I thought it was time to talk about Frankfurt, simply because of the overwhelming bad press this city seems to get. The weirdest part is I can never figure out why it gets bad press. Where did it come from? Is it an old reputation of Frankfurt that they can't seem to shake off or what? Anyway, I am going to write about the good stuff and why I like it here. It isn't in any kind of special order either, just as the thoughts come to me.
Since I started studying the history of this city, it has made me appreciate just where I live. The history here is amazing and it is a shame that so few people seem to know anything about it. All the emperors and the coronations and the parties in the Römerberg. I like that the Romans were here and wandered on the same streets that I am wandering down today. I liked that feeling in the Forum in Rome and on a donkey path in Greece too. Just thinking about all those people who have walked here is interesting for me.
All the foreigners here make life great in Frankfurt. With over 25 % holding a foreign passport and probably another 25 % with either a parent that was foreign or who have taken on a German pass or have dual citizenship, mulit-culti is normal. We have all these wonderful ethnic restaurants to chose from and I like the way the foreigners are such entrepreneurs. So many of the start-ups are from people who want a better life, who are willing to work long hours and are willing to risk it.
Even though Frankfurt is considered a big city and it does have a lovely cosmopolitan feel to it, it never feels TOO big. Almost every time I go downtown and I do go downtown a lot, I seem to run into someone I know. It is almost like a small town, but with the amenities of a big town. We have lots of wonderful street festivals where everyone is having such a good time. I pretty much always feel safe here too, no matter what time of night it is or where I am walking. I know some folks are leery of the Bahnhof quarter, but my gosh, there are hundreds of people there day and night, lots of cops, lots of cameras, and frankly I have never once had a problem there. The restaurants and ethnic stores there are cheap and fascinating. I love going in the Indian fabric stores and the spice stores, or walking by the African produce markets and going shopping in this huge Asian store. When I walk into my favorite Chinese restaurant I am greeted with big hellos and how are the kids, even if it has been a year since I was in there.
I like it that Frankfurt chose a unique, personal way to honor their Holocaust victims. We have one of the few Memorials that has the names of those Jewish citizens who lost their lives due to the nazi regime. It is so moving to take people there on our tour who do not know of its existence and as we walk towards it I start explaining that each block has a name on it and there are 11,200 names. Their eyes widen and their mouths drop open, and the usual comment is - OMG, there are so many! When one sees it like that, it changes the perception. These are people who have no gravestone, their families would have no place to come and grieve if it was not for this memorial. There is a famous saying - "When a persons name is forgotten, then that person is forgotten." The city of Frankfurt is insuring that these people are not forgotten, that each person is remembered as an individual. There are also memorials here to the Roma and Sinti, Homosexuals, the Slave Laborers, and the Jehovah Witnesses who were also executed by the nazis.
Frankfurt is a city that doesn't really have any "Must Sees" like the Eiffel tower, or the Pantheon, but it has lots of things you can see at leisure, so you don't have to rush around. You can take your time and simply enjoy what is there. It feels ok to walk around the park that goes all around the city center and is where the city wall and moat used to be. Or spend all the time you want gazing at the wonderful collection of art at the Städel, without the urgency of running around trying to see the Mona Lisa and Co. It is a relaxing tourist destination. We even like our skyscrapers and occasionally have a fest to celebrate them. It is just plain fun.
I am sure to think of a dozen other things as soon as I post this, but thats ok too. Cause then maybe you will come back and read some more!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Is it Spring yet?
This has just been the coldest winter we have had in Frankfurt in a really long while. Doing the tours in the freezing cold has been a little tough, and I will be glad when I don't have to put on 3 shirts and long underwear every day! Bless the Australians for showing up in wind and rain and snow and always being cheerful about it. That said, basically everyone is cheerful on the tour, even when we are all bundled up with scarves around our faces and I cant tell if people are smiling or not.
We have had a change with our tour company though. We decided to go out on our own and though we are still associated with Insider Tours in Berlin, we will soon have our own website. In the meantime, you can check our tour out under this address:
http://www.insidertour.com/tours.php/cat/45/city/12/title/Frankfurt
As soon as our new website is finished, I will post the address. It is quite exciting for us and we have lots of plans for new tours beginning this spring.
