Frankfurt, Germany - March 2005

This late winter trip to Germany was a few days of vacation at the end of a three day course at the US Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany.  The course lasted Monday through Wednesday noon so Rita came along with me for a short trip to finish out the week.  The course, Information Assurance for Managers, only confirmed that some day, some time, someone will break into our world-wide network in spite of the safeguards we put on our systems so our only hope is that whoever breaks in does it at another post and not yours.



We left Athens on Lufthansa very early Sunday morning.  This was further complicated because we had attended a great vodka-tasting party at our next door neighbors Saturday night.  The party was really getting interesting when we opted to leave about 10:00 pm.  It was either that or stay up all night partying and hope we make it to the airport.



We arrived in Frankfurt about 8:15 am and made our way to the apartments owned and operated by the Consulate.  It was much colder in Germany than in Greece and there were still traces of snow on the ground.  All day long the temperatures hovered around zero centigrade which is freezing.  We unpacked our bags and set out on foot walking to Frankfurt’s city center, about a mile away, in a few minutes.  So much has changed in Frankfurt since our first visit in 1975 when we stayed in the suburbs with our friends, the Locketts.  Since then we have transited Frankfurt many times but we haven’t gone into town.  Frankfurt has one of the best airports in the world which is why we have transited many times or flown in, rented a car and drove on to other locals.



First we walked to the area known as Römer or Römerberg, which is a collection of  reconstructed medieval burghers’ houses with the Rathaus (town hall) on one side and the 13^th century church known as Alte Nikolaikirche on another side.  Also close by is the information center where we picked up a map with a suggested walking route.  We followed the trail which took us to the ruins of a Roman encampment including thermal baths, the main Kaiserdom cathedral, St. Paul’s church, a Carmelite monastery, Goethe’s house and museum, Liebfrauen church, St. Catherine’s church, the 17^th century guard house known as the Hauptwache, the Börse or stock exchange, the old opera house that was reconstructed in 1981, the banking district with many new skyscrapers and the European Central Bank, and finally to the Main River bank where we ended our walk.  We took the U-Bahn (metro) back to our apartments and rested up.  We had a light dinner and turned in early to end our long day.



Monday through Wednesday I attended classes while Rita did short shopping trips into the city or read her books.  However, in the evenings we ventured back into the city center for good dining.  Monday night we had to eat at Fisch Franke, a seafood restaurant we had seen before.  We had an excellent meal with Rita ordering plaice (flounder) and I had a pan with three fish – fresh water, salt water, and salmon, which we know goes both places.  The owner of the restaurant is named Franke but  he wasn’t there.  We tried to buy aprons or shirts but they were  not for sale.  Our only souvenirs of the place are our photos and a few extra pounds.  We had draft Becks beer with our meal.  Afterwards we walked to Starbucks for coffee and chocolate cake.  The young man who was in charge spoke good English and told us he is dating a girl who is an Aggie.  He knew a lot about Texas.



Tuesday night we went into the city center again and had an excellent German meal at Steinernes Haus, an old gasthof.  We both started with goulash soup which was full of beef and potatoes and a spicy taste of paprika.  Rita next had rhamschnitzel while I had jagerschnitzel but both were such large portions we couldn’t finish them.  This night we drank Binding beer.



Wednesday my class broke out early at noon so we had the afternoon to spend walking around the city center again.  We went to an antiquarian shop that sold old books, maps and prints where I found a 1750 map of Altenburg, Germany where my ancestors came from.  I bought the map plus two prints, one of Altenburg’s St. Bartholomew church where the Frankes were baptized, married and buried, and one of the market square.  Then we stopped at Alte Café Schneider for coffee and cake before taking the U-Bahn back to our apartment.  In the evening we met fellow employees for dinner at a restaurant called Webber’s Feldbergblick which was in the shadows of the tall radio tower.  We had schnitzel and another pork casserole dish with Licher beer this evening.  The conversation was good and we stayed up late closing down the restaurant.



Thursday morning we picked up our rental car at the Frankfurt airport – a new Opel van with stick shift which took a few minutes to get used to again.  We were on the road by 10:00 am and headed south on Autobahn 5 past Karlsruhe to Baden-Baden, the resort of nobility for many years.  Baden-Baden still reeks of old money but mixed in today are the rich Russians who love to come here.  Thankfully this was off season and there weren’t many tourists at all so we didn’t feel too intimidated in our jeans.  We checked into the Little Prince Hotel and walked into town to get some lunch.  We ended up at Café Hofman for a light lunch of hot homemade soup.  We walked around town and stopped to view the old Trinkhalle and Kurhaus which is where the casino that James Bond played baccarat is located.  England’s government workers must have been paid a lot more than American government employees.  The casino informed me that they had an admission charge and a tie and jacket were required.  Oh, and no sports (tennis or running) shoes.



