May 18, 2025
Day 90: Leipzig to Frankfurt
Hey folks, don't count this blog out yet! There is still (as you will see from today) some suspense as to whether we will make it home at all, and then there are the fascinating wrap up pages about cost and such!
With our train only leaving for Frankfurt in the early afternoon, our morning was free. Since we felt we had had a good walk around town yesterday, this meant some time to kill. We went to the overpriced buffet breakfast just for something to do, and we uncharacteristically lingered, eating fruit salad and yogurt.
Back in the room, we switched on the TV and found the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV, live from the Vatican, with English play by play from Australian Sky News.
It was fun to see all the clerical costumes. Usually we see fancy churches, but not the fancy clerics. Leo himself seemed very low key, not theatrical enough for TV.
However when he sprinkled holy water toward the crowd, he had great form with the ladle thing.
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The other shape is a brush which is waaaaayyyy worse ( imho) because a brush really can fly those liquids!
3 weeks ago
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Eventually we realized that it was checkout time, so we left Leo to it and marched over to the train station. Once there, Dodie realized that a train was getting ready to leave for Frankfurt imminently, so we hopped that one, rather than our scheduled later one. This flexibility was permitted by our ticket, and we just grabbed two vacant seats.
However, somewhere down the line a Japanese couple came along, and after a lot of looking at their ticket and the seat labels, the man very gruffly said "THAT MY SEAT" "Yeah, well, why not just sit there?" we replied, indicating the completely equivalent pair of seats just by the man. There was a brief staring match, and the couple took the indicated seats. I felt it had been a clash of cultures. Japanese follow the rules vs Canadian just get it done.
The ICE train whisked us to Frankfurt main station, and all we had to do was to grab a ten minute or less other train ride to the Frankfurt Flughof (airport). We went to the DB information booth, and the man said train we wanted was on track 9, and would be leaving in three minutes, so hurry!
We did that, pushed onto the crowded train, and it left. It only took a few minutes to realize that they had done it to us again! This train was headed to Mannheim and beyond, and had no intention of stopping anywhere near the airport. In fact, it would not stop until Mannheim!
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The reason for this problem is simply trains not being on time. In the (now) two cases in which we have boarded the wrong train, that wrong train was running late and and should not have been on the track when it was. The people in the info booths obviously were not 100% up on the latest situation, and steered us directly into disaster. However to the credit of the train systems in France and now in Germany, there are so many trains trundling around that we could rather quickly get turned around and back "on track".
As before, when we realized that we were screwed, fellow passengers stepped up with advice. In this case, one fired up the DB app and showed us the train from Mannheim that would then go directly to the flughof:
ICE 1094 is the train for us! And this time after we jumped on the train standing at the correct track at the correct time, we were darn sure to verify inside that it was going to the correct place!
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Last time we needed a hotel at the Frankfurt airport, we had selected the very very near Radisson Park Inn. They legitimately called that an airport hotel, since it is only 1 mile from the airport. But as we fought and fought the surrounding limited access highways to reach it, we kept seeing the Sheraton, right in the terminal. That's where we should have booked, we thought, as we ended up having to take a taxi to cover that mile (18 euros!). This time, we cruised off the train and into the arms of the Sheraton. The desk lady asked how we were doing, and on hearing the story, gave us a pile of Lindt Lindor chocolate balls, and a very smooth check in that put us in our room in no time.
So now the view from our window is this:
We are flying Condor, and can actually see their logo ands some planes from here. It doesn't look simple to get there. But we have lots of time to rest up, and tomorrow is another day!
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3 weeks ago
Now it’s my turn! My journal entry on CB yesterday is no where to be found!
Maybe my intentions are not meant to be read…🙃
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
I was successful in adding my cover photos..🫣
Stay tuned!
3 weeks ago
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