Blogs from Frankfurt, Brandenburg, Germany, Europe

08:30 hrs : Shelley and I have landed in Germany! We’re now waiting for Kristine to arrive from Vancouver. She should be here with us in about an hour. We loved our flight with Lufthansa! I’ve never flown ‘Premium Economy’ and I have to say that we enjoyed it very much. The seats are roomier, lots of leg room, the seats go back further and even have a footstool and pedestal so that you can have your feet up off the floor. We had a pillow and blanket waiting for us on our seats and a bottle of water too! Not only that, oh no….there was a neat little bag of goodies too! A black drawstring bag with a toothbrush/toothpaste, eye mask, black socks, a towelette, and ear plugs…. We have about two hours to wait ... read more

I am taking the train back to Frankfurt from Paris. I need a change from the cattle car flights, enjoy some scenery, and begin to transition back to where I am most comfortable, home!!! This trip, like my last several to Europe, started and ends in Frankfurt. I just seems easier and a bit cheaper to fly into a hub, then take a local carrier to my ultimate destination. I headed to Athens from here on the same day. Likewise, my return to the US will be from Frankfurt. I have grown to like this rather gritty, and diversely populated city. But I have yet to find any sauerbraten in all of Germany that compares to my favorite at the Chef Burger in my former hometown of Pleasant Hill. This was written about 5 years ago: ... read more

Most Germans prefer beer and wine. But Frankfurt's favorite drink is apple wine. Frau Rauscher was a rather feisty woman who achieved legendary status thanks to her love of apple wine. According to legend, she stole apple wine from unsuspecting patrons drinking their wine outdoors. If and when she was caught, she would spit the wine back into the glass, and proceed on a drunken rant saying their was not need for hassle since the drink was already "returned." Head over to Klapperglasse lane for a spitting statue of Frau Rauscher.So, what is apfelwein? It is not cider, but very close. And it is the official state drink. A rather cloudy and tart drink, it can be found all over Frankfurt.Perhaps famous for better reasons, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born ... read more

Frankfurt on the Main means on the Main River, only 19 miles upstream from the confluence with the famous Rhine River in Mainz. I will spare you the history lesson, and only highlight Napoleon, who made it the seat of government for the Republic of the Rhine in 1806. Until World War 2, Frankfurt's Old Town was the largest medieval city still intact in Germany. The city is home now to 5.5 million people, and they like to call it "Mainhattan." The Frankfurt airport is the fourth busiest in Europe. Most transfer to smaller countries are made here.My personal recollection of Frankfurt is rather mixed and nebulous. It was back in 1971 that I last visited anything other than their huge and busy airport. I recall the large US Army presence, a definite ... read more

Being considered a "Top 10 Most Disappointing Destination in the World" by Smarttravel.com is no claim to be proud of, but it wasn't by choice that Frankfurt earned this title. It's dubbed as "sterile and boring"--a description Kristina and I can vouch for--and if it hadn't been for a 2-hour delay on our connecting flight from Dublin, we and our friends would've never visited this town. Our trip up to this point had consisted of 5 flights, 2 shuttles, 1 bus, and countless excursions on public transit, which all ran without a hitch. But now on the journey's last leg, Kristina joked about how our luck might finally expire, which fulfilled the prophecy and landed us at the Frankfurt airport for 6 hours thanks to a strike by air-traffic controllers. We sighed of relief when our ... read more