This afternoon I took a train to Frankfurt as I have a morning flight on to Tel Aviv on Friday.

At the Frankfurt Airport I will meet up with the other two members of our dig team. At least this time I don’t have to worry about a late flight.

After a morning of very productive meetings, a great lunch and then tying a few loose ends together it was time to head to the train station.

Because of track reconstruction the regional train, that would usually take me to the high speed train, has a long detour. Since my director lives in the town where I would have transferred to the high speed train I left the office with him and he took me directly to the station. We had even more time to work on our plans and strategy and recap what we completed this week. A very productive day.

 It was raining in Erfurt, but I was able to stay under the canopy until the train arrived.

I really enjoy taking the ICE train in Germany. The train makes good time and definitely eliminates the need to rent a car. It is nice that the hotel I stay at includes free public transit as a perk and so am able to get where I want in Jena without any problems.

There is a train station right at the Frankfurt airport so there are really good connections to other cities in Germany. In the picture above, I had just alighted from the train and decided to take a picture before it left the station.

I then went and checked in so that I will only have to drop my bag off in the morning.

I caught a shuttle to the hotel and have been furiously working to finish up some last minute work tasks and also repacking my suitcase so that it is ready for the flight.

I did have a nice little treat waiting for me. It proved to be enough to curb the hunger so I could skip a late dinner.

The repacking is almost done, so time to get a good night of sleep before the journey tomorrow.

I am ready to start my vacation!

Steven