I stumbled upon a travel meme. What you do is list all of the towns or cities where you spent at least one night away from home during 2008. Mark with a star if you had multiple non-consecutive stays.
*Manchester
*Vernon
San Francisco
Philadelphia
Boston
Washington DC
Dublin
Taipei
Hong Kong
Tallinn
St. Petersburg
Moscow
I was on an overnight bus in Estonia and an overnight train in Russia. So, I don't know how that fits into this meme!
February 16 -
The last day and there was more time to walk around. We walked Zeil a bit more, allowing ourselves to meander up and down some of the other streets. It began snowing softly. By the time we headed back to the hotel, it was coming down heavy, worrying us both about our flights. I made sure to stop into a pastry shop and stock up. I couldn't resist, those pretzels and pastries were too good.
Luckily, my flight was on time. For a huge airport, Frankfurt is Boringsville. Once you get past security, there's pretty much nothing to do. I still managed a small carry on this entire trip, despite lugging a bag full of pastries on the plane. I'm certainly coming a long way - leaps and bounds - considering the past.
Of course, the flight was long; the food was disgusting. Thankfully, us passengers each had our own personal entertainment systems. I had brought my new iPod Touch with me to play with. I connected through Philly and was amused by an older German couple on the plane who were visiting the US for the first time. They were so excited to see the NYC skyline and thanked me when I pointed out the Empire State Building.
Overall, this was a short but immensely pleasing trip. It was my first introduction to Germany and I managed to see a lot in my brief time visiting. It was also the first time I jumped so quickly on a bottom of the barrel transatlantic weekend fare.
I can't wait to come back and tour Germany some more. I only hope it's through a fare as cheap as this one.
February 15 -
I slept like a brick, waking early so we could get out and explore the city. Time was short, but this day was spent really getting around. Our only problem was that it was freezing cold, but we managed this by popping into cafes for hot beverages once in awhile. It worked and saved our fingers and toes!
On our way to tour the area of Romer, we approached an old Jewish cemetery. I learned later that most of it had been destroyed by the Nazis. It was a sad reminder of the history of this country. Outside the cemetery, attached to the old brick wall that surrounded it were thousands upon thousands of steel boxes, each with the name of a Jewish resident of Frankfurt who perished in the Holocaust. Their name, date of birth, date of death (if available), and the concentration camp they were murdered in were listed on these boxes.
Toured more of the old section of Frankfurt, finally seeing the Romer and Alstadt areas. It was amazing until we learned that all of the buildings had been rebuilt after WWII, then it dropped a few notches and just became pretty. Stopped into a tourist shop, turning our nose up at the lack of proper souvenirs. I walked away with a postcard to add to my collection. We ended up walking the bridge over the Rhine to visit the neighborhood of Sachsenhausen, which looked as if it was teaming with louts the night before because of the presence of the street cleaners picking up tons of litter. One could tell it was the drinking quarters for the town from all the bars in the vicinity, but there were tons of cool half timber houses which kept our attention.
My friend suggested we take the train to the town of Mainz for most of the day. Mainz turned out to be just the place we needed. The Alstadt area was amazing, with a bit of the new mixed in. Looking back, I can't believe how much we saw in a relatively short amount of time. We stumbled upon a wind turbine on a steep hill that doubled as a super long slide for kids. The views from the top here afforded us a nice panorama of the old part of the city.
The architecture in Mainz turned out to be a nice distraction. There was such an eclectic mix of old and new, statues, and what appeared to be icons or shrines on the corners of several buildings (will need to look into the correct name and reasons for this). Overall, I was impressed, and happy to have added another town to my travels.
Back in Frankfurt for the evening and on to dinner near the hotel. For the first time I actually liked the beer my friend recommended to me. I'm definitely not a beer drinker in any sense, but the specific type of Weiss beer I drank was softer on the palate than most, with a hint of sweetness. Dinner was again, on the sub-par side, but much better than the previous night's abomination. We both ordered chili con carne and were surprised it wasn't served over rice or pasta, just a plain bowl of meat and beans. My entire trip to Germany seriously lacked any culinary treasures. The only exceptions were the pretzels and pastries, but a person cannot subside on these items alone.
