Beginner’s Guide to Frankfurt

Beginner's Guide to Frankfurt
===

Meggan: Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Travel Mug Podcast. We are so happy that you are here. I'm Meggan, as always, joined by Jenn. How are you today?

Jenn: I am doing well. How are you?

Meggan: I'm fabulous, thank you. We are now into the fall season, which I do very much enjoy. I hate that it leads to winter, but I do, I do love fall.

Jenn: Yeah, if we could just like go fall to summer, back to fall, that would be good with me.

Meggan: That honestly, instead of planning our perfect airports, we should have planned our perfect seasons, because that sounds like it to me. All right, well today we want to add to our ongoing semi frequent series of beginner's guides, and today we're going to focus on a city I have spent a few days in, and that is Frankfurt, Germany.

We do want to thank SafetyWing for partnering with us on this episode and stay tuned for later in the show when we let you know how SafetyWing can help keep you safe while traveling to Germany or over 180 other countries. Now, as always with our Beginner's Guides, we are not experts on these locations.

We may not talk about everything you should see, or do or where you should eat as an example. These are just highlights to get you started you're planning for Frankfurt. So as always, do your own research to ensure that you are seeing and doing and eating the things that interest you most. So first for this episode, let's kick off with a bit of Frankfurt history.

Jenn, over to you.

Jenn: All right. So first of all, the actual name is Frankfurt am Main. Which, because it's on the River Main, so that makes sense. Germans occasionally call it by its full name, and you'll see it called by its full name, sometimes to distinguish it from the other, significantly smaller city of Frankfurt an der Oder, which is on the Polish border.

So,

Meggan: did not know that.

Jenn: why did they name two cities Frankfurt? Good question.

Meggan: I don't know. We like a little confusion, keep people on their toes.

Jenn: Yes, so Frankfurt was the site of a Roman military settlement in the first century A. D., which doesn't seem like a real year, but sure.

Meggan: Okay, we'll go with it.

Jenn: And it served as a royal residence of the Carolingians from the 9th century through the Middle Ages. It was a free imperial city from 1372 to 1806, but lost that status under Napoleon, and it later regained that status in 1815. So Old Town was once the largest surviving medieval city in Germany.

However, it was bombed quite heavily in World War II, which destroyed many of the buildings. A few of the landmarks survive today, including its Red Sandstone Cathedral, which was dedicated in 1239.

Meggan: Wow,

Jenn: Today, Frankfurt is a global hub for commerce and culture and education and tourism and transportation. It is the home of many global and European corporate headquarters, and the number of high rise buildings in Frankfurt have earned it the nickname Mainhattan or Bankfurt.

Meggan: Se it has, of course it has. Yes, and it's interesting because When we were there, like, there really is the separation from, like, the Commerce District versus, like, sort of the Old Town section or down along the actual river, so it's sort of like a few cities in one. It makes it, it makes it quite interesting, actually, but first you have to get there.

So, Jenn, tell us a bit about how you actually can arrive in Frankfurt and also some getting around options that people might have.

Jenn: Yeah, let's start with the airport. So Frankfurt Airport is the main international airport in Germany. So you may be able to find a direct flight from your city. Both Discover Airlines and Condor Airlines offer non stop flights from Halifax to Frankfurt seasonally, which is great. Amazing, we don't get that many non stop flights. Um, I also read that it's easy to get from the airport to city center using trains, um, called RMV. It, that's an acronym, I'm not going to try to pronounce the German name because you won't understand what I'm saying anyway. Also, there are long distance trains that connect you with other cities in Germany and other cities in Europe, including , Paris, Budapest, Zurich, Copenhagen, and more.

So, you may be able to arrive that way if you're on a multi destination trip. Obviously, you can arrive by car from other parts in Germany or Europe. And getting around Frankfurt is pretty easy. You have the option of trains, buses, trams, taxis, Uber, bicycling, and of course, walking. So Meggan, what is your, what was your experience getting to and kind of around Frankfurt?

Meggan: definitely. So we originally flew into Frankfurt nonstop from Halifax on Condor. We had a really good experience with them. Um, we've only flown that airline once and it was roomy. The planes weren't full and that was the trip we'd had to cancel twice and they were very easy to deal with during those cancellations as well.

So shout out to Condor for sure. It was amazing flying directly to Europe from Halifax, and you weren't just going to London. Um, so that was a really good experience as well. and Frankfurt's a really great jumping off point. So if people just want to go from Canada, To Frankfurt, not even as not that we're not promoting to visit, you know, to visit Frankfurt, but if you want to use it as a jumping off point, it's an amazing starting point as well.