In the evening we had an elegant and delicious meal at the Little Prince restaurant associated with our hotel.  It was more French than German and for our main courses I had duck breast while Rita had veal medallions in mushroom sauce.  Our meal included soup starters and dessert and we had a nice red Bordeaux instead of beer tonight.  We walked to the casino after dinner and visited the casino although we didn’t play.  The casino was very elegant inside and worth the admission just to view the rooms.  We watched a few people play blackjack and both French and American roulette.  In a separate area they had electronic games (slot machines and poker machines) but not mixed in with the real casino.  We didn’t stay long and soon headed back to our cozy hotel.



Friday morning we had another large German breakfast which was delicious at all the hotels.  We headed east on little back roads that took us through the edge of the Black Forest and the higher we drove, the more snow was on the ground.  We drove through Bad Herrenalb and Neuenburg where the snow was quite deep and the wind was blowing it off the trees onto our car.  At Pforzheim we entered Autobahn 8 towards Stuttgart where we took Autobahn 81 south through scenic country.  Soon we reached the shores of Lake Constance (or in German, Lake Konstanz or Bodensee) and stopped for lunch at the Restaurant Seehof in Sipplingen.  Portions were very large and we ended up with more lunch than we bargained on plus we had local Furstenburg beer with the meal.  We drove along the shore of Bodensee through Uberlingen and stopped in Birnau to see a very ornate Rococo church of the 1700s.  Then we pressed on through Meersburg, Friedrichshafen, and Wasserburg to Lindau where we stopped to stretch our legs. 



Lindau is one of the prettiest towns along the Bodensee and sticks out on an isthmus.  We walked for a couple of hours looking at old, quaint buildings and the harbor.  We decided not to spend the night here but press on, which took us around the lake through a narrow sliver of Austria and Switzerland.  Most of the Austrian and Swiss towns at the south end of the lake were commercial but as we neared the Swiss/German border there were many pretty villages with half-timbered houses and inns.  At the border we arrived in the town of Konstanz (or Constance in English) and decided to spend the night here.  Konstanz is in Germany just across the Swiss border and is another scenic town set where the Rhine River empties out of the Bodensee.  It was a cold and windy evening but we walked through the old town center before we decided to return to our old hotel, Hotel Barbarossa, where we had an excellent meal in the quaint restaurant that looked as if it hadn’t changed in 400 years.  Since we had a super-sized  lunch, we only ordered starters – Rita had salad with chicken slices and I had gnocchi with mushrooms and garlic sauce.  The starters were large enough portions for a meal and we had a nice dry Swiss white wine with our meal. 



Saturday we woke to snow showers and high winds.  We had another excellent breakfast, usually always included in the hotel room charge, and headed back towards Frankfurt.  But before that we headed towards Schaffhausen, Switzerland and the Rhine Falls, the largest waterfalls in Europe.  They aren’t half as large as Niagara Falls but still interesting and more so to me since my great-great-grandfather, Ernst August Franke, mentioned that he had visited the falls.  In fact he recorded that he “went to Konstanz on the lake Bodensee” and “visited the beautiful Rhine falls near Schaffhausen” in August of 1826.  Here I am retracing his steps 179 years later.



We had continuous snow flurries all morning and made our way through back roads bordering the Black Forest to Autobahn 81 again and headed north.  We decided to stop for lunch at the village of Rottweil which was recommended in our guide books.  The guide book doesn’t say so but the rottweiler dog must come from this village.  Anyway, we found a nice café for lunch with good sausage and potato salad – no beer as I’m driving in snow.  Rottweil is a very pretty town with brightly colored houses.  Snow started to come down harder as we sat in the café and ate lunch.  After lunch we walked a little bit and took photos of the village.  As we returned to the Autobahn the snow increased tremendously as did the wind.  Traffic on the autobahn slowed to a crawl as we encountered a whiteout of blowing snow.  It took us a long while just following the car in front but we eventually made it past Stuttgart and Karlsruhe where the snow started to let up some.  Because of the weather we decided to drive on to Frankfurt, return the rental car and stay overnight at the Sheraton Hotel adjacent to the Frankfurt Airport.  It turned out well since we could relax and not worry about Sunday’s weather.



It turned out, Sunday’s weather was only overcast clouds.  We caught our 1:00 pm flight with no problems and arrived in Athens about 4:45 pm.  Athens is enjoying a series of spring-like days which we are grateful for.  We enjoyed this trip to Germany and were happy to see parts that we had not been to before.