I had to leave the next day, early afternoon. It was a shame, I was really getting into my visit, but that's what long weekend trips are for. This would be my shortest European trip to date, and it was getting difficult coming to grips with this fact.
February 14 -
My flight arrived at 6am-ish, thankfully, on time. I managed the S-Bahn until I got to the Konstablerwache stop. I read the hotel's directions as getting off at that particular stop and going through the subway - in the European sense. I didn't know the directions were actually catering to the American understanding of subway, which would mean transferring to the U-Bahn. After some frenzied help in the bowels of the station by some incredibly helpful station workers, I was able to figure out that I needed to cross the platform and take the U-Bahn to the Zoo stop.
We stayed at the Hotel Imperial, which was clean, in a quiet neighborhood, and had such a friendly and helpful staff. Since it was so early, my room wasn't ready. To fuel up, I indulged in the buffet breakfast offered by the hotel. It was nice for a cold breakfast. The coffee was fantastic. I washed up in the hotel restroom and headed out to the town of Darmstadt. Now knowing the trains a bit better, I was much more confident about my travels. I arrived in Darmstadt, hopped the city bus, taking the scenic route across town to the Mathildenhoehe artist's colony section of town using a crappy map I printed off the Internet.
The artist's colony was in part, a labor of love by the late Grand Duke of Hesse, Ernst Ludwig. It still thrives today. Something I'm sure would've pleased him. Light snow blanketed the ground and it was a magnificent backdrop against the art nouveau buildings. I read somewhere that this area of Darmstadt has the Grand Duke's imprint all over it and that you can still feel his presence here. I thought this a fitting statement as I half expected to bump into him taking a walk. Luckily, so much was left untouched in that area after WWII, and this allowed his vision to carry forth into the continuing decades.
Another must see for me was the Russian church that was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II. His wife, Alexandra, was Ernst's sister. She was also a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. What was special were the banners in the church that were sewn by Alexandra herself. They are framed, but you can get up close and touch the glass protecting them (it's an Orthodox relic thing). I purchased a small book about the chapel and even got to try out some basic Russian on the babushka working in the church.
There wasn't time to visit Rosenhohe, the Hesse family crypt, but what I saw was enough in my short day. Hopefully, I'll get to visit another time.
I walked back into town, reaching the Schlossplatz market square in front of the Ducal Palace. There, I watched some street musicians, and took in the scene all around me. Darmstadt is a much more staid town, not a lot of tourists, so I felt I got to see a more realistic picture of every day life here. I walked the main shopping street and stumbled upon an old classic red British phone booth. I caught the bus at Luisenplatz to the train station and resorted to ordering fish and chips at one of the shops there. It was at Nordsee which I've seen around Europe, so I trusted them, despite Darmstadt's landlocked position in the country.
Once back at the hotel, I showered and changed, ready to meet up with my friend, who was so kind to visit me from the UK. We headed out walking Zeil, the main street in the old section of Frankfurt, until we came upon a beer garden. I suggested the apple wine, which is a Frankfurt "thing" and we were surprised at how bitter it tasted. The crowd was impressively genteel, especially since everyone was drinking out of glasses in the middle of the open square. If this had been NYC or the UK, you can be sure those things would've been smashed to bits by night's end. To complement the atmosphere, the bells began ringing from St. Katherine's church across the way, and it was lovely. We found a place to eat, had a sub-par dinner, and I with my jet lag, called it an early night.
Occasionally, (okay, I lied. all the time) I trawl the Internet looking for cheap airfares. Naturally, something's going to bite back…and it did. Looking for something to do this President's/Valentine's Day weekend, I toyed with the idea of visiting either Chicago, Montreal, or staying close to home and go on another jaunt to Philadelphia.
I felt lackluster in my attempts to decide and so gave myself over to chance. Chance came through in the form of a super cheap airfare to Frankfurt, Germany. We're talking about the same price to fly to Chicago and less than a flight to Montreal for this weekend.
I only have two days and a bit there, but it's a weekend getaway, which is all I wanted. I wasn't allowed additional days off.