So we did rent a car at the airport in Frankfurt and set out immediately on our road trip to other parts of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. And then we circled back to the Frankfurt airport two days prior to leaving, we dropped our car off at the airport and got a taxi into the city center. Like we said earlier, there is a train option and also a bus option as well. The trip was about 13 kilometers and what I remember from that drive is, The taxi driver treated it like we were on the autobahn, yet we were not. Coming in downtown to a city, like we were like, white knuckling it, but we made it very quickly, so that was good. Um, once in Frankfurt, we walked everywhere. We took no public transportation at all, and then hired another taxi back to the airport.

Jenn: Nice. Yeah. I mean, I love walking to get around, so that's nice that that is an option there. uh, Meggan, where did you stay and what areas would you recommend that people stay in?

Meggan: Yeah, so when we visited Germany, um, we, or Frankfurt in particular, we stayed at The Flag Oskar with a K M. It's called. It's located on Oscar von Miller Street 10. It was quite central. We had a nice full service corner apartment, which overlooked the water, the river, I guess, and the bridge, uh, the price was around $245 Canadian with tax a night for a central location, so it wasn't bad at all, and we found it on booking. com. There was a grocery store across the street, and lots of restaurants, and the Old Town slash Romerburg, uh, which we'll talk about in a minute, was about a 13 or so minute walk amongst many other sites that were nearby.

And as I mentioned before, we didn't take any public, public transportation and saw what we wanted to on foot from this residence where we stayed. , if I had to recommend an area and you've never been there before and want to sort of have that romantic vision or version of the city in your head, the Old Town, of course, would be a great area.

As it is the case with a lot of European cities. Um, here in Canada and North America in general, we can't picture old towns because besides maybe like Quebec, we don't really have many old towns in this country. So that's always a good experience. There are other areas to stay for budget travelers, of course, that are just a bit outside of the city that you can get to from public transportation.

There's areas near the train station, if that is a necessary option for you. Or closer to the nightlife and red light district. It will depend, of course, on your activities and preferences. We did, uh, venture to the red light district during the day. I'm not going to lie. And maybe it was just the section we're in so I'm, I'm certainly not judging anything by my quick experience, but I was scared. So. So. we left there. Yeah, but I mean, I'm sure there's great areas for younger people to stay that want to have the nightlife scene. So definitely do your research there. And the West End of Frankfurt is a great area for families.

It has more parks as an example. But there is something for everyone in Frankfurt and lots of great articles and suggestions online for all of your needs. So literally, whatever you're looking for, or, you know, if you have specifics, or just even Google best places to stay in Frankfurt, there's tons of information out there, so you'll know best what might work for you.

Jenn: Yes. So before we talk about what you should do, uh, you've booked your flight and you've booked a place to stay, but before you leave home, you need to make sure that you're covered In case anything goes wrong, of course, we hope you don't need it, but we always recommend getting travel insurance. So with our partners for this episode, SafetyWing, you're covered all over the world with just one policy. It's a monthly subscription. So you're continuously covered. You can turn it off anytime. So it's perfect for those longer trips or for digital nomads. One of the best things is the zero dollar deductible, which means you're covered even for the smallest claims. And we also love that you can get coverage in just a few minutes online.

No pre approval needed. And travel delay, lost luggage, and trip interruption are covered in addition to travel medical insurance. So, if this sounds like it will be right for you and your adventures to Germany and beyond, check out the link in the show notes and make sure you save it for your next trip. And if you forget and you're already in Germany or wherever, you can buy it even if you're already traveling, which we also love because I have bought it on the way to the airport before, I'm not gonna lie to you,

Meggan: Yeah, you gotta love something that, like, probably takes your breath away, that you remember you forgot to do, but knowing you can get it in five minutes. Is is pretty sweet.

Jenn: for sure. Alright, let's dive into some of the things to do, Meggan.

Meggan: All right. Excellent. So first and foremost, we've already talked about the river. Of course, , I don't know if it's actually called Maine or Mayan or I'm sure we're not probably pronouncing that proper. But it's M. A. I. N. You can Google it, you know, um, so we do suggest in regards to that a river cruise.

So I always love the option of seeing a city from the water. So this is a great way to see Frankfurt, and there are a few options of boats, as well as durations of river cruises. We actually also saw a party cruise going by. Very loud music, and everyone was really into it. So I don't know if that was, like, a work event, or if that's something you can, like, actually get into yourself without it being the case.

