Frankfurt, Germany

Days: 64-67
Miles Traveled: 31,092
Countries Visited: 13

I'm sooo far behind on posting to this blog that cities are starting to blur together - that's when I realized I better get back on it again!

As I said in my previous post, Frankfurt is really just a starting point for Europe due to Lufthansa's HQ here. Even so, there were some interesting things to see in Frankfurt.




I knew I'd be heading out by train - after I mapped out Europe and figured where I'd be going next - so I found a hotel (Le Meridien) right next to Frankfurt's main train station. It was a very nice hotel and fairly close to the center of the city so an easy walk to all the sites in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt is a very modern city but probably not on many peoples' lists for places to see before they die. It wasn't on mine either. It is home to the European Central Bank and the German Stock Exchange and I'm sure many Frankfurtians (I just made that up) think of their city as the financial capital of Europe, but in terms of a tourist spot with lots of attractions and historic sites it is definitely lacking.

Of the interesting things to see, there is Römerberg - the old downtown and central square.


It is interesting to note that the buildings in this picture were built in the 14th and 15th centuries and still used today as the Town Hall of Frankfurt (although they were heavily damaged in the bombings of World War II and rebuilt). Also in the square is an old 12th century cathedral - the Dom, or Saint Bartholomeus' Cathedral.


Also of interest there was a huge parade going on while I was walking around downtown. It happened to be Christopher Street Day...WOW what a showcase! Not sure why the name Christopher Street Day - but essentially it's their Gay Pride day.











After spending a day and a half checking out what Frankfurt has to offer, I needed to figure out where I was going next. This was a critical decision for my next 60+ days because I wanted to hit all the major cities in Europe without criss-crossing all over the continent. So, I needed to decide if I'm going clockwise or counterclockwise around Europe. After studying a giant map that I laid out on my bed for an hour or so, making a list of "must see" cities and "like to see" cities, checking train schedules and hotel costs in most of the major cities, and making sure I hit all the important sites, I decided to go counterclockwise and head northwest to Amsterdam, then continue around the continent by going through France, Spain, Portugal, back into France and Monaco and then into Italy (without further planning beyond that other than to hit Greece, Croatia, Switzerland, Austria and back into Germany before my time was up.)

To be clear, when I say "I'm planning my route" - it's really just deciding which direction to go - I have yet to make any hotel reservations, no train reservations and I have no idea if I'm hitting any big events in any of these cities or countries. It's kinda nice knowing I've got 60 days to just go wherever the wind takes me - but it's also a little stressful not knowing any details. Imagine planing a trip to LA, for example, and not deciding how you're going to get there, where you're going to stay, or what you're going to do when you get there until the day before you leave! I would never dream of it...yet here I am in Europe doing exactly that for the next 60 days in 11 countries, 15+ cities and to top it all off, everyone speaks a different language! What if I end up in a city without any hotel rooms available? What if the trains are all full and I cannot get into or out of a city? The list of things that can go wrong seems endless! In the end, however, I decided I'd rather just go with the flow rather than plan too far ahead. So I walked across the street from my hotel and picked up a train reservation for the next morning to Amsterdam (with the Eurail Pass some trains require reservations, others you can just hop on/off whenever and wherever you like - this route required a reservation).

This is as good as place as any to talk about The Eurail Pass. It's an excellent ticket to buy if you're planning on coming into Europe for any extended period of time. I purchased the Global First Class Pass for 2 months of unlimited, unrestricted, travel to anywhere on the continent - I think it covers 20 something countries. They have cheaper options with fewer days of travel, 2nd class, only specific countries, etc. but because I have no idea where I'm going and what days I'll be traveling I decided that the above pass was best for me.

As an example, I looked up the cost for a First Class ticket from Frankfurt to Amsterdam and it was €180.20 ($238 US) but for the reservation with my Eurail Pass it was only €5.50 ($7.30 US). Considering I paid about $1,500 US for the pass and I plan on taking about 20 train trips between now and the end of my 60 days - I'd say that the pass is a pretty good deal!

By the way, it wasn't until I was standing on the train platform waiting for my train to Amsterdam that I realized that I hadn't booked a hotel in Amsterdam yet. Those of you who know me know that I love my iPhone - here is just one more reason.


In all of about 10 minutes, I brought up Kayak (an iPhone app that searches hotel booking sites like Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Booking.com, etc.) which finds the best and the cheapest hotels in any given location. It's interesting because it can bring up a hotel that is priced at $150 on Expedia, $200 on Orbitz and $250 on hotels.com. Not sure why the big discrepancies but I'd certainly rather pay $150 then $250 any day - for the exact same room in the exact same hotel! Expedia isn't always the cheapest either. Using the Kayak app, I narrowed the result list of 300+ hotels to 4 stars and above, zeroed in on the Amsterdam city-center and within a few blocks of the city-center, the app narrows it down to 10 hotels with rooms available for tonight, and bingo I found a place to sleep tonight (the Swissôtel). Click on the Expedia "Book Online" button (which happened to be best price for this hotel) and because I already have an account set up with Expedia I clicked on the "book now" button and done! 10 seconds later I get an email with my confirmation number and an address of the hotel. Technology is unbelievable - and I cannot wait to see what comes next!

While I'm on the topic of "how much I love my iPhone" - I'll add that there's an app for the European train network as well: iRail.


It allows you to search every city, every train, every stop, every timetable, in every country in a split second. It finds the best route, the fastest route, the stops between cities (and exact times for each stop), figures out train transfers, whether or not you need a reservation for the train, if there's a restaurant car on the train, maps of the routes, maps of the cities, and on and on. The only thing it lacks (not it's fault), is you cannot buy your ticket or make a reservation with it. For that, you still have to go to a ticket window or a an ATM-like ticket machine at the train station...but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before that is available as well. I also found the app useful when I would run into a ticket agent that didn't speak English - I would just hand him/her my iPhone with the train route information already on the screen and they would very easily be able to figure out which reservation/ticket to give me.

Okay, enough of the iPhone advertisement (although I could go on forever about how great this thing is).

On to Amsterdam!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Wiesenhüttenstraße 28 60329 Frankfurt Germany