Well goodness! We are already at Sunday, and barely still that, and my first opportunity to post anything at all of the trip. We landed on Wednesday. So here's a start. Take a look at this photo (in as much detail as you can stand). Though I didn't notice it myself, Monika pointed out that it's a French fry in the shape of an airplane, with the words 'Fry to Fly.' Is Lufthansa flying on used French fry oil?!? I like environmentally sound ideas as much as the next person, but I'm not convinced that used fry oil stands up to jet fuel. In any case, and perhaps miraculously, we have arrived safely on German soil.
Monika's cousin Beate and her husband Andreas picked us up at the Gelnhausen train station and suggested a walk through and around the town, an important spot on the main trade route between Leipzig and Frankfurt in the Middle Ages. The narrowest spot on that entire road (aka chokepoint) was in Gelnhausen, where loads would be weighed and presumably assessed for income potential. The town prospered, and among other things, built two churches: one Catholic and one Protestant. This is the photo of the Protestant (Lutheran?) Gelnhausen Marienkirche taken from the ramparts of the old city wall.
A good walk earned a good beer. This one was excellent, fresh and cold and well-balanced. My friend Henry's mother is from the town of Papenburg and Andreas has apparently spent some time there. Of the Jever, he said "It is also from near Papenburg." So there you go! I've enjoyed that beer with Henry in export form in Redondo Beach but it does not travel that far that well. For beer closer is almost certainly better. To complement the beer, Monika and I split an Italian salad and Hawaiian pizza. International mean plan.
On To The Great Frankfurt Memory Tour