 1 Friday 11 June, 2010 Our flight left Incheon Airport at 12:45 and flew for 10 hours mostly across Southern Russia. We crossed 7 time zones such that it was still Friday afternoon when we landed. |
 2 Friday 11 June, 2010 We are having a day in Frankfurt to recover from our flight before heading to France the next day. This is our accommodation for the next two nights: the All Seasons Hotel in Moselstrasse. Oh, oh, my ankle is very swollen. |
 3 Friday 11 June, 2010 We left Seoul at 12:45 PM Friday and here we are walking to the nearby Hauptbahnhof (Hbf or main railway station) and it's only 9:20 PM the same day with lots of daylight left. |
 4 Friday 11 June, 2010 We are coming here to have a meal. It's very near to where we are staying and first impressions of the area are not good. It looks to be seedy and run-down but this turns out not to be typical of Frankfurt. |
 5 Friday 11 June, 2010 The meal was typical railway fare but it served its purpose. |
 6 Saturday 12 June, 2010 After breakfast next morning, we walk to the old town centre (Altstadt) very near the Main River. This area was completely trashed during WWII. |
 7 Saturday 12 June, 2010 From here we catch the Hop-on Hop-off bus, always a good way to get your bearings in a strange place. |
 8 Saturday 12 June, 2010 From the bus we can see the skyscrapers and we hear for the first time that Frankfurt on Main is called Main-Hattan because of its skyline. |
 9 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The bus takes us for a a tour and drops us off back where we started. |
 10 Saturday 12 June, 2010 This is the very attractive Frankfurt City Hall, the Römer, located at the Römerberg (city hall square). The Römer was partially destroyed in World War II and later rebuilt. |
 11 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The Seufzerbrücke (Bridge of Sighs) connects the north wing of the city hall with other government buildings. The Paulskirche is on the right and it was partially destroyed in World War II and rebuilt after the war. Today it is used for exhibitions and events. |
 12 Saturday 12 June, 2010 St. Paul's Church is a national historic monument because it was the seat of the first democratically elected Parliament in 1848. The Frankfurt Parliament met in the church during the revolutionary years of 1848/49 to write a constitution for a united Germany, but . . . |
 13 Saturday 12 June, 2010 . . . the attempt failed because the monarchs of Prussia and Austria refused to give up power. In 1849 Prussian troops ended the democratic experiment by force of arms and the parliament was dissolved. However, the colours of the flag designed here, in this building, went on to become the flag of modern Germany. |
 14 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Romerberg is the city hall square in the Altstadt (Old Town) area. The city council acquired nine houses in 1405 from the Römer merchant family with the largest of them becoming the City Hall. These six houses on the east side of the Römerberg were destroyed in World War II and reconstructed between 1981–1984. |
 15 Saturday 12 June, 2010 To the right is the late-Gothic Old Nikolai Church whose patron is Nicholas , the patron saint of fishermen. The buildings in the square date from the 15th century. |
 16 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The human statue is very still and the man in the funny hat could be signalling me not to take a photo. Luckily I don't understand gestures in German. |
 17 Saturday 12 June, 2010 This was very colourful; it may have been a wedding as this is the entrance to the city hall on the east side of the Römerberg. |
 18 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The overhanging or jettied floors were made like this for tax purposes I believe. |
 19 Saturday 12 June, 2010 St Bartholomew's Cathedral is a Gothic building constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries and it is the main church of Frankfurt. From 1356 onwards, kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected in this church, and from 1562 to 1792, the Roman-German emperors were crowned here. |
 20 Saturday 12 June, 2010 This what the Altstadt area looked like in 1944. Parts of the cathedral remain and that is all. |
 21 Saturday 12 June, 2010 We leave the altstadt and go to the river. Frankfurt's full name is Frankfurt-on-Main and this helps to distinguish this Frankfurt from another Frankfurt in Brandenburg state. "Main" is pronounced like English "mine" or German "mein". |
 22 Saturday 12 June, 2010 We cross the Eiserne Steg (Iron Bridge) pedestrian crossing. There is a market on the other side. |
 23 Saturday 12 June, 2010 This is the Epiphany Church which is a protestant church on the southern bank of the Main in the district of Sachsenhausen. The neo-Gothic building was built 1875-1880 and designed by Franz Josef Denzinger. Denzinger was also head of the reconstruction of the cathedral which had burnt down in 1867. |
 24 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The yellow building is the Erziehungsberatungsstellen; an education and family counselling centre. Behind it is the Commerzbank Building, at 259 m the EU's tallest building. Frankfurt is one of only three cities in the EU that have a significant number of skyscrapers, the others being London and Paris. |
 25 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The Iron Bridge was built in 1868 as a pedestrian bridge and it connects the Romerberg with the suburb of Sachsenhausen on the southern side of the Main. It is 170 m long and constructed of riveted steel trusses. |
 26 Saturday 12 June, 2010 We arrive at the markets to be greeted by the unmistakeable odour of decaying old shoes. |
 27 Saturday 12 June, 2010 It's full of uninteresting junk, the worst kind of junk. |
 28 Saturday 12 June, 2010 While I ponder the meaning of life, the universe and everything, Jenni scours the market. |
 29 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Frankfurt is located on an ancient ford on the river Main, the German word for which is "Furt". It was a part of early Franconia whose inhabitants were a tribe called the Franks. So, the city's name comes from "ford of the Franks" |
 30 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Building cranes in the middle of the Global Financial Crisis must mean that Frankfurt is not suffering too much. Frankfurt's unemployment rate is less than 1 percent and over 600,000 jobs are available throughout the city. Services V Manufacturing: no contest. |
