Day 29 of the Walk to the World Cup – JUNE 7th

Lorsbach to Frankfurt Niederrad – almost there

I’m writing today’s diary sitting in the motor home waiting to meet our German hosts for our stay in Frankfurt. Last night the sauna and massage were good and my legs felt less sore and stiff this morning. The last day of what has become a strict routine, up at 7.30, breakfast at 8.00, walking before 9.00. This time it was only a short hop back to Lorsbach where we finished yesterday and Sandra helped me to find the path through the woods that avoided walking on the busy road.

The sun was shining brightly, the best weather of the walk for the last full day, but it was cool and dark in the wood with a couple of joggers and several walkers as companions – haven’t seen many of those over the last 4 weeks. Into Hoffheim, market day and the town looked good in the sunshine with lots of people about. Bought some wrapping paper for Sandra for the gifts we have brought for our hosts.

It was only 3K from there to the Sportshalle in Hattersheim where we have arranged to meet Ursel this evening. On the way I had a phone call from Stephen, a Brit-in-Frankfurt who has corresponded with me by email offering support. RTL were interested in running a story for their 6pm ‘Guten Abend’ TV show and I arranged to meet them at the Rathaus in Hattersheim. On the way to the Rathaus with Sandra, we met the reporter Sabrina and the camera man and decided to shoot the piece in the car park near the motor home - saving me a 10 minute walk. The filming took 30 minutes culminating with Sandra’s first ever TV interview – she was brilliant but can’t remember a word she said.

Sandra and I had decided to walk as far as we could to the Arena today and set off around midday with the temperature rising and the sky still very blue. We knew we had to get around the huge Hoechst industrial complex and intended to follow the Main until close to the Arena and then catch a train back to Hattersheim. We had a break for some lunch before tackling the Hoechst site and it was a longer and more mixed walk than either of us had imagined. Along with pretty, river-side parks, there were a number of other big factory sites – reminding us of Germany’s industrial strength as well as its love affair with forests and the great outdoors that we have seen so much of over the last 10 days.

Walking through one park, we were stopped by a lovely German lady, who spoke no English but managed to tell us that she had read our story and seen our picture in the paper today – the Frankfurter Rundschau as we later found out. By 4.00 p.m. we were at Frankfurt Niederrad station only a short stroll from the ground – a walk I will make later in the week. We took a train back into the Hauptbahnhof and from there to Hattersheim. A cappuccino and cake at an outdoor café and here we are waiting for the next part of our journey to begin.

Distance covered – 16.3 miles. Total covered – 545.9 miles