Headed for the airport Thursday, August 11th around 1pm. I had a 4:05pm flight but the airport was saying to get there 3 hours prior to international flight. We (my sister, her husband, and myself) got there with no problems. I had packed an empty suitecase in the car because I knew my one suitcase was going to be over weight. And when I checked in the lady talked to me like I was a 10 year old being to loud in the library. Luckily she had all ready checked me in and weighed that one last b/c when I told her I couldn't move anything to my other suitcase but could go out to the car and get another suitcase she reluctantly said it was okay and let me go on my way!!
I made it to concourse E for the Business Lounge. I found where the Lufthansa Lounge was and was disappointed to find out only First Class passengers were allowed in! Not a big deal because I wanted to go to the restaurant in the concourse and get my last hamburger for 3 months! :o) The flight to Germany was not to bad. I was able to sleep about 5 or 6 hours. Lufthansa Airlines was pretty nice but I think I was spoiled with Singapore Airlines. With Singapore Business class you can lay almost completely flat (90% flat) - on Lufthansa Business class you can only go back 40%. So it made it a little more difficult to sleep but the Ambien helped!! :o)
Friday, August 12th - 7am Frankfurt time (1am Atlanta time) Once in Frankfurt I found the Business Class lounge and started asking for information on getting into the city. The lady at the desk was very nice and helpful and told me it would be easy. She reommended I go to the Hauptwache stop. I got a locker key from her and went to store everything away. My carry on wouldn't fit into the locker so I had to empty everything out and leave the suitcase on a self below the locker. I was a little nervous about that but figured it would be okay!
I headed for the station which was about 2 or 3 floors below where I was. The Frankfurt airport is huge!! I found an information booth on the level where you get tickets and asked the guy how I get into the city. He gave me some directions and pointed to a machine. I had tried to read the machine myself before asking for help but it was pointless. He basically told my a serious of buttons to push to get a round trip ticket. Of course the first few times I tried it, the machine wouldn't take my money so I had to go back and ask him for more help. I first I was unsure if Germany actually used Euros but he assumed me that the machine just took exact change and I needed to use the one on the other side. When I tried that one I had now problems. But of course I had to go back to the guy for the third time to make sure I was going the right way to catch the train! He was probably thinking 'dumb tourist'! :o)
Once down at the platform level I was still unsure whether I just got on the first train that came or not. There was another girl looking around like 'what do I do' - I'm sure it was the same look I had! She asked me about the train and I said I had no idea either - so a train came and we both got on. She was a real nice girl - her name was I think Nabita and she was from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was going to the Main station in Frankfurt to catch a long distance train to Berlin to meet some friends. We had luckily gotten on the right train. She got off a couple stops before mine and once she was off I got a little nervous being by myself again. I got off at my stop and headed up a flight of stairs. It was still one level below ground. Their were shops and such on this level. I was looking around for signs that told me what train I got off of so I'd know exactly where to come back to. There were no signs in English so it made it a little difficult. I wrote some things down and then bought a map at a convience type shop.
I headed up to street level. First think I noticed when I got up to the street was how cool it was. It was probably in the upper 60s. It was nice but a little bit of a surprise. I tried to get my bearings and took some pictures of the area in case I needed them to find my way back! My first impression of Frankfurt was definitely a good one! The streets were very clean and everything was very modern. The area I got out at seemed to be a cross between a tourist area and a shopping district. There was a big mall and of course a Mc Donalds. There were also a bunch of individual shops and there was like a temporary garden store in the square where the station was. It was very quite on the streets - didn't seem like anyone was awake and out and about yet. It was probably 8- 8:30 at this point.
Fountain/status in the first square I came to. This was actually above the train station.
View looking back at where I came out of the train station. You can see the flower market they are having in the street.
Of course a McDonalds!
View of a church from the square.
Another Church from a square closer to the water.
Engraving on side of church - all I could make out was that it was JFK.
Above is Dom/Romer or Romerberg as the research I did on the internet says. A bus full of Japanese/Chinese/Korean tourist were let off near here and sat around taking pictures for about an hour. At the time I didn't know what the area was so I'm glad it turned out to be a popular site.
More of Dom/Romer.
UPs Truck that pulled into Dom/Romer.
Another church. This one along the River.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sign.
There were really nice trails on both side of the river where people were biking, jogging, and walking. I took about a 30 min walk down the river and back. View from bridge where I crossed back over river. The big billboard on the side of the building on the left is an advertisement for CSI.
Back to Dom/Romer. When I was walking back from my walk along the river I ran into the guy in the bottom of the picture in the middle. His name was Nitin and he was on his way to Bombay to meet up with his wife and two kids on vacation (he was from a town outside Bombay). He was doing the same thing I was doing. We talked for a little bit in the Dom/Romer and then went and grabbed a cup of hot chocolate before heading back to the airport. If I hadn't of traveled back with him to the airport I would have probably gotten on the wrong train. You should see the map of the train system - it was very confusing.
Also by this time - around 9:30 - 10:00 there were a lot more people around. When we were having our Hot Chocolate it actually got crowded. There were also a bunch of weddings going on in the building in the backgroud of the picture above. The couple would come down the stairs (red carpeted stairs in the middle right of the picture) of the building and people were throwing flowers, taking pictures, and cheering. It was weird because it was early on a Friday morning. Either that is the way the Germans do it or it was more like a city hall type place. The research I did on the web says the building is a resurrect of the old town hall from 1405 or Romer. It was a site of coronation celebrations during the Holy Roman Empire.
