Frankfurt (and its Hauptbahnhof!)

Welp, I'm up pretty early today... right? I didn't really get any sleep last night--I had to spend it in the Frankfurt main train station. But we'll get back to that... let's go chronologically. :)

Yesterday morning, I woke up very confused about where I was, why an alarm clock was sounding and who was talking to me, telling me to wake up. Then I realized it was 03.15h, I was in the house on the Mosel, and that was Mark talking to me. I got up and helped load the car so we could leave just before 04.00h for the Frankfurt Airport. Two hours on winding roads and a stretch of the Autobahn and we were at the airport before 6 and I said my goodbyes to Ginna.

We drove to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof where I attempted to purchase reservations on the trains to Paris for that afternoon... but they were all sold out. The Rugby World Cup is being played this weekend in Paris and apparently a lot of Frankfurters were going! So, I bought a reservation on the next available train... at 08.30h the next morning!

That day was spent exploring Frankfurt (including its Cathedral and the European Central Bank with its massive Euro symbol). I liked visiting the ECB but wish they'd lower their interest rates to help stem the rise of the Euro to the Dollar... the exchange rate has hit 1.43 dollars to the euro!!

Last night we went to dinner at a surprisingly expensive (compared to their posted menu--false advertising maybe?) but very tasty Lebanese restaurant just a few blocks from the Hauptbahnhof. Then it was back to the Hauptbahnhof for more waiting. Mark and Julie had an overnight train to Salzburg that left just before 23.00h but after that I was on my own in the station.

I wandered around that station some but didn't find anywhere that was particularly warm (it was a cold evening and could only get colder). I wound up back in the public waiting area near the center of the station that had many benches and some wind screens. I managed to get about an hour of sleep around 01.00h but was shivering far too much after that to sleep. At some point, I think around 3 or 4.ooh, I looked in my bag and saw my bottle of water was forming ice... So I decided to look for a warmer place and walked into the closed U-Bahn station underneath the main level and leaned against a wall for a while. After I started to feel a little better, I went back upstairs and miraculously found a very warm hallway (maybe 45ºF!) and sat on the floor. I noticed that some other people (both obviously homeless and travelers) had flattened cardboard boxes to sit on and I decided to find one for myself. After a brief search, I pulled a box from a trash pile (it was clean!) and that greatly improved the situation on the floor. About half an hour ago, I got up and went to get my baggage from my storage locker to avoid paying for a second day's storage. Now I'm in a relatively warm but phenomenally expensive (3€ per hour!) Internet Café in the station. My train leaves in about two hours and I can't wait!!