Frankfurt am Main

FRANKFURT:

today we toured around the city of Frankfurt. its quite a large city that reminded me somewhat of Glasgow in that there is a river with bridges to walk across and there are modern buildings right next to quite old and beautiful architectural buildings. there are trees everywhere...many that are changing colors with the cooler rainy autumn weather. its quite beautiful...many church steeples and clock towers to see. also there is a square downtown that has some traditional buildings circling a fountain. the perfect picture of what old Germany mustve looked like.

we took the bus into the city from Bad Vilbel and did our touring by foot. we visited an art museum called the Städel (pronouned Schadel) where i got to see some of the German expressionists and impressionists paintings. im still blown away at the amount of amazing art ive been able to see over the last 2 weeks.

we stopped in at a traditional beer stein shop. they sell beer glasses and steins (for tourists) that look like the old German steins used by people of the past. my dad purchased one (it was the souvenir he was looking for all this time). we also popped into a local Gummi bear shop for a tasty treat. Gummi bears come from Germany (originally).

we had our lunch in the city at what they call the Market Place. Its sort of like a "Saturday Market" with a Beer Garden. 2 long rows with various booths set up. some sold fresh produce and others actually cooked your meal right there. you could choose from potato pancakes, bratwurst, schnitzel, onion breads, and many other various traditional German foods and you could wash it down with apple cider or with beer. they serve you on real plates with real silverware and real glasses. so they also provide tables and chairs for you to eat at. the photo is of a traveling bratwurst vendor...seems kind of handy if you need take away.

we enjoyed a day of rainy sunshine and even had the luck of seeing 2 complete rainbows painted in the sky over the river as we walked across one of the bridges. it was a lovely day in Germany.

tomorrow (Friday) we will take a boat trip up the Rhine River to view the castles. it will be our last full day in Germany. and then on Saturday we take the train back to Paris to prepare for our jouney back to the States on Sunday.