One afternoon in Frankfurt

A long time ago, when it seemed like our lives were going in the rut of traveling back and forth, back and forth accross the Atlantic, we decided to try routing our flights through different towns in Europe, and get to see some of the world on the way. It so happened, that on the first flight we flew together, we had the wonderful opportunity to fly through Frankfurt, and visit Keren's old German friend Birgit. We had booked a Lufthansa flight that took us from Chicago to Tel-Aviv, via Frankfurt, Germany.

We departed Chicago at 9:40 pm, and a short 8.5 hours later, we found ourselves wandering about the Flughafen in Frankfurt, very very jetlagged, but not too tired to be amused by the German signs all over and the soft German voice on the public address system.
Birgit picked us up at the airport. She looks exactly the same as she did moe than 10 years ago, except for a shorter haircut. I wish i had pictures from back then!!
Birgit and I met when my class took the traditional Holocaust trip to Germany, during which we met with a group of German kids. We had some long conversations, and decided to keep in touch -- we were pen pals!! Remember the times when people used real paper to write their letters? and stamps?
Anyway, the last time we met was when Birgit's class came to Israel for a short trip, and that was... hmm... about 12 years ago.



We took a train from the airport to downtown Frankfurt, that was about a 20 minute ride. We came out of the train station (around where this picture was taken), and the first landmark we saw was the Frankfurt stock exchange.






The picture on the right is the stock exchange (and some wine and bratwurst stands in front of it... yummmm...). The picture on the right is the famous "the bull and the bear", with a couple of tourists in front of them ;). Those of you who follow finance reports, may recognize the 'bull and bear' phrase. We thought they should have opened a bar there and name it "the bull and the beer"...
Next, we were led over to another street, (Grosse Bockenheimer Strasse/Fressgasse). Birgit told us that the name translates to "eating like a pig". And indeed, there were several restaurants there serving pork, and many other delicacies. We sat at one of the typical German restaurants out there, and shared a course of pork leg and Kartofelknudel (and another kind of Knudel which we can't remember the name of) and of course --how could we resist-- the Oktoberfest brew!!



Full and re-engerized, we started to tour the downtown area of Frankfurt. Here are a few representative pictures (click on them and they will take you to the full slideshow!): (1)The Opera house; (2)Goetheplatz; (3)Goethe-Haus (as you can see, the city is proud of Goethe); (4)the first Parliament house and (5)the buildings around it; (6)Roemer plaza; (7)The holy Roman emperors (Ludwig, Carl W, Maximillian and Heinrich) on the wall (sorry, no Charlemange, don't know why); (8)The Kaiserdome (cool!) - or the Imperial Cathedral, reached its current size in 1550 and starting in 1562 the Roman emperors were crowned here (check it out on Google); (9)Main river;
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

The city sustained heavy damage from Allied bombings in WWII, so much of this is rebuilt. To our understanding, the Kaiserdom took only light damage, so it is pretty old.

After our tour, we dragged our tired bodies back towards the bull and the bear, and sat down for another beer and Tomatesuppe. The sun was setting behind a thick blanket of clouds, and it was time to say goodbye...
Wonderful Birgit walked us back to our gate, and we promised to meet again in less than 10 years :) Thanks, Birgit, for a wonderful afternoon in Frankfurt!