In 2015, I visited Frankfurt by myself because John was too busy with his company. I really wanted to go right at that time, early September because that would allow me to help celebrate my sister’s 50th birthday and my mother’s 80th birthday at the annual family reunion hosted by Klaus’ family. I would only stay a little over a week and managed to see different family members every day. My calendar was packed! Unfortunately, I didn’t take any notes, and some of my photos were lost along with my phone (always back up your phone!!!), so it is difficult to fill in these entries so much later with so little to work with. 

I landed in Frankfurt! What a relief after almost missing my connecting flight in D.C. because I thought I’d have to change terminals, which ended up not being true. I was the second last person to enter the plane before the doors closed! Continuing on that theme, in Frankfurt, I thought my bag was lost in transit for probably 10 minutes until I realized that the lonely black bag circling the baggage carousel was actually my red bag, flipped upside down. Somehow, I had never noticed that our bag wasn’t red on all sides. I texted John the good news while I was still able to use the airport WIFI.

Since I landed at around 7.30 in the morning, I had told my sister and brother-in-law not to pick me up from the airport and headed towards my mother’s apartment using public transport. On the way, I bought my first day-ticket for public transport at the RMV store at Hauptwache.

Afterward, I went for a walk past Hauptwache Cafe to the nearest post office to buy stamps. Businesses were just opening and I was amazed to see that the street cleaners are still using old-timey brooms made with twigs instead of leaf blowers.

I had promised John I would write a card every day, and I already had one ready to go, which I had picked up at the Phoenix airport.

Next, I strolled down Zeil towards Konstablerwache. Before I hopped on the train to Bornheim, I took a good look at all the fresh local produce for sale at the market.

This is Saalburgstrasse. My mother’s house is the somewhat bluish one about four houses down on the right. Considering it had been cloudy when I landed, I was happy to see blue sky.

My mom was so happy to see me. We had a lot to talk about and eventually decided to celebrate with a slice of plum cake at Café Eifler at the corner of Saalburgstrasse and Berger Strasse.  I love plums (specifically, damson plums), and plum cake was very much in season and on offer everywhere. I ended up eating a slice just about every day I was in Germany.

It got late when I finally got to the Engelhardt’s, where we looked at their vacation photos (they had just returned from a trip to Japan!) and then fixed up my bed in the attic, where I sadly went to sleep by myself.