Time to go ….Tim and Ally

Well the Travelling Mcs are now in Austria just the two of us now, as the kidults returned home on Monday.
We were only in Frankfurt as a transit point transit really , a connection for flights and trains. We did venture into the old city of Frankfurt for a day though and got caught up – literally – in the European iron man championships. I say literally because I slinked through a barrier ( I wanted to get across to the river and there was nowhere close by) and was ambling along the pathway with plastic cup debris lining the edges, when I heard this man ringing a cowbell…yes a cowbell !!! warning me off the track…as a herd of cyclists whizzed past me at speed. Turns out this is why my family hadn’t followed my lead of slinking lol. We eventually escaped the madness. How unlucky for them I thought, in a city where the average summer temp is 24C they score a day of 31C.
We drifted down the River Main on a boat trip for 100 minutes , in terms of view the 50 minute trip would have been a better option. We sat up on the top deck for the first half of the journey then headed down stairs for food to consume for the next leg of 50 minutes.
We trudged in the heat along un sheltered pathways then, in the hope of catching the Appleveiss tram, a tourist tram that goes around the city and the fare includes a ‘refreshing’ ( that word caught our eyes on this hot day )glass of apple juice or apple wine and a pastry – what’s not to like? Unfortunately after waiting for about 30 minutes we discovered the tram wasn’t running by this day due to the iron man competition 😦 We weren’t the only disappointed people at the tram drop.
Ate a huge lunch/dinner then headed back to the hotel so the kids could pack for their flight.
Airports are emotional places…exciting for many who are off on adventures, scary for some who are going somewhere for maybe a less than nice reason or frightened of flying, sad for those seeing love ones off on their journey wherever that be too and exciting for those ready to go home from an adventure. We fell into the lags two categories. The kidults were excited to be going home, to see partners and pets they had missed for three weeks and to get back into their regular lives. Travelling is wonderful but there really is no place like home. Of course I fell into the second last category. I had tears watching my kidults as they waved goodbye having passed through customs and then heading off to their flight gate. They are confident seasoned travellers having made many trips overseas both together and with their friends. For me it’s the first time the tables have been turned and it’s me in the foreign country while they are home in Australia. I know I will miss having them on this last leg of the trip. We all had a wonderful three weeks full of laughs and adventures.
Anyway my sadness was short lived as I boarded the train at Frankfurt to Salzburg.Sound of Music land here I come!