The Best of Europe Day 2
The Best of Europe
Day 2 Sunday September 7, 2003 – Frankfurt, Germany
We arrived about 45 minutes early (6:45 AM), a fairly easy 8 hour flight from Dallas to Germany. As Germany is 8 hours ahead of Colorado time, we never felt fatigue setting in.
We went through Passport Control very easily; he looked at our passport and waved us through - not even stamping it. Then we waited a bit for our luggage, they were one of the last off the plane, then walked right through customs with just a nod of the head.
Once into the airport proper, we had to walk to the “meeting place” in Terminal 2 where the Trafalgar representative would meet us at 9 AM. We waited with all of our other members and many others who arrived on other flights for not only Trafalgar but also Brendan, Globus and Cosmos.
Otmar arrived about 9 and told us that he will be our guide. He is very soft spoken and about 60 years old. Our bus driver will be Jurgen and he will join us tomorrow.
Sunday is a day of rest in Frankfurt. Laundries, shopping malls, etc are closed as we saw when we drove into Offenbach, just outside of Frankfurt.
After picking up all the people that came in on early flights, we left for the Park Plaza Offenbach Hotel at 10:15. We arrived at 10:30, got our card key and went to our nice room.
The hotel is a converted slaughter house and the architecture is very distinctive. Our room faces out and very close by is a chicken farm, so the roosters are crowing. Interesting.
The weather is very overcast and cool. When we landed it was quite foggy. We waited a while and then went down and got our own luggage so we could take a shower and rest a bit.
I went out and stopped to chat with George McCone who told me about the computer. So I went to the front desk and got permission to use the computer. I checked e-mail and the CU-UCLA game and the CSU-California games - both wins for Colorado.
I went outside and took pictures of the architecture of the slaughter house and walked around the neighborhood. This was a very peaceful area. I returned to the room when the Trafalgar bus arrived with the 12:30 group.
I knew that I could not stay in the room or I would go to sleep. I walked around, talked to other tour members and then at 3 PM took an orientation tour of Frankfurt's city centre (Frankfurt a Main) and medieval Römerberg where our tour guide let us wander around on our own, seeing the buildings, (lots of reconstruction) and the River Main and its tours and barges.
Frankfurt is one of the main economic and cultural centers of Europe. It is now home to the financial headquarters of the European Union. We shared a huge pretzel from one of the vendors, but passed on the Hagen Dazs ice cream, can you believe it?
At 5:15 we got back on the bus and then returned to the hotel to get ready for the welcome drink and our dinner.
We met in the front where we got our name tags, our passport sheets and luggage tags We talked for a little bit and then went to the dining room where we got a drink. Wine, beer or a soda.
Then we sat down to dinner, cucumber consommé soup, bread, pork medallions, rice and vegetables and jellied fruit with cream for dessert. By 8:45 we were back in our room finishing the journal and then getting ready for a night’s sleep.
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