Architecture in Frankfurt

Up until fairly recently, the only thing I associated with Frankfurt was the name of the main airport in Germany. That changed the day my sister sent me a picture she had taken in old town during an unintended layover. I did some research and decided we needed to go for a visit. Frankfurt is sometimes called Germany’s Manhattan, and for a good reason, but it also offers many museums, a wide variety of ethnic restaurants, cute cafés and amazing modern architecture.

We walked from the somewhat dodgy area next to the train station, across the Main River which flows through Frankfurt, to the Städel Museum on Frankfurt’s so-called Museumsufer (“Ufer” is the word for shore or bank), as there are several museums situated along the banks of the Main River.

While the skyscrapers and the older, traditional buildings are mostly kept apart, every now and then there is an interesting mix.

The area around the square where the old city hall is situated has the oldest and most colorful buildings.

At my request, we popped into the shopping center MyZeil. I had read about the architecture and was keen to see it. It didn’t disappoint, and I had a ball photographing the building. From the outside, it looks like a hole has been punched through the wall, but from the inside, this “hole” is like a long tube running through the entire building. The interior complements the outside, and the main forms are ovals and triangles. At times, it’s a bit Escher-esque.

From MyZeil we slowly made our way back to the train station and deliberately walked through the financial district to marvel at the modern high-rises. I had always assumed that the area was “finished”, but there were still several buildings under construction. One of my favorites was a building I first saw from the other side of the Main River and thought that someone had taken a giant bite out of the side of the building. On closer inspection, the building had several stories which were pushed over and out.

*****

Cafés & Restaurants:

• Lua Cuisine: delicious Vietnamese food
• Café Wacker: After our Vietnamese lunch, my sister wanted an espresso to finish it off and we dropped into a small café. The sweets didn’t tempt us, but my sister thoroughly enjoyed her coffee.
• Bitter&Zart: We decided to stop here for our afternoon cake and weren’t disappointed. The cheesecake and dark chocolate cake were perfect.
• Pott au Chocolat: As if we hadn’t already had enough chocolate when we happened to discover this shop. We decided to each buy a box of their homemade Dominosteine, and they were the best I have ever eaten. Dominosteine are little sweets with a gingerbread base topped with a layer of jelly and a layer of marzipan and then covered with chocolate. These had a black currant jelly making the sweet less cloying and absolutely delicious.