Arriving in Frankfurt, Germany

I left Los Angeles on Saturday, April 23, flew first to San Francisco, and then to Frankfurt, arriving  at the  Frankfurt airport at about 9:30 a.m., Sunday.  My tour guide Zsofia picked me up a little while later and took me to our hotel––a Holiday Inn. I first asked her about where I could have Easter dinner––it was Easter Sunday, but she told me that Easter is not celebrated here with a special meal as it is in the United States. I next asked for directions to the Old City in Frankfurt, where I planned on spending the rest of the day. She directed me to a bus stop across the street. I asked the first driver of the bus to come along if it went to the Old City––no. Then I asked a German couple if they could tell me what number bus I should take––they read the schedule (reading a bus schedule in a foreign language is not one of my skills) and said no. 30, which never came. They took a no. 36 bus, which is the one I should have taken. So I walked to the Old City––a long walk but it was downhill. I took precautions about pickpockets on my walk and only carried my camera, my camera case where I put some money and a couple of other things, and a walking stick that I could attack pickpockets with (I’m not kidding about this as I have had trouble with pickpockets). However, no one approached me and I felt safe walking alone. Photo taken on my walk.

Frankfurt-am-Main

Frankfurt is known here as Frankfurt–am–Main (Frankfurt on the River Main). It is an international finance capital, with many glass–fronted high rises, but it still has many wonderful old buildings and a charming Old City. However, much of the wonderful old buildings that you see in Central/Eastern Europe are rebuilt copies of the original buildings that were bombed during World War II. So unless you have some specific information about a particular “old” building, you do not know if it is the original building, a renovated one, or a rebuilt one. Photo: More wonderful “old” buildings seen on my walk.

Frankfurt-am-Main

Another old building.

Frankfurt-am-Main

Many international conventions are held in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt-am-Main

Almost 12:50 p.m. McDonald’s time. About here I had to find someone who spoke English for further directions to the Old City. The third try was an English speaker.

Frankfurt-am-Main

More charming buildings. If I hadn’t walked, I would only have had a poor view of these buildings from the bus.

Frankfurt-am-Main: Lunch

I was getting hungry and stopped to eat here in the photo. There were a number of restaurants, each having several rows of tables each, with their menus on the tables. Since the menus were all in German and I couldn’t read them anyway (this was not a tourist restaurant, but one for the locals), I picked a table that was empty to sit at.  That’s a monkey staring down at us from the pedestal.

Frankfurt-am-Main: Lunch

Close–up of  the monkey.

Frankfurt-am-Main: Lunch

A retro ashtray on the table. I haven’t seen one of these in many years. The Europeans are still smoking.

Frankfurt-am-Main: Lunch

My restaurant.

Frankfurt-am-Main: Lunch

The menu. I was pretty sure what Frankfurter Wurstchen mit Sauerkraut und Puree was (I was right in guessing that puree was mashed potatoes), so I ordered it––anyway, everyone should eat a frankfurter in Frankfurt at least once––no?   7,50 euros (commas, not periods, are used in euro prices) is about $11.25 U.S. The tax is already included and you don’t have to tip if you don’t want to. I added a Coke Light (that’s Diet Coke in Europe) to my bill.

Frankfurt-am-Main: Lunch

I didn’t order soup, but I was served it. It was an uninteresting chicken broth.

Frankfurt-am-Main: Lunch

My meal. The sauerkraut was delicious––worth taking a trip to Germany just to eat it. The frankfurters were so so and the mashed potatoes not so good. I like German fried potatoes and would have ordered them if I had known their translation.

Frankfurt-am-Main

A menu here on a chalkboard––hefty prices. Multiply euros by 1.5 and you’ll get close to the price in U.S. dollars.

Frankfurt-am-Main

Another chalkboard menu.

Frankfurt-am-Main

Onward: a blend of the old and the new.

Frankfurt-am-Main: At the Main

I have reached the River Main. My instructions to reach the Old City was to cross the Main and then turn left.

Frankfurt-am-Main: At the Main

The Yachtklub.

Frankfurt-am-Main: At the Main

Looking to the left and uphill. I don’t know the name of this church. You see beautiful churches everywhere in Central/Eastern Europe.

Frankfurt-am-Main: At the Main

Close–up of the church steeple.

Frankfurt-am-Main: At the Main

View from the other side of the Main. You can take cruises along the river.

Frankfurt-am-Main: At the Main

Looking to the right and downhill. The Old City area  is here.

Frankfurt-am-Main: At the Main

Seen on the bridge. The Portikus sign is a direction sign to an exhibition hall, the Portikus, for contemporary art, built in 2006, and located on an island in the middle of the Main. It would have been an interesting walk to take.

