Frankfurt Tourism

Today one of the other new teachers invited us all over to his new apartment for dinner. It was fun to hang out with a bunch of the other new teachers, and eat a delicious home cooked meal. He has just moved in, so it did mean eating sitting on the floor or at the coffee table :)

On my way, I got off the S-Bahn early and walked along the main shopping street and through the tourist areas of Frankfurt. The main shopping street is the Zeil. It has a couple malls plus lots of big shops along it. It is very wide and only pedestrians, so there are often markets set up and restaurants in the middle of the street. Today there was a pride festival at one end (I saw some of the parade they had yesterday) and at the other end an Italian festival.

Here is a photo of one of the malls I've already been in multiple times:

MyZeil

Then I walked down to the old square, the Römerberg. I believe that most of the square was bombed during the war, but it has all been beautifully restored. (On a side note: it just took me half an hour to figure out how to type the ö, I didn't know it would be so difficult!)

This is the view of the whole square. The church on the right is the Alte Nikolaikirche. In the tourist areas you see a lot of these bike taxis. Everyone here has bikes and there are bike lanes everywhere, so I guess it makes sense that they even have taxis that are bikes! 

This is the view from the Römerberg to the Dom. This is the Kaiserdom of St. Bartholomäus, which is the largest religious building in Frankfurt. It use to be the palace chapel (according to http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserdom_St._Bartholom%C3%A4us). I haven't been inside yet, but that is definitely on my to do list. 

And here is a neat looking building. The main floor is a restaurant with seating outside, looking onto the square. 

To get to my friends house I walked along the Main. There is a path all along the river, on both sides, for pedestrians and bikes. There is a couple pedestrian bridges across the Main. The one in the picture below, the Eiserner Steg bridge, is my favourite so far. All along you see locks locked to the bridge. Each of these has initials written or engraved into it, and a date. Apparently this is a custom called "love padlocks" in many places in the world. 

The church at the left of this picture is the Dreikönigskirche. Another place I want to visit!