SOLO EUROPE III: DAYS 17-21 [FRANKFURT]
the next morning, i left bacharach to frankfurt. it was less than an hour train trip, so this was an easy travel day. frankfurt was originally not in my plans. i was going to fly home from munich, but frankfurt is a friendlier international airport & had affordable direct flights to lax so it was definitely a good detour. i think most people would say that frankfurt is not in their top cities to visit in germany. the city was destroyed during the war and unlike munich, did not reconstruct most of its old charm. i do recommend frankfurt because 1) it is convenient to fly to; 2) there is enough in the city to warrant a visit; & 3) it is a good place to use as a home base & take day trips out of as it is so well connected to the rest of germany (& europe) via train. i did 3 day trips to nearby cities: heidelberg, cologne, & wurzburg. even though i will cover the end of my trip in this post, i am going to add a couple more posts later of those day trips later.
i was pleasantly surprised by frankfurt. it gets a bad reputation for crime, legalized drug use, & having a red light district. yes, it is a bit gritty, but i felt more unsafe in munich which i was not expecting. i think if you grew up in a big metro area in the us, frankfurt will not be uncomfortable. i use to take public transportation daily to downtown LA & have spent significant time in LA & long beach, as i am from socal so the inner city exposure was not jarring. yes i saw homelessness & loitering in frankfurt, but i did not see public drug use or crime. i am aware though that i only got a glimpse as i only stayed for 4 nights.
the romerberg, the central square
after checking into my hotel & dropping of my backpack, i jumped onto the metro & made my way to the old town. before wwii, frankfurt had the most timber-framed buildings of any old town in europe. most of it is rebuilt as the medieval buildings were destroyed in wwii. most of these buildings were actually rebuilt in the 1950s & 60s, though a large section near the cathedral was only finished in 2018. while in this area i found a cute book store that also sold ink sketches of the city. i got a small black ink sketch of the romberg.
the first stop was the historical museum of frankfurt. this museum is actually several museums in several of the buildings in old town that are connected by hallways & staircases. there are many collections of all types of things. i wandered around for a couple of hours. you can definitely get lost. there are even roman ruins.
the old staufer toll tower, a part of the museum & original (over 800 years old!)
a measure of the worst floods inside the toll tower
there are exhibits called "frankfurt then?" & "frankfurt now!"
after i walked around the old town & ended up getting my lunch at a hessian style stand. i love finding good & convenient food & this was it. i got the traditional frankfurter sausage with potato salad (it seemed like the most appropriate choice as i was in frankfurt). it was so good, though the bees thought so too. i sat on some stairs while i ate, enjoyed people watching, & had bees land on my potato salad.
alten limpurg sausage stand
the next stop was towards the cathedral where many of the buildings were only built & completed in the last 10 years.
the reconstructed renaissance facade of haus zur goldenen waage (the original was from 1619)
the frankfurt cathedral was damaged, but stayed standing after wwii (c. 1867 - gothic style)
the interior was completely destroyed during wwii
i decided to be bad & get some ice cream :)
after looking at some stores, i made my way to the main river to the sachsenhausen district. i read this was the other historical area of frankfurt with old historical buildings, but maybe i missed it. i only saw restaurants & other businesses; no interesting points of interest.
eiserner steg (iron footbridge). the old bridge was blown up by the nazis, but rebuilt in 1946.
the german film museum
the one museum i did have planned in this area was the german film museum. i saw relics from such movies as star wars, et, the birds, & alien. there were also some cool interactive exhibits where you could see yourself on camera. i also enjoyed the compilation of movie clips that compared movies with topics such as music, lighting, setting, & color. it was cool to see how the commonalities between movies & maybe even how one might have inspired another. i was happy to see one of my favorite movies included - alfred hitchcock's notorious starring ingrid bergman & carey grant! there was also a special exhibit on women in film during the weimar period. i did enjoy my time, but preferred the film museum i visited in berlin in 2017.
an alien prop
after walking for a bit, but not seeing anything interesting, i took a tram back to the main train station. i decided to be lame & eat at the food court. i was pleased as they had many options, including dean & david (a find i found in salzburg, but also enjoyed in munich). i ended up having a noodle dish & a mango & coconut chia pudding. i also bought a sparkling apple juice (one of my favorite drinks in germany) & a small pistachio cake to bring back to the hotel.
