Frankfurt Germany, September 10 and September 11, 2008 (work related travel)
I enjoyed the mix of older archecticture along with skyscrapers and modern buildings, Frankfurt has been predominatly rebuilt since WWII, so much of it is modern and since it is the financial center of Germany, it has a fair amount of modern skyscraper type buildings, here is a picture, from the Internet obviously, of Frankfurt before WWII, you can see the city centre, and the big church is St. Barthelomeum.
My favorite activity of the short trip was running a loop around Frankfurt, like many old European cities, there used to be a wall around Frankfurt, they have built a park where this wall used to be, along with the river, this makes a nice 6 mile loop around the city. Luckily this park ran through the back of my hotel. You can see the loop on the map below, it is the green circle around the city.
Below is the view from the back of my hotel, the park was about a 1/4 mile wide and had paved and crushed gravel trails running through it. It was full of fountains, playgrounds, gardens, and sculptures. It was a great use of greenspace in an urban setting and also appeared to be the primary bike path for getting around the city. It was a great way to see the city and it also ran by some beautiful sites, including the old opera house.
This is along the Main River, my favorite part of the loop.
Following my two great days in Paris, I had the pleasure of getting to go work in Frankfurt for the next two days. This was only my second trip ever to Germany, with my first trip about 60 days ago, for just over a day, to Berlin.
I emailed Beth these short, not terribly insightful, observations based on just a few hours in Berlin.
Germans like beer
They have really bad toilet paper
In general Berlin is very American, you would not know the difference it weren’t for the buildings and language
They like American music
They are to the point and lack tact
They are not flexible
Bathrooms are very small and not very well marked
They apparently do not use ice when drinking water or soda
They love coffee, cappuccino, lattes etc.
They smoke a lot
They have pretty good food
They are very efficient
They like riding bikes and have designed the city around it
They also know how to use trains, subways and mass transit
My second trip was to Frankfurt, started perfectly, as we took a train from Paris to Frankfurt, a very pleasant way to spend four hours. The thoughts above hold true and I would add a few things to this list.
Their economy seems to be doing very well, shopping and money being spent everywhere
I emailed Beth these short, not terribly insightful, observations based on just a few hours in Berlin.
Germans like beer
They have really bad toilet paper
In general Berlin is very American, you would not know the difference it weren’t for the buildings and language
They like American music
They are to the point and lack tact
They are not flexible
Bathrooms are very small and not very well marked
They apparently do not use ice when drinking water or soda
They love coffee, cappuccino, lattes etc.
They smoke a lot
They have pretty good food
They are very efficient
They like riding bikes and have designed the city around it
They also know how to use trains, subways and mass transit
My second trip was to Frankfurt, started perfectly, as we took a train from Paris to Frankfurt, a very pleasant way to spend four hours. The thoughts above hold true and I would add a few things to this list.
Their economy seems to be doing very well, shopping and money being spent everywhere
They have tremendous pride in being German
They have very strong values, apparently low crime, and can be strict when they need to be
My first view of Frankfurt, from our seats in the train
I enjoyed the mix of older archecticture along with skyscrapers and modern buildings, Frankfurt has been predominatly rebuilt since WWII, so much of it is modern and since it is the financial center of Germany, it has a fair amount of modern skyscraper type buildings, here is a picture, from the Internet obviously, of Frankfurt before WWII, you can see the city centre, and the big church is St. Barthelomeum.
Below is a picture of the current skyline, quite the difference.
My favorite activity of the short trip was running a loop around Frankfurt, like many old European cities, there used to be a wall around Frankfurt, they have built a park where this wall used to be, along with the river, this makes a nice 6 mile loop around the city. Luckily this park ran through the back of my hotel. You can see the loop on the map below, it is the green circle around the city.
Below is the view from the back of my hotel, the park was about a 1/4 mile wide and had paved and crushed gravel trails running through it. It was full of fountains, playgrounds, gardens, and sculptures. It was a great use of greenspace in an urban setting and also appeared to be the primary bike path for getting around the city. It was a great way to see the city and it also ran by some beautiful sites, including the old opera house.
This is along the Main River, my favorite part of the loop.
After my run I got out and did some sight seeing, below is the center of Frankfurt and the area where a few of the older buildings still remain. As you can see, it was a very busy area.
Here I am with my colleauges after our research, my clients are on the left and my German Moderator, Hartmunt, on the right.
