Truffula

Frankfurt

travel


We arrived in Frankfurt after a 22 hour flight (including a 3 hour stopover in Doha, Qatar). The central train station is like the typical European station you see in films, with a vast, translucent ceiling supported by massive steel girders.

Our first self-portrait in Germany
Industrial yet elegant. It's amazing how beautiful girders can be.
Might as well start ticking off the clichés as soon as you arrive, right?

After a drink and a buttered pretzel, we made our way around the corner to our accommodation, the 5 Elements Hostel, which is funky, clean and modern. It features lots of concrete, and a faux-concrete vanity stand in the bathroom that was incredibly convincing (probably because the render was actually a thin layer of concrete or something similar).

The hostel is in the red-lightish district of Frankfurt, so there are strip joints all over the place. Think Hindley Street circa 1995 and you're probably close (not that I ever WENT to Hindley Street in 1995, but it had a reputation). But fortunately it was within walking distance of some very interesting buildings, museums and other sites.

For our first evening we went for a wander down to the river (the Main— which explains why the city is often referred to as "Frankfurt am Main") and wandered along the trail. It is a lot like the Torrens, but much wider, and with lots of trees that are gnarled from being repeatedly pruned to the same height, with spidery thin branches sticking straight up in the air... oh, and there are people there. Lots of people walking and riding their bikes.

We saw many such rows of trees, pruned each year to a precise height to keep them manageable. This avenue ran along the river Main.

Crossing the river on a pedestrian bridge, we were surprised to see thousands of padlocks chained to the fencing along the side, each with a couple's names or initials engraved on the side, like a modern, steel version of carving your names in a loveheart on a tree trunk. Never before have I seen so many padlocks.

The footbridge over the Main is covered in padlocks, engraved with the names of lovers
Amanda on the footbridge

We tried some Apfelwein (apple wine) at an open air bar overlooking the river— it wasn't bad, but on a cool night the large glasses seemed like a big drink. We later learned that the locals drink it with sparkling mineral water ("Mineralwasser"), which is the standard way to buy bottled water in Germany. But, as it seems applies to all alcohol in Germany, it was cheap!

Afternoon sun on the banks of the Main. Perfect for an Apfelwein.

Next, we headed to a funky and vibrant pub for some German food in the beer garden. Fortunately it had bench seats, which we have found are great for meeting locals because you always end up sitting next to a stranger. As it happened, we met a lovely local couple and had some great discussion. My dinner was an enormous piece of pork— a shoulder as far as I could tell— which took about an hour to eat, before I realised there was also a salad on a side plate.

Shoulder or knuckle of pork. This thing was huge.

By the time I finished that, and some of Amanda's fish, and a few local beers, I was feeling pretty ... howyousay, relaxed? And I almost left the camera bag behind under the table. A great start to the trip. #notetoself #dontdrinkandcamera