Friday, May 7th

Wow! We are finally enroute! First day of our great adventure. A great flight from Moncton to Toronto. The flight crew was super. Met by Gerry's brother, Bill and taken to Donna's for cocktails. What a beautiful home, something you would see in "Better Homes!" Joined by Gayle, Gerry's sister-in-law and off to her place for wine and cheese before supper. Another lovely home with a fantastic garden. We watched "Something Got to Give." We yakked so much we missed half the story line. Gayle will rewatch it Saturday. Hit the bed around 1 PM and slept soundly.

Saturday, May 8th

The weather kind of changed our plans for a nature walk. It rained all day. Up at 8 AM and yakked as we sipped our spiked coffe until 10 AM. A delicious brunch at 11 AM. We then hit the road for a local tour and a little shopping. Stopped at a cute little coffee shop called Cappucino and Latte. We did a short river front walk despite the rain. Our umbrelas came in handy. Headed back to Gayle's where Gerry relaxed in the whirl pool tub. Gayle and I each settled for a shower.

Dinner was great with chicken breasts, salads, rolls and lemon meregne pie. We finished off another bottle of wine and headed for the airport. We talked so much again we missed the turnoff and had to circle back. Thank you Bill, Donna and Gayle for making our stay in Toronto so wonderful. Arrived in plenty of time and checked in with our complimentary 1st class upgrade. The new Terminal I in Toronto is nice and roomy but very COLD in appearance. I prefer Terminal III. We had to take a shuttle to another building for our flight Frankfurt, Germany. Excited, but anxious.

Sunday, May 9th

Business class was great, very comfy chairs with foot rests. We were given a nice amnenity kit: socks, eye shades, lotion, toothbrush, etc. I curled up at 11:30 PM for a few ZZZZZZ's. Gerry wined and dined on a Salmon Dinner, wine and Baileys. At 4:30 AM the hustle and bustle of breakfast woke us. A delicious continental breakfast followed by a bananna/strawberry smoothie. We had a shuttle from Frankfurt Airport to Hotel Morfelden. Must of been JETLAG because neither of us could figure out the door lock. Really child proof. At 3 PM we headed on an orientation tour of Frankfurt. The world's largest book fair is held in Frankfort annualy. It is a very modern city billed as " DOWNTOWN MANHATTEN." There is one historic section, Roman Square which houses the only two building which survived the 2nd World War. In 1945 much of Germany lay in ruins. Frankfurt was basically destroyed. Not a very historic or pretty city. Does not look like Europe at all or the place where Ludwig van Beethoven was born. There were signs of prosperity. Our tour guide and driver seem very nice and the group very friendly. We relaxed after dinner and prepared for an early wake up call.

Western Europe is a region which is, on the whole, highly prosperous, though it is relatively poor in natural resources compared to Canada. It has a large industrial base, much capital and Trade and Development, the World Court, which sits in the stately Peace Palace built with funds contributed by Andrew Carnegie in Hague, Netherlands, the International Labour Organization, the UN Industrial Development Organization, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Orgazization and a number of others.

Most Western European countries are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, and Finland remain neutral.

On this trip we will visit Germany, Ausrtia, Italy, France, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. We visited Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, United Kingdom, and Belgium on previous trips. That leaves Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland for futue trips.