June 21 – For our final day in Frankfurt, we walked over to visit the historic Palmengarten, developed by architect Heinrich Siesmayer, and opened to the public in 1871. Most of the buildings were damaged or destroyed in WWII, but were refurbished starting in the 1960s. The gardens were reopened in 1992.
June 20 – Now it is Friday and Frankfurt is back to normal after yesterday’s holiday. The shops are open, and traffic is zipping along.
June 19 – After a rocky attempt at a night’s sleep, we thought a nice walk in the sunshine would help reset our internal clocks. We ate our breakfast of fruit, yogurt, brown bread and cheese, downed a few cups of strong coffee, and set out toward town.
The first thing we noticed was that the supermarket we visited yesterday was not open – unusual for a Thursday, don’t you think? As we walked along, the streets seemed very quiet. As we approached the center of town, we saw that all the stores were closed. What’s up? Time to consult Google!
It turns out that today is the state holiday of Corpus Christi (body of Christ), a celebration of the Eucharist by the Roman Catholics here since the year 1246; always falling on the tenth day after Pentecost.
We made our way toward the cathedral, figuring that is where the action would be, and we were right.
8/15 – The reason we came south to Freiburg was so that Jim could spend some time with his professional colleagues. So today at 8am we met with Gerhard and Eberhardt, two psychologists that Jim has worked with and shares parapsychological interests with. They had a lovely two and a half hours doing what professors do, and I was happy that he had the opportunity to meet up with his friends.
Then it was off to the train station for the three hour ride back to Frankfurt, a final doner meal, and a good night’s sleep (with air con and wifi) at the Ibis Hotel.
8/16 – woke up before the alarm and were all ready to go before our 8am hotel departure to Heathrow – plenty of time for us to get a cup of coffee and make our 11am flight. Ha! I’m not usually one to complain, but the Frankfurt Airport needs a major efficiency upgrade. We stood in one long queue after another for the entire morning, just making our flight with about three minutes to spare. On the upside, we had some nice conversations with a young engineer on his way to a conference in Phoenix, and a man on his way home to Philadelphia from Helsinki. Nice people everywhere.
The long leg of our trip was fine too – got the bulkhead seats so we could stretch our legs, and a TSA pre-check upgrade so we didn’t have to take off our shoes or stand in the long line. The kink came on the last leg – when we arrived at JFK, there was no power in Terminal 8, so we had to go through manual customs check (I think it was actually faster than the automated system), find our luggage in a heap in the dark (no baggage carousels) then drop off our luggage again and jog to our gate, only to find our 7:30pm flight to Norfolk was delayed, delayed,then canceled due to weather somewhere.
The only option was a $30. shuttle bus to La Guardia, to wait for the last flight of the evening scheduled for 9:05, which was delayed, delayed, gate changed, but finally took off at 11:30pm. Got a chance to hear about a missionary couple’s trip to Gambia. They’ve been traveling home for three days, and this was their last leg too. A very long day,but happy to be home!
Unfortunately, our backpacks were still at JFK, so we had to file a claim to ask for their return. Happy to say that at 2am on Thursday, our bags arrived at our door. Reunited – all ‘s well that ends well!
8/4 – Walked from the Ibis Hotel in Frankfurt back to the train station, for a twenty minute ride to Hanau. Here we were met by beautiful niece Jeanette, sister of the groom, and her handsome beau Marcus, who drove us to our hotel. We walked around Steinhaim, which is an old town with the wooden Alpine architecture so typical of Germany. Still gray and rainy, but the sun is supposed to shine tomorrow for the wedding.
8/5 – The wedding day is here, beautiful and sunny. Jeanette and I are waiting at the hotel for the groom to arrive.
Here is Gerard, father of the groom, his lovely wife Kathleen, and Jim at the church, waiting for the groom to arrive.
Happy to say, the groom arrived in the nick of time for the 13:30 service.
The church was decorated with flowers, and there was a full mass. The guests really participated, singing every hymn. The bride, Eva-Maria, was so beautiful! There were no bridesmaids or groomsmen. It was all about the happy couple.
After the church service, all the guests walked down the street to witness the civil ceremony at 15:00. This is something that does not happen at American weddings. The civil ceremony lasted almost as long as the church service, and the witnesses had to promise to help the new couple with everything, including chores. This got a round of laughter, so I’m pretty sure it was a joke.
Then we all went out into the garden, to watch the newlyweds cut a heart out of a big piece of red cloth, using dull manicure scissors, and then step through it together. This is also something we don’t do in the US.
We spent the afternoon in the garden, drinking champagne and eating little cakes, while the bride and groom were congratulated by all.
Kathleen’s son Dylan, Jeanette and Marcus, mother of the groom Ursula, Eva and John, Gerard and KathleenAt 19:00, we filed into the banquet hall for supper. I was starving, and everything smelled so good! The buffet included salads, potatoes, pasta, chicken, fish and the absolutely best roast beef I have ever tasted, cut in half inch slabs and covered in brown gravy. Folks went back for seconds and thirds. Words just cannot do it justice. Everything was delicious.
Then there were games and performances by family members to entertain the bride and groom. The party was still going strong when we took our leave around 22:30, and we heard the party didn’t break up until 02:30. A full day of celebration!
8/2/16 – Several months ago, we received an invitation to a Franza nephew’s wedding in Germany: Gerard’s son John is marrying his beloved Eva-Maria, after 13 years of courting. We met them eight years ago at a family reunion in Florida. I was honored to be invited, and we started making plans.
We left Virginia where the temperature was over 90F every day, and arrived 16 hours later in Frankfurt where it was a gray and rainy 70F. We spent a full day in Frankfurt-am-Main, walking along the Main River to help minimize our jet lag. We visited Goethe Haus, a tribute to favorite son writer Johann Goethe. His family home was destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombs, but was recreated from the ground up after the war, using artifacts that had been removed and hidden from the bombing.
It was four stories of old furniture and musical instruments.
This is a pianoforte with vertical strings!
Most of our fellow tourists were from China – a phenomenon we encounter in every country we visit.
Taking Our Time 