Montecarlo Hotel Frankfurt

Again it seems to be an escape from the inevitable. But somehow I actually think it's way more than that.<br><br>Why do I think that? I'm sure you are wondering what special thing happened at the end of my last entry in the first world trip ...

It was sooooo cold in Frankfurt, we didn't want to spend much time here since we had no winter clothing. WE got in late, went to our hotel, then back to the airport to get our flight to Bangkok moved up. We though it would be at 8 that night, but they managed to get us on the next flight out, which was pretty much within the hour. Woohooo! I also kept speaking Italian in Germany... so confused with all the languages.

... plane. It was such a relief to be in my seat 4A with my carry-on carefully stowed and the flight attendant being somewhat attentive to my needs. The folks who were fortunate enough to board before me were finishing their glass of champagne and starting their first glass of white wine. Mind you, it is only 11:15 in the morning! Just water for me, please. I ate, I slept and I arrived in Hyderabad India some 10 hours later at about 1:30 am.

... of Sulzbach, which was about twenty minutes outside of Frankfurt. We had a great dinner of warm, German soups and Jagerschnitzel at a local restaurant called Die Linde, and when you have dinner in the state of Hesse in early October, that means one thing &#8211; Apfelwein. Apple wine is a local specialty. It is served pure and cut with either sparkling water or Sprite, and the apfelwein we drank at Die Linde was actually made by a family friend of ...

... had a few hours before my next train ride, so I thought I would head out and have a look at Frankfurt. I managed to miss the lockers (right by the main entrance to the train terminal) and had to lug my backpack around with me. Either I forgot or had the blinders on when I was here in 2006 but there are a lot of sex shops and strip bars within just a few steps of the train station. They even have a Sex Hotel! Ha ha ha, I just had to get a picture of that as proof ...

... in advance... "Why is Elliot in Germany?" Hmmmmm. "oh well. lets go do some more market haggling" We did some more shopping and wisely bought a few more items that we new we could only buy in Thailand, then gave away some of our cloths to beggars as we had just bought new ones. We bought a bus ticket for the airport still a little puzzled by the fact that Elliot says he is in Germany. The girls had a Thai massage and I went and read a book in a lounge at one of the guest houses ...

... will be provided to me when the time is right. I pulled out my planning map of Europe out for a third or fourth time and started looking at cities and towns in Switzerland and Austria that I might want to visit. I had also thought of going to Munich for the end of Oktoberfest. I was also using my Europe tour book to see what the "experts" had to say about what should be seen and where. I had also clarified what I wanted and needed for this last week of the Expedition ...

We caught an overnight train from Vienna to Frankfurt, which was a good experience. A ten hour ride on the train, we decided to buy tickets for a two bed cabin with a wash basin. It didn't take us long to fall asleep, and as soon as we knew it, we were in Frankfurt bright and early at 6am, greeted by Corinna and Phong. We spent the day lazing about with Corrina and Phong and waited for Matty to finish work so we could ...

... were also food stands or cafes all over the place, serving sandwiches, salads, beer, wine, and soft drinks. These became very crowded around noon, so we went up one floor to the Scientific and Professional Publisher and Information Services. Here we found the International Library Centre, a meeting place just for librarians. (It's nice that the book fair operators are finally discovering that librarians buy books too.) We had just sat down for lunch when Maria Göckeritz ...