I haven't posted anything on here since a very long time, so bear with me while I gather some thoughts together and get writing again. Check back again soon!
We have had a change with our tour company though. We decided to go out on our own and though we are still associated with Insider Tours in Berlin, we will soon have our own website. In the meantime, you can check our tour out under this address:
http://www.insidertour.com/tours.php/cat/45/city/12/title/Frankfurt
As soon as our new website is finished, I will post the address. It is quite exciting for us and we have lots of plans for new tours beginning this spring.
I haven't posted anything on here since a very long time, so bear with me while I gather some thoughts together and get writing again. Check back again soon!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
New Blog
www.frankfurt-on-foot-cityguide.blogspot.com
Come visit my new blog that is all about Frankfurt! Whether you are planning on visiting Frankfurt or if you are a Newcomer to Frankfurt, my Cityguide will help make your time here more enjoyable. It is chock full of tips about using the trains, shopping, museums, restaurants, events going on in the Rhein Main area, hotels, churches, historic buildings and of course information about our tours.
See you there!
Come visit my new blog that is all about Frankfurt! Whether you are planning on visiting Frankfurt or if you are a Newcomer to Frankfurt, my Cityguide will help make your time here more enjoyable. It is chock full of tips about using the trains, shopping, museums, restaurants, events going on in the Rhein Main area, hotels, churches, historic buildings and of course information about our tours.
See you there!
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Joys of Touring
I know I said I was going to write some more about our new walking tours of Frankfurt, so here ya go.
This is a fun job, I mean a really fun job. I wish I would have thought about doing this years ago. It combines being passionate about history and the joy of meeting people from the around the world. Every day, as I stand on the corner holding my bright yellow brochures up so that people can find me, I wonder who I will meet that day, which nationality will they be, will they be old or young, backpackers traveling on a shoe string or seniors seeing the world after a lifetime of hard work. This is what fascinates me so much. The one given though, is that they have all been nice. What other kind of job lets me come into contact with only nice people? It is amazing!
The other best part, is doing the research, finding out more and more and more about this city. This is the only way to keep the tour fresh, but it is almost embarrassing that I lived here in Frankfurt for so long and knew so little. But, it is quite fun to find a new website or a new book and dig up these little hidden gems to share with our guests. The hard part is trying to cram it all into 3 hours. Mostly, it is a matter of having the info at hand and playing it by ear as to what people are interested in. Some folks like the cathedral stuff, others want to hear about the emperor coronations, some like the architecture history, and others just want to know about Germans and Germany. Of course telling about the war and the horrors wreaked upon the Jewish citizens of Frankfurt is always a main feature of the history we try to impart to our tour guests. So, we try to balance it all out in an interesting fashion.
At the end of each tour, I hope that everyone has been entertained, that they all go home thinking "wow, this was a city that I want to visit again." This is my goal, to help make Frankfurt a tourist destination, not just a stop or layover going on to someplace else. Yeah, it is a pretty big goal, but thinking big is what an optimist does, and I am an optimist, through and through.
Ok, now come to Frankfurt!
This is a fun job, I mean a really fun job. I wish I would have thought about doing this years ago. It combines being passionate about history and the joy of meeting people from the around the world. Every day, as I stand on the corner holding my bright yellow brochures up so that people can find me, I wonder who I will meet that day, which nationality will they be, will they be old or young, backpackers traveling on a shoe string or seniors seeing the world after a lifetime of hard work. This is what fascinates me so much. The one given though, is that they have all been nice. What other kind of job lets me come into contact with only nice people? It is amazing!
The other best part, is doing the research, finding out more and more and more about this city. This is the only way to keep the tour fresh, but it is almost embarrassing that I lived here in Frankfurt for so long and knew so little. But, it is quite fun to find a new website or a new book and dig up these little hidden gems to share with our guests. The hard part is trying to cram it all into 3 hours. Mostly, it is a matter of having the info at hand and playing it by ear as to what people are interested in. Some folks like the cathedral stuff, others want to hear about the emperor coronations, some like the architecture history, and others just want to know about Germans and Germany. Of course telling about the war and the horrors wreaked upon the Jewish citizens of Frankfurt is always a main feature of the history we try to impart to our tour guests. So, we try to balance it all out in an interesting fashion.
