December 13 - Last stop - Frankfurt

Travel day. Brekkie at 8:00 a.m. in the lovely, classy breakfast room. There were little tokens on the table that we used to vote on the quality of the service, the food and the décor. Top marks all around. Hotel Victoria in Nuremberg - we highly recommend it.

A couple of us deked around the corner into the Artisans’ Courtyard and waited at the stained-glass studio until it opened up at 10:00 a.m. Their work is some of the most delicate, beautiful collection that we have seen on this trip. A couple of angels are making a transatlantic trip.

We headed out about 10:30 a.m. to the train station. Wish we had known about the tunnel that goes under all the streets and tram lines when we were schlepping to the hotel on Saturday. The tunnel certainly made our short trip a lot easier.

Our train pulled into the station about 20 minutes late which is highly unusual for German rail service. We piled on and hunkered down for two hours. There was a light dusting of snow on the fields which made the countryside very pretty. It was nice to have time to watch the scenery on the train as I usually have advance planning and logistics to review. We got to Frankfurt about 1:30 p.m. On the sidewalk outside the train station, we each hugged Angela goodbye. By the time we were in our hotel she was on a train back home. She needs a big hug from Peter, a long bath, and some decompression time before tonight’s football/soccer match.

Our rooms are cozy to say the least. There is about as much room as there was in my shared room in residence at university back in the 1970s. At least the beds are separate with about 30” between them. The attraction of this hotel is the location – just a few hundred meters from the train station.

The hotel elevator wasn’t working properly – they wouldn’t let people on it, so they sent our luggage up and we plodded up 3-4 flights of stairs and rescued our luggage (with our precious market purchases) from the unmanned elevator. We could write a novel about our various hotel experiences - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Although the Frankfurt Christmas Markets are only about a 20-minute walk from here, no one is eager to go. Getting home safe and sound tomorrow is our main aim right now. We spied an Irish Pub on our way to the hotel, so we may just go there for an early dinner – we’ll need to get in and out before the soccer crowd descends on it. Our train to the airport is at 6:44 a.m. tomorrow, so we’ll be up early (before breakfast service here at the hotel) and then having brekkie at the airport. Our flight is at 9:45 a.m. and it gets into Toronto about 12:30 p.m.

We left the hotel about 4:00 p.m. but found that the Irish pub didn't open until 5:00 p.m. We walked up and down a couple of streets (this is not the nicest part of town), popped into a little place for hot drinks, and then hoofed back to the pub. It wasn't busy yet. We had our last supper in Germany.

We were concerned about what time our booked train would get us to the airport - that is, not early enough, according to the Air Canada site. So, we did some reconnoitring in the train station - found the right train and platform, found out how to buy tickets and then rejigged our departure timing from the hotel. Hotel staff will be at our doors at 5:30 a.m. to pick up our bags - the elevator is out of commission for weeks to come while a critical part wends its way through the slow supply chain process. We should be out the door at 5:45 a.m. There is going to be a lot of coffee drunk at the airport tomorrow morning! See you there!Read more