Adventures in Germany: Frankfurt

I woke up shortly after 5:00 this morning, which meant I had a solid 8+ hours of sleep.  But I was disappointed, because I had hoped to sleep much later than 5:00, so I tried to get back to sleep for an hour or so, before finally getting up. 

The Frankfurt Hostel serves a breakfast buffet starting at 7:00, so I hung out til then and then hit that up pretty hard.  I was impressed, it was certainly the best hostel breakfast I'd ever seen. 

After breakfast I went out for another run along the Main again, but this time I went further east for a total of about 8 kilometres.  The weather is nice again today, although much less sunny, and I really enjoyed the run.

Among other things, I ran by the European Central Bank building, which as you can see is a) enormous and b) relatively set off by itself, quite away from downtown.

After returning to the hostel and showering, I lay down to see if I could nap, but sleep didn't come, so I headed out to look around some more.

I headed for the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and I was surprised how small it was given how significant it is worldwide.

From there I wandered somewhat aimlessly, and bought a postcard and mailed it, then went to the Dom, or cathedral.

I paid 3 euros to access the tower, and hiked the 328 stairs to the top.

Maybe because its so high and takes so much climbing, there were not very many people up there, so I had it more or less to myself for 20-30 minutes.

I took lots of pictures and enjoyed looking at the river and all the buildings, but somewhat surprisingly the most interesting thing to see was a four crane construction site just below the cathedral.  I probably spent half my time up there just watching the cranes do their work below me.

Once back down on the ground, I crossed the river (on the fifth bridge I've been on) and looked around a neighborhood over there famous for its ebbelwei (apple wine) cafes.

I want to try this famous Frankfurt wine, but I was too early, because they were all closed.  I'm not sure what time they open up, but evidently sometime after noon.

I walked back across the river and got a donair, then coffee and a pastry, sitting on the outdoor patios both times.

It was extremely overcast, even dark, by 14:00, which made it much less pleasant to be outside, although it was still 16 or 17 degrees Celsius.

I spent a couple of hours back at the hostel lounge before heading out just before sunset to see the Alte Oper, the old opera house.

I got a bratwurst at an outdoor market by the stock exchange before heading back to the hostel for the night.