Frankfurt, Big City Germany

Although we always tell people that we are heading to or heading back to stay with gamily friends in Frankfurt, we had never actually visited the city itself. We fly into the airport and then head 45 minutes south to Goldbach, where the Seubert family lives. Even though everyone tells us that Frankfurt is just another big city with skyscrapers (which it is), we did want to see it firsthand. Goldbach is part of Bavaria, whereas Frankfurt is part of Hesse. To our untrained eye, there is no difference, but they do have a different accent and some things unique to the region.

Frankfurt has a large and very nice shopping district. There is a pedestrian only zone that is a wide street with outdoor cafes and restaurants. They also have a huge mall with this interesting window that extends into the mall itself.

This is the German stock exchange that recently merged with the NYSE. Not much going on, and unlike the NYSE there are no armed guards everywhere.

Frankfurt’s Opera House is very nicely done. In front of it sits an open space with a fountain and beyond that is a small park.

Another street is like the Rodeo Drive of Frankfurt with all the fancy shops like Gucci, Mont Blanc, Jimmy Choo, and the oh so popular Louis Vuitton - this is the line just to get in.

This is an old guard house that has been converted into a café of all things. Very cool looking building that just sits on its own in the middle of a busy commercial section.

This is Frankfurt’s Rathaus (town hall). One of the nicest we’ve seen and although not as large as Munich’s, has a beautiful red hue to it and extends back quite a bit. It also has some interesting features like statues of little animals around the rain gutters and a man with his hand cupped to his ear, listening to the city.

The Rathaus faces this square with this beautiful bronze fountain and original styled buildings. These are all reconstructions because most of Frankfurt was leveled during the last stages of WWII. All the buildings in the square have been rebuilt in this style, except for an adjacent museum which is this unsightly concrete slab. However, there are plans to tear it down and replace it with something more fitting to the rest of the square.

We walked out onto a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Main river to get a great view of the city on either side of the river.

There is a street with these funny looking row houses. A competition was launched and winning designs were built. It is a hodgepodge of style and most definitely unique.

The St. Bartholomew Cathedral, with its 95 m tall spire, is an imposing sight in the city. In front of the red church are two sets of ruins. One set is the foundation of some Roman baths. The other are to some medieval buildings built on top later.

The skinny-ness of the church adds to the perception of height of the main aisle. The church is relatively simple, but has some interesting pieces like this wall mounted sculpture that we speculated about what it was.

We ended our day by popping into a few stores, including this chocolate and candy store that was beautifully laid out. Somehow we managed to leave without buying anything.

Bamburg, funny name ‘cuz it rhymes with umburg.

Bamberg is an amazingly historic place: the entire old town (consisting of 2400 buildings) is a UNESCO World Heritage site (there are a lot of single World Heritage buildings and monuments, but very few entire towns have earned the distinction). Some of the existing buildings go back 1000 years, with many medieval buildings, and later ones (17^th & 18^th century) as well.

Let’s just start with the coolest site: The Rathaus (that word still makes me laugh), or Town Hall. It’s a building from the 1300’s that was built right over the river. The frescoes on the outside were done later, in the baroque style.

This is the view of the same building from the bridge that it sits on – there’s a tunnel through a building, on the bridge:

These frescoes on the exterior wall were done in the 1600's:

This is one of the hallmarks of the period: there’s a plaster leg protruding from the painting - strange.

Near the Rathaus is “Little Venice,” so named because there are pretty buildings right on the water – it’s close, except the building are much more Bavarian.

We passed through this beautiful square that shows the style of much of the city:

We passed through this beautiful chuch:

We also spent a little time in this cool shop with the original built-in shelves of an old apothecary shop – now they sell tea, spices, and lots of cute things.

We had an amazing Bavarian lunch in a beautiful old building:

Then we went “up the hill” (one of the 7 hills of the town) to see the Imperial Cathedral, with 4 spires. Sorry the picture is sideways, I can NOT get it to turn the right way.

It was founded in 1007 by Heinrich II, and contains the tomb of Clemens II. It’s a huge building with a lot of impressive carving…

…Including this “horseman.” It is dated to the 12^th century, and it is one of the best pieces of the time. The identities of both the subject and the sculptor remain a mystery.