So Look into that if that's your jam. Um, there are a few ways you can book through apps and websites such as GetYourGuide or Viator. And we, uh, will include a link in our show notes where you can book directly as well from the Visit Frankfurt website. We have personally used GetYourGuide, uh, when we were in Switzerland to buy a train pass.

And I have a friend who books most of her experiences in Europe on the Viator app. Um, so like any activity you book, please read reviews and ensure you are booking from a trusted site. Nobody wants to get scammed for their vacation. Um, next up we have the main tower. So there are many skyscrapers like you mentioned in Frankfurt. However, the main tower, named after the nearby river of course, is the only one with an observation deck open to the public. And it's billed as Frankfurt's highest vantage point, and it is 56 stories. We did go, uh, we did not buy our tickets in advance. Rebels! Um, and they were under 10 euros per adult, so you essentially get in line, take the elevator up. It's an open air observatory, so we got really cool pictures without, like, bars in the way, and really amazing, views of the city. And there is a Frankfurt card you can purchase, which does give you discounts on attractions around the city. And if you were to have one, it will actually save you 20 percent at the tower, which if you have a family of four, let's say as an example, those can be really good savings.

Next up is the Zeil shopping street. This is in the city center and is the main shopping street with well known brands and boutique shopping as well. It is dubbed, there's a lot of things dubbed here in Frank, uh, Frankfurt. It is dubbed the Golden Mile or the Fifth Avenue of Germany. it includes shops you can enter from the street level, but also a mall, which is, known for its architecture called the Zeil Gallery.

Also on the street is Palais Courtier, which sounds very Francais. Um, it's essentially a futuristic office tower, uh, hotel tower, and shopping complex with 500, 000 square feet of shopping area with over six floors called My Zeil. I know, I know. Needless to say, there are other areas to shop as well in the city, but this is the area.

Jenn: That, I mean, it has to be the area, that's crazy.

Meggan: Exactly. And then I definitely, of course, can't not talk about New Old Town and Römerberg as well. So, it's the smallest district in Frankfurt. Like you've referenced, it was destroyed during World War II and has been completely remodeled, hence the moniker New Old Town. Here you can find amazing restaurants, museums, history, of course.

Shops, the old town square known as Römerberg or Romer Square, which has reconstructed timber houses around the square itself. It's like picturesque Germany, and it hosts markets as well at certain times of year and there are coffee shops, restaurants, there's a fountain in the middle, and of course the cathedral.

Um, it is an area that has seen devastation, but of course has been rebuilt to an area of pride, and honestly, it's probably my favorite section of the city. Yes.

Jenn: Totally fair. So, about the cathedral. Frankfurt Cathedral! Also known as St. Batholomew's cathedral, officially known as the Imperial Dome of St. Bartholomew. So lots of names.

Um, it's a Roman Catholic church in the heart of Frankfurt. You won't miss it. It has a 95 meter tower rising over the city. It's a Gothic style church.

It was built between 1315 and 1358 over the remains of a palace chapel that was built before 680, 680

Meggan: Again, doesn't seem real.

Jenn: no, as Canadians, it's just like,

Meggan: Did stuff happen before the 1800s?

Jenn: don't understand. So the cathedral was repaired and expanded after World War II. Inside you can visit the Frankfurt Cathedral Museum and climb the 328 steps to get a wonderful view of the city. One thing I noticed on their website, pay attention to the opening times as the cathedral tower and the museum sometimes have different opening hours. It looks like admission is three euros, which is very cheap. Um, I had to translate the website to find that out. It was very difficult. I was trying to find out if you had to buy tickets in advance, but it seems like not.

Meggan: All right, we're just gonna wing it at the cathedral, I guess.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: Excellent. I also would like to talk about the Iron Foot Bridge with Love Locks. So, Eisner Steg, it is known as, officially. It is a lovely pedestrian bridge that takes you over the river. There are other bridges, of course, that cross the river. However, this is the only one for pedestrians only. It is also the bridge where you can see thousands of love locks people have left along the way, which makes for amazing views from the bridge, but also the locks on the bridge are quite a sight as well. So you get to see the city from a cool vantage point, but the bridge itself is cool as well.

It was quite busy, um, when we, when we crossed it. So we saw it a few times and we're like, people like kind of lined up ish to cross it. And we're like, we'll catch you next time with Bye. But if you can't miss and you get some pretty good views from there.