At the end of each tour, I hope that everyone has been entertained, that they all go home thinking "wow, this was a city that I want to visit again." This is my goal, to help make Frankfurt a tourist destination, not just a stop or layover going on to someplace else. Yeah, it is a pretty big goal, but thinking big is what an optimist does, and I am an optimist, through and through.
Ok, now come to Frankfurt!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Cool Souvenir Photos
I just found this website on Digg. Thought it was really creative and fun. I have tried my hand just a tiny bit at photography, so my interest was piqued when I saw the listing on Digg. Once I went to the website, and checked out all the great places this guy had visited and how he incorporated souvenirs into his photos, I knew I wanted to share it with you all. Nuf said, go and Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes/sets/346406/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes/sets/346406/
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Happy Anniversary to my Husband
Today is our 5th wedding anniversary and I chose to put this letter of love on the internet for the entire world to see. If I could, I would shout it out, I would go on Oprah, I would take out full page ads in the New York Times, just to let everyone know how very much I love this man.
I am often in awe of how lucky I am to have a husband like this. He is thoughtful, loving, caring, strong, supportive, handsome, intelligent and funny to boot. He is wise and takes his time before answering me or anyone else, which is a skill that I certainly haven't been able to master. Probably because of this, everybody likes him, cause you couldn't ask for a better friend. Though I would also say he is my friend, my very best friend, the most important thing is that I get to love him and I know he loves me. I never felt this way before, that someone loved me like this. So it is pretty darn special and I adore him even more because of the effect he has on me. It is so wonderful to have this feeling of being loved without having to do anything in return. I had this feeling from my kids, especially when they were small, but it is way different when it comes from another adult.
It is fun thinking back to 5 years ago and remembering what we were doing. We had taken the overnight train to Denmark 2 days earlier. It was supposed to be a sleeper train, but it was so noisy, I don't think anyone slept on it. We went to a small town called Christenfeld which was absolutely lovely. Our hotel was an old farmhouse with a thatched roof that had been renovated quite nicely. The food there was fabulous too. But the best part was getting dressed in my wedding dress 5 years ago. I was so excited and as I walked downstairs, David was waiting with the camera to catch me emerging from the hotel. What a surprise! He had never seen my dress, so it was special having him see me like that. A friend had made me a small, delicate wreath for my hair, with dried flowers and ribbons and even the hotel employees said I looked beautiful. I had really long hair then, so it did look quite pretty.
We made our way to city hall and nervously waited our turn. When the time came though, to say our vows, it was like a lifetime of yearning was being answered with a huge YES, this moment is for you two people to have and enjoy. I know I leaked at the eyes just a bit, but then all I wanted to do was laugh and smile. We were married! Gosh, was it really 5 years ago? You know what they say, time flies when you are having fun, and this is one marriage where you will always hear lots of laughter.
I love you honey, and Happy Anniversary
I am often in awe of how lucky I am to have a husband like this. He is thoughtful, loving, caring, strong, supportive, handsome, intelligent and funny to boot. He is wise and takes his time before answering me or anyone else, which is a skill that I certainly haven't been able to master. Probably because of this, everybody likes him, cause you couldn't ask for a better friend. Though I would also say he is my friend, my very best friend, the most important thing is that I get to love him and I know he loves me. I never felt this way before, that someone loved me like this. So it is pretty darn special and I adore him even more because of the effect he has on me. It is so wonderful to have this feeling of being loved without having to do anything in return. I had this feeling from my kids, especially when they were small, but it is way different when it comes from another adult.
It is fun thinking back to 5 years ago and remembering what we were doing. We had taken the overnight train to Denmark 2 days earlier. It was supposed to be a sleeper train, but it was so noisy, I don't think anyone slept on it. We went to a small town called Christenfeld which was absolutely lovely. Our hotel was an old farmhouse with a thatched roof that had been renovated quite nicely. The food there was fabulous too. But the best part was getting dressed in my wedding dress 5 years ago. I was so excited and as I walked downstairs, David was waiting with the camera to catch me emerging from the hotel. What a surprise! He had never seen my dress, so it was special having him see me like that. A friend had made me a small, delicate wreath for my hair, with dried flowers and ribbons and even the hotel employees said I looked beautiful. I had really long hair then, so it did look quite pretty.
