"I something an egg."
- Kearson von McNulty
Kearson and I arrived in Frankfurt in around 11:00 AM local time (4 AM Central time). It was the first of what would prove to be be a long string of gorgeous and unseasonably warm days on our journey. Determined to stay awake as long as possible in order to quickly get over our jet lag, we decided to get out and do some sight-seeing right away. Here's a statue of some guy named "Schiller" - at the time we were too tired to care who he was or why there was a statue for him, but I later learned that he was a poet and writer, and a friend of Goethe's (thanks, Google!).
What I thought (at the time) was an impressive, European looking building. One is easily impressed when sleep deprived and just arriving in Europe!
An ornate lantern somewhere in Frankfurt. Shortly after taking this photo, Kearson and I were approached by a camera crew who asked us a VERY long question in German, to which we smiled and replied, "Ich verstehe nicht - wir sprechen nous ein bischen Deutch!" (I don't understand - we speak only a little German!) Our pronunciation must not have been too bad, cause they moved right along to the next group of folks!
To prepare for our trip, Kearson and I both used Pimsleur's Speak and Read CD's. We'd pop a lesson into the car CD player and "listen and repeat" on our daily commute. We learned plenty to get by with on our trip, and I highly recommend this method of learning to anyone who wants to pick up a second language. It was great fun and it works especially well if you've previously studied the written language (say in high school or college) because you can picture the spellings of the words you hear on the CD.
It was funny while we were both listening to the CD's - Kearson would get home from work and before saying anything in English would spout off a question from the tape. "Wo ist der Goethe Strasse? (Where is Goethe street?)" he might ask, and I'd reply without missing a beat with the appropriate answer, "Die Goethe Strasse ist hier! (Goethe street is here.)" Kearson also became fond of urgently and without warning announcing, "Ich etwas eine eire!" (I something an egg!), after goofing up trying to tell me that he'd EATEN ("Ich esse eine eire") an egg with his newly learned German. It totally cracked me up! No pun intended...
In Frankfurt, we laughed and laughed when we happened upon "Der Goethe Strasse" while browsing for Henckel knives in a shopping district. At last! The answer to the question we'd heard a thousand times on our CD's! Kearson smiles sleepily here after solving the age-old question of der Goethe Strasse.
Where else to feel at home in Germany but at O'Reilly's Irish Pub! :) We were actually drawn in because they had beer from Kilkenny, Ireland on draught - a place we'd visited on our last trip to Europe.
As the pub filled up, we met this nice American couple stationed overseas (they took the picture of us above). We talked with Sean and Liz about beer and travel and our pets and all kinds of things. They told us about Frankfurt and painted such a lovely picture of the spa town of Baden Baden that we decided to spend a few days there!
Our hotel was in the Friedensbruecke district, and was straight out of the 70's. The walls were covered with thick white textured foam. It reminded me of one of the theme park rides at Universal studios where you travel inside of an ice cave. So THIS is what it feels like to live inside a giant merengue pie!
Kearson fends off an early morning photographic attack!
The next day's sight seeing was cut short when our airline food caught up to us. What started out as a leisurely stroll with many scenic detours turned into a direct sprint to the nearest restroom! This was the only time we had any problems with food illness, though, despite Kearson's "when in Rome" attitude toward eating the meaty local fare. Our distress passed quickly and we were up for some Persian delicassies by dinner time.
Dining is always an adventure in a foreign country, and translating a Persian menu written in German was pretty challenging. We could not for the life of us figure out what an "aubergine" was, even after our waitress good-naturedly drew us a picture of a vaguely phallic oblong object with some lines at one end. Betting that there surely were no Persian dishes made with THAT, we went ahead and ordered the dish. It turned out to be a delicious eggplant dip and we also ate yummy chicken in a tangy pomegranite sauce, and a lamb dish served with Basmati rice.
All in all, Frankfurt is a convenient place to fly into if you are visiting the central part of Western Europe. It is more of an industrial and business center than a scenic destination, but we found the people to be friendly and helpful, the beer cold, and the food diverse. Here's a photo of the skyline from our hotel room.
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