Note: no time for review/editing. There it is.
FRANKFURT, GERMANY
After the day train from Brussels to Frankfurt...
We did a bit of calling home to parents which was lovely - nice to hear their voices after a month away - and then sampled a bit of the local fare (sausages and currywurst - Scott, I hear you make a mean currywurst right in your own home). We then met up with Nick!
Nick is a friend from college days when we worked in the music department together. I am so pleased it worked out to see him during this trip. He offered up his home for sleeping (awesome) and took us to a delicious German restaurant and beer garden. Schnitzel with green sauce is DE-licious. As is pot roast made well. Also, apelwine, a specialty of the area, is great. It tastes like appel cider with none of the sugar and a bit more alcohol on the back end. A refreshing beverage served in pitchers and cut with bubbly water.
Company and conversation made the night and, as can happen with reconnections, I felt so pleased that it had all worked out.
Nick made us a typical breakfast spread - yogurt (which you CAN eat with lemon curd but will be scoffed at for eating with jam, apparently, if youcre at Nickcs house), open-faced bread sandwiches with cheese and meat, eggs, coffe- tea, and blood orange juice.
Full and armed with a map with Nickcs notations we set off around the town. Got a cheap manicure, walked around a string of parks delineating the former city wall, crossed the river to the museum walk and took in the architecture museum (okay exhibits, though nothing mind-blowing, best cafe in town -- and with the drinks we had and the apple vanilla pastry we didnct feel like disputing it, though limited in our experience of Frankfurt cafes).
A quick metro trip and walk to a doner restaurant across town. Roger is quite the doner connessiour from his time in Munich and I have heard about doners from our first year together. I was stoked to try this legendary food.
Doner is served in a breadish toasted pita pocket. It is shwarma meat (which I havenct eaten often. I like the way the meat is all a bit crispy at the edges from the constant roasting), yogurt sauce, lettuce, onion, cabbage, and every other ingredient in the topping bar. It is sometimes the size of your face and a good inch and a half to two inches thick. A formidable and tasty sandwich. you WILL feel like you have a food baby after eating it. you will not need any sort of significant dinner.
After doner we took a looooong walk. We walked through more parks (earlier wecd gone to a lovely Chinese ;;::_ park with bridges, trees, a pond) and found our way to the university buildings. Nick had told us about a Nazi-built building with elevators that are in perpetual motion. šnoteC much of Frankfurt was destroyed in WWII and so there are not many structures left from before the ward.
The elevators are crazy. They have warnings and disclaimers about not riding under the age of 18 and only one person at a time fits into each car. The cars do not have doors, only vertical handles on either side of the opening. you wait and time your step onto or off of the elevator precisely. What if you misstep or fall_ Well, maybe youcll have your leg squeezed off. Isnct there an emergency stop button_ yes, but bad newsC itcs located outside the elevator so if your leg is already in the works of being smashed, youcd better hope therecs a kind citizen at the next floor aware of whatcs going on.
We rode the around a full circuit. The top and bottom are fairly dark and somewhat freaky when you donct know whatcs coming. Will it tilt you backwards and force you to scramble and crab walk so that the bottom becomes the top_ Will it dump you out (we hadnct seen anyone else riding them before we got on, separately) into the shaft_ No, evidently not. A simple wheel rotates the cars from one side to the other --- you remain on the same side of the building. When I first heard about it I imagined a ferris wheel like the London Eye ferrying people to random points in the building. The actual design made a bit more sense. There are also two located in different parts of the building -- we actually discovered them independently as we made our way to the herren and damen bathrooms.
We checked out a fancy chocolate shop noted on the map by Nick and I tried a chili bonbon while Roger had a marshmallow mouse. A last quick snack and beer with
Nick, a stop at his house and a call to my sister and then we went to the train station to await our 12:49AM train to Prague (Praha).
When booked we thought we had reserved a two-person sleeper. Not so, apparently we were meeting the train at a stop in the middle of its journey. Our beds were the top and middle left bunks and four people were already asleep in the car. Itcs not really possible to silently ready oneself for bed and stow luggage above the top bunk but we did things as quickly and quietly as possible and I didnct bother to think about bedbugs as I stretched out in my clothes with my coat as a pillow on the pillow. That night, among other things, I dreamt that the man on the bottom bunk jumped up and bared his teeth at me and also that my friends Bart and Nicole had joined us on the journey. For being fully dressed on a train it wasnct a bad nightcs sleep. In the morning three passangers had gone and I met the 4th roommate. She is currently on a study abroad from UVA (wahoowah, itcs a small world). She and her friend were doing a bit of a tour while on their term break. Best of luck, grasshoppers.
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