For your last days in Frankfurt ...final travel details

Berlin, DE -- Morning, folks! You're likely wrapping up your trip to Berlin now and in this case, I hope that you're enjoying your final day in the city. I'm writing to update you on the final days of SPICE and give you some tips on getting home safely and efficiently. A few notes:

• Your last of classes is Sunday August 4. This will also be your last night in Erfurt, as you'll be spending Monday night (August 5) in Frankfurt. 
• Your flights are all scheduled for various times on Tuesday August 6. 

To manage all of this, here's a suggested itinerary for you all: 

• Very soon, contact SPICE (spice@uni-erfurt.de) to arrange for the group to check out of their apartments on Monday, August 5. Damien, you'll probably need to send a separate email and for other four students (since you're all sharing the same apartment), only one of you needs to email SPICE. I would send this email as soon as possible, so that you are on their checkout schedule. 
• I would plan to leave Erfurt around lunchtime, after you've finished checking out of the apartments. If you have a day left on your passes, you can use this day to get from Erfurt to Frankfurt, and I would recommend the train below. UPDATE: I've made five seat reservations for the group, Wagen 23, Seats 71, 72, 73, 74, and 77. This spot also has a luggage rack next to it, and additional storage behind the seats!
  
  
  NOTE: If you all would like, I can make seat reservations for the group to use this train. If so, please let me know as soon as possible, as I will need to close the SPICE budget once I return to the US. 

• The train above will put you at Frankfurt ab Main Hauptbahnhof around 2:36, which is great timing for checking into your hotel for the night. Your hotel is the ibis Styles Hotel Frankfurt City at Moselstraße 12, and a walking map from the train station to the hotel is included below. The walk should take no more than five to 10 minutes.
  
  

• If you want to save yourself the exhaustion of lugging all of your bags to the hotel, you can use the storage lockers at the Frankfurt main station to store your larger bags overnight. I don't recall the price (it's only a few euros), but you are allowed to store bags for 24 hours
• When you get to the hotel, each student has a reservation in their own last name, so please be sure to have your passport ready. 
• As for what to do in Frankfurt? You'll definitely want to visit the Romer -- the old city center. From there however, you're in luck: you'll be in town for the final day of Mainfest 2019: https://www.frankfurt-tourismus.de/Media/Veranstaltungen/Mainfest-2019. Don't miss it! 

With all of this in mind, your final "job" is to get back to Frankfurt Flughafen so that you can all make your flights. My only advice here would be to (a) give yourselves plenty of time (at least three hours in advance of your boarding time) and (b) remember that you'll need to purchase a train ticket back to the airport -- although you could also consider booking an Uber or Lyft or even splitting a cab, given that you're five people. Some details on purchasing return train tickets on the local public train system: https://www.frankfurt-airport.com/en/travel/transfer.detail.suffix.html/article/travel/directions/local-public-transportation.html. To be safe, my recommendation would be to get up early and head over to the airport as soon as you can, as you can have breakfast and/or lunch there, as well as handle any last-minute souvenir shopping. 

I'll be back in the US during this time, so please reach out to me via email if you have any additional questions or concerns. Otherwise, safe travels and enjoy your last days in Germany!