Monday, May 28, 2012

Frankfurt and friends

We left Frankfurt yesterday after a wonderful visit with our German friends; Oliver and Sandra and their boys Lewis and Neils. They have a beautiful home just outside of Frankfurt in a quaint sleepy town.

Tod spent a day hanging out with Oliver riding his very cool vintage motorcycles, while I got a relaxing day catching up with Sandra and the boys. I cant believe how the have grown the last few years. Lewis just graduated from high school, and Neils will be a freshman come fall. Their English is exceptional! It's a good thing...Oliver is being transferred to New York city for work. We don't know much about New York and couldn't give them any advise...other than we'll come visit them in NYC!

We spent a beautiful day touring the wine country around the Rhine...and visited Bad Hamburg - a resort/spa town famous for it's mineral springs.

A few more thoughts about our trip....Germany and Iceland have stop lights at home except the yellow light goes on after red and before green...got that? Germans are so efficient, they can get off the line faster....We also noticed a difference in road signs. At home we have towns listed and the mileage...ours always start with the closest town (Tacoma, Olympia, Portland if you are heading south on I-5) but, it's opposite here. The farthest away is listed first. Germany & Iceland also have gas stations on the freeways with their own exits. Like our rest stops, only shorter...zoom in, pay your $9.00 a gallon for gas, and zoom back on the freeway.

Iceland is an interesting and very expensive country. The weather was beautiful (60 degrees) and bright sunshine. Speaking of sunshine, it doesn't seem to set...it's 10:30 at night, and bright as 3 pm. I now understand why our hotel room has heavy black curtains. Land of the midnight sun....we toured the island all day in our tiny rental car. We saw spectacular waterfalls and geysers as big as Old Faithful. There were steam vents coming out of mountain sides and gouges in the landscape. There is very little soil...just lots and lots of rocks...no trees and very little scrub brush. The lakes and the sea are clear and blue and the glaciers are eye popping white.

Tomorrow we head home! We leave here at 5 pm and arrive at 5:45 pm....I just wish there wasn't a 7 hour time zone difference:-)

See everyone soon!
Nancy



Oliver's vintage DKW


Bad Hamburg park with Oliver and Sandra


Waterfalls in Iceland


Gondola ride through the vinyards


Rhine River valley


Lewis and Neils had to get up early to have breakfast with us on our last day





More sheep than people in Iceland


Bad Hamburg health spa

Location:Snorrabraut,,Iceland

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