The day has finally arrived (June 4-5th)

June 4th
The day finally arrived for me to begin my travels to Germany.  I began my travels at around 10 am and flew to Detroit where I had a nearly 6 hour lay over.  To pass the time I took turns doing some casual reading and looking up travel information in my Germany travel book by Rick Steves.  I packed light, just a back pack for my electronics and a mini backpack containing roughly a weeks worth of clothing, so I didn't have to check in any luggage.  My second flight was at 7:45 pm leaving Detroit for Frankfort.  I didn't get any sleep on the plane, I just can't seem to sleep in the uncomfortable airplane seats and I do have to admit my excitement also kept me awake.

June 5th
I finally landed in Frankfort around 10:30 am.  My plans were to meet with my sister, Irene at the baggage claim.  It is always a little scary when rendezvousing with someone in a foreign country because you will likely not have access to cell phones if things do not go as planned.  And that is exactly what happened, things did not go as planned and I could not find her at the baggage claim.  This was not too much of an issue I still was able to use the free wifi from the airport and contact her.  Irene's train unfortunately had some mechanical problems which her delayed arrival a couple of hours.  In the meantime I bought a 10 day German Rail Pass, which allows for you to travel on the trains all day for the 10 days that you use them in Germany.  Eventually Irene's train arrived and we hopped onto another train to head her home in Heidlberg, a town just south of Frankfort.

Shortly after arriving and dropping off my luggage at her apartment Irene took me to a plaza to drink some German beer and eat some appetizers.  At this point I had been awake for about 28 hours and finally being able to relax and drink some good beer was a must.  For the rest of the evening we walked down to the Neckar River, where the old city, Altstadt is located and is overlooked by an old castle.  There we stopped at a restaurant that served authentic German food and had live music performed by a pianist who galvanized many of the customers in song and of course we had more German beer.  That was a real treat. When we were finished we wondered back to Irene's apartment and went to bed.  After being awake for 34 hours, I was happy to finally get some sleep.