Frankfurt

Copyright Tomas Wolf. Reproduced with permission under the Creative Commons License

After leaving Heidelberg, our next stop was Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt on the Main [River]). We'd heard that Frankfurt wasn't very interesting and weren't sure what to expect. Frankfurt was apparently bombed quite several during World War II and was not rebuilt in the historic style. Today, Frankfurt is the 5th largest German city and is the financial and transportation center of Germany and the largest financial center in continental Europe. So, although we did find Frankfurt to be more of a modern city, with less of that old world charm, we did enjoy our brief visit, nonetheless.


Some of our Frankfurt highlights:

We got a great deal on lodging in Frankfurt--a really fantastic hostel, with a private room, for a great price with easy walking access to all the sights. The one drawback...it was located smack dab in the center of the Red Light District. I kid you not. And, I do mean a Red Light District. Yes, what you are thinking is what I mean. Hence, no photos of this one! It actually wasn't that bad. We didn't feel unsafe and weren't bothered by noise and no one made any untoward propositions. In fact, if it weren't for the signs everywhere, you wouldn't have known. We even stayed an extra night, we liked the hostel so much. Definitely something we'll remember forever.

Moving on....after roaming around the city and taking in the skyscrapers, the river and the parks, we found this little gem: The Romerberg or City Hall Square. It was open, unusually, hence all the red balloons.

The Romer (City Hall)

9 houses, dating from 1400, that are part of the square

St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, dating to the 1300s. Here, Kings were elected and Emperors crowned.

Katherinenkirche, or St. Katherine's Church, built in the 1600s. It was destroyed in WWII, but was one of the few buildings that was rebuilt.


The Hauptwache. Built in the 1700s it was formerly used as a prison and police station. Since 1904, however, it has been a popular cafe (though, use has been interrupted twice for reconstruction--once for WWII and once during the building of the underground rail).