Today we travel from Frankenberg to Tokyo by way of Frankfurt, Germany. We wake up at the Die Sonne and prepare to drive to Frankfurt for the afternoon before we fly to Japan. We rise and slowly go through the morning’s motions. We order our lattes and orange juice, I write and post, Bob gets his workout in, and I head out the door to take more detail photos of the Rathaus. It is utterly charming. Here are some detail photos plus a few last snaps of the town. Click on the right hand side of the image to scroll through.

I stop at the hotel gift shop for an item or two. We pack up, load the car and head to the grocery store to pick up Bob's gummy bear stash. Then we hit the highway to Frankfurt. It takes two hours to get there. We pass through scenic countryside, small towns with cottages, the compulsory church steeple and a castle or two thrown in for good measure. The sun peeks out here and there and a light snow is falling.

We arrive in Frankfurt and make our way towards Frankfurt am Main to the Hotel Steigennberger Frankfurter Hof. It is a beautiful older hotel with sophistication and pedigree. This is where Dean spent his weekend - some business, some well-deserved downtime. We meet in the lobby, drop some bags in his room and head out for a brief exploration before we head to the airport.

The Steigennberger sits right in the middle of a high-end shopping area with a mid-range galleria (indoor mall), and many traditional German restaurants (brauts and schnitzel and beer). We stop at a camera shop and Bob buys a camera charger. He then decides he would like another pair of shoes. Sensible shoes, he says. We brave the biting cold and head from store to store, but he finds nothing. So after an hour or two we go back to hotel for a light bite before heading out. The hotel casual restaurant is named Oscar’s Brasserie Moderne. The decor and menu are fabulous. Dean joins us for a beer. I choose a tuna tartare and a quinoa salad, while Bob has a chicken club. We eat, then gather our bags from Dean's room, get the car and head towards the Frankfurt Airport. The car drop-off goes off without a hitch and we go through security and passport control, ending up in the Lufthansa lounge. We are flying one of their partners, All Nippon Air, to Tokyo. Two hours until boarding. Time to type up my notes for the day so far.

The flight leaves Germany at 8:15pm on Monday night. After 11 hours in the air, we will arrive in Tokyo at 4:15 Tuesday afternoon. There is an 8 hour time difference. You do the math. Our strategy is to switch to Tokyo time as soon as we board and sleep lightly on the plane. Once we land and go through customs we should get to the hotel around 6:30 - 7:00pm Tuesday evening. Dinner, a movie, then bed, and pray to wake up Wednesday full of pep and ready to explore!

We board the plane at 7:45pm. Our Business Class seats go flat for sleeping and are generally pretty comfortable. My boots are already off and slippers are on! Our route takes over Helsinki, Finland and Tallin, Estonia, then north of St. Petersburg, over most of Russia, then over China and into Japan. We are well on our way at 9:00pm Frankfurt time. Only 5,961 miles to go.

The dinner menu comes, and offers both Japanese and International fare (Westerm). I am going Japanese. On the entertainment system, there are educational programs on Japanese culture and food. I am also going there. Might as well learn something. The first one is entitled: “Sushi and Beyond Episode 13: The Ramen King”. Let’s do it! I learn the basics of ramen. There are three basic types of broth, or dashi: soy based, miso based, or salt based. There are an endless variety of noodles and other additions to the soup, which contributes to its popularity. I finish that program and start one on Japanese floral arrangements when the first course comes: a caviar d’aubergine stuffed cherry tomato, quail and foie gras terrine, and a fig and almond flavored goat cheese mousse. The second course is three small dishes: miso grilled duck, wine steamed tomato, sweetened egg and fish cake, and jellied foie gras on closest plate; chilled udon noodle with grated yam in the upper left (sauce packet goes on); and simmered vegetables in soy based sauce upped right. Everything is chilled. I could live without the jellied thing.

I continue to watch Tokyo traffic and personal safety videos. The third course is steamed yellowtail amberjack with veggies, steamed rice, miso soup and Japanese pickles. I nibble at all since I am still kinda full from lunch. I use my chopsticks deftly for all except the miso soup. And then for dessert I chose a small little chocolate cake and have a few bites. Bob orders no dessert but eats most of mine. Sense a theme here?!! Dinner service is over, I finish up a 2 hour special of “Top Gear” and once it is done will try and get some sleep. It is almost 8 am in Tokyo. We have 8 hours of flight time left.

I manage to get three hours in and then start a movie. "Murder on the Orient Express" is excellent! I continue to click around, stretch, etc. There are three hours left and as far as I can tell we have traversed most of Russia and are headed towards China. Russia is huge!!

Two hours left and I believe they are serving breakfast. I want ramen. So I have some. Miso ramen. It is a breakfast thing, and it is delicious. I take a 45 minute snooze and we are now 30 minutes from landing.

We land and get through passport control/customs without incident, hail a cab and make it to the Mandarin Oriental by 5:30. We were all nodding off in the cab, but once at the hotel we perk up. It is beautiful. We get to the room, shower and then head to dinner at one of the hotel's seven restaurants, Signature. The four course wine pairing menu is perfect as we don't have to think, they just bring food. Pictures below. Tomorrow is the Tokyo whirlwind tour, and then Thursday I might just go to the spa and stay there. Tune in to find out.