Jenn: Yeah, all right, let's finish up the things to do with museums, and there are a lot of museum options in Frankfurt. So Museumsufer, or Museum Riverbank, is a collection of 39 museums. They're lined up on either side of the riverbank. You can buy a ticket that gives you access to all 39 museums over two consecutive days, I cannot imagine

Meggan: No.

Jenn: doing 30, and I'm a museum person,

Meggan: I left this section to you because I didn't visit these and this sounds like way too many to me.

Jenn: it's a lot, but, um, you can visit over, like I said, two consecutive days, so you have lots of options. There's, uh, museums about film production, architecture and design, communication, Roman artifacts, sculptures, and the next two specific museums that I'm going to talk about, but tickets are just 21 euro a person which is actually a really good deal When you take into consideration these single tickets to the other museums So if you're going to go to like more than two museums I think that that is actually worth it.

Meggan: That sounds

Jenn: worth

Meggan: it to me for sure.

Jenn: Yeah, so the next museum is the Stadel Stadel Museum. It's an art museum with over 700 years of art, including Rembrandts, there's photography from the 1850s, contemporary art, and more. Note that tickets are more expensive on the weekends, but, and on holidays, but on Tuesdays, there's a special deal after 3 p. m. So that's nice.

Meggan: You're going to tell us what that deal is or just keep people in suspense

Jenn: I will keep you in suspense because I didn't write it down and I don't remember, so

Meggan: Right. Just know that there's a deal on Tuesdays people.

Jenn: After 3 p. m. You can buy your tickets online, or you can wait until you get there and see what happens. But,

Meggan: Rebels. That's what

Jenn: yeah, I know.

Meggan: I would hope that I could get there and it's sold out so I wouldn't have to go.

The next, The next, one I probably. If I had my time back, would have gone to, um, now that I learned about it. So I, this one is, is something I would have done.

Jenn: Yeah, so the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. So it's actually two separate locations that are within walking distance. of each other. So, the Jewish Museum is the oldest independent Jewish museum in Germany, and it shares the history of three Frankfurt families, including the Rothschild family, the Frank family, and the Eastern European family of the well known author and communist Valentin Senger. So you can learn about Jewish traditions and post war history all the way up to present day. And the museum is actually the Rothschild home, which I thought was very interesting.

Meggan: That is.

Jenn: So the second location is the Museum Judengasse, and it is actually an archaeological remains of five houses, and it provides different views of everyday Jewish life in the early modern era, so the Judengasse was the first Jewish ghetto in Europe And in the 17th century over 3 000 Jews lived in this area And tickets can be purchased online in advance for that. I think it's recommended that you do unless you have the um, Museum, the museum pass type thing that we talked about earlier. So, yeah, tons of museums that you can visit.

Meggan: definitely. I'm so much history in Europe in general, obviously in Frankfurt. And if I have my, if I get there again, I'm definitely going to do those ones. I'll break my non museum streak and I'll go to those for sure. Promise.

Jenn: All right, Meggan, let's talk about the food. Tell me about some of the things you ate

Meggan: Yes. So first I'd like to tell you that Frankfurt is known for some specialties. And this includes apple wine. You can actually find pubs dedicated to apple wine itself. Frankfurter sausages, of course. Frankfurt loin ribs. Frankfurter Kranz, which is a specialty sponge cake. And I'm going to pronounce this incorrectly, but Bethmannchen

uh, a pastry made from marzipan. So these are some of sort of the regional specialties. And when we were in Frankfurt, our best guide was to use Google Maps. And we looked for restaurants in our vicinity based on ratings. and the type of food that they served. Eating, I find, is so individual. Um, and it's about budget and preferences and sometimes food allergies.

And in Germany itself, I loved schnitzel. So if you eat meat and you can find any restaurant serving schnitzel, I, I'm just going to go ahead and recommend it. Um, unless the reviews, of course, are really bad. A few places that we enjoyed and Isn't traditional by any means, but we ate here in both Heidelberg and Frankfurt.

So for a quick but tasty coffee and breakfast was Coffee Fellows. It's certainly not anything that's like, you know, you're really going to get a lot of culture and history from there. Um, but really great coffee, breakfast sandwiches and red velvet muffins, which I think about often. And it was quick and great for when we were on the go, and it was also cost efficient.

You're not always looking to have a lengthy meal as a city, especially to start your day. Another restaurant we went to and had a great breakfast was Mainkai Cafe, which was, Really great for food and a great view of the river, which it's named after as well. So M A I N K A I. It had amazing bread products, fruit, cheese, coffee.

