Frankfurt, Germany

My poor bestie Heather.  She's been left out of a few trips. Ok, just one, but it was a big one.  Back in 2013, Sara and I went to Paris for a long weekend and to this day, I don't even know WHY we didn't invite her.  Maybe because Sara and I have a love for all things Paris and we had never heard Heather ever mention that she might be interested, so we just didn't think to invite her!  But it's the source of MANY jokes between the three of us now.  Then, when Heather took a new job some time ago, it meant travel to Germany maybe once or twice a year.  Of course, the last two times she has visited, we have been cavorting around Europe somewhere and I haven't been able to see her.

Until now, yay!

Even better?  Hubs stayed home with the kiddos and I got to enjoy a full, kid-free 24 hours!

Her flight didn't land until about lunchtime, so we went to the hotel and dropped our things off and went into the city.  Frankfurt isn't exactly Germany's most exciting city.  There isn't a lot of history and it's mostly a very modern city and financial hub. But we managed to find a fun little street fest in the Hauptwache!

We enjoyed some currywurst (me) and some brats on brot (her) and of course, a couple of beers!  Because... when in Germany!

We were quite confused by this little street fest as it more resembled a 4H Fair than anything else.  Cows in downtown Frankfurt, cool!

The Café Hauptwache sits in the middle of the square and was a police station and prison in the 1700s.  It was destroyed in WWII, but rebuilt again in the 1960s (and this was a second rebuild due to construction work on the subway that sits below it).

All the meats for sale from this little meat wagon in Frankfurt.

They had a stage at the little fest/market and they were cooking something with HANDKASE!!!!  I cannot imagine how disgusting whatever they were making was.

You could even pretend to milk a cow, if you wanted to!

The Römberger is a little area in the heart of Frankfurt with half timber buildings.  The Frankfurt Town Hall is also here.

Isn't the Römberger so pretty?

The Frankfurt Rathaus is adorable, too!  I love the staircase roof!

Going down to the Eiserner (Iron) bridge near the river was really nice.  There's lots of restaurants that line the river and it's a great place to grab a drink on a nice day.

The pretty clock tower at the Frankfurt History Museum.

Frankfurt is a major hub for commerce and finance, hence the tall buildings to house plenty of companies.

No open tables for us here, unfortunately (although again, I'm not loving the floodplain management here!  What happens in a big flood?  This gets destroyed and causes a ton of debris downstream.)

FC Bayern Munchen in the house!

Naturally, I had to introduce Heather to the German tradition of cake and coffee in the mid afternoon.

From the Hauptwache, you can see that there were people on top of the Galleria shopping center, so we decided to head up and check it out.  Look!  Super views from the top!  Frankfurt, you aren't totally unfortunate looking!

Looking south from atop of the Galleria.

We swung by the Cathedral on our way to dinner, but of course, it's under construction. There's been a building on site since the 7th century, but this one was built in the 1500s.  Naturally, it was destroyed by fire (1867) and again during WWII, and finally reconstructed again in the 1950s.

Since Heather couldn't come to Bavaria, I had to take her to Bavaria for dinner.  Paulaner has a restaurant in Frankfurt, so we went for some Bavarian food and beer!  Notice her schnitzel has a fried egg on it! MMMM!

Hilariously, "on this date" in Facebook showed that she and I took our daughters to a Princess Party in Wellesley!  In 2012, we were princesses... in 2017, we drank beer in Frankfurt!  Hooray for best friends!  I miss you, Heather!