Okay so the trip story. I got to Frankfurt no problem. Although I had been getting no sleep the few days beforehand so by the time I got there I was almost fell asleep where I was sitting, Mandi then told me to go to bed. I am sure that was fun for Mandi! First of we had a calm day just walking around the village where she lives.
The view from her upstairs window. The weather was beautiful while I was there! Plus it was just becoming autumn and the tree's were just beautiful!
'Knowing I'm on the Street Where You Live'. Sorry burst into song for a moment! This is the street where Mandi lives. Don't you just love European neighborhoods?!?
A little closer to downtown. I love these houses. They are so cute!
Cute little waterwheel!
This cute little guy was following us around! Here he is eating some lunch, I think some of it got in his mouth!
The next day we went into Frankfurt to have lunch with Arnold and a few of his co-workers. I had my first German Beer, which was yummy! Then after lunch we wandered around Frankfurt for a little while catching some of the sights. We went into a few churches and the Frankfurt History Museum that had the weirdest exhibit ever. Downstairs it was a special exhibit to 1960's culture! Really not something I am all that interested in seeing while in Frankfurt, unless the year happened to be 2060! But the upstairs was kind of cool. They had these old church paintings as well as some stonework carvings that might have come from a church wall.
Opera House, Frankfurt
This is my favorite pictures of Mandi and Sam. Candid shots are always the best!
Outside Leonardo's Church in Frankfurt.
Me by a pretty fountain! I noticed there were a lot of fountains, I don't really know why!
Some cute little birdies I saw when we went to lunch in Frankfurt.
This is downtown Frankfurt, the financial district! Arnold works in one of the these buildings!
One night we left Sam with a babysitter and went out to an Authentic Frankfurt restaurant. Mandi was adorable, I didn't know if she would make it the whole night without calling home!! It was really cute! The food was excellent and they had this apple wine that tasted better with the second glass ;-).
The thing I noticed that was kind of weird about German restaurants though is that there is not really a hostess. You just kind of go in and sit down where you want, and sometimes you even share your table with other people. I just found that kind of odd.
That night Eddie, a co-worker of Arnold's, took me out to see the nightlife of Frankfurt. Pretty much like the nightlife of the US but a lot more walking involved.
The next morning, Arnold, Mandi, Eddie, and I took the train to Mainz.
Mandi and I thought this was terribly funny picture. Firstly Sam laying across Arnold's shoulders while he was holding on to an arm and a leg. Then also the fact that Eddie was the one pushing the stroller, while Mandi and I stood back and watched. Probably something that only Mandi and I would find amusing but that is why we are best buds.
In Mainz we went to see the Guttenberg Museum, I would defiantly recommend to anyone traveling to the Frankfurt area. I was so excited to see a book from 1410!!! Plus seeing the old style of Bible right next to a Guttenberg bible it was really cool to see the differences. They also had a printing demonstration. It was in German so Eddie translated for me.
While in Mainz we also saw the Dom Cathedral (the single most beautiful church I have ever seen). Unfortunately you could not take pictures inside so here are some exteriors.
After a bit of a rest on Sunday we were going to go to Kassel on Monday to see the Grimm Brother's museum, however, we missed the connecting train and decided to go into Hanau (which is closer and where the Grimm's were born) and see the statue and wander for a bit.
The Grimm Brother's Statue, Hanau. I did also notice while I was there that scarves are immensely popular! Plus you would be surprised how warm a scarf can keep you!
When traveling back to the train station we must have been on a flight path because there were a ton of plains overhead. We spend about 10 minutes trying to get a picture of Sam pointing to them. Sorry it is on it's side but this is the best, I think!
That night we bought our tickets to Kassel online and headed off the next morning.
I saw this store and could not stop laughing. Then I felt really bad because as I was standing there mocking it some people went inside!!! Oh well! I think it was just that funny because it was in a little town in Germany!
After a few little detours we found the Grimm Brothers Museum. Inside was cool, it had some rooms set up that were decorated in the style of the stories as well as the complete history of the Grimm's (I didn't know that they got so involved politically). While looking around the gift shop Sam made a mad dash to the door not knowing that there was a glass door blocking the way and ran straight into it, he was okay. They about 5 minutes later he goes and tries to do it again, that time I caught him! Still it kept me and Mandi giggling for a little while.
After the museum we wandered for a while. Pretty much just took the long route back to the train station. We saw a few cool things. It was really weird because it was very evident that the city had been bombed. There was one thing that I wish I would have taken a picture of of an old building CONNECTED to a modern one! It was a very strange sight.
This is Germany's first permanent theater.
According to the guidebook this is the second oldest museum in the world, next to the British Museum!
This was just a building I though was pretty! Reminded me a lot of Notre Dame in Paris just a much smaller scale!
While walking back we also saw this really pretty tower that looked like it might be a church. It was also surrounded by a very old cemetery. The interesting thing was that when you got up to it. There was only this one tower remaining! It looked like the interior had been turned into a restaurant. It was just interesting that the rest of the building was gone but this one tower remained.
The last day there we just hung around the house. Mandi was very tired and rightfully so. We just went to the store so I could buy some German chocolate and i packed. It was kind of good having a mellow day because the weather was not very happy. If we had gone out it probably would have started raining on us.
The next morning I left for home, :-(. I got to the airport and on the plane with no problems. The beginning of the flight was fairly uneventful. I did find it funny that I was sitting next to a woman only spoke German!!! Needless to say there was not a lot of chit-chat between us! We had just passed Ireland when the pilot come over the intercom saying that we had to head back to Dublin!!! Apparently there was a 4 month old baby on the flight that was traveling to Dallas to have a heart transplant or just an operation (no one was really positive). But the baby was not getting enough oxygen so we had to turn around and make an emergency landing. Pretty much long story short I spent about 15 hours in the plane (4.5 hours longer that I should have)! The good news is that I finished the novel that I started reading on the flight there! Plus you really can't be mad when it is a baby that is suffocating!
So that was my trip. I hope you enjoyed my retelling. Thank for putting up with me Mandi. Love you and miss you!
;-)
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