Monday, May 26 Frankfurt

Well, here we are! Our Regina group left at 9:15 am for Calgary where we had about a three hour layover before departing at 1:30 pm on a Lufthansa Airbus A330. Just before departure from Calgary we met up with Carol Wilson, who had flown in from Cranbrook.

Here is our group at Regina airport: (l to r) Delores and Dean, Frank, Betty, Nora Ann, Glenn, Miles, and Celeste. Mary Ann is missing as she left a few days earlier for an extra side trip to Hanover.

On the flight they fed us a meal at 3:30 pm and a breakfast at 9 pm (5 am Frankfurt time). We landed at 6:30 am after nine hours in the air. Most of us tried to catch a few winks, but it was not easy when our bodies told us it was only afternoon and evening.

The three ladies from Vancouver flew four and a half hours to Montreal and another seven hours to Frankfurt. We all arrived at close to the same time and met up in the line for passport control. That was a bit of an ordeal!

There were a gazillion people in line and it was stiflingly hot, but we all got through in about an hour. Celeste and I were through fairly quickly. I was so excited when everyone else finally got through that I left the baggage claim without the Vancouver ladies! I asked a guard if he could escort me back, but he said I would have to go though security screening. I am not sure how you do that without a boarding pass. Fortunately, he suggested another option – go to information and have them paged – so I tried that. The girl at information said, “Why don’t you just go back there and look for them?” She pushed a button, the doors opened, and in I waltzed. The ladies were right where they were supposed to be, patiently waiting for me.

Getting to the hotel was another bit of a challenge. The shuttle bus only held eight people and there were other passengers and another terminal to deal with. There were only two seats available on the first shuttle, so Celeste and I took those so I could get a head start on getting us checked in. Most of the rest of the gang made it on the second trip, Frank and Nora Ann on the third, and Mary Ann, who arrived at the airport by train at 9:15, on the fourth.

Celeste and I arrived at the hotel about 8:30 to get the check in started. Of course, not many hotels have a lot of rooms available for check in at that time of the day, but we were first in line and, as rooms were cleaned, we were checked in one by one. I think we were all settled by about 10:30.

Before we started trickling off to our rooms, we decided that we would gather again at 2 pm and take cabs to central Frankfurt, tour about and have a meal. We dropped Mary Ann off at a medical clinic because she felt she had an eye infection coming on. She caught up to us later. Everybody explored on their own, then gathered for a very nice get-acquainted meal at 5 pm. We explored a little more afterwards before meeting our cabs at 8 pm for the return ride to the hotel. The down side was that the cabs were even more expensive than I remembered – 80 Euros each way for two cabs! 160 Euros or $250. Ouch! Everybody was pretty pooped by the time we returned and I am sure we will all sleep well tonight.

Here are (l to r) Betty (bent over), Carol, Dorothy and Dixie, and Miles.

The sky was heavily overcast when we landed, improving to a thin overcast by the time we gathered at 2 pm and to hazy sun for our excursion.