Germany is the third richest country in the world and the
most populous and therefore influential country in the European Union. It was split into East and West from the end
of the second world war until 1989 when the country was reunified. Much of the country was devestated after
the war, but the Germans are skilled and industrious and rebuilt their country to the world-class economy of
today.
I don't know much about Germany, my family have no connections with the country and it's
never been a place we've gone on holiday to. However when I had a six hour stopover in Frankfurt Am-Main
I felt it was the perfect opportunity to see a little bit of the place, however brief.
Consequently this page is actually only about Frankfurt, eventually I will add more when I go somewhere else
in Germany! I was in the city
for just enough time to have my lunch, wander around and see what I could see, and do a spot of shopping.
My somewhat limited German didn't cause me much trouble as most people are good English speakers.
This was my first view of the centre of Frankfurt after I emerged
from the stupendously complicated subway system at Hauptwache. The building in the centre is the Commerzbank.
Frankfurt city centre has a modern skyline, fueled by the city's
status as the economic centre of continental Europe. It has been called "the most American city outside
of America".
This is what I gather to be the main shopping street in Frankfurt, which
although busy wasn't frantic like Glasgow's Buchannan Street on a Saturday. I think the street is called
Zeil.
Here is the old Cathedral which is currently being done up.
It occured to me whilst wandering around that everything was
fairly modern. The square which these traditional old buildings stand on was about the only part
I found which was more than 50 years old. This is because Frankfurt was heavily damaged during the
war, so much so that a lot of their cultural heritage was lost.
The Alte Oper (Old Opera House) in Frankfurt was built in the
19th century, and after standing as a ruin for 40 years was reconstructed
at great expense during the boom of the eighties. The motif above the entrance says
"Dem Wahren Schoenen Guten" which means "To truth, beauty and good".
This is the Commerzbank building in downtown Frankfurt,
completed in 1997 and the tallest office building in Europe at 300 metres. However it is soon
to be overtaken by a new development in Russia.
These twin towers are known locally as "credit and debit", and
exhibit the fully mirrored glass curtain walling common in large commercial buildings of the eighties.
They are both owned by Deutsche Bank.
There is a lot of development going on in Frankfurt, this place
is actually being stripped down to the concrete core and entirely refitted, it was originally built in the
seventies.
If I remember rightly then this shipping centre is called the
Zeil Galerie and is on Zeil, the main shopping street. It reminded me a bit of the Pompidou Centre
in Paris.
This is Frankfurt as viewed from a footbridge spanning the River Main.
The city is built just before the Main's confluence with the mighty Rhine, on its way to Rotterdam. I like
this view of the new rising above the old.
This interested me a bit as I shuffled my way through Frankfurt
Flughafen (Airport), a jolly long corrider with constantly changing lights. Possible the longest travellators
I've walked unnecessarily quickly along...
