Even Though we had the option to sleep in, Brenda and I went ahead and got up around 5:30 a.m. We told Sharon, another gal in our group, we were going to breakfast around 6:50 a.m. and she said she would meet us down there. We sat and talked for almost 1 1/2 hours - it was quite delightful! The three of us decided to go to a couple of stores. Since we had packed the night before, we had about 2 hours of free time this morning. We went to a bazaar and a pottery store. The owner of the pottery store told us a bit about herself and her pottery. She suggested buying the signed pottery. Brenda and Sharon both purchased an item.
When we got back to the hotel, we got some bad news: Marsha had fallen in a store and had hit her head on the floor. She walked back to the hotel and was fine. But when she reached her room, she passed out. George, our guide, immediately arranged to take her to the clinic a few blocks away. While they went there, we went on to our room , set our luggage outside the door to be picked up at 10:30 a.m., and checked out. We walked over to the grocery store because there was a sign for a dentist's office that I wanted a photo of.
When we got back to the hotel, we stood around and chatted with a few others for a few minutes. Brother David, then, gathered us all together for an update on Marsha: He said she was fine but the doctor wanted her to go to the hospital to get a cat scan just to be safe. They arranged to taker her to a Christian/French hospital and to get a cat scan done immediately since we had a flight to catch. We were supposed to have gone to "the upper room" today but that had to be cancelled. We very quickly loaded the bus and headed to the hospital. Nassar, our bus driver, drove us all to the hospital, they did the cat scan, and said it all looked fine and she could fly home. Yea!
We headed on to the airport and said our goodbyes to Nassar, the driver. George went into the airport with us. We went through the first security area with our bags - they asked us questions about where we had been, did anyone give us gifts, had we stayed with our group the whole time, etc. Several of us had to have our luggage manually searched including Brenda and myself. We went over to the security station where they asked if we had any books in our bags. We did. They wanted to know where we got them. Brenda had to open one of her bags for them to look but they only glanced in it. Then we went to check our luggage in. The agent was able to seat Brenda and I together all the way to St. Louis. We were happy about that.
We had to go througha second security area where they x-rayed our carry-on bags and we had to walk through a metal detector. The next stop was passport control where they took our passports, stamped them, and basically said nothing to us. We all walked to Concourse C to make sure we knew where it was. At that point, we had about 1 1/2 hours before boarding began. We had not eaten lunch, so we grabbed a bite to eat- most of us went to McDonalds. Brenda and I also got ice cream - by then... we were stuffed!!
We walked around the shops a bit and went to our gate. We boarded shortly after we got there. The flight was not full, so Brenda and I were able to move to the middle of 4 seats that we had all to ourselves. We were flying to Frankfort, Germany where we will spend the night. Our flights was going to be about 4 hours long. We had dinner on the flight but it wasn't very good so we were glad we had grabbed a late lunch! The flight was uneventful. We did some puzzles, I snoozed a little. Brenda stayed awake the whole time - she said she deserved a "mark on the wall" for that - she usually falls asleep whenever she sits very long.
When we arrived in Franfort, we didn't have to get our luggage, so we went on through passport control and had no problems there. Mia, an agent, met us at the baggage area near the exit and took us to the bus which transported us to our hotel which was only a few minutes from the airport. We checked in and went to our rooms. We needed an adapter so we went to the front desk to get that. Marsha and Glen, a couple in our tour, were eating in the dining room so we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. Kathy and Ralph, another couple, also stopped by. We went on to our rooms and were in bed by 9:45 p.m. On the itinerary, our flight was not supposed to get in until 10:00 p.m. - it was an error, we actually got in at 8:00 p.m. That was nice; now we can get a good nights sleep. The hotel we stayed at was very modern and very nice!
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