// JSpot //

When I last wrote, I had been in a Starbucks bu the Hauptbahnhof, thinking of what to do next. I had checked my bags at a locker in the station and gone on for the day in the city.

Since it was about lunch time, I decided to find food, and proximity to the Hauptbahnhof should provide a multitude of options. So I just began walking in some non-particular direction. I should have a GPS log to look at later.

The search quickly made me realize how different Frankfurt is than other towns I’ve seen on this trip and in past trips.

For one, it’s an understatement that this is a commuter town. The population nearly doubles by day, from what I hear. This also, unfortunately, means it has one of the most complex public transportation systems imaginable. They have Regional and Regional Express trains, S-Bahn and S-Bahn Express trains, U-Bahn subway trains, tram cars on the street, buses, and even public taxis! The network map looked like a bowl of spaghetti, dropped carelessly on the floor.

And that is exactly what I found for lunch - Spaghetti alla Matriciana - but not dropped on the floor. It seemed to be a reasonably authentic Italian restaurant (who’s name I cannot remember). I believe it was just north west of the train station. It was delicious, but even better was the beer. A private label, I gathered, called Pfugstäder.

After eating, I decided to tackle the transit system and go find the Christkindlmarkt - Frankfurt is supposed to have one of the biggest and best.

This long exposure of the market in Frankfurt pleases me

The market was (predictably) in the squares in and around Römer Platz - or just Dom. I walked through it a bit and was disappointed at how small it was, and filled only with food and drinks, which I did not want. I ventured down to the river and over the bridge to take some photos.

On my way back through the market, I realized my error. I should have gone left at Albuquerque. To the other side of the street was an incredibly expansive street market weaving in and down every side street for blocks! Wow! I had previously found only a small tributary of this enormous market. It was a kind of bendy, twisty, shopping mall, with tastes, smells, and sights everywhere. A man could spend hours visiting all the carts and examining all the wares for sale.

So that’s exactly what I did. But unfortunately, by this time, my phone was beginning to run low on power, so I couldn’t leave it on to track my whereabouts. Although I literally walked around the same three-block market for over three hours and almost never saw anything twice!

Beautiful sunset

As the sun began to set, the beautifully restored medieval architecture glowed with a bright orange light, caused by the city’s pollution - not entirely unlike suburban Atlanta. I helped myself to a few “artsy” photos.

Not long after the sun had set, I made back for the train station. It was time to meet up with Philipp, who would be offering me his floor for a free stay tonight. I took the S-Bahn train to Niederrad Bahnhof, where Philipp picked me up in his black Ford Focus “Caravan”, as he called it. I guess that’s the fancy German term for hatchback.

After reaching his place and dropping my bags, it was dinner time. Philipp suggested the Paulaner Haus am Dom, and I couldn’t refuse. This place was essentially the Hofbrauhaus, but for Paulaner. So that is where we went. I ordered a round of tall Paulaner Hefeweizen for the two of us and for myself the Wienerschnitzel. God it was tasty! Maybe it was all the walking around… Philipp ordered something resembling the entire hind leg of a pig - Schweinsaxen I think.

After dinner, it was time to retire. I made up my spot on the floor and settled in for a cold night - the heat had been off in Philipp’s apartment all weekend! Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday morning arrived all too soon, or rather ended too soon. Sleep was cut short around noon by the arrival of four more guests - Jessy’s brother Patrick and his friends Jenni, Ramona, and Timeea .

After eating Weißwurst for breakfast (lunch?) that Jessy had so kindly prepared, we geared up and set out for another day of adventure.

The first stop: the Englischer Garten. On the Eisbach river here, some crazy Germans had found a rip tide in the river that created an infinite wave suitable for surfing on. And that’s exactly what they were doing. I’ve never seen anything like this! There is snow on the ground, the air is about 30 degrees, and the river is certainly frigid as well. They wore wet suits, but they must have been on the lower extreme of what a wet suit is capable of insulating you from. Any colder and they would need dry suits.

http://www.jcuga.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/mvi_0370.flv

After some photos were taken, we strolled on through the park, which was thoroughly snowed in, and came to another Christmas market at the Chinesicher Turm (Chinese Tower). This was a quaint little market with so many delicious things to smell. Homemade soaps, Glühwein, waffles, roasted nuts…

We walked quite some way on this outing - about 6.5 miles in all, according to the GPS, which I handily brought along this time, and as a reward, it produced a fantastic log for us!

Brian received word that his boss would need to change plans for Sunday. Instead of driving to Göttingen as planned, we would be bound for Bad Kreuznach. Most likely, then, on Monday, I’ll pick up a train to Köln or Frankfurt for the day/night. It might be nice to get some solo time and do some shopping and sight seeing on my own. But more than likely I’ll just be hopelessly lost and confused!

Read the rest of this entry »

Brian and I found a little fun place called BMW Welt

Sheiße! We seem to have overslept. Or perhaps we subconsciously changed our minds. We had a Barcelona moment, but since we hadn’t purchased our tickets to Austria, it was no loss to us. Except the Augustiner Brewery!

When we did finally wake up, we decided that rather that trying to race to Austria, we should look for something “touristy” to do in Munich.

And we found it: BMW Welt.

An enormous tribute to Munich’s biggest auto-maker… or a multi-million dollar advertisement for BMW. You can even pick up your new car here at the factory and they make a weekend of the experience for you. Wow. The exhibits they had were mildly biased, but they spared no expense on the presentation. Entire three-story walls were made into fluid animations with rear-projection screens guided your way. 100-foot long touch-sensitive tables with interactive overhead projection laid out the history of BMW. Enormous picture books with visual recognition queued a recorded voice over, filling in the details the picture couldn’t convey. So much technology!

And of course, the cars. Every make and model that has ever bared the BMW emblem was here. The Bond cars, the first BMW production car, even the original aircraft engine that got the company started.

After spending most of the day there, we stopped on our way home again at Marien Platz for a snack and then… the Hofbrauhaus! That famous touristy trap that no touristy day would be complete without! Interestingly, though, the Haus was filled to the gills with Germans! Rick Steves must have got it wrong. It took over 10 minutes to find a bench to plop down on, but when we did, the consumption of large quantities of beer began, served, of course, in the traditional one-liter mas!