We made our way to city hall and nervously waited our turn. When the time came though, to say our vows, it was like a lifetime of yearning was being answered with a huge YES, this moment is for you two people to have and enjoy. I know I leaked at the eyes just a bit, but then all I wanted to do was laugh and smile. We were married! Gosh, was it really 5 years ago? You know what they say, time flies when you are having fun, and this is one marriage where you will always hear lots of laughter.
I love you honey, and Happy Anniversary
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Frankfurt Tour
Yes, folks, we are open for business. Two weeks ago, my husband David and I started our own tour business. We connected up with the Insider Tours in Berlin because we liked their tours so much and have now launched out here in Frankfurt.
Every day at 10:30 and 14:30, we guide tourists around the best sites of Frankfurt for 3 hours, telling them the most interesting facts we could dig up about our hometown. It really is a fascinating city and the more we dig, the more we find. It is almost an obsession now, finding the coolest websites and the best photos from days gone by.
It is fun meeting people from all around the world and we get to be outside for hours at a time, though I am getting quite a farmer tan from wearing a tee shirt every day.
The city of Frankfurt hasn't made it easy on us though. Talk about bureaucracy! No wonder the spirit of entrepreneurship is so low here. They really don't want people to start their own businesses! Paperwork and photos and appointments and go to this office and then go to another office and they are often the wrong place or they have different hours and wont be open til the next day. AHHHHHHH! It is enough to drive ya nuts! Considering we live in the modern age of computers, there seems to be absolutely no connection in Germany from office to office. When you go in, the offices are filled with binders with everyones records. This always amazes me. Isn't it time for them to update just a bit, enter these records onto a data base that can be accessed from any government office and make things easier for folks?
This is my second time around at being my own boss and hopefully I can avoid the pitfalls of my first failed attempt. Having my husband as a partner certainly makes a big difference. I really look forward each day to going downtown, wondering who I will meet, what country they will be from (Australia seems to be the winner here) , hoping I can remember all the dates that I have memorized (using clever little connections that I have thought up), and hoping that I can make the tour so entertaining, that everyone goes home thinking that Frankfurt was 10 times more interesting than what they thought it would be.
So whether you are coming to Frankfurt or know someone is going to visit here, pass on our website address: www.insidertour.com
My next post, I will tell you a bit more about what you can see on our Famous Tour.
Every day at 10:30 and 14:30, we guide tourists around the best sites of Frankfurt for 3 hours, telling them the most interesting facts we could dig up about our hometown. It really is a fascinating city and the more we dig, the more we find. It is almost an obsession now, finding the coolest websites and the best photos from days gone by.
It is fun meeting people from all around the world and we get to be outside for hours at a time, though I am getting quite a farmer tan from wearing a tee shirt every day.
The city of Frankfurt hasn't made it easy on us though. Talk about bureaucracy! No wonder the spirit of entrepreneurship is so low here. They really don't want people to start their own businesses! Paperwork and photos and appointments and go to this office and then go to another office and they are often the wrong place or they have different hours and wont be open til the next day. AHHHHHHH! It is enough to drive ya nuts! Considering we live in the modern age of computers, there seems to be absolutely no connection in Germany from office to office. When you go in, the offices are filled with binders with everyones records. This always amazes me. Isn't it time for them to update just a bit, enter these records onto a data base that can be accessed from any government office and make things easier for folks?
This is my second time around at being my own boss and hopefully I can avoid the pitfalls of my first failed attempt. Having my husband as a partner certainly makes a big difference. I really look forward each day to going downtown, wondering who I will meet, what country they will be from (Australia seems to be the winner here) , hoping I can remember all the dates that I have memorized (using clever little connections that I have thought up), and hoping that I can make the tour so entertaining, that everyone goes home thinking that Frankfurt was 10 times more interesting than what they thought it would be.
So whether you are coming to Frankfurt or know someone is going to visit here, pass on our website address: www.insidertour.com
My next post, I will tell you a bit more about what you can see on our Famous Tour.
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