Ah, another opportunity for a 3-day weekend. Where should we go this time? Let’s keep it local and go somewhere in Germany. Frankfurt looks like a short drive away, let’s do it! As per the usual schedule, we started planning our Frankfurt trip about 3 days before we actually went. Luckily, one of my colleagues at work lived and worked in Frankfurt for 2-3 years. He was very helpful in giving us recommendations for places to eat, places to go, and things to do. After a nice long training session from him on the merits of Frankfurt, I had my list of recommendations and was ready to go.
Like usual, we tried to get the cheapest hotel possible but in a good location. This resulted in the Grand Dream Hotel. What a nice name for a hotel, ahem (*raising eyebrows*). We drove from Cologne to the hotel relatively smoothly. After settling in at the hotel, we set out to explore the town.
We followed our normal strategy of walking towards the old town square and seeing where we ended up. As usual, we found a distraction that was worth a detour. On the way to the square, we saw a place called Kleinmarkthalle, or “small market hall”. Even though we stumbled upon it, this was one of the places that my coworker recommended. We went inside and saw a great open air market (even though it was inside a building) selling all kinds of produce, cheeses, and meats. It may have been the biggest variety of meats and cheeses that I have ever seen in one location. My coworker had mentioned there is a certain type of meat that he loved from this market, so we began our scavenger hunt. Unfortunately, after a long period or searching and some awkward German/English conversations, we were unable to find the meat for him. Hopefully he won’t be too mad. He probably made it up anyway.
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| Not sure what this was, but it wasn't what we had written down. |
After leaving the market, we continued to walk towards the old town square. We walked past the Christmas market they were setting up, but they were still a few days away from opening it. Ah, just missed out. We found the city’s cathedral and took a few pictures. After seeing the cathedral in Frankfurt, you’ve pretty much seen all of the historic sites. Frankfurt is a very modern city, so that means there are very few historical sites to visit. Some people complain that it makes the city feel cold and impersonal (and does not serve as a very good tourist destination), but we actually enjoyed it a lot because it let us focus on exploring and finding hidden and unknown things (to tourists anyway).
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| Setting up the Christmas Market Stalls |
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| A walk along the Main… I found someone selling Glühwein early! |
For dinner Friday night, we decided to take advantage of one of the recommendations that my colleague made. It was a restaurant called Speisekammer (Food Chamber). The only issue is that it was fairly far out of town. No strangers to the metro, we decided to take on the challenge. If you’ve ever ridden a metro in Europe or elsewhere, then you’ll understand how far this is: It was about 12 metro stops away from the center of town. So basically the suburbs, by European standards. By the time we arrived in this area, it was already dark. Nothing makes you doubt your travel plans as much as walking down a quiet, dark, completely deserted, and kind of creepy street late at night in an unknown area. We had begun to doubt his recommendation, or begun to think that perhaps he is leading into an ambush for some reason, when we finally found the restaurant.
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| Yay! |
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| Here's a better perspective. It looked so cozy too! |
Like an oasis in the middle of the desert, it was brightly lit in the shady street. We peeked in the windows and it looked very warm and inviting with many locals eating dressed in their Friday best. After some difficulty finding the door (must be a local secret), we finally made our way in and asked about dinner. We got the dreaded “Do you have a reservation?” question. Of course we didn’t (when do we ever?), but he responded, “Okay, well we have an open table until 8 if you can eat in an hour”. Challenge accepted! I know it sounds like it might be a rushed dinner under a time limit, but it really wasn’t, although it did ensure that we got prompt service.
For the meal, we split a potato soup appetizer that was very, very good. Chelsy had a really delicious and light salmon dish and I had a pork tenderloin with some type of caramelized apples on it that was extremely delicious as well. Presentation was impressive too, with the tenderloin sliced up table side on a cutting block.
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| Yes, it was light--- underneath all of that cheese! :) |
We started off Saturday with a French style breakfast at Maison du Pain (also recommended by my colleague). We spent the next hour or two walking up and down a nice shopping street (Bergerstrasse) that is less well known than the big shopping drag on the Zeil.
We also had lunch on Bergerstrasse at another recommend place, The Best Worscht (Frankfurt regional spelling of wurst, which means sausage). This place is known for making currywurst and having approximately 7-8 different spice levels as well as 8 more different spices which can be sprinkled on top. The scale goes from A (mildest) to F (spiciest). I tried to order a C, and the chef told me that since it was my first time, he would not recommend it. He talked me down to a B, so I accepted and ordered a B. Chelsy, of course, ordered an A like a wimp. All of the seats inside were taken, so we went outside in the cold to eat our currywurst. (Like all of Europe, there were tables just outside the restaurant door, but this one didn't have heaters, like some.) It was actually fantastic currywurst (good recommendation!) but I’m glad the guy talked me into a B. It was definitely not too hard to handle, but it had a lot of spice behind it and C might have been too much.
