Heidelberg and Frankfurt

I was on my way to Frankfurt after a very long week of classes, but I had to make a stop in the town of Heidelberg, renowned for it’s quaintness… Anyway after a while on the train I threw my bag in the station lockers went to the tourist booth, got some directions and a list of places to see. In five minutes I was on a bus to old town Heidelburg, or so I thought until I was riding through every suburb in Heidelberg. So I spent forty-five minutes seeing parts of the town the no tourist has ever seen, and has never wanted to see until I caught a connection that put me relatively close to the old town. It was a lively place, people bustling everywhere and as in a lot of cities wooden booths lined the streets, vendors preparing their stalls for soon to open Christmas markets. I walked along the main street and stopped in a Jesuit Church, which was simple but nice. I didn’t have time to go up to the castle but I saw it from below. I walked along the famous bridge and took a long look out over the river and the quaint old town. Soon enough it was time to get back to the station to catch my train to Frankfurt.

Once I got to Frankfurt it was well after dark so I just got settled in my hostel and enjoyed a beer in the lobby while doing some things on my computer. Later that  evening I went to a sushi bar like the one I went to in Stuttgart, with the little conveyor belt of endless sushi. I met some locals there who were a bit older than I was but one of them was going to study in Minnesota the coming semester so we got to talking about traveling and culture and what not. After dinner I retired early to bed.

Sunday morning, there was another Jesuit Church just a few blocks away and I had looked up the Mass time, which was 10:30. So I arrived at 9:30 hoping to say my prayers but, firstly the church was not even open yet and second, Mass was not til 11:30. So I sat outside the Church waiting for it to open thinking I would just get some extra time for prayer. After about 15 minutes the doors were opened and I was allowed in. I was an old church but they had succeeded in removing whatever previous beauty the church once contained and replacing it with nasty 70s junk. Anyway I was praying all alone in the church for another 15 minutes until I got kicked out. The custodian had to go somewhere so I got kicked out. So then I wandered around Frankfurt on a quiet and cold Sunday morning for half an hour to return to the church. Finally there was Mass and I was happy to put that whole mess of an escapade behind me.

For sight seeing I was off to the Main Tower, a 54 story building in the middle of the city that has an observation deck on top of it. The sun was coming out as I stepped out onto the deck. The weather was actually very nice and the view was wonderful. I spent a quarter hour up there and then I was off to the house of Goethe, the famous German writer. There was a tiny museum attached to his house but it was not that impressive. But lunch made up for a less than stellar day so far. I chose a little rustic place in the middle of the city named Leib & Steele. They had great ratings online for their classic German fare, and I was not disappointed. The waiter recommended a Schnitzel paired with a local beer, which I readily ordered. I have never thought much of Schnitzel, it is good but on a typical German menu there is usually so much other good stuff that I don’t go for it, but this Schnitzel was delicious. 

After lunch I checked out the old town part of the city. I was the building where Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were once elected(I think). And I saw the Cathedral in which they were coroneted. This cathedral had a really good museum attached, probably my favorite church museum so far, they had an epic collection of chasubles, so rock on.

At this point I think I was pretty tired so I slowly made my way back to the hostel walking through the main shopping row of the city which was filling with even more rows of Christmas Market stalls. I spent the evening in the hostel doing some work, and they played Avatar in the lobby so I watched that while doing my work.

Monday I got up at a reasonable time, got some breakfast in the lobby and then headed back into the city. I got on one of the typical tourist buses for an hour tour throughout the city. I learned a lot about Frankfurt, saw the headquarters of the European Central Bank and the building that was once the Refectory of the Tectonic Order, not turned into a museum.

Frankfurt is known for it’s apple wine, and I had heard the best place to try It was on the south side of town, so I headed south for lunch. Again I had looked up some reviews and found another classic German place for lunch. The waiter recommended house made sausage with mashed-potatoes and sauerkraut to go along with my apple wine. Apple wine is not that great, the only thing it really has going for it is the novelty factor. It is quite sour but very mild in flavor with just barely a tiny hint of apple taste, but otherwise I thought it tasted like sour sparkling water. So I was glad I tried it but I was not very impressed. But the sausage and sauerkraut on the other hand, they were exemplary!

After lunch, which was really quite late I headed back to the hostel to begin packing to leave for Brussels the next day.