Wandering through Frankfurt

Guys! Karen is HERE!!!  She's sitting a few feet away from me as I type.  THIS IS SO EXCITING!  It's taken a lot of work, planning, sweat and tears to get her here.  Okay, I'm being dramatic, but she's been such a trooper throughout the evacuation and is here in Germany after spending a weekend with Mike. Apparently, the AirBnB they stayed in was very....Turkish to say the least.

Mike and Karen in Istanbul.  This picture CRACKS ME UP because I bet, never in a million years, did either of them think that they would be spending the weekend in Istanbul together...without me!

Karen was able to get a flight from Istanbul to Frankfurt early Monday morning, so she and Mike parted ways (he headed back to Izmir).  I rented a car on Sunday and drove into Frankfurt (about an hour and a half drive) to pick her up from the airport.  If the GPS hadn't led me to the Cargo section of the airport, it would have been a really great and easy drive, but that little detour added about a half an hour to my trek.  Luckily, Karen had to go through customs and baggage claim so I didn't miss her.  In fact, I was still able to jump up and down when she walked out. 

After our reunion of hugs, we stored her luggage in the car and took the metro into town.  My only request was that, at some point during the day, either for lunch or dinner, we go to Chipotle. The only international Chipotle is in Frankfurt and it has been 10 long months without my favorite burrito.

  

After devouring our lunch, we hit the streets! We followed Rick Steve's walking tour loosely, which turned out great.  Since I had never been to Frankfurt and had heard it was kind of a boring city, I was grateful to have some guidance on how to spend our day.  It turns out that Frankfurt is actually kind of cool.  I don't think I would make it my primary destination on a trip, but it was a great day (afternoon) trip and a cool, modern city.  

We wanted to go to the top of the Main Tower for a view of the city, but it was closed for renovations for the entire month of March.  Bummer.

Our first detour off the walking tour was to the Opera House.  We both really enjoyed the architecture.  Karen is a huge opera fan and commented on how happy she was to see the opera house in the main part of town so that people can see what shows are coming up and have more exposure to opera.

Not far from the opera house was the German Stock Exchange.  

In front of the stock exchange, they had a statue for each continent, so Karen and I both took a picture in front of America, but I had to get one with the Asia statue for good old Turkey as well!

As we continued the walking tour, we saw this weird, yet cool, architecture that caught our attention.  It's actually a shopping mall and we decided to go inside.  So cool!

Outside the mall

inside the mall

On the roof of the mall

 We then found St. Paul's Church, which is not like the churches Mike and I are used to touring.  It was super modern inside and reminded me more of a meeting hall.

Our last stop was the town square, which apparently is the picture that kept popping up when Karen Googled Frankfurt. It is really picturesque and we couldn't resist stopping to take in the scenery while drinking our first German beer of the trip.

We ended the tour and headed back to the train station via the Rhine, which was beautiful.  We lucked out with weather and with sight seeing. 

It was a great day in Frankfurt.  I didn't have very high expectations because I heard that Frankfurt was just a big business city, but our experience was great and we had such a fun day.  As I said before, I probably wouldn't make it my primary destination, but I would definitely make sure to stop in Frankfurt for an afternoon if you find yourself in Germany!