May 23, 2018 Frankfurt-London, England

London – Friends Alain and Matthias

We departed our hotel in Frankfurt about 9:00 AM bound for the airport by train to our final destination, London. We arrived at our hotel near Paddington Station in the early afternoon. The MStay 27 Paddington Hotel on Craven Street was small, neat and clean but was a walk-up with no elevator. We walked to a nearby pub where we had a small bite to eat before meeting friends for dinner.

For dinner we met up with our friends Alain and Matthias from Stuttgart, Germany, whom we had met on our world cruise on Holland America Line’s Amsterdam ship in 2013. At that time, they were on a year-long trip around the world without the use of an airplane because Matthias has a fear of air travel. They had made a reservation at an Indian restaurant in the Chelsea District of town that had good reviews. The dinner was very nice but most of all we enjoyed catching up with each other’s lives and travels. They had recently purchased a condo in a village outside of Stuttgart. After dinner we had a drink at a local bar before returning to our hotel. We also have met them in other years as we’ve travelled to Paris and Lucerne. We also visited them in Stuttgart. We seem to meet up with them every year or so. They are quite the travelers!