After arriving in the morning at the Frankfurt Airport, we headed right into the city on the S-Bahn. We ended up walking a bit around the downtown area before heading up to the observation deck atop Main Tower. Afterwards, we took the S-Bahn again across the Main River to have lunch. It soon started to pour as we were walking on the riverfront. We went to the Stadel Museum to dry off and to look at the art. By the time we left, it wasn’t raining much at all. We crossed the river via the Holbeinsteg, the bridge in front of the museum. We then headed to the old town area where we ended the day.
Innenstadt
We came across the Eschenheimer Turm, the only remaining city gate dating from the 1400s. The bottom of the structure is now a cafe.
After walking down a street that was pedestrian only and hosted a number of various fresh fruit, vegetable, and food trucks, we came across the borse, or stock market. There is a bull and a bear outside.
The German Stock Market is behind the bull.
The building across the street from the borse and in the background of our photo of the bull and bear had an element of interest – there are five statues that look like they’re holding up the structure above!
As we continued walking, we came across this rather large and empty plaza. We noticed this monument. It is for Johann Gutenberg, the German inventor of the printing press. He was from nearby Mainz. There is a museum dedicated to him there.
Looking back at the plaza, monument, and where we walked from.
Main Tower
We continued walking and eventually reached the Main Tower. The Main Tower is named after the Main River which runs through Frankfurt. We went in and got tickets for the observation platform at the very top.
After going up a set of stairs, taking a high speed elevator up to the 53rd or something floor, then taking another elevator up one floor, then taking one more set of stairs, we stepped out onto the outdoor observation platform. While it seems like the platform covers the entire top of the building, it does not. The building is a few feet larger in diameter.
We had great views of the city and surrounding land! Frankfurt only has a few skyscrapers in its downtown area. We could also see the airport where we arrived earlier in the morning.
Opera
After leaving Main Tower, we walked to the north to catch the S-Bahn. On the way, we took a short detour to check out the Alte Oper, or Old Opera in English. We saw it first from the top of Main Tower.
A rather nice looking building! We noticed one of the statues had something of interest so we continued to walk closer.
The statue, of a subject unknown to us, is doing the Napoleon hand thing! It is a thing with statues, as we discovered a few years ago when seeing this video below:
Its interesting and after seeing it, you may notice more statues, art, etc, doing the hand thing!
The other statue on the opposite side of the building did not do the hand thing.
Main River
After taking the S-Bahn to the south side of the Main River where we had lunch, we walked to the riverfront. As we reached the river, it started to pour!
Although we were fully dressed in rain gear, including waterproof shells, pants, and shoes, it still wasn’t pleasant as there was a strong wind blowing from the west. And we were walking towards the west.
Stadel Museum
We decided to keep on walking to the Stadel Museum. It wasn’t too far away.
After a little bit of confusion with the elevator, we found ourselves on the top floor. We started there, on floor 2, before heading down to floor 1 where we ended our visit. There are a few items of interest which we will highlight below.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is extremely famous here in Frankfurt, the city where he was born. His Wikipedia page describes him as, “a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic.” This is a painting of him. It was apparently painted from memory over many years.
This portion of a painting, one of two similar in style in the museum, simulates gold leafing. It is a very interesting effect!
These two adjacent pieces have a nice 3D effect, something that seems to be particularly effective here.
We saw quite a bit of art in the museum. We photographed a few pieces that seemed interesting in some way.
Main River, Again
After leaving the museum, we were glad to find that the remaining rain was very light. We started to cross the Main River on the Holbeinsteg, a pedestrian bridge in front of the museum. This was the view to the east, showing Frankfurt’s downtown area.
There aren’t really very many prominent structures to the west.
The Holbeinsteg is a suspension bridge. This was taken roughly at the middle.
The view from the middle of the Main River. The church tower in the center of the frame is where we will end up later in the day.
The view as we reached the north bank of the Main. Both sides of the river are lined by parkland.
We walked for a little bit along the Main before heading inland to catch a streetcar. Before turning away from the river though, we noticed these two statues holding up the structure above.
We took the streetcar to the Altstadt, or Old Town. A bit like what we’ve seen in Switzerland and Belgium, though on a rather small scale. There isn’t much left as it was mostly destroyed during the war.
The church tower, which we saw in the distance while crossing the Main, is visible on the left in the background.
This historic structure was the city hall for 600 years or so! Though, some of it is reconstructed, again, due to the war.
There is a fenced in fountain in the middle of the square.
We continue walking to the east, ending up in the Neue Altstadt, or New Old Town. The buildings here are all newly constructed. It is quite obvious when looking at them as they have a much cleaner appearance.
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