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i am skipping ahead as for the next 3 days i took day trip & for the first 2 of those days, ended up returning to my hotel room after those day trips. during my last day full day of my trip, i made my back to old town & the sachsenhausen district.
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the view of "mainhattan" on the ironfootbridge
it was a last minute addition, but i decided to go to the stadel, the most popular art museum in frankfurt & also one of the most important in germany. the museum covers 700 years of art. below are a couple of my favorite paintings i saw.
sandro botticelli, one of mt favorite artists
this was my favorite schnitzel from my trip. it was huge & i learned that there is a style (jaeger) with gravy & mushrooms.
i then made my way to back to the train station to get some dessert, which was a super fancy chestnut dessert. i wanted to celebrate my last night. i brought the dessert to my hotel room so i could also pack. as a carry-on girl, i always need to clean out my pack to keep it extra light. now more about the hotel...
i wanted to stay at a hostel, but the only one near the station got bad reviews for the area (though good reviews for the accommodation itself). people said they felt unsafe during the walk & questionable people would loiter the entrance. i knew i would have to navigate around this because the train station is considered seedy (has a homeless problem & is near the red light district) but i also wanted to stay close since i would be using the central train station daily for the next 4 mornings. i am wary of staying near areas where there are prostitutes as i was mistaken for one in nuremberg in 2017 (i was literally wearing an oversized shirt, leggings, & sneakers). instead, i chose a hotel that offered single person occupancy (& free breakfast which was absolutely glorious). this worked out so well. the hotel was across the street from one of the side entrances of the station. i would walk between the hotel & station in the mornings when it was dark & never felt unsafe. it probably did help that there was a police station across the street. i am aware that i only got a glimpse of the city, but like i said before, munich seemed to be way more shady.
the hotel
my room. a really decent size for one person. unfortunately i had to keep the windows closed as there were mosquitoes (i discovered this the hard way).
the breakfast was absolutely wonderful. by far the best free breakfast from a small hotel (oslo's best western will always be the best). they had the usual for germany, breads, cheeses, cold cuts, fruits & veggies. they did have hard boiled eggs which is a good addition for most (you will rarely see an egg), though i only like my eggs scrambled. the best thing they had though was an espresso machine. i always got 2 cups a morning. i still think about this breakfast. also there was rarely anyone eating when i was there, so i had the kitchen to myself.
my glorious last breakfast. i am happy with espresso, cheese, & bread as a meal.
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frankfurt train station.
i left my hotel room & took a direct train to the airport. i had a bit of panic & thought maybe there was a second airport i did not about & that is where i was supposed to go (i do not know why i though that). luckily a girl on the train knew english and reassured me there is only 1. navigating the airport was so confusing. i had to check into one terminal, but my flight was at another. employees were not helpful. germany is not known for their customer service. very often, they will be mad you are wasting their time (though it is their job). another unfortunate thing is how few food places there are for how many flights there are. everywhere i went there was were crowds of people ordering food (not even lines). out of all the airports i have been to, i have never seen this.
since airlines were pretty affordable (and the conversion of the us dollar to the euro was the best it has ever been for my travels), i decided to upgrade the flight. i was only one step above economy (and still below business), but this allowed me to have 2 meals, more leg room, & a random bag of essentials. i was convinced due to the meals as this was not a red eye (i will skip meals for a10 hour flight if it is at night). it was still airport food, but i enjoyed the variation & the random snacks in between, including ben & jerry's ice cream! there was also champagne, but i do not drink. i know i paid for it, but the snacks felt like a little treat. i also got lucky that in my row of 3, the middle seat was empty, so me and the the other aisle girl used the seat to store our crap & not keep anything by our feet. during the flight i watched 3 movies: before sunrise, before sunset, & what a girl wants.
it felt fancy to have ben & jerry's as part of my meal.