To Frankfurt
Thomas had visited Germany on a school trip in high school and again with his brother a few years later. We had started talking about taking a trip there again ourselves, having only seen Berlin. Thomas readily agreed to go with us so we boarded a Delta flight to Atlanta where we met him before our flight to Frankfurt. Thomas had gifted us upgrades to Delta One for the flight over as birthday and Christmas presents so we enjoyed the lounge in Atlanta and the lie-flat seats for the long flight.
Frankfurt
We arrived in Frankfurt early in the morning on 19 August. We picked up our rental car and got some cash and drove to the Frankfurt City Centre and our hotel in Messe. We dropped off our bags as our room was ready ahead of time and started our walk to the S-Bahn station at Festhalle. Unfortunately, when we arrived there, we discovered the station was closed for construction, which had not been noted on the transport website. We started walking to Frankfurt Main but made a wrong turn and ended up walking through the financial district to the Alte Oper, which was one of the stops on our planned walk so we rearranged our walking tour and began wandering Frankfurt. There was a children's festival going on near the Alte Oper so the area was very lively.
Walking to the Main
We passed by the Frankfurter Goethe-Haus, Deutsches Romantik-Museum, the Institut für Stadtgeschichte and the Archäologisches Museum Frankfurt on our walk towards the Main.
Eiserner Steg
We arrived at the Eiserner Steg, a famous iron and concrete footbridge that connects the city centre and Römerberg with Sachsenhausen on the southern banks of the Main River. The neo-Gothic-style bridge was built in 1869. Next to it is St. Leonhard, built in 1219.
Sachsenhausen
After crossing the Main, we arrived in old Sachsenhausen, which was billed as offering rustic cafes offering apple wine, but nothing appeared to be open. So we settled for some sodas at a local grocery and made our way back across the Main.
St. Bartholomew's Cathedral
We stopped to take in the outside of the Frankfurt Kaiserdom (Imperial Cathedral), a gothic church known as St. Bartholomew's.
Römerberg
We reached the historic market square of Römerberg with historic medieval buildings and markets. The pink fronted The Haus Wertheym made it through World War II unscathed. We paused for photos of the three-stepped gable facade of the Röm complex and the Fountain of Justice. We considered getting some lunch, but most of the cafes appeared to be very crowded.
Klienmarkethalle
We walked next to the market at Kleinmarkthalle, a traditional market atmosphere with international specialities. We looked at some of the meats and cheeses but with a long drive and a day in Dresden ahead of us, we ended up not buying anything. We did find ourselves wishing there were markets like this back in the U.S.
Hauptwache
We made our way back to where we had planned to start, Hauptwache and its famous main guard house which was built as a military barracks in 1729. We stopped at a restaurant on the square, where we had overpriced sausage and schnitzel before going to the U-Bahn station across the street. We took the train to Frankfurt Main and made a short walk back to our hotel, stopping for some drinks at Skyline Plaza before giving in to jet lag and heading to bed for the night.
