Frankfurt: there & back ..... and auf Wiedersehen Deutschland!

http://taverna-italiana.de/Arrived in Frankfurt from Mainz by train late afternoon. Managed to get ourselves and bikes off in one piece despite the crowds in our carriage. Once we got down and up two lifts to get to the main entrance we stopped to sort out train tickets keys down to Kaiserslautern and then later from Berlin back to Frankfurt. That task fell to Caroline due to her command of German while I stayed with the bikes in the noisy station hall. All sorted we pushed our bikes out into & up a very busy mainstreet pulsing with people enjoying the bars and open air market. Stopped to buy some cheese and fruits from the stalls for our Warmshower hosts and continued slowly making our way eastward through the city.



We found the address fairly easily and we’re welcomed by Marc who showed us to the large basement where we were to store our bikes. We took all our gear upstairs, showered, chatted with our hosts (Ulrike arrived home as I was in the shower) before heading round the corner for pizza. The area was obviously fairly upmarket with large apartments and plenty of cafes & restaurants. The restaurant, Ruccola, was a quirky Italian place almost Fawlty Tower-ish in the service we received from the one English speaking waiter but we did get two substantial pizza and drinks with which to restore our energies!!

Back at the apartment we bid good night to our hosts, sorted our gear and packed what we needed for the 10 days with Anne and Kader. It was a hot, close night so sleep didn’t come easy.

The next day we had some time to kill before our train for Kaiserslautern so wandered around the central city taking in some of the public art scattered throughout. Frankfurt seems to be a city full of sculptures, some quite old while others are late 20thC and all in settings the public can easily access such as parks and gardens. [Fountains-Monuments-Sculpures]

Statue didicated to Heinrich Heine

House for Geothe 1986 Eduado Chillida

Lost info on this but is a lovely form

Liegende 1937 Rudolf Kipps

Missed getting the details on these two sculptures but both in the same central city park. [Marshall Fountain]

 

Geothe's statue in Geotheplatz. G dressed as Poet Laureate stands on a plinth on which reliefs of scences from his plays and novels can be seen. The statue was badly damaged during WWII and was fully restored and rededicated in its presentb position on 28 August, 2007 - Geothe's birthday.

 
A wonderful piece depicting the Struwelpeter story. Created 1985 by Franziska Lenz-Gerharz. This site offers more photos.

Below is David and Goliath

David and Goliath

  

This sculpture is really a memorial (as you can read) to the mentally handicapped people who were transported to their death via grey buses. A stark reminder of the cruelty of the Nazi regime.





The following three are just quick shots taken on our last evening. I love the detail one can see on many of the older buildings - some reworked/retored sicne being damaged in WWII so the craftmanship remains. The fountain is called Maerchenbrunnen.

Thursday 31: We returned to Frankfurt after a lovely week or so with Anne & Kader exploring the Donnersberg area & Berlin. The weather was overcast when we arrived about 1pm but warmed up as the afternoon wore on to reach 27C.
We left our bags at Ibis Centrum but couldn't officially book in until 3pm so we went for a bit of a walk around the area, particularly along the riverside where quite a bit of new 'brownfields' development has occurred. Some very shi-shi apartments in the old wharf areas.

Not far from the hotel we discovered a wee hole in the wall cafe, called Blackberries (Schleusenstrasse, 7) where we ate the most amazingly delicious miso soup - the best I have ever eaten, full of noodles, string mushrooms & fresh herbs. Caroline had a Spanish tortilla but couldn't resist tasting the soup! The place also offered Portuguese Nata - equally delicious! They have table & chairs outside so we whiled away the time we had left before we could book in enjoying the outside atmosphere & people watching.

We booked in, settled into our room & updated blogs etc.  Later we wandered along river & through old town on our way to retrieve our bikes from Marc & Ulrike's place. It was a lovely evening warm, late summer evening with people strolling & enjoying beers in the many hofs and cafes. Whilst I do enjoy wandering & looking around new places I find my appreciation distracted by two things:
      1. the tagging one sees everywhere in German cities and towns. There is some very good street art but in the most amazing places one sees tags, scrawls across the front of buildings, on windows, on lamposts. Tagging is so prevalent that I wonder whether city authorities even bother to counter it. Others have commented also - das-bombing,& berlin-street-art.
      2. the fact one can't avoid smokers and the residue of smoking i.e. butts litter every doorway, footpath and outside cafe areas. People of all ages and states smoke here & cigarette advertising is still seen on the streets; one can buy cigs from vending machines almost anywhere. Non-smokers like us have to put up with smokers at next table lighting up when seated outside at cafes.  Makes me very grumpy. Thank goodness we're mainly cycling. Interesting commenary by others smoking-in-germany and regulations.

Anyway, Marc was very welcoming when we arrived at his apartment. Ulrike wasn't yet home so we didn't see her to say farewell and thanks. They were off for a long weekend; a good time to go as large area of Frankfurt has had to be evacuated by Sunday whilst they diffuse a newly discovered WWII unexploded bomb.  We packed our bikes up & cycled back to the hotel via the riverside pathway. Had a cuppa and toasted sandwich back at hotel.

Friday went to a bike shop we found on the web as we couldn't get the pedals loosened. Fixiestube is run by a lovely Ger/American who was very helpful and loosened things for us. Fingers crossed we can get them off when we need to on Sunday!
Seeing a cafe next door we stopped in for a cuppa & a bit of cake. Also bought a doorstep sandwich to take away for our picnic lunch which we planned for just out of Hanau. We cycled along south bank of Main River passing plenty of other people out cycling or strolling on such a lovely day. We ate our sandwiches seated on sculptured seats overlooking the Main, watching working boats pass by. On our return to Frankfurt we stopped in Offenbach am Main for a final treat - Crepes with strawberries & darjeeling tea.

