On to Germany

So my plane home from Israel stopped in Frankfurt, so I thought I might as well stop and stay awhile. We said goodbye to Tel Aviv. 

(Spent the night in a cheap hotel near the airport - and it was not exactly the Taj Mahal. The fire alarm went off in the middle of hte night and when I tried to go down the stairs in my sleep-deprived state this is what I saw.)

I ended up having to walk to the other side of hte building to the the other stairs and by then I was told that it was a flase alarm. Lucky there wasn't a real fire.

I took off in the afternoon.

I took a lot of aerial photos. Here is what we saw when we left.

 

The sea is extremely blue and I am fascinated by the islands.

 Of course I never recognize anything, but I am always looking for older structures, The shot below has some kind of arena, but you can't tell how old it is. (Probably modern.)

 

Here is a blow up of that structure which comes from the middle of the shot above.

Of course Germany looks a lot different. I arrived in the evening and spent the night in a nearby hotel, the Meininger hotel.

It is a cute little place with hip decor.

 

I took the train from Frankfurt out towards my old stomping ground of Lichtenfels.

 

The wildflowers were in full bloom and I got to see many sights that Ihad visited back in the days when I was in graduate school. I'm pretty sure that this is the Staffelberg. It was a bit foggy, so you can't see the stone formations at the top very well, but it looks like the staffelberg to me.

 

This is Schloß Banz from the train.

 

When I arrived in Lichtenfels my best friend from college was waiting for me at the station! Her husband and I played duelling cameras!

 

We had a fantastic German lunch cooked specially by Frau Gareis.

 

You really can't beat Germany for great varieties of cold cuts and suasages and some of the cheeses are to die for!

 

Here is a part of the garden. (I so wish my climate in MInnesota was warm enough to have a Japanese maple.It really makes the lantern look at home.

 

We took a walk in the Frankenwald after singing the Frankenlied. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf3xMC_x_0w)

 

It was lovely to wander through the wooded area again after so many years! 

We saw a snail and some slugs on the path. 

 

But what was truly beautiful was the rye in the nearby fields.