 31 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Jenni talks to the swan not realising that it only understands German. |
 32 Saturday 12 June, 2010 My ankle is really bad so we decide to take a river cruise. It was very reasonably priced at €7 for a 50 minute ride. |
 33 Saturday 12 June, 2010 We head off to the west, do a U-turn and head east. |
 34 Saturday 12 June, 2010 I have my first German low-alcohol beer. |
 35 Saturday 12 June, 2010 It is nice to sit and take the weight off my ankle of which I am starting to become a little concerned. It was OK when we arrived in Seoul but some serious walking there inflamed it again. It played up on and off for most of the trip to Europe. |
 36 Saturday 12 June, 2010 We pass under the Friedensbrücke (Peace Bridge) which, in 1945, was the only bridge across the Main in Frankfurt not completely destroyed by the bombing. The US army entered the city on 26 March 1945 via the Peace Bridge. How ironic. |
 37 Saturday 12 June, 2010 A little farther down the river we pass the Städelscher Museums-Verein, an art gallery. |
 38 Saturday 12 June, 2010 This is the Westhafen Tower; its major tenant is Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors. When we returned to Frankfurt, we stayed in the Ibis Hotel nearby. |
 39 Saturday 12 June, 2010 This is the port of Frankfurt and at the moment coal is being unloaded for the power station here. Ritzy apartments line the river's edge. |
 40 Saturday 12 June, 2010 We pass under a railway bridge having just passed the port of Frankfurt. Behind the bridge is a power station and behind that are the Frankfurt Hbf and the rail freight terminals. |
 41 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The power station is owned by DB Energie which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn Aktiengesellschaft a major rail, transport and energy operator in Germany. Deutsche Bahn is owned by the German government. |
 42 Saturday 12 June, 2010 We return to the pier after a very pleasant cruise with commentary in both German and English. It occurred to me at the time that it is probably easier for us in Frankfurt, because English is so widely spoken, than it would be for the French 100 kms away. |
 43 Saturday 12 June, 2010 After our boat ride, we go to the Zeil which is Frankfurt's main shopping street and one of the most crowded in Germany. |
 44 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The street is a pedestrian-only area and is bordered by two large plazas, Hauptwache in the west and Konstablerwache in the east. It is the second most expensive street for shops to rent in Germany after the Kaufingerstraße in Munich. |
 45 Saturday 12 June, 2010 During the month before Christmas, the extended pedestrian-only zone is host to one of the largest and oldest Christmas Markets in Germany. |
 46 Saturday 12 June, 2010 At the end of the Zeil is St. Catherine's Church and the Hauptwache which was formerly used as a prison. An entrance to Frankfurt's subway system is in the centre front. |
 47 Saturday 12 June, 2010 There is a restaurant at the top of this department store and we go there for lunch and to admire the views of Frankfurt. |
 48 Saturday 12 June, 2010 The Hauptwache (Main Watch) is a baroque building built in 1730, formerly used as a prison. It has given its name to the surrounding square and the transport hub beneath it. It is situated at one end of the Zeil, the city's main retail street. |
 49 Saturday 12 June, 2010 St. Catherine's Church is the largest Lutheran church in Frankfurt and is dedicated to the martyred early Christian saint, Catherine of Alexandria. She converted to Christianity in the 4th Century, refused the Roman Emperor's advances and was condemned to death on the breaking wheel. According to legend, the wheel itself broke when she touched it, so she was beheaded. |
 50 Saturday 12 June, 2010 From the restaurant we can also see the old opera house (Alte Oper) that was built in 1880 by the architect Richard Lucae. It was one of the major opera houses in Germany until it was heavily damaged in World War II. |
 51 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Until the late 1970s it was a ruin, nicknamed "Germany's Most Beautiful Ruin". Due to public pressure, it was finally fully reconstructed and reopened in 1981. Today it functions as a concert hall, while operas are performed in the Oper Frankfurt. |
 52 Saturday 12 June, 2010 There are many street cafes in this area, most with TV sets tuned to the World Cup Soccer. |
 53 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Korea had just won their World Cup match against Greece 2:0 |
 54 Saturday 12 June, 2010 On our way back to our hotel, we walk through the park that completely surrounds the inner city of Frankfurt. It was once the city walls but it became a public green belt in 1806. |
 55 Saturday 12 June, 2010 There appears to be another person behind the statue of the man doing who knows what? |
 56 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Frankfurt is an alpha world city (Sydney is an Alpha-plus city equal with Paris and Hong Kong) as listed by the Loughborough University group's 2008 inventory. The imposing skyscraper is the twin towers of the 155 metre tall Deustsche Bank Headquarters building |
 57 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Frankfurt is ranked 21st among global cities by Foreign Policy Magazine's 2008 Global Cities Index (Sydney ranked 9th) and is an international centre for commerce, finance, culture, transport, education, and tourism. The Japan Centre is the reddish building and the Commerzbank Tower is immediately to its left. |
 58 Saturday 12 June, 2010 Frankfurt ranks among the top 10 most livable cities in the world according to one survey (Sydney was equal 9th but seven were cities in German- speaking countries which suggests the survey looked at things important to those countries). And Seattle was 50th? Come on. This is Dresdner-Bank-Hochhaus, aka the Silver Tower. |
 59 Saturday 12 June, 2010 That night, we went out for dinner and ate inside a nearly empty restaurant in the warm while most of the patrons sat outside in the cold to watch a World Cup soccer match between England and the USA where they could smoke, cheer, yell and drink beer. Now to Alsace Lorraine |
