Frankfurt

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Coming to Germany

Our flight to London was ok. Nothing spectacular happened except we sat next to a Swedish writer who was great to talk to. He also had been to Australia so we talked about that for a while. When we got to England, we had to get onto a underground train within the airport to get to our terminal. To get into the terminal there was another extreme customs check (not as strict security as Mumbai though). Our plane was initially delayed (well that’s what it said on the screens) but ended up leaving and arriving on time.
When we got into Frankfurt we were amazed to find the terminal almost completely empty. It was like a ghost town! We worked out that we had flown into the secondary terminal 2. Once we got a train to terminal one, we saw lots more people (though it was still relatively quiet compared with all the other airports we have been in). We played it safe and we went to Maccas in the terminal. (I got a Big Mac - part of my plan to buy a Big Mac in every country I have been too - had to get a Maharaja Mac (chicken) in India though cause no beef Big Mac cause they are Hindu’s). We then rang the hostel we preferred and booked a room. The staff were heaps nice. The hostel was even nicer. The room had heaps of character.

Language

We really like the German Lanaguage. It sounds good. Plus it isn’t annoying. It is also handy that some words are similar enough that we can guess what they mean. But only one word at a time - if you hear/see a combination we have no hope. We must look German cause people talk to us in German all the time, before we get the chance to say we only know English. Usually people know a little bit of English though, so it works out alright.

Frankfurt

So Frankfurt - whats it like? It feels like a city that was built for 5 million even though only 700,000 people live here. It is very quiet everywhere (probably because we are used to the busy cities of Asia). The only real sound you here are the diesel cars (all the cars seem to be diesels) and an English Sounding Beeer Boooo Siren every now and again. The transport system is very efficient with trains (Underground (U Bahn) and Above ground (S Bahn)), buses and trams all linking in together. It is not as efficient as Hong Kong though.

The air is also very cold. We knew it was cold (no idea of temperature - we haven’t looked) then today when we woke up it was snowing. So everything is covered in snow now. Makes it look like a fairytale - pretty cool. The buildings are all pretty modern. There are few big skyscrapers but most are just six or seven story buildings. The river runs straight through frankfurt and its beautiful. Amy and I had a great time just walking along its banks and looking up at the nice high rise skyline.

Museums

Frankfurt has many Museums. When we went to the tourist information there was a computer that listed Frankfurts sights. It seemed as though half of the sites were buildings that were famous (some old syle (no really old buildings in Frankfurt - accept one church - cause Frankfurt was hit very badly in the war - air raids destroying most of its buildings - though some buildings like in Romer have been rebuilt) and some new style (famous tall new buildings)) while the other half of the attractions are museums. There were so many Museums on many different topics. We picked a few and went and saw them. We purchased a Museum pass which gave us unlimited access to all the museums for 2 days. We went and saw a famous art museums (some nice art, others I questioned whether or not it was art), a musueum that had statues and engravings from ancient and medieval times (I thoroughly enjoyed the Ancient Rome bit while Amy enjoyed the Egyptian section, a museum on communication (which was useless cause was all in German and we didn’t buy the audio tour) and a museum which had a great model of Frankfurt in the 1930’s and Frankfurt after the war.

Leaving Frankfurt

So we got to the train station with 20 minutes to spare. We are waiting at the platform which the screen and computer (you go to a computer and tell which connections (Frankfurt to Munich) you want - and it works out all the trains you need to catch - where to get on/off, platforms etc) tells us to wait. The train doesn’t arrive so Amy goes and asks and finds out that they changed the platform and it has already left - to bad we didn’t know German otherwise we would have heard it on the overhead speakers. So we had to wait for a couple of hours for the next train with a connecting service.

The reason we have to catch a few trains is that we have a special weekend ticket which was only 37 Euro for the both of us. The only catch is that you can’t travel on the fast trains - so we have to catch 3 different local trains to get to Munich. Though we saved a bit of money - a ticket on a fast train was 90 Euro each. The train is pretty comfortable. The scenery is very nice - all white coated cause of the recent snow fall. The houses with their pointed steep gable roofs look like they are out of a cartoon. We also pass a river which is really pretty. But it is the pretty flat fields that are covered in white snow that are the best sight.

So we will arrvie in Munich soon, or Muenchen as people from Deutschland know it. We cannot wait to meet our new house mates, explore the city and gets jobs. Thanks for reading.

Love Amy and Andrew

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