a waiting train and travelled 20min to Schipol airport.

We wandered through to the terminal, passing a relief teacher from school! Small world. We made it to departures and then checked in having to process our own boarding passes then join the bag drop line. With our bags processed we made our way through passport control and x-ray with Paul getting the full pat down again.  We changed some money to Euros and then made the 10 min journey to our boarding gate where we sat and waited half an hour. 

 

I checked my email and Facebook while we waited. Our plane arrived and the passengers disembarked. We saw our pilot board, not Marcello. Bummer. We boarded the flight at midday having to put our cabin baggage in the hold for some reason. As we made our way on board we discovered we weren’t sitting together, but behind each other. As the other passengers boarded we were able to negotiate for Paul to swap seats so he was sitting next to me.  

The flight was slightly delayed due to passengers not turning up and their bags had to be removed.

With that sorted we were taxiing to our run way and shortly after we up and away in our KLM Fokker plane. I read my book while Paul read his bike mag. We were given a drink and small snack to consume during the 50 min flight. The flying time went by very quickly and before we realised we were landing again at Frankfurt airport and taking a long taxi ride to our final stop where we disembarked and boarded a shuttle bus to the terminal. 

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With our bags collected we followed the train signs out of terminal 2 and onto a shuttle bus to terminal 1 10 min away. We located the train station, bought our tickets and with a little direction found the platform for the train heading to Frankfurt.

The train to the central station took 10min and at 2.45pm we were wandering through the station looking for our hotel that we found thanks to the signage inside the station. We checked in and went straight to our room where we helped ourselves to the free minibar. Yes just what any traveller wants free drinks and yes that was beer as well as soft drink, juice and water.

With our drinks downed we went for a wander, first returning to the train station where we stopped for an Asian stir-fry lunch. We then located a tourist info point and collected a map of the area before wandering down the main street.

Frankfurt is known as a banking hub with many glass and steel skyscrapers. Much of the city was blown away during WW2 and only a few original buildings remain. The city was busy with shoppers and we spent much time dodging the hordes. After making it to the shopping hub and admiring the building with the giant hole we took one of the alleys and ended up in the old quarter with quaint old buildings that were just so different to the large and sleek buildings we had just passed.

 

We sat in the square for a bit just taking it all in before we continued to the River Main. Where we walked along the waterfront.

The weather was mild, perfect for walking. It even felt like it could rain though it didn’t. We continued our walk admiring the buildings, park and water. We stopped for another rest and then we returned to the hotel at 5.20pm.

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We turned on the TV and I got on to the computer to load up pictures while Paul had a sleep.we were feeling very lazy and could have stayed put, but felt guilty so at 8.30pm we dragged ourselves out and went for a wander around the block. We passed another O'Reillys Irish Pub (Gee this O'Reilly got around!) and came back to it after we completed our walk. We had a drink and shared a club sandwich. The bar man was an Aussie too.
We finished our dinner and then returned to the hotel where we watched a little TV and I read my book before we turned out the lights.