JourneyMonkey

Anybody out there watch Six Feet Under? How about the episode where David gets abducted by a hitchhiker and is forced to smoke crack at gunpoint? He screams "Why haven't I felt like this before!"

I started drinking coffee on this trip. I know how he feels. I also feel like my head's going to split open if I drink coffee for two days and stop on the third. When I drink coffee my heart rate increases, my fingertips go numb and I develop the social skills of a five-year-old.

I'd like to stop but Starbucks is everywhere.

Our last night in Frankfurt was spectacular. The rain cleared up and we went walking around that day, visiting the Goethe museum among other places. The museum is a relatively boring art museum, but the entire complex is built around Goethe's house. The house is really worth a visit with the wood burning furnaces, library and fabulous wallway clock worthy of your attention.

That evening we walked along the market strip on the way to Rama V, a Thai restaurant that Rachael remembered fondly from her last visit to Frankfurt. In the darkening early evening the entire market was even more magical. We ducked under a tent light by light bulbs strung in lines and drank more new wine from yet another winery. Surrounded by late-middle aged German women getting blitzed and doing shots, we appreciated how mellow and smooth this new wine was compared to the others. After enjoying the smokey-voiced women toasting each other and downing more shots and wine between cigarettes we head out to the restaurant.

Rama V is some of the best Thai food I've ever had, and that included my time in Thailand. Spectacular food and a beautiful decor made for a particularly enjoyable dinner. Honestly, this is a world-class Thai restaurant. If you've ever in Frankfurt check this place out. We'll post the address along with some of our favorite places on this trip in another post shortly.

It was kind of sad walking home because the market was closing up. We'd hoped to stay up until the early hours drinking with locals but it was not to be.

Long story short, we got up super early the next day, got to the airport and (miracles of miracles) got the first flight of the morning out of Frankfurt directly to Chicago. It was only coach but we finally had some good trip karma getting home.

I have to admit, it's nice to be home. But for all the difficulties we had on this trip it was the best time I've had on vacation in a really long time. Most of the time I would long for things at home when travelling but being with Rachael meant that I had what I most wanted there with me.

After much positive feedback from readers about the blog, the second thing most everybody asks is "Do you have any pictures?" Well, yes I have 13 rolls of film that I shot on this trip. I'm looking on having them processed before this weekend. I'm hoping to have some stuff posted to our JourneyMonkey Flickr account soon after that. Anything posted to the Flickr account will automatically be posted here on the blog as well, so you won't have to dig around looking for them.

And, yes, I know that if I had a digital camera you wouldn't have to wait so long. I'll switch to digital as soon as I can afford a digital SLR with equivalent quality as my 35mm so let the donations begin! :-)