Frankfurt am Mein

This was originally written on the morning of Saturday January 14, 2006, but as usual while I’m traveling, I needed to wait until I could link to the Net before I could post.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to travel into Frankfurt with my son and his girl friend. We walked through several historical areas of the town and she pointed out several other options that my son and I should check out while we waited for her to complete her classes for the day. The air was crisp and the wind was cold, but it wasn’t raining so it was a good day for walking around and checking out the sites.

When we first pulled into town I spotted this building. I’m not sure what it is, but I thought it was worth a picture.











We started with a view from atop the shopping center, where you can get an idea of the size of the city. It is also interesting to see the contrast of old and new architecture. (Sorry, but I'm having Image Uploading issues again. I'll add photo when possible!)

We then moved on toward the famous shopping district and paused in front of Paul’s Kirche (Paul’s Church).











This is the old Opera house (alte Oper), a pretty cool looking building and in a really nice open area. During the summer it would be a good place to hang out and catch your breath, but today the wind stings a bit so we kept moving.









We decided to stop at the Tower Bar to sample a brew. I had the Dunkel Weitzen and my son had the Radler (a mixture of Sprite and Pilsner). I know, but it actually wasn’t too bad and would have been a good choice during the summer, and the story of how this drink was created is kind of interesting. The story goes that a group of bicyclists (Radler) became thirsty during their ride and decided to stop off at a pub to quench their thirst. As they entered the pub the Braumeister realized that he did not have enough beer to serve them all, so he decided to dilute the beer with the lemon/lime drink so that everyone would have enough to drink.
This is the sign in the bar to let you know that the bathroom is on the upper floor and that it is a winding staircase with 44 steps! You need to plan your strategy carefully if you intend to stay there and drink beer on such a cold day!

We then wandered around past the City Hall and over to the Old Stock Exchange (Die alte Deutsche Boerse), and eventually ended up at Zwolf Apostel Brau Haus (the Twelve Apostles Brew House). This place lays claim to being the first brewpub (hausbrauerie) in Frankfurt! They have what looks like a 7-barrel system capable of producing two types of beer: Hefeweizen and Dunkelweizen. I of course chose the later, as did my son and we both agreed that it was one of the best we had ever tried.
Well, it’s time to meet up with his girlfriend again and then head back to the house. Tomorrow we will be heading to Wiesbaden to see more things of interest while I’m here in Deutschland.