It was a really great breakfast and not too heavy again before a day of exploring. Now if you aren't looking for a sit down meal, um, Peter's not a huge fan of sit down meals. Otherwise I'd have lots of other restaurants to tell you about. But a great spot you could head to is Kleinmarkthalle. This market has amazing stalls with of course for locals probably more or if you had an apartment where you wanted to cook a meal meal.

So it has like meats and fruits and vegetables, but it also has prepared food stalls where you can actually grab some food to eat. Uh, right there, or take it with you. Rick Steves is how we found out about this place prior to travelling to Frankfurt, and so we went and ate at the same food stall that he recommended and was at in his video, and it was serving the famous Frankfurter, and it did not disappoint.

The ladies working there were so sweet, and Rick Steves has definitely put them on the map. They were really busy and it's called Schreiber. So that's within the Kleinmarkthalle. And if frankfurters aren't your thing, there's lots of other amazing, amazing options for a great meal and like a cool setting.

I will say we had to like find a stool to sit down and like, um, eat our frankfurters at, and someone had like, Rudely, uh, thrown their trash near, on the floor near where we were sitting. Were we blamed for it by a cranky stall owner? Yes, we were. He actually yelled at us at the Kleinmarkthalle

Jenn: oh my gosh,

Meggan: I was like, please, please sir, Canadians, we're not going to be throwing our trash about.

Jenn: we would never.

never.

Meggan: the upper floor. If you see him, just don't throw your trash around. But otherwise, honestly, it was a, I love a food hall, a food market. I, so it overall, it was a really good experience and it was, you know, following in Rick Steve's footsteps. What can I say?

Jenn: Well, it's funny because I, as soon as you said the Rick Steves episode, I'm like, oh my gosh. I like, now I can picture it because I have seen that episode,

Meggan: Yes, indeed. It's all about Frankfurt. So there you go.

Jenn: I want to go back and watch Rick Steves now. I haven't watched him in so long.

Meggan: I love him. Peter calls him the man with two first names and I'm like, Steve's isn't a first name. But not Steve's. All right, Jenn. I would love to hear some fun facts.

Jenn: Yes, let's do some fun facts. So, of course, we have to say, Frankfurters, a. k. a. Franks, or, like, widely known as hot dogs, uh, were named after Frankfurt, Germany, obviously, so that the city is the birthplace of hot dogs, which is so wild, because, like, I think of hot dogs and I think of, you know, the U. S. A., so, weird.

Meggan: They can't have everything. They're a lovely country, but they, they didn't create everything

Jenn: They did not. So out of Germany's 18 skyscrapers in the country, 17 of them are in Frankfurt.

Meggan: in the country.

Jenn: I think there's more than that in Halifax, which is just wild. Um, traditionally steeples, of course, are the tallest structures in German cities, but as the country's financial center, Frankfurt is the exception to that rule.

So as Nova Scotians, we are frequently told that. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

Meggan: Have we been living a lie, Jenn?

Jenn: Uh, maybe. So he, Alexander Graham Bell has been, you know, credited with patenting the first telephone. However, he's only one of two possible inventors of the telephone, and Phillipp Reis, 20 years earlier in Frankfurt, may have invented the telephone.

So

Meggan: declare.

Jenn: our Nova Scotian, uh, point of pride might be a lie.

Meggan: I'm clutching my Nova Scotia tartan. Oh my

Jenn: The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world. And Frankfurt is the most important financial center of the European continent, which I had no idea.

Meggan: Mm-Hmm.

Jenn: The Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest book fair in the world and attracts thousands of publishers, authors, and book lovers from all over the world each year. And every year they highlight a different guest country by, uh, highlighting its culture and literature during the fair. And finally, Frankfurt is the birthplace of Anne Frank, like we mentioned back in the Jewish Museum. So, those are the fun facts.

Meggan: I love that. Thank you for sharing those.

Jenn: Yeah, so I hope that this episode helps you plan your first trip to Frankfurt or maybe a return trip. Again, we want to thank SafetyWing for partnering with us on this episode. You can find the link to SafetyWing and their flexible options at the link in our show notes. As for us, you can find us on social media at TravelMugPodcast and on our website, TravelMugPodcast. com. We'd love it if you left us a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, I'd really like to read a new review that would make me very happy

Meggan: Please, please give us a review.

Jenn: or you can support the show through buy me a coffee or just by sharing the show with a travel loving pal that really helps us too. So until next time, bye.

Meggan: Bye.