I made it to concourse E for the Business Lounge. I found where the Lufthansa Lounge was and was disappointed to find out only First Class passengers were allowed in! Not a big deal because I wanted to go to the restaurant in the concourse and get my last hamburger for 3 months! :o) The flight to Germany was not to bad. I was able to sleep about 5 or 6 hours. Lufthansa Airlines was pretty nice but I think I was spoiled with Singapore Airlines. With Singapore Business class you can lay almost completely flat (90% flat) - on Lufthansa Business class you can only go back 40%. So it made it a little more difficult to sleep but the Ambien helped!! :o)
Friday, August 12th - 7am Frankfurt time (1am Atlanta time) Once in Frankfurt I found the Business Class lounge and started asking for information on getting into the city. The lady at the desk was very nice and helpful and told me it would be easy. She reommended I go to the Hauptwache stop. I got a locker key from her and went to store everything away. My carry on wouldn't fit into the locker so I had to empty everything out and leave the suitcase on a self below the locker. I was a little nervous about that but figured it would be okay!
I headed for the station which was about 2 or 3 floors below where I was. The Frankfurt airport is huge!! I found an information booth on the level where you get tickets and asked the guy how I get into the city. He gave me some directions and pointed to a machine. I had tried to read the machine myself before asking for help but it was pointless. He basically told my a serious of buttons to push to get a round trip ticket. Of course the first few times I tried it, the machine wouldn't take my money so I had to go back and ask him for more help. I first I was unsure if Germany actually used Euros but he assumed me that the machine just took exact change and I needed to use the one on the other side. When I tried that one I had now problems. But of course I had to go back to the guy for the third time to make sure I was going the right way to catch the train! He was probably thinking 'dumb tourist'! :o)
Once down at the platform level I was still unsure whether I just got on the first train that came or not. There was another girl looking around like 'what do I do' - I'm sure it was the same look I had! She asked me about the train and I said I had no idea either - so a train came and we both got on. She was a real nice girl - her name was I think Nabita and she was from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was going to the Main station in Frankfurt to catch a long distance train to Berlin to meet some friends. We had luckily gotten on the right train. She got off a couple stops before mine and once she was off I got a little nervous being by myself again. I got off at my stop and headed up a flight of stairs. It was still one level below ground. Their were shops and such on this level. I was looking around for signs that told me what train I got off of so I'd know exactly where to come back to. There were no signs in English so it made it a little difficult. I wrote some things down and then bought a map at a convience type shop.
I headed up to street level. First think I noticed when I got up to the street was how cool it was. It was probably in the upper 60s. It was nice but a little bit of a surprise. I tried to get my bearings and took some pictures of the area in case I needed them to find my way back! My first impression of Frankfurt was definitely a good one! The streets were very clean and everything was very modern. The area I got out at seemed to be a cross between a tourist area and a shopping district. There was a big mall and of course a Mc Donalds. There were also a bunch of individual shops and there was like a temporary garden store in the square where the station was. It was very quite on the streets - didn't seem like anyone was awake and out and about yet. It was probably 8- 8:30 at this point.
Fountain/status in the first square I came to. This was actually above the train station.
View looking back at where I came out of the train station. You can see the flower market they are having in the street.
Of course a McDonalds!
View of a church from the square.
Another Church from a square closer to the water.
Engraving on side of church - all I could make out was that it was JFK.
Above is Dom/Romer or Romerberg as the research I did on the internet says. A bus full of Japanese/Chinese/Korean tourist were let off near here and sat around taking pictures for about an hour. At the time I didn't know what the area was so I'm glad it turned out to be a popular site.
More of Dom/Romer.
UPs Truck that pulled into Dom/Romer.
Another church. This one along the River.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sign.
There were really nice trails on both side of the river where people were biking, jogging, and walking. I took about a 30 min walk down the river and back. View from bridge where I crossed back over river. The big billboard on the side of the building on the left is an advertisement for CSI.
Back to Dom/Romer. When I was walking back from my walk along the river I ran into the guy in the bottom of the picture in the middle. His name was Nitin and he was on his way to Bombay to meet up with his wife and two kids on vacation (he was from a town outside Bombay). He was doing the same thing I was doing. We talked for a little bit in the Dom/Romer and then went and grabbed a cup of hot chocolate before heading back to the airport. If I hadn't of traveled back with him to the airport I would have probably gotten on the wrong train. You should see the map of the train system - it was very confusing.
Also by this time - around 9:30 - 10:00 there were a lot more people around. When we were having our Hot Chocolate it actually got crowded. There were also a bunch of weddings going on in the building in the backgroud of the picture above. The couple would come down the stairs (red carpeted stairs in the middle right of the picture) of the building and people were throwing flowers, taking pictures, and cheering. It was weird because it was early on a Friday morning. Either that is the way the Germans do it or it was more like a city hall type place. The research I did on the web says the building is a resurrect of the old town hall from 1405 or Romer. It was a site of coronation celebrations during the Holy Roman Empire.
posted by Angela Cooley at 7:18 AM
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