Next we walked past the New Residence, in the baroque style:

Then we walked through the impressive archway into the Old Court:

Another Church –this one is part of a monastery – St. Michael’s

This church is really distinctive because it has 578 different plants/herbs painted on the ceilings. It is believed that each one has a symbolic meaning, but Vince’s theory is that the artist just like plants (and knew a lot about them).

From the hill, the view of the city is stunning:

And so ended another great daytrip with Cornelia. We tried to put on a brave face (and as many layers of clothes as possible!), but I think that these 2 California kids are pretty wimpy in the cold weather.

Nuremberg, A Bavarian Secret To Pass On

Our tour guide Cornelia from Seubert Adventure Tours (that was running joke for her and Uli showing and shuttling us around) took us to see Nuremberg. Nuremberg is the largest city in a fertile plains region that is surrounded by mountains. It’s about 2 hours by train from Frankfurt and is in the northernmost part of Bavaria. It is famous for the Nuremberg Trials (war crimes against Nazis), Zepplin Field (a huge stadium complex for Nazi rallies built by Hitler), and its Christmas market. We did not see any of these but instead saw the other things that make Nuremberg a very interesting medieval, walled city.

As an American, you have to smile when reading in their tourist guide that “Nuremberg is not yet 1,000 years old, but full of history”. That’s four times as old as the United States and they’re saying that apparently in Germany you normally must be at least 1,000 years old to have produced anything meaningfully historic.

The architecture in Nuremberg is quite striking. Intermixed with more modern buildings are many old style Bavarian buildings. What jumps out is also the height and size of the buildings in Nuremberg. This building, the Mauthalle, was built in 1498-1502 originally as a grain and salt storehouse and later became a customs house. It’s just one example of the size of some of these “young” buildings.

This is one of the main squares that includes the Nassau House (middle in the distance), which is one of the best preserved examples of a medieval residential tower for the nobility. On the left is a clock structure that has all kinds of measurements like barometer, thermometer, etc. And to the right (and pictured below) is St. Lawrence church, a Gothic styled church that was built beginning in 1250.

Over the Pegnitz River, sits the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, which was built between 1332 and 1339 (over a hundred years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue). It was a foundation endowed by an individual to the city for the old and needy.

This is a view back towards the Hauptmarkt, which is the main market square where the famous Christmas Market takes place. That day (even though cold enough to be Christmas) there was a farmers market selling food and flowers. In the background is the Church of Our Lady, the first Gothic three-aisled church in Franconia built in 1355. Emperor Charles IV had a synagogue razed and replaced it with the church. In the foreground is the Schonner Brunnen, or Beautiful Fountain, which was built between 1385 and 1396. It is 19m tall, with an octagonal base, and has 4 tiers of 40 stone figures that are painted in bright colors and gold. Below, Megan is turning the brass ring that is done to bring good luck.

On the northernmost part of the city, built into a rock amongst the city walls, is the Imperial Castle. Between 1050 and 1571 all the German kings and Holy Roman emperors held their first Imperial Diets and judicial hearings here. We didn’t tour the majority of the castle because the guy selling tickets said it would be boring since it is just a bunch of empty rooms. The Kings and Emperors travelled with their furniture from castle to castle, hence why it is unfurnished.

Instead we toured the museum portion that included archeological finds, saddles, astronomical instruments, weapons, shields, and full body armor like the one pictured.

We also scaled the Sinwell Tower (pictured in the view of the castle complex) to get look over the city. The huge building on the left is the Imperial Stables that are wedged between Luginsland Tower and the Five-Cornered Tower. It served a grain storage house, municipal buildings, and is currently a hostel and guest house.

We visited St. Sebald Church, the oldest city parish church built in 1215. It was destroyed in WWII, but rebuilt, and houses the pictured tomb of the patron saint Sebaldus in a silver embossed casket. We also learned that churches in Nuremberg are not heated, not a good thing in winter.

This is Albrecht Durer’s House, one of Germany’s most famous artists. He lived and worked here from 1509 to 1528. Now it’s a museum that we did not take the time to visit.

This is a street with a number of the old-style houses all together.

Although we weren’t here during the Christmas Market, they do have a few Christmas stores open year round. We ducked inside one and saw a huge assortment of ornaments, decorations, and other Christmas-themed knickknacks.