The 6 hours in the Vietnam lounge slowly ticked by, and eventually it was time for part 2, the longer 12 hour flight to Frankfurt.

This plane was a bit bigger ( a Boeing 787) but the cabin felt a bit more tired than the other one, and the seats were maybe a tiny bit smaller as well. But still in Business so definitely not going to have a big whine about it.

And yay, a row or two behind us was that game of aeroplane lotto that nobody wants to win, that’s right, a screaming baby! But still what can you do. Babies are gonna baby, and it’s up to the rest of us to just roll with it. It didn’t carry on too much.

I was exhausted by this stage, the poor guy serving dinner had to keep waking me up to set the table and put the food on it. And sorry I was super tired so no food photos from me, but luckily Perry took some.

Once I persuaded the uncooperative seat to do its magical turn-into-a-bed thing, I was out like a light for ages. There were a couple of quite bumpy bits that I think woke everyone up, but they didn’t last too long.

Before I knew it we were at the magical “only two hours” left and it was time for brekky. And wow what a brekky – a bowl of cereal and also a bowl of muesli, and fruits and cold meats and cheese and a croissant – something for everyone. Definitely can’t fault Vietnam Airlines for their food, that’s for sure.

The landing was uneventful (always a good thing) and very soon we both stepped foot in Germany for the first time ever. Guten tag! All those stereotypes about German efficient largely rang true, and we were through passport control / baggage pickup in no time.

I figured it’d be super easy from here because there’s a train station right at the airport, and that’s true enough… except the train station is at the other terminal. Not to worry, it was a bit of a shitfight to push on to the free shuttle bus that goes between terminals, and their signage perhaps isn’t the best at telling us dumb tourists where to go, but we eventually made it, and then, by chance right on to the train platform we needed.

Unlike Sydney there are no ticket barriers anywhere, it’s more of an honour system backed up by ticket inspectors. The ticket machine, despite its “English” button, revealed that stereotypical German efficiency doesn’t necessarily also extend to simplicity. We bought tickets that could best be classified as “er yeah that’ll probably cover it” and jumped on the train. After a short time, the train (roomy, clean and quiet) made its to every station exactly when it said it would, and we departed at Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhoft.

Now, Frankfurt am Main Hbf is the main station, but not because it has Main in the name, that’s just because Frankfurt is on the Main river, but also, the Main river happens to be, yes, the main river in Frankfurt. Umm, ok, never mind.

With luggage to lug, we were both grateful by this stage that our hotel is just across the road, the Hotel Monopol. It’s old and interesting, but the absolute best part is that even though we rocked up at like 7 in the morning, they had a room ready. Unexpected but very very appreciated. It’s a hotel room, what more can I say, not spectacular but with everything you need for a comfortable stay. Actually, it has a small mini bar and everything in it is free. That counts as spectacular.

With a chance to shower and actually start to feel slightly human again, we figured there’s no time like the present to get out and amongst it, so time for our usual tourist thing and take a lap on the hop on hop off bus. After almost walking a lap of the train station, followed by another one to find the tourist information office, they were wonderfully helpful, telling us where the bus stop was, and, yes it was directly across the road from the hotel. Let’s file that one again under less-than-stellar way-finding and signage for us tourists. It’s like the direct opposite of New York where people on nearly every street corner were trying to sell you hop-on-hop-for bus tickets and there was clear signage everywhere. But, you know, where’s the fun in that.

Anyway after 20 minutes of wondering if we were waiting in the right place, and wondering if the bus still even running, it arrived. We hopped on. We saw stuff. We hopped off. And we learnt a little about Frankfurt along the way. It’s the banking capital of Europe, one third of the population come from places other than Frankfurt, the skyscrapers are mostly quite skinny because there’s a law that says they all have to get some natural daylight. Anyway here’s some random pictures taken from the bus (so apologies if there are tons of reflections)

Our first hop-off was near the old town, accessed via a very love-locked iron bridge. The old bit of town is so pretty and kinda incongruous in the rest of the city but in a good way. We wandered, got a nice snack from a local bakery chain, some ice cream (because of course you have to have ice cream) before getting back to the bus.

The hop on hop offf has two different lines so we did the second one (a bit longer) which also for both of us ended up being the take-a-bit-of-a-nap-coz-its-been-a-big-day line as well. 🙂

We also had to take a bit of a detour to the local Apple shop coz guess which idiot forgot to pack (or just can’t find) his Apple Watch charger.

After re-grouping at the hotel in the arvo and trying not to nap again (one of us succeeded), we headed out to see if we could get some dinner. I mean it’s Frankfurt, so you’ve gotta have a Frankfurt, right? We ventured out into what I think may not have been the nicest part of town – pretty sure we were being kinda sized up at one point while waiting to cross the road. But nothing untoward happened, and we a wonderful tradition meal of Turkish food – delicious! We made it back to the hotel, such party animals that we are, ready to crash and it’s only half past eight (and still light). Still managed to squeeze a bit into the day though.

So to end this long day here are some quick first impressions about Frankfurt and, I guess, the tiny bit of Germany we’ve seen so far

* It’s really surprising just how many people here still smoke

* You have to look hard to find a Japanese car in all the traffic

* Even Teslas are quite rare

* It’s really weird to see Taxi ranks stacked with Mercedes rather than Camrys

* There are so many people wearing puffer jackets I thought I was in Melbourne

* A surprising number of tourists have stopped us and asked us things in German, so, umm, I guess we fit in?

* Yes lots of road signs say things like “Ausfahrt” and yes I’m still immature enough to think it’s funny. Nearly lost my shit when I saw a sign saying “Wie suchen dich!” (It just means ‘we are looking for you’, I think it was a job ad, no, not that kind of a job! Stop it!

As for tomorrow we don’t have any big plans, and as long as those plans include breakfast and coffee right at the start, I’m in. Goodnight!