Frankfurt, a modern city that dates back to Roman times.

We've been so caught up living in this old world charm of castles and quaint cobblestone streets in this country that we tend to forget that there are actually "modern" cities here, i.e. Frankfurt, that are less than an hour from our house.  The airport is not actually near the city (15 ride or so) and that is all we have really known of this major financial European mecca.

On our to-do list for some time has been the Frankfurt on Foot historical walking tour. We left home on this beautifully sunny day and headed to the TI in the Romer Square at 10:30, but first making a quick pit stop at the Starbucks on the corner across from the meeting point.  We met Dave, the tour guide who is originally from Ohio and has lived in Frankfurt for 9 years with his wife Jo who also does the daily tours.  Dave has been all over the world and was with the Army for 20 years.  He was a very interesting guy!  There were people from Australia, Hungary, Bulgaria and a number of Americans who were on layovers who were heading to South Africa and China.  Quite the mix of people.

T.G. Dave took us on a 3.5 hour, 7km tour of the city giving us history dating back 2000+ years.

St. Bartholomew's Cathedral (Kaiserdom) from 1152.

Although the dom was destroyed in WWII, it has been rebuilt with modern concrete and paint to imitate mortar and medieval bricks.  In front of the dom are Roman ruins.  Romans had settled Frankfurt by A.D. 100.

Archaeological ruins in front of the Kaiserdom

Just in our short time here in the Romer area, we were able to witness about 6 weddings.  They are quick right at the Town Hall and especially on a nice day like this they will cram as many in as possible.  They are not very large but, the bride and groom are still dressed up, and there were a lot of flowers.

The Town Hall (Romer) and the Romersquare

There are quite a few Jewish Sights in Frankfurt and I always find this part of history so fascinating.  Frankfurt is the birthplace of Anne Frank.  This link (pdf) gives some great depth to the Jewish population in Frankfurt.  The most impressive area was that at the neuer Börneplatz.

The block of stones in the middle of the sycamore trees were recovered remains of houses from those that were in the original Jewish Ghetto.

We made a short stop at the Kleinmarkthall, an indoor produce market that had abundances of fresh veggies, fruit, meats, cheeses, nuts galore.   Dave got a bratwurst and I snacked on a currywurst to tide us over till the end of the tour.  I neglected to get a picture of this cool looking area probably because I was too focused in finding something to eat but here is a link to the page to see some pictures of it if you are so inclined.  It's quite a fantastic place.  I'd go there everyday if I lived there!

Frankfurt is a very walkable city - it is actually funny to see the HoHo buses - as I will refer to the Hop-On/Hop-Off buses from this point forward.   We walked through a lovely park, by the Stock Exchange, past the Old Opera House, and by Bockenheimer Straße also known as fessgass (feeding street).  This street gets it's name from the number of restaurants and cafes that line the street but also where (back-in-the-day) cattle and pigs and other animals were allowed to graze freely there.  Since this is not really far from the main banking and shopping districts, it would make sense to have a street as such. 


The Hauptwache building used to be a house for the Frankfurt city militia in 1730.

To the right of the Hauptwache Square is the entrance to the Zeil (ts-eye-el) sycamore tree lined shopping street. In the pictures you'll see the cool modern architecture of the MyZeil shopping center. And speaking of modern architecture, being in Frankfurt it is not uncommon to look up and see something like the Eschenheimer Turm which is the only surviving remnant of Frankfurt's medieval fortifications built between 1400-1428 and the Skyper Tower that was built in 2004 and is 154 meters high. Quite the contrast huh?!  People actually call Frankfurt Mainhattan!  Main-River-Hattan-Skyscrapers :)

We ended our walk with T.G. Dave at St. Paul's Church - Paulskirche - which is the area known as the birthplace of German democracy, as the first gathering for a parliament took place here in 1848. The building was built in 1833. Completely gutted during the bombing of March 1944, the citizens of Germany donated what little bit of money they had to have this building reconstructed by 1948. This building is as important to Germans as Independence Hall is to Americans.

Paulskirche

After we parted the group we walked back to the area we started near the dom since there T.G. Dave recommended the Paulaner Pub (weizen beer that we like from München) we thought we couldn't go wrong for (another) bite to eat.  I had the Gulaschsuppe and it didn't disappoint, while Dave feasted on a very large schnitzel with bacon and a fried egg on it, with potatoes on the side, and a salad.  That boy can pack it away and not gain a pound, while I'm here digging out my "oh I'll save these pants...just.in.case...I put those 10 pounds back on."  Check that off the not-to-do list.

We checked into the Hotel Europa, near the main Hauptbahnhof in a good location which was a great place with free wifi, breakfast and free minibar!  4 bottles of water, 4 beers, 8 cans of soda, peanuts and candy bars - that's a first!  The super nice gentleman at the check-in even rode around the back of the building in our car so that he could move his car for us to take the spot since he said parking was expensive. 


Later that afternoon we found our way to the Main Tower where we would pay the 5,00 to go 650' above the city for an awesome view only to find an enormous line at the door and we don't really do lines.  The tower entry goes until 1am and although it would be neat to see, we'll save it for another time :)  We strolled around some of the areas that we had already been but took different streets and then walked along the river back towards our hotel.  Neither of us were very hungry so we walked about a block from the hotel to the Rick Steves' recommended Merkez Kebap Haus where they had pretty good Döners. I know I've mentioned them before, traditional Turkish, we really like the different Mediterranean Cuisine here.

On the way back we took an extended walk and dared to walk into the R.L.D.- the Red Light District to see what it was all about.  On the drive to the hotel we drove through and it was all lit up in the middle of the afternoon.  Now, this adult entertainment is booming business in Frankfurt and legal, and was still pretty lit up at night.  I don't think we were even 1/2 a block down Moselstraße when Dave firmly said, "let's turn around."  I'm quite sure the chicks I saw leaning against what was probably a brothel were not just getting fresh air, in fact after we turned around we witnessed them walking away with their "tricks"....creepy!!!

Looking down part of the Red Light District with the Main Tower in the back.

Back by the train station and our hotel was a very lively Irish Bar, O'reilly's where we had to go in for a Guinness and Kilkenny since it was St. Pat's Day.  It was jammed packed and there was a band but it sure didn't add up to actually being in Ireland!   You could hardly move and the music wasn't that good and our feet were tired so we enjoyed our free mini bar beers and called it a day.  Frankfurt is so close that there will be more trips there in the future.  We have to go back for the famous Apfelwein that Frankfurt is known for as well as festivals and concerts that will be in the area.  It was a fun day trip for sure!

LINK TO PICTURES:

Well captioned pictures of our day...(please comment if you are having trouble viewing)