Next, we walked more into the center of town and to an outdoor market type place where everyone had gathered to drink beer and gluhwein. We had a couple of drinks in the nice atmosphere, overheard some Americans talking about Kentucky and Louisville basketball (strangely enough), and then went on our way.
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| Some artwork (?) along our walk into town from Bergerstrasse. Graffiti or not, we thought it was cool! |
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| Also along our walk, a little detour through a neighborhood park. |
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| This former park bathroom has been turned into a bar... |
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| …too bad it wasn't open when we passed by! |
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| Leaving the park, some more art, or at least it appears to qualify more officially coined as such. It translates to Love in English. |
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| The place we stumbled upon and hung out for a while in the market served Red or White Glühwein in glasses with crocheted sleeves. |
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| Apples and Apple Wine s a big thing in Frankfurt. Chelsy tried some of the wine at Speisekammer but wasn't a big fan. |
Chelsy had been waiting patiently so far, so now it was time to do a little bit of shopping. We went to a place called MyZeil that has some really nice architecture and modern design as well as the longest unsupported escalator in Europe I think. Just look at the pictures below and you can understand what I mean. Within this building we went to the top to get a nice panoramic view of Frankfurt. Though it was cold, it was nice to see the city from the high vantage point.
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| This was the outside of the 'mall' MyZeil. This pic was taken at night, but we went up to the top during the day. |
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| Going up... |
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| This escalator was longer than those in The Atomium in Brussels, I believe. |
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| The architecture was awesome. This 'tube' was open to the sky up top, and when it rains, you can see water flowing down through the inside of the building (within the 'tube'). |
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| Speaking of tube, there's youtube video of the rain flowing down through the mall online if you're curious! :) |
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| Finally, the view from the top of My Zeil! You can notice a little history with lots of skyscrapers. |
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| It was actually quite crowded at the top and we had to wait for this picture opportunity. |
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| There was a bar/restaurant at the next to top level which had a pretty impressive view itself! |
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| "There's something better than perfection" This art was massive on the side of this building. |
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| One of the many skyscrapers in Frankfurt am Main. |
At this point, we felt we had done most of my coworker’s recommendations and seen all of the must-see sights, so we decide to just relax and have some fun over the afternoon and evening. We started by going to a bar ironically named “Louisiana”. I ordered a beer called a “Louisiana Stout” that was definitely not from Louisiana, but it was good.
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| Later we discovered this is a chain restaurant. Not that it makes a difference, just a little tidbit. It was fun for a drink and the end of a soccer match everyone was excited about! |
After dinner, we decided that we wanted to go see a movie. Definitely not a normal tourist thing to do, but it’s a nice, relaxing thing that you can do that also gives some insight into everyday life in that area. We went to see the second Hunger Games movie. There are a few significant differences in the movie experience in the US versus in Frankfurt at least. First, the products offered as snacks are a bit different. One great thing is that you can get beer in a normal movie theater. Also, some movies have assigned seating like you are at a baseball game (not this theater though). Maybe the biggest difference (which caught us by surprise) is that this movie theater stopped the movie halfway through and had an intermission. We thought the projection booth had messed up, but no one else seemed surprised and they all just went out and had a smoke or whatever. We just sat there for 10-15 minutes in slight shock. Well, we finished the movie and decided it was a pretty decent movie. It was at least better than the first one. After the movie, it was late, so we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.
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| We love finding "Original Version" movies, well, of course, when the originals are filmed in English. |
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| Vineyards along the Rhine as we drive back towards Cologne, to Linz. |
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| Castles are everywhere in this region! |
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| See! |
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| A cute little restaurant in Linz. |
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| A cute little square in Linz. |
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| Moldable statues… pretty neat! |
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| Above those moldable guys. |
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| Another cute little pub/restaurant. |
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| A ferry am Rhein |
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| Although stinky weather, Linz was a nice little stop on our way home! |
Our alternative plan was to spend some time in Bonn on the way home, but the weather prevented us from ever getting out of our car. Our compromise was to get off the highway and at least drive through the center of town so we could maybe plan our next visit there. We headed back to Cologne so we could relax for a few hours before another work week.
Overall, we had a very fun weekend in Frankfurt. We were very appreciative of the recommendations we got, as they greatly enhanced our time spent there. We definitely liked that Frankfurt didn’t feel like such a tourist grind, but the weekend felt more like just an average weekend spent out on the town having fun. We will try to replicate this on some future trips to the bigger German cities (Dusseldorf, Hamburg, etc.). For now, we’ll just call it mission accomplished for the weekend and we’ll be sure to fill you in about our next trip. It’s not finalized yet, but I think we have a trip to Paris coming up, so you can look forward to that one.
