Up at 5:00 am-leave MAINGAU HOTEL at 6:00 am-walk, pulling luggage, through empty streets to train station. Take 7:45 train straight to airport-walk long ways to our gate-arrive at 9:20. Glad we started early, Frankfurt Airport is much larger than Austin’s. Plane leaves around 10 am-arrive in Austin at 2:30pm. (9:30 pm in Germany) HARLEY & LIBBY greet us at the door. JILL & her son GUS are at a Willie Nelson concert. Glad to be home-start washing clothes & go out to eat. Try to go to bed at 11-fire works going off. Been up for almost 24 hrs. Next morning, up working in yard. Get dizzy, head starts spinning-can’t stop until I fall into some concrete blocks. Armand takes me to emergency room. Try not to scare JILL & GUS-my face is a mess. Turns out I had my 1st bout of VERTIGO. We are so grateful to JILL for taking such wonderful care of HARLEY, LIBBY & THE FISH. It was a pleasure to meet her son GUS-who got to visit for a week. They took an opportunity to visit Austin- Jill loves to swim & ride bikes. Armand took them to the airport on Wed to fly back home to Florida. JILL & SON GUS-LIBBY BETWEEN THEM & HARLEY SOAKING UP ATTENTION THANK YOU SO MUCH. LOVE, KAREN & ARMAND

This was probably our last trip to Europe-I’m glad we did it with our grandsons, PATRICK & PHILLIP & JOHN & AMY. No trip would be possible without ARMAND in front of me leading the way, pushing me from behind or beside me telling me he LOVES ME. Not exactly true but every story needs a HAPPY ENDING.

Walk to bus station-60 degrees-Armand stops for rolls-sit at outside table & eat breakfast together for the last time- never happen back in Austin. Buy all day bus pass. See bus going to GATEWAY GARDENS-I want to go. What a mistake-NO gardens it’s a business complex-not even 1 flower. Now going through airport- now driver says we have to get off. Run catch bus going other direction-it starts to have trouble- no stops, takes us back to starting point 2 hours later.

Go back to bus/train stop. Ask for sights to see. All museums closed on Mondays, suggests taking train downtown. Meet RITA, who not only tells us which train to get on, tells us when to get off, then goes with us to explain what we need to see. How nice of her to spend so much time helping us. Go into fancy department store to restaurant on 7th floor for view of city.

Now on to visit our last CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL-ST. BARTHOLOMAUS. Visiting these churches brings me a since of peace and appreciation for how religion has been so influential in the lives of so many people dating back thousands of years.

After walking back and resting, we sit on benches in the park and down by the river and people watch. Something we never do in Austin because most of the time we are the active people. We saw people playing ping pong, fathers playing basketball with their kids, father playing ball w/2 yr old, bikers, runners, people walking little dogs (dogs can go everywhere). Walk to river- sit on ground. Geese & pigeons walk by. Paths are full of active people and families of all nationalities. We will miss Germany.

Leave early in the morning. This is our last biking trip in Europe. So glad we got to share it with John, Amy, Patrick and Phillip. (& SPARKY & ARTHUR)

Looking forward to going home and seeing HARLEY AND LIBBY. Am so appreciative to JILL who has taken care of them for 3 weeks. Also need to wash clothes-ONLY WASHED OUR CLOTHES ONE TIME ON TRIP.

Leave hotel at 7:30. Other group still there. Walk to train station. Ask for help to make sure we are in the right place. John & family are now across from us getting on a train to BERLIN. Train goes over 150 mph at times. We arrive at FRANKFURT AIRPORT. Ask for help- man directs us to Another train that takes us 5 min from MAINGAU HOTEL. We are back to our starting point where our adventure started on June 14th. At least it ended better than it started. 10:30-leave luggage-go for breakfast. Watch IRON MAN competition on TV. It”s taking place down by the river-a 10 min walk from the hotel. Decide to go- very impressive. I’m even more impressed to know that my son JOHN completed an IRONMAN also, running his 1st marathon. I’m tired watching, go eat Asian food. Then sit in our park across from our hotel and watch all the families out together on Sunday. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Can’t ask Armand-he’s sleeping 😴

Put luggage in front of door-eat last breakfast alone-6:30 am-leave OLYMPIA for the last time pulling suitcases to our new home URBAN LOFT-65 degrees. Leave luggage at hotel-go to huge Catholic Cathedral. Starts to rain-text Amy we are going to mass at 9. Amy, Patrick & Phillip join us. John shares information about church. K & A decide to tour city on Hop on Hop off bus. Almost fall asleep-go back to start- go to hotel-take nap. I love our room-seems so big after boat- especially bathroom- very modern. Take another 90 min tour of city- never get off bus. PHILLIP loves German food- meet them for our last meal. Armand & I are very fortunate to be able to spend time with John, Amy & our fantastic grandsons Patrick & Phillip. Get to talk to Jennifer & Nathan tonight in Austin. Ready to go home.