Frankfurt

This was not the happiest day for us. We began our drive out of Paris back towards Germany to drop Adam off. It was about a 7 hour drive back to his base, which included some ridiculous traffic leaving Paris. The quickest route was the most direct, which was east down the Champs-Elysees and continuing down the Seine until we were in the countryside. We pulled over for gas and adblue. The van we rented was a diesel and required an additive called adblue. Apparently, newer diesels use adblue to improve emissions. The problem here is that we did not know that originally. We were not too far out of Frankfurt on our first day, when a notification kept popping up on the dash, saying that adblue needed to be added within so many miles or the van would stop running. So imagine us, in a small german town, trying to ask people who don't speak English about adblue. Bob did recall that a neighbor of his spoke about it with thier diesel and he finally figured it out.
Their was a KFC attached to the gas station so that is what we ate. From there it was a nice drive. We cut through Luxembourg, making it the 4th country we visited. In order: Germany, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg and back to Germany.
I enjoyed the drive through Germany the most as it has more hills and trees to wind through. This is compared to northern France where the terrain is more flat farm land. This part of Germany has plenty of vineyards. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the rows of grapes that are planted in neat rows up and down the steep hillsides.
We arrived back at at Adam's base at 5PM. We took a couple of last minute pictures and then hugs all around. Adam does not like long goodbyes. Partly because Michelle can't do it without crying and partly because I might too. Abbie won't admit it but...
It was great getting to spend time as a family in a new setting. Hopefully we will get to see him in October. He has ideas on coming home then.
We arrived at the Meninger hotel in Frankfurt about 7. It was right near the airport entrance. They had a limited number of items on a menu but we decided to eat there anyway. We ordered a bacon and onion, super thin crust pizza. Michelle didn't like it at all, but I didn't think it was too bad and ate nearly all of it. The best part was that I had a drink with four ice cubes in it. Actually, it had three, but I switched with Abbie when she wasn't looking. Not having ice wasn't all that bad. It's just that you never take a drink that's really cold. It may be cool, just not that deep cold that I like.
Our hotel room was small with 3 twin beds and no carpet. It reminded me of camp or a dorm room. It had a shower just like the other german hotel we spent the night in. It was square and about 3 ft wide on each side. It had two sliding doors that meet in one corner. When opened, it was just wide enough to get in and out of. It had a great shower head though and hot water.
The french showers appear to prefer a different style. Only one of the three hotels had a full tub, but all three had a glass door that went about a third of the way down, causing water to spill out onto the floor if you were careful and absolutely flooding it if you werent.
The bed wasn't comfortable but I rested fairly well anyway.Read more