Lost in Frankfurt

Ok...I know I'm going to get this sleeping thing down before I leave! I went to bed at 11:30 pm and was wide-awake at 3:30 am - not to fall back to sleep until 5 am or so. Actually, I made use of the time and posted yesterdays blog.

Finally got up at 9:00 am with big plans however, we didn't get started until 12:00 noon due to getting up later and moving hotels. Oh yea, we switched hotels and moved into the Westin downtown this morning. Gosh, this is much more like what we're used to. A larger room with HEAVENLY beds!!! I'm truly appreciative that I got to experience the others but I'm ready for something a little more normal now.

Our plans included taking the ICE train over to Cologne (1 1/2 hour train ride that that travels around 200 mph). Because we got such a late start and Valerie had a business call starting at 6:00 pm, we felt like we didn't had enough time so we went 'splorin' on our own, just walking around the city of Frankfurt. We did ok at first...we found this great open-air market - kind of like a Farmers Market - full of people. I'm assuming this was their lunchtime and that's why there were so many people in the middle of the week. Anyhow, you could buy all kinds of things there; raw meat you would take home and cook, lunch, a glass or wine or even Champaign, fresh flowers, or a pretzel from the bratwurst man (see his contraption that holds his food AND his umbrella).

Loved the flowers!

Open-Air market

After wandering around for a while we decided to head over and see the Opera House. We found this with no problem however; it certainly wasn't what we expected. By the way...check out the wedding dresses in this storefront window we passed. Looks like I'll be buying my wedding dress in the States!

Opera House

Ok...got that part down! Now, we're on to see the old Frankfurt buildings...we have a map, we should be fine... right? Wrong! However, as we casually wander down the street, we come across the cutest little cactus I had to share it with you. So we finally come to the conclusion that we missed the street we were supposed to turn on because we're just chatting away. No problem, we'll turn at the street our hotel is on and take a new way. This wasn't a bad idea because see the building and church we came across. Here's where it gets tricky. We get down into this really yuppie cool part of town and totally started window-shopping - no more chatting this because this is getting serious now - only kidding! Anyhow, the streets start twisting and turning and we can't find our place on the map...AND it starts to rain. No problem...remember, Valerie has the umbrellas...we're in good shape. We don't really worry about it because we're pretty confident we'll find our way back to the hotel and it's actually really nice window shopping in the rain. Lot's of great things to see. Don't want to miss anything. In fact, here is pretty hip little bakery we come across.

Next is the funny part! As we're walking down the street, next to pretty major road...Valerie gets SPLASHED by a car...and I don't mean a little splash...it was a nice sized splash. In fact, I get some of the splash too but not like she does. Oh my gosh...I was practically rolling on the ground laughing. Trust me..she didn't think it was nearly as funny as I did BUT she did admit that if I got the splash...she would have thought it was just as humorous! Oh well, life goes on..with wet or dry jeans!

It's a good thing Valerie had written down the address of the hotel because if they couldn't speak it or even know of the Westin..at least they knew where the street was. So, we found some Police officers on traffic duty and they knew where the street was and as it turned out...we were about one block away.

What a great afternoon of fun and excitment it was!!!

Tomorrow, we plan to get up early and go to Cologne. We have no plans there..we're just going to walk out to the train station and see where our feet take us. What a great way to go 'splorin'!

Until tomorrow.