Perth, Western Australia - Family, Friends & Wine, lots of wine...
We walk to the Berlin bus station and take a bus to the airport, then catch a 9 hour Scoot flight to Singapore. We’ve been to Singapore many times and we just have a few hours, so we have breakfast and wait for our 5 hour Scoot flight to Perth, Western Australia. Paul grew up in Perth and we lived here for 12 years just after we got married. We got family and fabulous friends and we haven’t been back for almost 8 years. We spend the first week catching up with family as we have a big family over here. Then we catch up with lots of awesome friends. After living in Portugal for over four years, we feel like everything in Australia is HUGE, the houses, the cars, the backyards, there’s so much space in this beautiful country. We also go to the shops and think everything is so expensive, then we suddenly realize we’re still thinking in Euro, so, it’s not so bad after all. Of course we get more than our fair share of some fabulous Australian wine and produce. What a great country. After 3 weeks of wining and dinning with family and friends, we make our way back to Portugal. We fly Thai Airways from Perth to Bangkok then from Bangkok to Frankfurt, Germany.
Frankfurt am Main, Germany – Great food, fabulous beer and a lovely city
We arrive in Frankfurt very early in the morning and catch the metro to the Central Station. Our hotel, EasyHotel is just 300 metres from the station, so we walk there. It’s too early to check in but we explain that we just flew in all the way from Australia, so, they let us check in but charge us an extra 10 Euros. Wow, it’s Paul’s birthday, we are tired but we also want to celebrate. We also want to see Frankfurt as we only have two days here. We go out and try to catch the Free Walking Tour before having a nice lunch but, as it starts raining torrentially, we can’t do either. So, we get soaking wet trying to do it but at the end, we walk into a supermarket, buy some wine, stop by the Turkish restaurant nearby the hotel, have a quick lunch and go back to our room to watch a movie.
Well, our plans were just postponed for one day. The next morning the sun is out and so are we. We begin the day by doing the Free Walking Tour and we learn a lot about the history and culture of Frankfurt. Yes, Elvis was stationed here during WW2 when Germany was divided into 4 zones after the war, Frankfurt belonged to the Americans. According to our tour guide, this generated many new issues for the city, such as drugs, prostitution as well as a huge black market. The red light district and a big drug scene are still part of the city culture, however, signs of gentrification can be seen everywhere. Frankfurt was, of course, flattened by the bombings at the end of the war and only one church survived in the city centre. Most of the old city have been very well rebuilt with lovely houses, churches and historical buildings.
There’s also a museum district and the city location, just along the Main River, makes it a very walking and cycling friendly place. We go for a gorgeous lunch at a very traditional German restaurant and have scnitzel and pork knuckle washed with some delicious German beer. What a fabulous day! After walking around all day, after all we had to pack 2 days of sightseeing into 1, we head back to our hotel as we leave for the airport at 3.30AM. Well, after a short Ryanair flight we get back to Lisbon and after a metro ride and a train ride, we pick up our car and head back home, after all, we still have a house to renovate… will see you guys soon at the next trip.
