Travelling to Frankfurt, Germany

I felt thrills of joy and excitement run through me. Germany, we were actually in Germany! I couldn’t believe it. It felt surreal. Too good to be true.

Much of my life I have wanted to go to Europe. As a history buff with my head in European and British history, I have longed to travel and see the places I have read and studied about for so many years. Germany wasn’t at the top of my list, it was actually fourth. But I didn’t care. It was Europe, and that is what mattered.

Frankfurt is a bustling city, much like Melbourne, with an interesting contrast of old and new, or should I say, new and rebuilt-old, for most of the city center was bombed out during the war and then rebuilt to look like the old. From our hotel window we could see the train station, a massive old-looking structure with a clock face that reminded me of Flinders Station back home. Below on the street cars beeped and trams rattled by and ambulances and police vehicles frequently whirred their extremely loud sirens. People walked and ran up and down the footpaths and across the roads hustling and bustling about their daily lives. It was a high stimulation place bursting with excitement and so much to explore and discover.

On our first morning there, we walked down the street to a little market where we bought coffees from a man who insisted we use china mugs instead of paper cups because it would add five days to our lives. 😛 We stood around a round table and enjoyed our amazing brew. We explored the city a bit and found ourselves on the banks of the river Main (pronounced Mine), where was a small fair with yummy food and cool activities for the kids. We sat at a table and ate German pretzels and later got some fairy floss. We walked the streets and heard German spoken everywhere and loved the German architecture. We knew a few German words and practiced speaking them while ordering food. It was a bit awkward at first, but actually pretty fun!

On our first day there, we visited the Frankfurt Historical Museum, which, you can imagine, was right up my ally. There was much to see and discover there.

Frankfurt, as I suspected, was named after the Franks (whom I’ve been studying and featuring in my novel). The name means ‘ford of the Franks’. The Franks, a Germanic tribe, lived here, and there was a ford here that went across the river Main. When Charlemagne’s empire was split between his three grandsons, Louis the German got the eastern half called Austrasia, where Frankfurt is. Frankfurt became one of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire.

Kings were crowned in the Kaiserdom cathedral here, which we visited on Wednesday, from 1562-1792. It is a grand and beautiful catholic cathedral in gothic design. There were displays inside of catholic vestments and gold, and many Latin inscriptions that I tried to read. I know a little Latin, but it is times like these that I wish I knew more!

Frankfurt was a free city from 1372-1806, and it remained neutral during the Thirty Years War in the 1600’s. In the museum, I saw cannon balls and matchlock muskets from that time.

After the ill-fated revolution of 1848, the city became the seat of an elected democratic parliament, but it lost its independence after the Austro-Prussian war in 1866.

As I said before, the city was severely bombed during WWII, and most of the city center was destroyed. After the war, it was part of American occupied territory.

Today it is a thriving business and financial center in Germany.

We ate ice cream and I got my first euros in cash. We got hot walking around and I read up about Frankfurt and its history. There were so many people!

On Wednesday, we explored the city some more and found the Gutenberg monument, which I thought was pretty cool.

We ate German sausages and bread at a lovely little outdoor eatery. The sausages were amazing.

Some of us also visited the archaeology museum which was awesome. Hanny and I both love archaeology. I showed her around and explained what we were seeing. Trouble was, the signs were all in German so we couldn’t read any of it! They had neat artifact displays- Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, Barbarian, and Medieval. My favourite was a collection of swords and daggers and a gold barbarian brooch.

Frankfurt was amazing. I absolutely loved it. It was sad to leave. I’ll be back to Germany one day.