FRANKFURT, GERMANY
Lee Heidhues 12.2.2023
Our experience in Germany 🇩🇪 is coming to its conclusion on a cold dreary early December afternoon in Frankfurt. Looking out at the skyline from our redoubt in the Willy Hotel on Neue Mainser Strasse just yards from the Opera House
Our nearly month long time in Germany has provided us with a snapshot of the cultural change sweeping the country. We met with and were treated kindly by many emigres. Turks. Persians. Asians. Italians. Africans. These new arrivals have transformed Germany 🇩🇪 And for the better.
Despite this immersion in the new multi cultural Germany, our health travails in Germany 🇩🇪 continue as Liz missive to a friend in San Francisco recounts.
Rather than experiencing the Museums and sites of Berlin and Frankfurt we have become immersed in the German healthcare maze.
We have had to jettison luggage prior to our return to San Francisco. Necessitating trips to the Deutsche Post in Berlin and Frankfurt. Shipping 45 pounds home to avoid schlepping our belongings through the airports. And leaving one piece of luggage behind.
We were both laid low by a virulent virus sweeping Berlin.
We arrived in Frankfurt. Liz suffered a debilitating ankle injury. Resulting in three visits to a clinic. Lab work and diagnosis requiring immediate treatment upon our return after the upcoming arduous 11 hour flight.
The kindly and always attentive manager, Charlie, at the Willy Hotel has gone above and beyond in providing customer service. When we told him about Liz debilitating ankle injury he found a vacuum cleaner hose to use as a make shift cane.
We did have some unique moments in Frankfurt. Having seen few Asian folks in Berlin we felt more at home in Frankfurt. Staying in the Willy Hotel. Managed and staffed by Chinese emigres. Eating dinner several times at a Asian Fusion restaurant. I told the server it was very reassuring to be around people we feel most comfortable.
Top photo. The European Union insignia shines in the Frankfurt night as omnipresent cyclists pedal by.
Lee's Perspective 