Train hijinks

Train travel to reach my brother's place in Germany is a bit tricky, as I seem to (re)discover every time I go there. Grünstadt is here (first link is in German -- but it should be mostly readable using a translator).
From the airport, train to Mannheim. Then local train (S-Bahn) to Ludwigshafen. Must change there for Frankenthal, then again for Grünstadt. My no-sleep fuzzies left me forgetting the critical change in Ludwigshafen, so it took me and Annelie a bit longer to hook up than expected.

Eric and Annelie are separated right now (but not acrimoniously), and Eric was in Finland already anyway, so Annelie and I had a very nice visit, even if we did avoid some touchy subjects... We were also joined by Moses (the youngest of the brood at 20, must be 6'3"). Oh, bear was also there:


On Friday morning, after a brief shopping expedition for a most important canoe-trip component that is expensive in Finland: fuel, I drove to pick Moses up, so he could drive me to the other Frankfurt airport, which is probably 30-40km away from Frankfurt. There I boarded (after an interminable stand in line, reminiscent of other, now defunct, low cost carriers) a Ryan Air flight to Tampere, Finland.

For those who have not traveled Ryan Air, the seating is cattle-car, roughly ordered by checkin time (boarding pass has a number but no seat assignment). The seats have no back pocket containing anything, and snacks and drinks are sold on the flight (2€ for a soda, for example). Lots of sales pitches while on board. Oh, checked bag limit of 1, ditto carryon, both nominally with weight limits, although I didn't see them strictly checked).

More on Tampere next to come...