Frankfurt, Germany

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The start of an European adventure and vacation to me is always full with excitement and a little anxiety. One never knows how the next several days will turn out, what they might see, and what hiccups may come along the way. I originally only chose Frankfurt as my beginning point for I could fly in fairly cheaply. I did not know much about the city nor it's beauty. I quickly found out what a beautiful city it is. Frankfurt is Germany's second largest metropolitan region, and is considered a global city. Due to its central location within Germany and Europe, Frankfurt is a major air, rail and highway transport hub. Frankfurt airport is one of the world's busiest. The Frankfurt Central Station is one of the largest terminal stations in Europe, and one of the most busiest.

I arrive early in the morning, and once I am off the plane and through passport security, I am on my way. The first obstacle is to find my hostel. This is always a challenge at the beginning of one of my European trips, for I am not used to the different culture and language. It does not take very long to get acquainted. You either get acquainted or get lost. Anyway, I take a bus to go to the main train station, and once I am there, my hostel was very near. It actually was within sight of the central train station or Hauptbahnhof. I was very happy for this. Of course I was early, and I could not check in yet, so I store my large backpack, and off on foot I go to explore.

I was not sure of really what I wanted to do, so I just start walking towards the center of town. Along the way, I started to notice that Frankfurt was a very beautiful city that was modernized, however it has not lost touch with it's history. There were many new buildings and structures, but there were just as many older historical buildings and structures. They just seemed mingled together which was quite unique. Frankfurt is one of only a few cities in the European Union that have such a skyline. Because of the city's skyline, Germans sometimes refer to Frankfurt as "Mainhattan", like in America New York's Manhattan.

As I do each time I travel, I wander down many streets off the beaten path. You never know what you might see that you would not have otherwise. I do this and see many beautiful buildings, structures, etc. I came across a long bridge that had locks with peoples names on them that went from post to post. Some of the locks appeared very old and have been secured there for quite some time according to the date written on them. It was a pretty cool thing to see.

I happen to notice I am walking toward a large cathedral. Come to find out it was the Frankfurt Cathedral. Frankfurt Cathedral is a Roman Catholic Gothic church located in the center of Frankfurt. It is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew. It was pretty tall, and after walking around it twice, I decided I wanted to venture up to the top to get a birds eye view of Frankfurt. I pay my admission, and up I go. And I do mean up. The steps just kept going and going and going. I lost count around 300, but come to find out, there are 328 steps. The stairway is winding, and at times there is not room enough for two people. Anyway, once I reached the top, I was a little winded, but as soon as I was able to look out at the beauty of the city, the walk was well worth it. I stayed a bit, took some photos, and then make my way down.

By this time, my feet and body were tired. I remembered seeing a spot where you could relax while I was walking toward the Frankfurt Cathedral. It was a circular room with pass troughs on all sides to let people walk around this large section with huge bean bag shaped pillows or cushions that anyone could stop and lay down on. You look up at this large hole in the ceiling where you can see the sky. Of course it has glass on it to keep the rain out, but it was a pleasant scenery to look at. Of course I had to try out this, so down I go. Boy did that feel good to lay down. I must have stayed here thirty minutes just relaxing. People were coming and going, but there were several like me that stayed a while. At any rate, I could not stay here all day, for my time in Frankfurt was limited, so up I went and I continued to walk around the more historical parts of Frankfurt.

I checked into my hostel and had a little hiccup. The locker for my bed number did not have a key to lock it. You could not use a padlock, so I could not store my things securely. Actually, the staff did give me a key, but it was the wrong one and my things got locked in the locker, and we had to get the master key to open. Luckily nothing was taken and my things all were in order when I did depart. The hostel offered free pasta at night and breakfast of the morning, so I started off at least eating pretty good.

Unfortunately, I only had one day here, so the morning of checkout, I again stored my luggage for the day because my train was later in the evening. I ventured back around Frankfurt and took in as many of the beautiful sights I could see. Of course everything I was doing was on foot, so I had to be mindful of the time to assure I got back to the hostel and then the train station in plenty of time to catch my next train. I came across a couple of outdoor concerts that I stopped to listen too. The crowd was just sitting, eating, talking, and socializing with one another. I think this is pretty cool seeing how where I am from you just can't or don't do this.

Oh, and one other thing I did on this first leg of my trip was to purchase all of my reservations for the train including the two night trains at once. In the past years I would do from city to city which was a burden, but now I had everything I needed for the time here.

Frankfurt was a wonderful first stop. Again, it was a very beautiful city. I if ever given the opportunity to come her again, I will highly consider it. Unfortunately my time was very short here, and it was time to move to my next destination.

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