Frankfurt am Main

Looking toward the CBD

We woke early and found that our apartment had a wide and expansive balcony that gave us a view from the west to the east. It was a nice outlook.

Apartments' courtyard

View from the balconey of apartment

It was over twelve hours since we had last eaten and Bev wanted breakfast so we went looking for a place in the local area settling on a bakery/café. The food was carb heavy but it did the trick. (Comment from Bev: Yum! – there will be a few of these added comments throughout as she edits my blog)

Our tram stop - cycle lane on my right

Just before we left New Zealand I had a message from Deutsche Bahn to tell me that the train we were going on from Prague had been cancelled and we had to find another way of travelling. The website was optimised for German speakers of course so I think the translated version was not as clear. I thought the easiest way to deal with it was to go to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof , the main railway station and talk to someone who understood the system.

We enjoyed the tram ride, particularly seeing what we missed on the way to our accommodation in the dark the night before . I had expected it to be well maintained but like big and small cities around the world, they have their problems. We saw lots of homeless people and the amount of graffiti was significant.

The main station is a massive structure and looks very Germanic but decide for yourselves after looking at the photo. Pity about the work being done around it and the picture doesn't quite show its size.

The man who looked after us found a couple of trains that would meet our needs but it does mean leaving at 6:31 in the morning. That was the only option if we were going to get to Zurich at the same time as originally planned.

My orientation is completely shot at the moment. What I think is north is south. I had to keep orienting myself to the sun. We wandered along the street that led directly from the station. It was full of vendors of various food items and it was largely pedestrianised which was a bit of surprise. Lots of middle eastern eateries lined the street.

When we popped out of the street we were in Willy Brandt Plaza where there is a large sculpture of the Euro symbol. These parks and plazas were a feature of the city centre and no doubt elsewhere. From there we wandered down to the River Main, a muddy looking river with lovely walks along both sides. On road abutting the river was a line of rather large buildings which I assume were once homes but many had been converted into museums.

We discovered that we had been doing a recommended tourist route when we later consulted a map we had obtained from an information centre.

We continued along a footpath lined with beautiful plane trees and then crossed over the iron bridge which took us into the new old town.

Houses converted into Museums

In 1944 the RAF had bombed Frankfurt and much of the city was destroyed including half timbered homes. The only thing that did not get destroyed was the cathedral although it was damaged. In 1960s the old town was reconstructed according to the records and drawings of the buildings. It did make me think that targeting civilian infrastructure is such bad way to conduct a war even if industries surround a city.

The New Old Town

It was there that we found a café that made very good coffee, even flat whites and I was able to get a decaffeinated one. We treated ourselves to a piece of carrot cake which ended up to not be such a treat due to the onslaught of persistent wasps which hovered over it.

The St Bartholomew Cathederal as noted earlier had survived largely intact from the WWII bombing. Over its lifetime it had been updated several times. The cathederal had been the place where the kings of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations had elected from 1356 onwards

We had a bit of rain during the day but not enough to stop us doing things. We found a large food hall with vendors of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, also some delicatessens and eateries attached to some. A bit like Paddy's Market in Sydney. We were going to have a frankfurter in Frankfurt but we were not sufficiently hungry enough do so.

By that time, after about 18K steps, we had had enough so we made our way back to a tram stop we had become familiar with.

Early evening we went looking for a meal, eventually choosing a Vietnamese place where we had some very tasty food.

It was a big day and I was pleased to get into bed and sleep.