Arrival in Frankfurt

We arrived at the main train station in Frankfurt at 3pm. Frankfurt is very different from the other European cities we’ve traveled to. There are many skyscrapers and a very modern downtown area closely neighboring the old town section of the city. It sits right on the Main River, so the skyline is beautiful. 

Our hotel, City Hotel Mercator, was simple, but nice. It was a short metro ride from the main train station, but it was worth the few extra minutes of travel to be in a cute, quiet neighborhood. We considered staying close to the train station, but that area, while safe, is the red light district, and we decided we would enjoy the two nights in the city a little more if we didn’t have to walk through that area to get back to the hotel. 

Our hotel from down the street

We changed clothes and headed out to find food since we were starving, of course. We ended up walking quite a long way before stopping to eat. We walked by the Frankfurt Cathedral and then up toward a big shopping district before sharing a cold chicken sandwich at a place on the street. It was kind of gross, but it sufficed. It felt liked we’d been starving since we arrived in Germany, and after being so well fed in Prague, being hungry so often was that much more difficult. 

Looking up at Frankfurt Cathedral

There is a huge pedestrian only shopping street with department stores and at least a million H&M stores. If you’re looking to shop (which we weren’t), it’s a great area. Eventually we wandered over to the Fressgass area, which is another pedestrian (and bikes) only zone with a lot of restaurants. We found some hot wine there (up to this point, we had not seen any on the street in Germany). We both tried some. It was not even close to as good as the wine we were drinking in Prague. I didn’t even want to finish mine. To be fair to Germany, this is the only hot wine we tried in the country. 

After looking at a few menus, we decided we would just go to an Italian place near the hotel. We were cold and had been walking for a few hours, so we knew once we sat down and ate a hot meal, we would be way too tired to walk the mile or so back to the hotel. The restaurant, Restaurant Portofino, was a small, family owned Italian restaurant. The food was good, not great. I think I had some homemade raviolis and Andy had the pasta carbonara. It was full of locals and had a cozy atmosphere. The best part of the dinner was that we were in our room at the hotel and heading to bed within three minutes, ending another fun day.