I know, I know….. you’re worried that you’ve missed a day in this Adventure. Well, here’s the story about Tuesday…..
I think I left off Monday’s edition of the blog with me walking to the gate to board my flight to Frankfurt. So let’s start there…. Boarding was a non-event. With the new facial scanning technology, you didn’t even need to show your passport to board! Delta flies an Airbus A330 to Frankfurt and it is quite a comfortable plane. Because of my persisting back issues, my financial advisor has given me permission to always fly “up front” so the seats were nice. They do have a new “herringbone” configuration which is nice… almost a pod like arrangement
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Inflight entertainment was the usual plus the ability to use iMessage, FB Messenger and What’s App to communicate while in the air. The only bad thing is no pictures can be sent… oh well! My movie selection to start off the flight was the old classic “North by Northwest”. This seemed appropriate for some reason… I guess because the old Northwest Orient Airlines was bought by Delta!
Meal service was wonderful. I had the BBQ Short Ribs and dessert was a Rhubarb torte and Coconut ice cream.
After a 2 hour or so nap, I watched my second movie, the old Clint Eastwood classic “Unforgiven”. And by the time it finished, there was only an hour left in the flight and breakfast was being served. I had a nice fruit pudding with a bagel. Here’s a view over the Atlantic Ocean.
Landing and deplaning was again uneventful…. Germany has only recently changed many of their COVID related restrictions. No masks were required anywhere! Of course you can always choose to wear one but the vast majority of people eschew them. Immigration was a breeze…. They stamped my passport, gave a cursory glance at my vaccination card and waved me on through.
The next stop was the Sixt auto rental counter. The van I reserved was available but I had specifically requested a Ford Tourneo and the only one available was in the other terminal. But Sixt came through and had the van delivered to my terminal for pickup.
Now was the start of the long part of my day… a drive about 2 hours east to pickup my bike and the bike gear bag. It was a nice drive, construction along the A3 was at a minimum. 8 years ago, the road between Frankfurt and Würzburg was a disaster. The amount of new construction lengthened the drive by an hour but now it was clear sailing across 3-4 lanes of traffic. Driving on the Autobahn is an absolute treat!!! I was going 120 kph and at times I thought I was the slowest one out there. The Germans are great rule-followers…. Trucks are generally in the right 2 lanes and the left two lanes were for cars. The leftmost lane was ONLY for passing then you move to the right. It’s wonderful when people know the rules and follow them.
I made it to my cousin’s house in a small village called Theres, about 20 min east of my mom’s home town of Schweinfurt. If you know Gerlinde, you know you never get away without having something to drink and eat. NEVER!! Usually she loves to serve Bratwurst but she changes things up on me this time. She had another of my favorites, Weißwurst!! A typical South Bavarian breakfast is Weißwurst, sweet mustard, a pretzel and a Hefeweizen bier. Gerlinde had the first two, substituted a dark bread for the pretzel and I had sparkling water (Sprudelwasser) instead of the Weissbier. The Weißwurst is prepared by boiling and eaten after removed from the casing. And one more thing, it is usually eaten in the morning. Because it is always fresh, by noon, weißwurst are considered “bad”. It may look different but it is absolutely delicious! Try it if you get the chance!
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After loading the bike and gear I headed back to the hotel. Parkhotel am Posthof is a nice little hotel in the western suburbs of Frankfurt that we always use as our base of operations. It’s comfortable with nice rooms, friendly staff, great breakfasts and a nice area around it with restaurants close by.
I went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant and enjoyed my first Hefeweizen and some Veal Scalopini.
By the time I got back to the room (a 50 meter walk) I was beat! I took a quick shower and laid on the bed where I quickly snoozed for 5 minutes. It was at that point I gave up and said “I’ll do the blog in the morning.” Here’s a picture of my room….
Now I’ll stop with Tuesday and continue on in a few hours with more about Wednesday……