It's tough to leave Alaska at the beginning of Summer, just as the cold gives way to the warmth, but with school out, now was the time to break away for a vacation to see some of Europe. Here, Jolene and I pose with the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
"Please hold on to the handrails".
Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof (central train station). It lays claim as Germany's busiest train station, built in 1888, and can load/unload 26 trains at once on separate platforms.
As pictured from the air.
Here we enjoy some German hamburgers on the streets of Frankfurt. Frankfurt is considered the geographic center of the European Union. Founded in 146 AD, by a Frankish King who named it "Frank Ford" after his own lineage and the low water ford of the Main River nearby. Largely independent for most of it's history, it became a central city of the Holy Roman Empire before becoming part of present day Germany. It was heavily bombarded in WWII, and the site of a river assault and fierce US/German urban combat before being taken by the 5th Infantry Division and 6th Armored Division of the US Army on 29 March, 1945. Today it is the transportation hub of the EU.
The Hauptbahnhof's facade features Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders, being helped by two figures representing "iron" and "steam", fitting for a train station of the 1800's.
Waiting for our bullet train.
Posing next to our inter-city express, which took us from Frankfurt to Paris in 4 hours, at a speed of ~200 mph.
Enjoying the German countryside zooming past the windows on the train.
The French countryside.
At 200 mph, I took a lot of unusable pictures. But tried to capture some of the small German towns along the way.
Mostly we just enjoyed the view from the train, but I occasionally captured some of the passing scenery as we neared Paris.
Stand by for many Eiffel Tower pics....day 1 of Paris was a trip to the tower.
The base of the tower is under construction/repair, but there are still many angles you can use to capture its massive size.
One of my favorite pics we took.
Taking a ride around the tower.
Typical Paris street off of downtown.
By this time, jet lag was catching up with us. Took a picture of this unique building in the middle of modern Paris, but forgot to look up what it was. After a quick dinner, we turned in for an early evening. We'll be in Paris two more days before traveling to Normandy. We're just hitting some of the highlights in each place we tour - there's lots of sites in Frankfurt we didn't see in our half day there, and I'm sure we'll see just a portion of Paris over the next couple of days - but we'll try to see as much as we can.
Thanks for sharing your vacation.
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