Back at the hotel we collected the stuff we wanted to post & went to kiosk on corner, which was an agent for Duetsche Post. We were served by friendly chap who helped us send off our 3 parcels at the correct weight & size - much cheaper than the parcels we sent from the UK - and who was interested in our travels & where we were from.
That done we retruned to hotel to fiddle around before heading out for dinner in the old town.

Passed by these features of Frankfurt: Alte Oper, euro-sculpture, Old St Nicholas Church plus many more but enough photos already!!

Old Opera House

Euro 2001

St Nicholas Church

 Loved the fact that cycling is encouraged in Frankfurt greencity- the cycle parking rack shown here was quite something. Watched several people retrieve their bikes.

Great to see 'I, Daniel Blake' getting attention in Frankfurt.

Caught a bit of the fun Die Partie were having in one of the plazas; lots of noise & good humour as people competed for a fast time riding a plastic children's motorbike. Lots of making fun of present politicians, too. I didn't understand a word of what was said but Caroline caught quite a bit of the banter.

We wandered on into the old town, looking at the cafes around & finally decided on a truly cool cafe Helium ..... too cool for us to sit inside as the pumping music was just too loud! BUT many of the items on the menu were vego & sounded interesting. I ordered Zoodle pasta i.e. raw zucchini shreds in a cashew nut sauce. A yummy vegan option, which I had with a rose.  Caroline had a flammkuchen - tasty but not as good as those we've had elsewhere. The waitresses were pleasant enough but seeing the 3 of them smoking between serving customers did rather put a dampener on my impression of the place.

 
After our meal we wandered back along the river promenade. Loved the moonlight over the buildings and on the water. A very pleasant summer's evening stroll.
Back at the Ibis we packed up our gear ready for our ride to the airport the next day.

Saturday: With our usual muesli & yoghurt breakky over & last minute packing done, we deposited our gear in Ibis storage and went out to the Liebieghaus sculpture gallery. It was just a 10 minutes walk from the Ibis along the waterfront & over the pedestrian bridge. Before viewing the collection we called in at the on-site cafe for cuppa & cake, sitting under the large umbrellas as a light shower passed over.

Once inside the gallery we were entranced, not only by the stunning collection of sculptures but also by the beauty of the building and its tranquility. The woman who welcomed us was also very friendly and welcoming providing us with a brochure which explained the 12 items the gallery has or now hasn't due to the dubious acquistion of them during the Nazi period. 

I was quite taken with how they interpreted the different periods of sculptures so that visitors really do learn something of the styles and raison d'être for the various pieces. We probably would have had our understanding further enhanced had we hired an audio-guide but we didn't! The whole place is a manageable size for a 2 hour cisit without feeling exhausted or that one may have to skip a section.  Just as we were leaving a group of children came in, accompanied by parents/educators(?) - I watched as they were given a task and taken into one of the rooms to explore a particular sculpture. An appreciation of art starts with the young.

For lunch wee returned to the wee cafe we'd liked on our first afternoon, Blackberries, for another bowl of miso, a tortilla & a couple of nata. Not quite as warm sitting outside as the previous time but pleasant enough until the people at the next table lit up! Back then, quick smart to the hotel to load up our bikes & cycle the 15.5km out to the Ibis Frankfurt Airport. 

A lovely ride along the riverside then across farmland and parkland before turning again along the Main river to get to the hotel located just opposite Aldi in Kelsterbach. We were both well laden as carried all the extra stuff we need for packing our bikes up for the flight. Would have hated to have had to manage traffic with all that gear! Thank you Frankfurt for making cycling to your huge airport a pleasure.

Bought a few breakky supplies at the Penny & Aldi across the road (Nothing opens on Sunday in Germany) then cycled into the tiny centre of Kelsterbach .... nothing much doing there!! At least there was a geldautomat there as supermakets wouldn't take our Mastercard travel card. He ho!

Spent the rest of evening trying to work out which mobile phone company in Canada provides the best sim card options ..... Blimey!! They're all VERY expensive compared to Europe & even NZ. I guess that's what happens in a vast country with a relatively sparse population, but still!! We may not be doing much blogging along the way in Canada. Booked a few nights of accommodation during our cycle trip from Montreal to Sydenham. Had hoped to camp at a couple of places but the grounds we looked at close on Sept 4th. 

Sunday: Lazy start. Had a resgtless sleep as broken by a group smoking & talking loudly outside, under our window at around midnight!! Had to close the window & then the room was too hot. Grrr!

Spent about 3 hours cleaning our bikes & packing mine into its travel bag. I am sure I haven't packed it quite as well as I did when leaving NZ but it is pretty well wrapped up. Caroline will pick up a box from the airport tomorrow morning to complete her packing. 

Ate a rather desultory lunch at the Ibis - their food is nothing to write home about!! At least we had the evening meal at a local Italian restaurant that has good reviews to look forward to - ate a tortellini with saffron sauce @ Taverna Italiana. A little too salty with the saffron probably rather too yellow to be true saffron. The pinot grigio was an excellent choice to accompany the meal! Finished it off with a Gelato di Tartufo - very rich! Mmmmmmm :-)

Monday: An Ibis breakfast for once - able to make waffles ouselves then Ibis shuttle to airport with all our gear giving us plenty of time to pack Caroline's bike up before our 2pm flight.

Auf Wiedersehen, Germany, Europe ..... thank you for giving us a great cycling adventure. 

And farewell Irish relatives. I waved as we flew over!!