Days 32, 33 & 34  Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 2, 3 & 4May 2017

Currently flying at 32,500 feet and climbing slightly, the outside air temperature is -36.0 degrees centigrade (-31.0F), our ground speed is 940 kmh or 583 mph.  The 777-300 is 10 and a half hours from Melbourne and due to land in Melbourne at 4.30 Thursday morning, current time in Melbourne (at the time of writing this is 6.09 Wednesday evening.  We are tracking across the very southern tip of India and then Sri Lanka and then across the Indian Ocean until we hit the west coast of Australia at about Derby or thereabouts.

Last night’s flight from Frankfurt to Abu Dhabi was uneventful, you will be pleased to know that it was still raining in Frankfurt and about 8 degrees when I left.  We arrived in Abu Dhabi at 7.00 this morning and the temperature was heading towards 40 and looked like it hadn’t rained there for 20 years.

After landing the plane taxied to a hard stand in what appeared to be the middle of the airport maintenance area and we disembarked there, got into buses and enjoyed a 10 minute bus ride to the very extreme end of one of the terminals.  It was then a 20 minute walk through the terminals to the departure lounge for the Melbourne flight.

The airport at Abu Dhabi is massive and it would appear that they are building a huge new terminal across from the existing ones.  Both Abu Dhabi and Frankfurt make Tullamarine look small and regional.

It is 12.23pm Abu Dhabi time and 6.23pm Melbourne time and we are crossing the south western coast of India near a place called Kochi.  If I could be bothered I could probably work out the current time in India, might do that later, if I get really bored.

I have had breakfast on this flight, an omelette, two little sausages, hash brown, wedge of grilled tomato and a couple of small pastries.  I can have another meal pretty much when I feel like it, I have a choice for my dinner but I will probably have sesame tuna, beef tenderloin with fondant potato, asparagus, tomatoes and peppercorn sauce.  This will be followed by black forest tart with micro sponge and caramel cigar, all accompanied by the appropriate wines of course.

Talking about drinks, I am feeling a little dehydrated, so just ordered a V&T from the nice lady.

Just took a couple of photos out of the plane window, interesting to see how they turn out.

Well, that has filled in half an hour of a 14 hour flight.

We are over the Indian ocean and there must be some storm cells around, there are fluffy white clouds below us and large dark clouds above, with those hammerhead clouds inbetween.  Everybody, including the cabin crew have been told to sit down and belt up.  Still, at the moment it is only a bit bumpy.  The other thing is that instead of heading south east we are tracking north east, so either we are going around some storms or………….anybody recall a certain Malaysian Airlines flight!
Swinging back around to the South East, crisis averted, either real or imagined.

Final entry, safely landed at Tullamarine at 4.30am Thursday, picked up gin and vodka in duty free and out the door within about 45 minutes of landing.

Day 32 Tuesday 2 May 2017

It was a dark and stormy night.......oops, thats the first line to my novel.  It is a dull, wet, grey day in Frankfurt, currently 9 degrees (at 11.30am) and raining.  My flight doesn't leave until 10.00 tonight so I have a whole day to fill in.  This is always a bugger of a day.  I have a late check out for the room so I dont have to be out of here until 3.00pm, but I can't check in at the airport until 6.00pm and it is only a half hour trip to the airport so I still have some time to fill in.  Still musn't grumble.

Thanks to Flashy for his well researched and interesting article on the history of snooker.

A well done to Leanne for binge reading the blog and making a comment on each entry.

Thanks to all the other contributors throughout the journey.

Clair, I am staying at the NH Collection Hotel in Frankfurt.  This is the same hotel that you, Jon and I stayed at on our 2006 European trip.  I mentioned to the receptionist that I had stayed here in 2006, she mentioned that that the rooms had been upgraded since then,  It still has those 'magic' windows where if the handle is in a certain position the window opens at the top and if it is in a different position the window opens at the side.  Still got me beat how it does that.

I  had a wander around Frankfurt yesterday afternoon in the rain.  It must have been a public holiday as few of the shops were open.  There was a flea market in the area where there was a fruit and vegie market when I visited here with Jon and Clair.  I think the thing that surprised us most on that trip was the locals enjoying a glass of champagne at the fruit and vegie market early in the morning.  No champagne here yesterday, just people standing around in the rain getting wet.

The other noticeable thing around the streets was the number of homeless, more than I have seen anywhere else.

Unlike France and Belgium you don't see any heavily armed police or military on the streets in Germany.  The only police that you see are the local police usually in ones or twos and only armed with a pistol.  I asked my friend on the train to Dresden about this.  He explained that the Germans still have a bit of a thing about seeing heavily armed police on the streets given their previous political history and the role of the police during those times.  He also told me that the military is constitutionally unable to be used internally in Germany and for the military to be able to patrol the streets, the same as those in Paris, would require a change to the German constitution,  I suppose this is also a reflection on the role the military has played in recent German history.

Frankfurt is another of those German cities that was almost totally destroyed by the bombing during the 2nd world war.  There is a photo in the cathedral that shows the cathedral somehow still standing in a sea of rubble at the end of the war.  All around the cathedral there is hardly a building still standing and those still standing were only a shell.  Amazing how a modern city was rebuilt out of all this but also they rebuilt their historic buildings in the original style and character.

Anyway, enough of this waffling, I might put on a coat and go for a walk.

Still raining outside, but been for a walk and took a couple of photos, as follows;

Frankfurt am Main in the rain

Clair this should be familiar

I still find some German words funny, even if only in a schoolboyish humour sort of way

You may be interested to know that some Frankfurters (people from Frankfurt, not the sausage) refer to Frankfurt as Mainhattan.  You see Frankfurt is on the Main river and they think that Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany (if not Europe) so Mainhattan is a sort of play on words on Manhattan, those crazy Germans.

More to follow if anything interesting happens or I get bored......

Day 31 Monday 1 May 2017

Happy May Day to you true believers out there (if there are any left, although I can think of a couple).

Welcome aboard Leanne, better late than never.

On my last train trip of the journey, a two hour train trip from Nuremberg to Frankfurt.  I was talking to a couple from Qld (not FNQ) on the platform before the train arrived and we were discussing why Australia can't have a train system like Germany or most of Western Europe for that matter, eh.  Think of all the money wasted on Rudd's pink batts debacle or the Julia Gillard memorial school halls debacle or the flat screen in every household bonus debacle.  Not to mention the $1.4 billion we Victorians spent on a road that doesn't exist.  If this money had been invested in something nation building we might have had the start of a east coast high speed rail link.  

I have become a bit of an expert on snooker on this trip.  You may not be aware of it but the world snooker championships have been playing for the last two weeks somewhere in England.  Now this has been televised on German television with German commentary, but as snooker is a very visual sport the commentary is completely unecessary for the enjoyment of the game.  It has been about the only thing on television that I have been able to watch (apart from some appalling Italian cabaret shows like something from Australian 1960's television).  The snooker is up to the grand final, Higgins (underdog) is leading Shelby (current world champ) 10 frames to 6 in a best of 35 competition, I'm rooting for Higgsie!

Will post this from the train, more to come, if I see or do anything interesting in Frankfurt.