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!