We packed up in Hong Kong and made it to the airport in plenty of time, what an increadible airport! The kids loved catching the fast train to the gate. While we waited Max made use of the free airport wifi to write his blog.

We got to Frankfurt, on the way from the Airport I noticed the signs to Hannover. The next day in the Gym DW was reporting the opening of cebit in Hannover today. Until this point we hadn't worked out anything to do here. The place looks like a grown up and substantially richer version of Canberra. I got all excited until I found out Hannover was 3 hours away by car and 2 by train. No Cebit then, we found a laundromat and went and did that instead.

Once our washing was done we caught a City tour bus that flashed us around for an hour. Romerberg was the standout for me, this is the square where the Roman empire would elect new emporers as far back as 600bc. I figured this was a great place to share a beer with Max, but he told me he was too young. Emerson on the otherhand wouldn't give up the stein :) We had lunch in a little place in the square, had to have Sausages in Frankfurt right?

After lunch we set off for a walk around downtown Frankfurt. I guess I'm going to see loads more beautiful cities in the next few weeks, but on such a crisp bright sunny day it was fantastic to walk around and check out the downtown area. We found the stock exchange, the Guttenberg memorial and a fantastic shopping precinct. Everyone and everything was so beautiful. the little deli/butcher/sausage shops are only slightly outnumbered by the bakeries. The whole place look like DJs food hall. We were wondering where the ugly people and shops were. A few hours later we needed a grocer - after asking a local we decended into the subway and found all the ugly you could ever expect a city to have, they have to be commended on hiding it so well.

We had very low expectations of Frankfurt, it's a beautiful place with a few fantastic laundromats :)

PS: So I pulled the kids into the bathroom to show them the water spinning the wrong way, I made a big production got the video camera out and everything to get their reaction. Filled up the sink, they played SPR to see who would pull the plug, Max wins, pulls the plug and... The water was in a rectangular basin that defeats all whirlpools. The toilet wasn't much better, perhaps we'll find a bigger round bowl in Paris tomorrow.