Walking Mainhattan

When I saw I had a bunch of time in Frankfurt, I decided to take a train into the city and explore a bit. The weather was great, so no reason to stay in the airport. And, being in Europe again, it was more than easy to reach the city centre from the terminal where I'd just checked in for my flight to Vienna that evening. It wasn't expensive either, you can either get a day pass for public transport and then have access to the train into town, the train back to the airport and any train, tram or bus in the city during that day you're there, or you can buy them one by one. Whichever you prefer. Five train stops later, I was downtown. And, being in Europe again, downtown meant parks and cafés and shops and historic buildings, not just offices and banks. 

I don't want to tell you all that much about Frankfurt and I'll explain the title of this entry in the next one, I just want to show you these pictures so that you'll know, next time you have a layover in FRA, make good use of it and go into town! 

Hauptwache, I was told, is the best place to get off the train. I can't tell you if it's the best - I only got off the train once, after all - but it does put you right in the middle of things. 

Random pretty things I stumbled across (sometimes quite literally) as I walked around the area towards the Main river.

Three views of the dome.

Details on walls. You find those everywhere. Make it into a treasure hunt!

Downtown - Romans, churches and sausages.

The iron footbridge, one of the maaaany ways to cross the Main. 

You can definitely spend a good time here and I would have, if I hadn't changed my plans spontaneously. Have a coffee, have some ice cream or lunch, go for more walks, stroll into a museum, criss-cross the river, explore a port, see if you can get to the top of any of the many skyscrapers,... the possibilities certainly are vast. I don't know that I'd go to Frankfurt, just like that, but there were tourists - and lots of them. And it's, without a doubt, a cool place to hang out, even if it's just for a few hours. 

Six hours very well spent.