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Published: June 10th 2015
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Guten tag, alles. First full day in Frankfurt got off to a very slow start. Andrew and I alternated hitting the snooze button til 0830. Even then, we moved slowly, leaving the hotel at 1030. Fortunately, we found a place up the street still serving breakfast, and it was sooo good: boiled egg, crossaint, heavier roll, cheese, butter, tomatoes, and espresso.
From there, we took a walking tour of Frankfurt's main sights: Saint Bartholomeus' Cathedral (beautiful and breathtaking), City Hall, St. Paul's Church, Haus Wertheim (built in the 1600s, it is the only house with traditional half-timbered construction to survive World War II), Customs Tower, Iron Bridge (cool views of the River Main as well as city), St. Leonhard Church, and Archeological Gardens. We toured the last, and it was incredible. The museum displayed artifacts found in and around Frankfurt from prehistoric to bronze age to Roman times to middle ages. Seeing so much history before us was awe-inspiring.
To that point, although I really appreciated seeing the incredible buildings and learning the history, I just was not enjoying Frankfurt that much. Rome was so beautiful, Milan was so fun, and Bern was so cozy, but Frankfurt was not
comfortable. The people seemed depressed and irritable (truth in stereotypes). There are lots of nice hotels like ours in the area around the train station, but everything else seems pretty skeezy. The tourist area is exactly that: touristy. I realized that a lot of the fun we had in other cities was getting into the real city in which the real people live, so we did just that here.
Andrew and I went wandering and found normal, everyday downtown Frankfurt, and it was a breath of fresh air! Regular shops and cafes, regular people living regular lives. We stumbled into a festival for Frankfurt's Corporate Challenge -- blocks of food trucks and booths that all looked fantastic. Andrew and I ate grilled bratwursts on baguettes (like a hot dog, but so much better), baked pretzels, and Belgian waffles with Nutella. So very, very good!! We just kept walking and enjoing real life in Frankfurt.
Serendipitous moment: we were walking along when Andrew noticed a Nespresso boutique (very similar to Keurig; Whitney and I saw at Williams-Sonoma a couple of months ago) and wanted to go inside. After looking around we wound up at the tasting bar. We chatted
for some time with the young woman serving us, and it turned out that when she was in the US she married a guy from Oklahoma (but divorced him, "he is a redneck") and has been to Tulsa and OKC. She also wrote a note for her cousin who owns the Daisy Exchange clothing chain, then gave to me to deliver as a lark. What are the odds of such a chain of events happening?
After regrouping at the hotel for a bit, we set out for a nearby music shop that Andrew found online. We quickly discovered that it was in Frankfurt's red light district -- some very colorful shops and individuals. The music store itself was great. The owner (4th generation of a 100+ year family business) was really nice to Andrew, chatting with him and letting him play guitars. Turns out this shop sold a guitar to Elvis while he was stationed here; they had the picture and receipt to prove it. Very cool!
We grabbed dinner at the train station. That sounds odd, but the stations are like malls, with many stores and restaurants. Tonight we had sandwiches, turnovers, and fruit in the room.
Good to just chill out for a bit.
Throughout the day, we were continually reminded that this city was completely destroyed by Allied bombs (look up images on Google). The rebuilding is incredible, but sad to think of the cost of war, even when the cause was just. Someone said that the Germans still feel sad and guilty about the war. Maybe that is the feeling in the air.
Random stuff: We lost power in the hotel for 30 minutes this morning...Andrew and I were told to leave every government building we entered...in general, once people know we are Americans, they speak only English from that point forward...Andrew finally found a very sweet woman at a bakery who spoke with him in German...I found it amusing that the health food store was called "Reformhaus"...my $5 gun show readers broke, so now I have $5 Euro-readers -- simply stunning.
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