fennkids

Well I made it home. Our last stop was in Frankfurt, Germany. The Nu Skin office is actually in another city about 10 miles from downtown Frankfurt called Eschborn. We arrived around 4pm to the hotel (after our taxi got a little lost). The hotel was suppose to be about 15 minutes from the airport, but somehow our taxi managed to take about 30. Anyway we decided to walk about 15 minutes to some restaurants and one the way we passed the Nu Skin office. They were still there so we went in to meet everyone. One of the staff was getting ready to leave and offered to drop us off in the city (Frankfurt). She dropped us off in the old part of the city along the river Rhein. (This is a picture taken from one of the bridges.) The old town square was crowded people building out booths for a fair that will start next week. Everything was being decorated for Christmas. We walked around for a wile and finally ended up at a German/Italian restaurant. We weren't very hungry so we ordered a personal pizza. We then went to a nearby ice cream shop and ordered some ice cream and crepes, hmmmm. The next day we were in the office all day until about 4pm. Because of some other things going on the office was closing at 4pm that day. Between the office and the hotel was a huge grocery store. Kind of like a super Walmart, but more groceries and less other stuff. We walked in and then realized we wanted a shopping cart and when we tried leaving a lady started yelling in German. We told her we didn't speak any Germany, only English so she started shouting around to all the other customers if there was anyone else that spoke English. Another lady came over and explained that you aren't allow to have bags in the store and you are suppose to check them at the service counter. She explained that the employee thought we were shoplifting. Nice. So we gave them our bags and found a cart and started our shopping. Some of the Nu Skin workers told us that a very typical German candy is the gummy fruit (bears, worms, etc.) So we looked for the candy aisle. We found it and you wouldn't believe the variety of gummy candy: bears, cats, strawberries, cherries, coke flavors, yogurt flavors, black licorice flavors, everything. I couldn't believe how many varieties of shapes and flavors. We bought quite a few and then went to check out the rest of the store. It ended up being 2 stories tall. So when we went on the escalator (more of a moving ramp) it was really cool because the cart had magnets on the wheels and it locked itself to the floor so it wouldn't roll back on us. Pretty cool. We finally got back to the hotel and grabbed a taxi going back to the city. This time the staff told us to go to a place called Kaufhof. It was pretty amazing. It was a 8 story department store. So picture a Mervyn's or JC Penny, but 8 stories. The top floor was all restaurants, but everything else was shopping. And it wasn't like a mall, it was one store. We left there and bought some bratwurst from a little booth and enjoyed some frenchfries and Bratwurst. Very good.
The interesting thing in Germany was how few people spoke English compared to Norway and Denmark. We asked about this and they said in Germany and France all the TV and movies are translated (dubbed), so they aren't exposed to a lot of English. However in Denmark and Norway almost everything is in English with subtitles. Also almost everyone in Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark) starts taking English in the 5th grade.
Well I'm home and rested. No mishaps on the flight home. Don't ever feel too jetlagged today (we'll see later this afternoon). Until next time...