Adventures in Europe: Frankfurt, Germany

Yesterday morning I awoke in my castle and breakfasted in its basement.

Then I headed south along the highway between the Rhine and the hills, including two more hilltop castles. 

Terrorists had attacked Paris overnight, with well over a hundred people dead, so that was disconcerting, but did not seem to be having any serious impacts on the Frankfurt area.

I returned the car to the original Enterprise location.  Much to my relief, they did not notice the scratches/dent on the bumper, which had looked more and more minor by the day.  I had put just over 1600 kilometres on the car.

This time I simply rode the tram the whole way from Enterprise to the central train station, where I checked into my hotel.  The Frankfurt Hostel did not have a room, so I had booked a couple blocks away at the Hotel Carlton.  Roughly a block or two from the train station, the neighborhood around these accommodations is really sketchy.  I think it is officially Frankfurt's red light district, but as unsavoury as this aspect is, it is the blatant hard drug use on the sidewalks all around that disturbs me far more.  Nonetheless, my "favourite" Turkish restaurant is just down the street from the worst of it, and I went there for iskender, my favourite dish as a child in Turkey. Amazingly, it was as delicious as I remembered from the last time I ate it, twenty years ago.

I didn't do much that afternoon, except for shop for advent calendars for my little nieces.  It seemed almost every store had their own versions, so there were nearly countless options.

Everything seemed business as usual as I walked around, but in front of the "euro" monument there were a couple of undercover security guys, with the largest bulletproof vests I'd ever seen, and large guns.  

As dusk fell the train station was lit up in the French tricolour, and this attracted an awful lot of attention from passers-by.

Meanwhile, in front of my hotel, four or five or even six cop vehicles pulled up, shut down all but one lane, and began stopping cars as they were going through.

It looked like it might have been just a routine weekend check stop, but it crossed my mind that it might have been connected to Paris too, since police were conducting raids in Brussels and Munich, and maybe elsewhere, simultaneously.

I had a light dinner from the grocery store across the street, including some of the famous apple wine.

This morning after breakfast I packed up and caught the S-bahn to the airport for my Icelandair flight to Reykjavik.  This time as we landed there was still daylight, which allowed for a spectacular view of the island.  I did not have a window seat, but made sure to lean as far as I could to take in the view.  "Iceland" seemed a very apt name for the land I was seeing, but it was very beautiful.

It made me regret I that I had not booked one of the "free stopovers" Icelandair advertises.  Next time

Then again, once in the airport, the price of my grilled cheese sandwich, bottle of beer, and bottle of water (~$17) made me glad I had been traveling in the land of four euro donairs.

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.

Adventures in Europe: Frankfurt, Germany

We landed in Reykjavik at God knows what time in the morning.  It was still dark and as cold as Edmonton, but wetter, and we had to walk outside and overall I was unimpressed with their airport.  I managed to make my flight, but I was paged on my way to the gate as one of the last passengers.

Despite a late take off from Iceland, we landed more or less on time, around noon, in Frankfurt, and soon after I was able to catch the S-bahn, or subway, to Frankfurt's main train station.

The train was relatively easy to figure out, and relatively quick, and I was at the Frankfurt Hostel (just across the street from the train station) shortly after 13:00.

I didn't sleep a wink during the flight, so I was already at that point going on 24 hours without sleep.  I've decided to try to stay up until something resembling a decent bedtime, so I decided to go for a run.  The weather was incredible--high teens and sunny--and I was in need of a shower anyway, plus I thought running might give me a bit of an energy burst.

I headed down to the Main River and ran the trails along the river, as well as numerous bridges, including some pretty special pedestrian bridges.  This run was probably about five, maybe six, kilometres, and it did wonders for me.  Of course, it also was a great introduction to the city, particularly the banks of the Main.

After some lunch and a shower, I put on walking shoes and went out for a walk through the streets of downtown Frankfurt.  This time I stopped at a cafe for coffee and a pastry and I more or less stayed out until sunset, which apparently happens very early here--about 16:30!

Adventures in Europe: Flight to Frankfurt via Reykjavik

It's just before 19:00 Edmonton time, well into the night in Iceland, and I'm on Icelandair's Boeing 757 known as "Grimsvotn," after the very active Icelandic volcano, en route to Reykjavik, and on to Frankfurt.  There I plan to take two nights to try recover from the accursed and inevitable jet lag, and then on by rental car to Cologne, Aachen, Maastricht, Tongeren, Waterloo, Mons, Ypres/Ieper, until reaching Vimy Ridge for the morning of November 11--Remembrance Day. 

From Vimy I will return westward through the Ardennes, stopping in Luxembourg, Trier, and at the castle of Bacharach, before getting back to Frankfurt on the 14th, from whence I will fly home on the 15th.

Meanwhile, I will be enjoying my Appelsin.