Saturday, 5 August 2006
In the morning, I left the hostel and walked along the Kaiserstr. to Willy-Brandt-Platz and the Opera & Schauspielhaus to get a taste of Frankfurt.
Unlike many German cities, which were rebuilt in the likeness of the originals after the WWII bombings, Frankfurt was built rather anew, and as a result there were more commercial high-rises than unassuming, red-roofed houses.
I continued west along the Bethmannstr., past the Römer and the Steinernes Haus, eventually coming to a very beautiful square. This square, the Römerplatz, was surrounded on the east and south sides by buildings, striped after the medieval style, almost like the Lilla Torg in Sweden. Not too far away, the Dom peeked out from the tops of the roofs. On the square were stands, but unfortunately at this hour of the day all of them were closed.
When I came near the Dom, and then a ruin, it started raining, so I considered walking back. I walked south first, crossing the River Main on the Eiserner Steg, a narrow bridge for pedestrians. On the Sachsenhausen side of the city, I simply walked along the river bank, admiring the river scenes and the Dom scenes on my last day in Germany.
Eventually I crossed the river again on Untermainbrücke, ending up in the Willy-Brandt-Platz (with a Euro museum nearby, displaying a large Euro sign, which all added to the commercial air that surrounded Frankfurt).
Walking north along the Fredenstr., I made a side trip to the Goethehaus, and then came to the Katherinekirche. Across from the church was the Hauptwache, presently a very pleasant coffee shop. Further north, I stopped at the Börse, the Frankfurt stock exchange centre.
By this time, it was around 9:30, so I walked back to the hostel, checked out, and arranged to take the S-Bahn to the Frankfurt airport.
Airborne
Rolling and rolling, with a sudden jerking motion, the plane, CX 288, became airborne, severing my last physical connection with Germany. Outside the window, the green, Teutonic plains and forests flew by slowly, a winding river, then the city of Frankfurt am Main. The map drawn on the screen in front of my seat showed many names that have become familiar to me--Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Bonn, Cologne, Stuttgart,.... Many of these cities I have visited during this trip, but for some of them, there was not the chance during this visit. As the plane flew further and further, I identified Nürnberg, Bamberg, Augburg, and, finally, Munich--my home for 10 weeks--on the map. All the names of these cities flashed by me, as though a final review for my sake, or a farewell. The plane flew above the clouds, above Würzburg, above Prague, and entered into Poland, Russia, and thence the unfamiliar lands. Thus several hours into the flight, I crossed from Europe into Asia, concluding my stay in a wonderful continent.