Frankfurt stopover

Our itinerary allowed for 1 full day in FF while we recovered from the flights. The budget is tight and I think heather thought I was being mean spirited each time I quashed her plans for the day - always asking "but how much will that cost". But we made great compromises and selected a day pass on local transport rather than the tourist rides, and while we decided to pay to enter the big museum with the Monet exhibition, when we got there and saw the queue stretching down the road and around the corner with people and children waiting patiently in the light rain, I was rather relieved that we decided to skip that attraction. May have been a waste on me the Philistine.

The weather was coolish and coats required, rain light intermittent, making FF look rather drab and gray. By the afternoon the jet lag was showing so we headed back to the hotel for rest, trying hard not to sleep so we could reset our internal clocks.

After a rest we agreed there was too much of the day left, and while we had ticked off some of our must see attractions, heather suggested we make the most of our local transport pass and just ride a tram to the end stop and return. Fatigue left me feeling increasingly anxious that we may become stranded in some obscure FF suburb, especially as the tram driver moved us off and onto a connecting bus at one stage. Then when we reached the end of the line the driver again insisted we get off, at who knows where. But the neighbourhood was very pretty with quaint homes and window boxes blooming. We trotted along the road, found the bus at a nearby rest spot, and the driver allowed us to board and escape the rain. On the way back to town heather cleverly spotted the old Jewish cemetery, with graves dating back to the 1200s. So we quickly alighted and took time to view the memorial plaques on the old stone wall that remembered some 12000 local Jews killed in camps during WW2.