Frankfurt, Day Two

Day 2 of Frankfurt was much more productive. We first headed to the historic square, which was beautiful. Three or four churches were nearby, and the bells echoed off of each other on the quarter hour. There were souveniers and wurst stands and pastry shops and even a few tourists, although Frankfurt is not a huge tourist town.

After that we walked along the river to what is called “Museum Mile.” We spend some time in the Museum of Applied Arts, where I took some illicit photos.

A bridge near the Museum Mile. It's common in Europe for couples to carve their name on a padlock, lock it to a bridge, and throw the key in the river.

View from the same bridge of the southern bank.

After that we headed north beyond the historic square to the shopping district because Sam needed batteries for her camera (batteries are a really hard concept to explain using the point-and-grunt method, so we had to find a Gamestop with English speakers). We found an eight story mall there with a viewing deck of the city.

 

Later we went to Palmengarten (a public garden), which was gorgeous. Autumn is just starting now in the UK, but it’s arrived in earnest in southern Germany. Just a few flowers left, and the leaves were all turning.

The Underground entrance near Palmengarten.

For a while we just explored, before going back to the Historic Square again after dark. It was still pretty. Street artists were busy spray-painting signs and breakdancers were practicing under the lights of the church, but the same crowd of tourists still milled about.

Hauptbahnhof, on the way to the Historic Square.

All in all, we ate a lot of pastries and walked everywhere. We decided Germany is the land of the Jedi, because everything is so efficient and most electronics (such as lights, escalators, and train doors) only work when someone walks near them or touches them. Everything was absolutely beautiful and the people were really friendly, even if we generally couldn’t understand each other.