Frankfurt-am-Main: At the Old City

I finished crossing the Main and turned left and reached the Old City. I also took note where I could catch the no. 36 bus back up the hill to my hotel.  The church is known as the Cathedral. It was begun in 852 and emperors were crowned here between 1562 and 1792. The building in front of the Cathedral is the Canvas House, Frankfurt’s oldest textile shop, dating back to 1399. It now houses an art gallery.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Cathedral

The top of the Cathedral. It is now 2:10 p.m.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Canvas House

Another photo of the Canvas House.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Old City

Easy to tell that I have reached the tourist area.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Old City

Near the Cathedral is the Archaeological Garden with excavations of a Roman settlement and a Carolingian (Frankish noble family) royal palatinate (a territory of the family).

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Old City

Behind the Cathedral.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Old City

A poster for an art exhibit at a museum behind the Cathedral.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Cathedral

The back of the Cathedral.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romerberg

The Romerberg––the Great Square. I loved it! Except for one half–timbered building here, all the other buildings were reconstructed after being bombed in 1944. Most of the Old City was destroyed at that time.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romerberg

Close–up of the statue seen in the last photo.

Frankfurt-am-Main–the Romerberg

Old Nikolai Church, the chapel of the Imperial Court from 1290 to the 14th century. The statue in the middle of the square is The Fountain of Justice.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romerberg

Closer–up view of Old Nikolai Church.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romerberg

View from the side of the Old Nikolai Church.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romerberg

The Fountain of Justice.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romerberg

Closer–up of the Fountain of Justice.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romer

On the other side of the square, the Romer. The second building from the left has been the town and city hall since 1405.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romer

Close–up.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romer

Close–up of the statues on the middle building.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romer

Closer–up of the statues on the left.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romer

Closer–up of the figures on the right.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romerberg

I sat at the back of a cafe (all the front tables were taken) and had a delicious sundae and a wonderful cup of German coffee. Re: the sundae. You can’t walk far in a tourist area in Central/Eastern Europe without running into an ice cream shop. It must be the most popular food in this area. I was talking to a German woman at the next table. We both agreed that sitting in this beautiful square, drinking coffee, and eating ice cream, with the weather so sunny and pleasant, was a little bit of heaven.

Frankfurt-am-Main: the Romerberg

You can rent these––I think they use peddle power.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

It was only a bit after 3 p.m. and I still had plenty of time to get back to my hotel for our tour group meeting, so I took a city tour on an open–top bus as I wanted to see what the rest of Frankfurt looked like. The tour was conducted in German but there were earphones available for non–German–speaking tourists. Since I only saw one other person using earphones, I assume that the other tourists on the bus were Germans who were taking an Easter outing in Frankfurt. Europeans get four days off at Easter time, so it is a travel weekend for many of them. Photo: St. Paul’s Church, made of red sandstone. It was the first seat of the German national assembly (1848/49) and is a symbol of German democracy.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

A pedestrian shopping and eating street across the street from the Romerberg. To the left, there were at least 100 restaurant tables crowded with tourists.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Seen on the tour.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

A city of glass.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

The Old Opera House, constructed between 1873 and 1880. It was bombed during World War II and was reconstructed between 1976 and 1981.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Statues on the Old Opera House.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Statue on top of the Old Opera House.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

A very colorful tram. The other trams were not so colorful.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Seen on the city tour.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

The Bockenheimer Warte subway station entrance, which looks like a train bursting out from below the sidewalk. You can look it up on the Internet for a better photo of it. It’s an artist’s creation.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Frankfurt’s Hammering Man statue. I knew that I had seen this statue before––in Seattle, Washington. From the Internet, I discovered that there are a number of these statues throughout the world: Seoul (the biggest one); Frankfurt (the second largest); Minneapolis; Basel; La Jolla, CA; Gainesville, FL; Lillestrom, Norway; and Los Angeles (my city––and I didn’t even know beforehand that we had one: in the downtown Garment District). The statue was designed by Jonathan Borofsky and it celebrates the workers of the world.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

A closer–up view of the Hammering Man statue. It was difficult to get good photos from this bus. You can see better photos of the statue on the Internet.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Seen from the bus.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Seen from the bus.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Along the Main River. People were sunbathing here.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

The Iron Bridge, over 100 years old.

Frankfurt-am-Main: City Tour

Crossing the River Main and going back to the Old City. I found the bus stop and took a bus back to my hotel.

Frankfurt-am-Main

I took this photo from my hotel room. I was told it was a restaurant.

My Tour Group

It was time to meet my tour group. This photo was taken several days later. We had 41 people on our Cosmos 15– day Central Europe tour (I am using the head “Central/Eastern Europe” for my photos as the area we visited is often referred to as Eastern Europe, not as Central Europe). Our main itinerary: Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and Munich, then back to Frankfurt. With a drive through Slovakia, a total of six countries.

My tour group count: 19 from Australia (with two originally from Malaysia), 7 from the Philippines, 6 from the United States, 2 each from the Bahamas, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, and 1 from Canada. I have never been on an escorted tour with so people from so many places before––this was a truly international group and also a great group to travel with.

Our Tour Conductor and Bus Driver

To round out our international group was our tour director, Zsofia, from Budapest, Hungary, and our bus driver, Mustafa, a Turk living in Germany. Both were great.

I ate dinner at our hotel with two girls––from Canada and the U.S. We all had pizza and I had my first German beer––both were good.