A Day In Frankfurt

Gutentag!

The adventure has started! I deboarded my first of 2 10 hour flights this morning at 9am Germany time. Since I had a 14 hour layover I planned to go into the city of Frankfurt and take a walking tour. Unfortunately, this turned out to be much more terrifying and difficult than I had planned.

Firstly, my calling card wouldn't work and I spent a good 20minutes trying to work their payphones. Next, I had to figure out what train ticket to buy and where to find the train. Thanks to the help of a kind Quecbec-ian tourist, I finally got to the right place and walked out of the subway...into the middle of the biggest gay rights parade in Germany. There were people everywhere! Bright, elaborate floats, cross-dressers, couples, tourists, the place was swarming. So I spent an enjoyable 2 hours window shopping and people watching before meeting up with my tour guide.

Surprisingly, I was the only person signed up for the afternoon slot, so it turned into a private tour, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I began in an area called "Romerburg" (pronounced roy-mer), which historically was a place for outdoor markets. Many of the older buildings in Frankfurt, especially those of half-timber architecture, were destroyed during WWII, and have been reconstructed as tourist attractions and now mainly contain gift shops, pubs, museums, and the like.

Next on the tour we visited the famous German author, Goethe's house. And lastly we went to the top of a 200m skyscraper where you could see the whole of Frankfurt. The weather was cold and rainy, but the view was grogeous; Frankfurt is an intriguing mix of the modern banking capital of Europe, combined with traditional German arichitecture.
At the
end of the tour my guide helped me find the right train back to the airport, I ate dinner, and am waiting for my next 10hour flight that will take me to Johannesburg, South Africa. I'm completely exhausted and hoping to sleep for most of the trip. As soon as I'm able, I will upload some pictures from my tour of Frankfurt.