Good Night Frankfurt And Good Night To Our Vacation

May 2, 2012
Today was our last full day in Europe.  Tomorrow we are driving our rental car to Frankfurt Airport and we are going home.  The last couple of days have felt a little weird because almost all of our trip was planned out.  The portion of the trip that was not planned out were these last two days in Frankfurt.  We knew we were coming here and knew that we would "figure it out" when we got here.  It felt kind-of weird because over the last couple days we felt like we were, sort of, wandering with no specific direction.

The direction we took today was to hop on a double-decker bus and take a guided tour of Frankfurt that way.  While walking to the bus stop though we crossed a pedestrian bridge that is unique and known for its "Locks of Love".  From one end of the bridge to the other people have attached a "lock of love."  See the below picture and you'll know what I mean.

The bus tour was actually very interesting and we learned that although Frankfurt is not the biggest city in Germany, it certainly seems to have a very big upside with a lot of future planning and construction for the future going on.  They have a very busy and bustling Galleria shopping area and this is a central hub for much of what goes on in Germany, to include banking and many other business ventures.

 Signifying the financial center of Germany, these towers are called Credit and Debit

 Construction is everywhere in Frankfurt!

Our evening ended with a very nice meal outside on a patio of a nearby restaurant, followed by a walk down to the river for a good night Frankfurt picture.  After that we could not resist a nice glass of wine and Apple Strudel.

Good night Frankfurt and good night to what turned out to be a very nice vacation.

It's May 1st and that means May Day !

May 1, 2012
On this May Day, 2012 we got up, ate breakfast, checked out of our Heidelberg, Germany hotel and went out to retrieve our car from the parking garage a block away.  When we went outside we heard a band playing so we went around the corner to check out what we were hearing.  What we found was a May Day rally, complete with a live band and a march through the pedestrian zone next to where we had stayed.  Below is a picture of the May Day rally in Heidelberg.   

From there, with my 3rd Starbucks in 2 weeks in hand, we headed north to Frankfurt.  Nika asked what I was going to put in the blog today and I told her I was going to write, "There's not much to write today so here's a few pictures from our day."  As the day closed I realized we did have a fairly interesting day.  It was a short drive (95 kilometers) from Heidelberg to Frankfurt and we got checked into our hotel.  From there we took off walking along the Main River, across the bridge and into the older section of town.

We ate a nice, late lunch and then took a 50 minute cruise up and back on the Main River.  One of the things from the cruise that struck me was they pointed out that Frankfurt has plans to build 200 skyscrapers.  They must have big plans, because along with 200 additional skyscrapers comes people, housing, transportation and so on!

After this we walked some more, went back to our hotel to take our car to a better parking area, nearly got run over by a tour bus, had a fruity drink at the "Crazy Bar", before retiring to our hotel room above the "Hot Bar".  Tomorrow is May 2nd and will be our last full day on this European vacation. 

Apparently at this stop sign, in order to avoid getting run over by a tour bus, green means GO !