Taipei - Frankfurt - Aachen

Sunday, 26 June

Actually managed to sleep on the plane. Saw some fascinating land features – dozens of what looked like small crater lakes somewhere in Russia. (I tried later to find it in an atlas, unsuccessfully, but it appeared to be in the region of Archangel? in Northern Russia). Very good looking young guy a couple of seats down from me – looked European. I noticed he was vegetarian. He slept a lot.

I was so excited about arriving in Germany again. I hadn’t been since 1977 (nearly 30 years ago!) and it was winter then. I watched eagerly as we got closer to Frankfurt and gazed down on German land.

We touched down and entered Frankfurt airport. Huge place and we walked straight to baggage pickup – no customs, nothing. Brilliant! Entered arrival lounge and saw bro straight away, grin on his face. Was great to see him. Hadn’t seen him for 5 years? We followed him through the huge glass-ceilinged complex. Took a while to find his car in the multilevel carpark. He had a small Peugeot with an NZ sticker on the back window. We had an extra view of the airport as he missed the turnoff and drove around the terminal twice!

I soaked in everything I saw – the beautiful green trees, such a contrast to the snow-covered pines I saw 30 years ago. We took a scenic route along the Rhein (Rhine) and passed through beautiful villages with narrow cobbled streets. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera handy. It was my daughters’ first sight of the bits of Europe I love. I recognized St Goar, Bingen and Lorelei in summer! Truly beautiful. Last time I’d seen it it was all grey and misty. There were lots of cyclists cycling the paths along the Rhein. Lots of caravans also – these were the Dutch, my bro informed me – they took their caravans everywhere in summer (snails he called them).

Got onto the autobahn and it was fairly quiet still (early in the day) but busier later. Cars sped by even as we travelled at 130 kph. It felt unbelievable to be here. We passed by the turnoff to the Nürburgring (fans of 'Top Gear' or Gran Turismo 4 will know what I'm talking about).

We arrived in Aachen which was a lot bigger than I had imagined as a dot on a map. I expressed my disbelief at actually being there to my brother and he said he never thought I’d get there either – in all the years he’d lived there. Bro’s wife, G, awaited us outside the apartment which was in an attractive leafy suburb. Just brilliant to be there. We had something to eat and agreed that we needed some sleep.




We woke at about 3pm and talked, listened to music, etc. Went to their favourite Turkish restaurant in the evening which had a lovely atmosphere and great food. Then up a hill to a park which overlooked Aachen. Beautiful trees everywhere. (I LOVE trees.) Such a difference to the barren paddocks of sheep in New Zealand.



We watched a British TV series called ‘Ideal’ while drinking some European beer. Falling asleep but managed to catch a hilarious episode of a Brit comedy called ‘The Fat Slags’. Great stuff. Got to bed 9.30pm, exhausted, but a fitful sleep, waking at 2am.