Ok, I am tired. I want to go home. Ryan is excited to see the place where his ancestors hailed from. One fight and an amazing dinner at an 14th century guard house, Eschenheimer Turm, Ryan, "They Don't Call Me Julie McCoy, Cruise Director for Nothing", took over the vacation planning duties; and he IS a damn fine tour director!

At night we checked out all the local clubs and bars, by day we played tourist. Our first day we took a walking tour through the town square, the local cathedral, an awesome local market, the Jewish Holocaust memorial, the local mall (which has a cool hole in the roof - intentionally), the Thurn and Taxis Palais, the stock exchange (Frankfurt is Germany's Wall Street), past Goethe's house, by the Berlin wall remanent, and under the city hall bridge. One of the most amazing things about this city is almost all of the old architecture dating from medieval times was actually built from 1970-2000. The city was almost entirely leveled in WWII so everything that the city offers was rebuilt to look exactly like it did in the 1200-1400's.

The next day we took a subway train. So I know what you are thinking. The plane blew up. The tender boat got lost at sea. What happened on the train? Nothing. Went straight to the Palmen House and Botanical Gardens. Such a beautiful garden. If Ryan was into churches and pipe organs this trip, I was into the flowers. We took the train down to the red light district. My, was that a disappointment. Nothing seedy or exciting At ALL; just a bunch of hipsters and art galleries. We did have a great lunch with apple wine (the local specialty). Once again we did a little shopping and then headed back toward the hotel.

Our final stop was the Romantic Era Museum and the Goethe House. Both were amazing. Goethe wrote the novel Faust which became a romance era staple, but the museum celebrated every aspect of the era not just Goethe. The music of Schubert and Beethoven, the writings of the Grimm Brothers and Mary Bysshe Shelly (Of Frankenstein fame), the philosophers Edmund Burke and Søren Kierkegaardand. Any aspect of the early 19th century and it was covered. Just don't get too near the pictures or the alarm system will yell at you - I found that out.

Goethe house was an exact replica of the author's childhood home. After the war it was the first public building to be rebuilt, and as we went through it, every detail looked like it was from the 1700's. It had the most amazing heating system which Ryan got in trouble for touching. We are BAD kids!

The last day we were up early to stand in line at the airport for two hours. It was another crazy day of late flights and long lines, but IcelandAir made it fairly easy and mostly painless. Once again, I recommend flying first class. If only my budget allowed it.