Octoberfest. Review on Frankfurt

We used our Air Canada points to fly from Victoria, with a connection in Vancouver to Frankfurt.

I have connected through the Airport a number of times but never saw Frankfurt. On this trip I wanted to see the city.

We took a taxi to our hotel. We stayed Inter-Continental Hotel, (rated four star), because it was on the edge of the Main River. Many of the Museums are here.

Frankfurt is a pretty city with the Main River. I was surprised that the population was just over 700,000 people, (and 1/4 are foreigners), because I had expected it to be a larger city.

I found that most of the people we met spoke English and that is great because people in Canada only speak one or two languages. The problem is that when they are talking about someone they don't like they speak German and most tourists don't understand them, (but I speak enough German to understand what they were saying.

We arrived here after then National Election and there was no Chancellor. The locals were wondering if former Chancellor Gerhard Schoreder or Angela Merkel would be the first to form a coalition Government.

The main shopping street is Zeil Strase. It was nice to browse through the Goethenstrasee and Ehinger Schwarz area but we couldn’t afford to buy the designer label mechanize that the shops sell. I go to Hertie Strase to buy chocolates. Where ever we went we saw prostitutes and drugs being used. During the day we saw a lot of police but at night we never saw one.

Every night we ate out at a restaurant in the Norden area. The restaurants serve both local and International food. We were told before we left home that we must try some Handkase mit Musik. This is made with a round cheese that has been marinated in oil and vinegar. After you eat it you will here ''musik'', (music), coming out of you as you fart the rest of the day!

We had a brew or two during the Octoberfest celebrations. You will see tens every where and you had have a variety of German beers and tasted some wurst, (sausage), and frankfurters, (hot dogs). We sat at long tables with strangers and clinked our mugs as we toasted one another by saying, '' Prost''!

In Roemer area we saw some lovely older homes that were built with clay and wood.

We bought a museumsufer ticket , (25 Euros each), at the Sadelsches Kunstinstitut Gallery, (the first attraction we went to), and this saved us half the price to get into the other museums. This Gallery is huge and we saw their collection of Durers, Rubens, Van Eycks and Vermeers. They are closed on Monday but open the other 6 days. They open at 10 a.m. and close at 5 pm on every day but Wednesday, (8 p.m.).

My favorite museum was the Senchkenberg. It an archaeologist dream that is filled with dinosaurs and mammoths bones. The displays were similar to the Turelle Museum in Alberta, Canada, but much smaller.

We went to see the house that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived in. He's Frankfurt's most famous person.

Dom St. Brthomaus Cathedral is where the German Kings were crowned.

Charlemagne built a fort here and we went to see it. A lot of it was destroyed during WW II but they are now reconstructing it.

When you are eating out your bill will include a service charge but most people tip their server at least 5% more. If you are sitting at the Bar you tip the bartender at least 5% of the bill. At the hotels the bellhops should be given 1 Euro for every bag they carry and we always leave the maids a 1 Euro for every day we stayed at the hotel. Taxi drivers are tipped 10%.

I'm glad we saw Frankfurt but I wouldn't go back because the people we met weren't to nice and gave me the feeling they thought they were better than we were. I guess that's why Frankfurt is not as popular as a tourist destination as other German cities.

We went to the Hauptbahnhof Train Station to leave Frankfurt for...to be continued.

Thanks for reading my review.

©LL2005