Frankfurt

Frankfurt is a big city, and has all of the vibrance and all of the issues of any other major metropolitan area. We were a bit anxious about our hotel, because it is right across the street from the main rail station (not the best neighborhood) and yet quite reasonably priced. We saw at least one drug deal going down on the sidewalk as we were on our way there, and the "red light" district is only a block away.

Our low expectations were greatly exceeded! The room was clean, quiet and comfortable, and the included breakfast was very good and very ample.

We took the Rick Steves walking tour, starting from the rail station -- a technological marvel of the 1890s now hopelessly outdated, but still the busiest in Germany.

Fortunately, we were touring on a Saturday morning, so the crowds of working folks were absent, and the unsavory folks weren't up yet. There were several sleepers on the sidewalks, but we didn't disturb them, and they didn't disturb us.

About four blocks from the rail station, up the KaiserStrasse pedestrian street, is a long, narrow parkway that, according to Rick, follows what used to be the moat around the old city wall. Neither wall nor moat remain, having been replaced by grass and trees, with towers of glass and steel all around. All of Frankfurt is new since 1948, and with the Marshall Plan headquartered here, it became the banking center of Germany and much of western Europe. All the big banks have their skyscrapers.

We got a bit lost following the Rick Steves map and directions. It happens. But we finally got back on the right path. Conspicuous by its classical style amid the glass and steel, the Alte Oper (Old Opera House) was restored after the war and is a cultural center for the city. No way to get inside on a Saturday morning, but nice on the outside.

From the Oper, we made a turn from the parkway and continued along a very long pedestrian street -- or rather, a series of streets with different names. The first is known as the Fressgass' or "Feeding Street" because it is almost all restaurants, cafes, or fast food places where the bank employees all come for lunch during the work week. It was pretty quiet today.

The Hauptwache square connects the Fressgass' to the next street, called the Zeil, which is all about big department stores and high-end trendy shops. We looked around in one store, but didn't buy.

Just off the Zeil, and a bit off the track if you don't know where to look, is the Kleinmarkthalle -- a crowded indoor neighborhood market with stalls selling everything from sausages to fresh vegetables to fresh flowers. Developers have tried to remove it and build something bigger and newer, but it is too popular with the locals, according to Rick Steves. It wasn't generally a tourist spot, but interesting.

Rick tried to direct us to a former church that is now a museum, but we once again had a bit of trouble with his directions and got the wrong church. We stumbled into Saturday morning mass, just as Communion was being distributed. But knowing how to behave in church, we didn't make a scene. We actually sat in a back pew and rested our legs for a few minutes, listening to the organ.

We finally did find Paulskirche, a former church where the German National Assembly first met in 1848 and the German Constitution was drafted, leading to the united Germany in 1871. This is the Independence Hall of Germany.

The exhibits were in English, as well as in German, but the history was too detailed for us to really get into. JFK gave a speech here in 1963, and a plaque marks the occasion -- that much we got. Interestingly, the Nazi era seems not to have happened in this history. There was this war, and a lot of bombing, but no reasons for it were mentioned.

Paulskirche is just a block away from Romerberg, the main market square and center of the old city. Everything here is a reconstruction since the War, but a pretty good job was done in making things look as one imagines they did in Medieval times.

The Romer, or Town Hall is where all marriages in Frankfurt must be legally registered, regardless of where the actual ceremony takes place. So on a Saturday, there was a constant procession of brides and grooms with their witnesses, and their photographers, going in and out of the Romer. We went in and up the stairs, but got no further.

Also alongside the square is Alte Nikolaikirche (Old St. Nicholas Church). Originally built in the 13th century, some of the stained glass was removed and preserved before the church was bombed, and has been reinstalled. It's great to see that all of the restored churches feature pipe organs -- even the churches no longer in use and only restored as cultural artifacts.

A plaque in the middle of the square reminds visitors of the Nazi book burning that took place here in 1933, with the words that "it's a short step from burning books to burning people."

Just off the square is a short street called Saalgasse (Hall Street) which we would not have found or noticed without Rick Steves. In the 1990s, renowned architects from around the world were each given a ruined house here and asked to design a new building that would reflect what was there before the war. They are all very modern, very interesting, and almost all used as office space. They are probably too expensive to be residences.

At the end of Saalgasse is St Bartholomew's Cathedral (a.k.a. Kaiserdom). Holy Roman Emperors were elected in a side chapel here starting in 1152, and crowned in the main chancel from 1562 until 1792. The cathedral was gutted by fire in 1867, rebuilt and gutted once again in 1944.

Lots of the altar pieces and other furnishings, along with some of the stained glass windows, were saved and brought back after the war, and a famous sculpture of the Virgin Mary sleeping was packed in sand bags and also survived.

A few more blocks of walking brought us to the old Jewish cemetery, dating from 1272. The synagogue that used to be here only has a plaque remaining. And the wall around the cemetery bears the names of many hundreds of Frankfurt Jews and the names of the camps in which each died. 

By the time we got down to the River Main, our legs were aching. We had finished the day's planned activities and it was barely noon. So we sat on a bench along a walking path by the river and did some serious people-watching. We also got to watch their dogs, bicycles, river excursion boats, and a variety of geese.

After recovering a bit, we walked back to the hotel to claim our suitcases. They had been stored in a back room, and we had been given claim checks for them. But when we walked into the lobby, they were sitting there, right by the door, where anyone might have gone off with them. We were a bit angry about that, but the desk clerk claimed to have no knowledge of how they got out of the storage room.

The rail station, and the surrounding bars, were packed with rowdy football (soccer) fans, warming up for a big Saturday game. The commuter train to the airport is also the train to the soccer stadium, and the first train was so packed that we opted to wait 10 minutes for the next one, which was only slightly less crowded. But we still got to the airport in plenty of time.

Croatia Airlines is not a premium airline. The plane was a half hour late, the arm rests on the seats were cracked and broken. The plane looked generally shabby. There were so few people on board that the flight attendant just told us to pick some seats and sit where we wanted. We were told that masks were required, but many people, including the flight attendants, weren't wearing them. But we arrived safely.

Croatia is in the EU, but not in the Shengen Zone, so we had to go through passport control. OAT made a big deal about having to complete an online entry form before we left home, and to print out the resulting entry number. But the boarder agents just shoved it back at us -- not important.

The taxi to the hotel was uneventful, but we couldn't see much since it was after dark. We met our tour leader, Ida (pronounced EEE-duh), in the lobby. The room is very nice, but we didn't get to it until after 10:30 p.m., and by the time we were unpacked and settled, it was nearly midnight.