Europe Day 45 of 59, Frankfurt

Let me first disclose that I do not work for the Villa Kennedy, nor are they compensating me in any way. Now, at this very moment, I consider this the best hotel on the planet. Why? After maybe a week of back and neck pain from hotel beds that did not quite cut it, I went to sleep on the Villa Kennedy's firm yet comfortable mattress and firm yet comfortable pillow last night, and this morning I awoke not only refreshed but pain free. I swear to you it is beyond belief how that much pain and discomfort can disappear overnight.

As Barbie said, "There is no agenda for the day." I knew I wanted to see St. Bartholomeus Cathedral. Otherwise, it was caszh. Cashe? How do you spell the first syllable in "casual" anyway?

Room service breakfast is a joy, and at Villa Kennedy there is no time of day that they stop serving breakfast. Yes!

A seating area of Villa Kennedy's restaurant. I hate to sound like an ad for this hotel, but that looks very bitchin'.

Between the elevators and the lobby, one can relax here. As you can see, Barbie is relaxed.

Remember this courtyard, because when you see at night it looks mighty cool. Not that it is anything but swanky in the daylight.

The Villa Kennedy. We're outside now, which means no more hotel photos.

Our hotel is on the south side of the Main, and this statue stands on the Southeast corner of the Friedensbrücke. (Seems to me like "brücke" means bridge, so I didn't add it.) Plainly, this statue is a dude in a hoodie, standing like a dude in a hoodie would stand. I tried to stand like him. By the way, every map I see calls this city, "Frankfurt am Main." I wonder if there's another Frankfurt somewhere else that it has to be differentiated from?

The walking path along the south side of the river could not have been more inviting.

There are 13 museums on the south side between Friedensbrücke and Eiserner Steg (which we shall cross to enter the city). All are former villas just like our hotel. However the "Museum für Kommunikation" featured this robot riding a bronze horse. I crossed the street for this one, as I don't ever expect to see a robot riding a bronze horse again.

The Deutsches Filmmuseum has a H. R. Geiger exhibit. I include this picture to make a specific nerd demographic drool.

How wonderful? For the month of July they have Mainspiele, which I think can be translated figuratively as, "Kid heaven on the Main." In the distance, that monstrous tower is my goal for the day, St. Bartholomeus Cathedral.

Part of Frankfurt's modern skyline, which is actually quite vast. The kiddie stuff went for, by my estimate, a half-mile. Seriously. Kiddie heaven.

Just before crossing the bridge, Barbie noticed that church tower and, as we had no agenda, we checked it out.

Frankfurt Kaiserdom Cathedral. In 1340 a Gothic chapel was built here. From 1875 to 1881, the current Lutheran church was built. And it still stands today. You will see a picture that tells you how special it is to see a building that old here.

Inside, this Lutheran German cathedral is subtle. Not like those ornate cathedrals desperate to impress the big fella.

The Eiserner Steg across the Main. Along the city's center, every other bridge is pedestrian only. No cars. This is wonderful. Have you ever walked along a bride sidewalk with cars whizzing by? It's awful. Throughout our entire walk along the Main, we were pleasantly surprised by Frankfurt. It was beautiful and well planned. Truthfully, we only visited Frankfurt to see a friend of mine. But throughout this day it continually became a place we would recommend people visit.

I am always willing to admit when a picture fails. This picture is a failure. St. Bartholomeus Cathedral towers over Frankfurt like a colossus. Perhaps it is the unique color. Perhaps it is the height. Perhaps it is the combination of Gothic and Renaissance elements. But I found myself unable to look away and unable to stop taking pictures of St. Bartholomeus.

The sign said Do Not Touch, so I demonstrated how quickly I would fall asleep if hugging this gigantic teddy bear.

In the center of the main square, Römerberg, one finds this statue and church. No clue as to their names.

Frankfurt has wisely not built any buildings too close to St. Bartholomeus, but that also prevents this pic from demonstrating how terribly huge it is. 95 meters tall. That's 311.5 feet.

