In Transit: Frankfurt am Main

I'm on my way to visit S in South Africa, at the start of a long journey with many flights and layovers. The 22:00 flight out of Toronto to Frankfurt was uneventful. I stowed my heavier carry-on luggage at a place in the airport that holds bags for you; this cost about 4 Euros. Armed with a Frankfurt Card (8,70 Euro), I was able to use the trains and subways for free and get a discount on museums. You can even get complimentary free beverages with the card!

I started by going to the Dom/Römer U-Bahn stop and checking out the Dom (cathedral). As luck would have it, a boy's choir was having a rehearsal and I stayed to listen to their marvellous voices soaring into the church's interior. The city hall (Römer) was closed so I wasn't able to visit it, but I wandered some more around the surrounding streets (Saalgasse is great), the Römerberg town centre and dropped into Old St. Nikolai's church.

Next, I headed to Fressgass, a pedestrian avenue lined with food shops and markets. A local specialty is currywurst, a wiener doused with ketchup and curry powder; it's not very tasty.

For the rest of the afternoon, I went across the Main river to the Staedel Museum which houses a collection of fine art. This was a good choice as the artwork is spectacular. Around dinner time, I went back to the Roemer area to a restaurant called Restaurant Zum Storch which is over 300 years old. Unfortunately, the meal was a letdown: a Boletus soup (strained cream of mushroom); venison with a brown sauce accompanied by potato dumplings, cranberry sauce and pickled cabbage; the dessert I chose was flambeed cherries with walnut ice cream. One local Frankfurt drink specialty is Apfelwein; it's a sparkling alcoholic apple wine, also not very good.

I went back to the airport and realized I would have to separately check the bottles of maple syrup that I had in my carry-on. At Pearson, the saleslady suggested that I buy the small 100 mL bottles which were shaped like maple leaves. These cost 3 times more than the plastic 500 mL jugs by volume, but I wouldn't be able to get them through security otherwise. At the security checkpoint in Frankfurt, I had to buy little clear resealable plastic bags from a vending machine so that I could place my bottles in them. Stupid liquids and gels regulations!

Lots more photos in the complete Flickr set.