From Wikipedia: Frankfurt Cathedral is the main church of Frankfurt and was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an earlier church from the Merovingian time. From 1356 onwards, kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected in this Catholic church, and from 1562 to 1792, emperors were crowned here. It has been recognized as symbol for the national unity of Germany, especially during the 19th century. Although it has never been a bishop's seat, its role in imperial politics made the church to one of the most important buildings of Imperial history and justified the use of the term (imperial) cathedral by the people of Frankfurt for the church since the 18th century.

In 1867, the cathedral was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt in its present style.

Inside St. Bartholomeus Cathedral, there is decoration but again one senses old-fashioned German restraint. In Italy, there would be statues and tapestries and paintings Everywhere.

In one alcove you find this sculpture. I have not spent enough time here to say this, but I sense that the Germans are in touch with the more gruesome side of the New Testament's stories.

Interesting. Here the brick wall pattern has been scraped, revealing a fresco beneath. I have no clue if they plan to scrape everywhere, plan to cover this up someday, or plan to leave it just so forever.

Clearly, the Allies left this tall cathedral to spot the city center from a distance.

Wikipedia: Between October 1943 and March 1944 the old town of Frankfurt, the biggest old Gothic town of Central Europe had been destroyed by six bombardments of the Allied Forces. The physical devastation of the old imperial town was intended to reduce public support for the war. The greatest losses occurred on the 22nd of March 1944. Over one thousand buildings of the old town, the most of them being half-timbered houses were destroyed. The cathedral suffered severe damage and the interior was burned out completely.

I think Keanu would say, "Whoa."

I can only assume that these ruins next to the cathedral represent World War II rubble. Do you know what the Earth's population would be today without that war? Let alone how many more buildings we would have to visit? Mind boggling.

The "move the iPhone while taking the pic" pic.

I doubt many people pass this store without taking a picture.

Yes, this counts as an obelisk. It is in the city square and I have no clue what it is about.

But I can tell you that a beggar with a guitar imitates Bob Dylan in front of it.

This you do not see every day.

Yes, this counts as an obelisk. I have no clue what it is about.

Lunch. A brief moment back in the USA.

The classic European pedestrian shopping street.

Next to St. Paul's Cathedral, which did not make the blog, you find this statue of a man bound. The base includes a list of every WW II extermination camp.

Did you know that THIS is the official font of the iPhone?

I know I already said we were pleasantly surprised by Frankfurt. At this point, I am a major fan.

The above bridge is held up by four of these statues. Mythical and what not.

She got a double.

Yours truly got a single.

The gelato vendor was from Sicily, and started speaking to us in Italian before we had a chance to speak. I explained I wasn't, he said I look Italian "here" (while pointing to his eyes and such), and I said, "You never know, maybe if you go back far enough." This made him happy. I did not bother mentioning that the most likely possibility is that one of my ancestors was, well, taken advantage of by a Roman soldier. But whose wasn't?

Back at the Villa Kennedy, I had to show you how one unlocks the door. See! It does not go in a slot. You just hold it there and then... magical elves inside the wall unlock the door.

For dinner, we met with Rebecca. She works at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, where she does her post-doctorate research. If that does not impress you, then I suggest that you are not the sharpest tool in the proverbial shed. When we ended up with two free nights in Europe, and wanted to be near Bonn, I suggested we visit my friend Rebecca in Frankfurt. If I had not, we would not have gotten to enjoy our most pleasant surprise of the trip, the lovely Frankfurt.

Rebecca gave us the option to eat at a traditional Frankfurt-style restaurant, and we took her up on it. Here we toast our friendship with Apfelwein. If you didn't know the word apple had Germanic roots, you do now.

Rebecca got eggs with the traditional Frankfurt "green sauce."

Barbie got veal liver with apples and onions on top. (She won the ordering contest, it was delicious.)

I got the schnitzel with ham and cheese inside. Delicious, too.

Apfelstrudel. Sometimes translation is unnecessary.

Sometimes there is no passerby to harass. As we got near to Barbie's second, "Meet a friend of Jeff's she never met before," moment, I gave Barbie the reasons that I thought she would like Rebecca. After this pic was taken, and Rebecca walked south and we crossed the street to our hotel, Barbie said, "I love her."

Villa Kennedy at night.

The harp fountain. Water is running down each string.

I told you the courtyard is swanky at night. Why didn't you believe me? (I had to resist breaking into a Ren & Stimpy riff there.)

Tomorrow we get on a train that takes us to...