Eurotrip Day 1 - Frankfurt

(Part 2 of a series.)

After a full day of travelling and dropping off our bags at the hotel, DK and I arrived officially and actually arrived at Frankfurt, Germany. The itinerary said that it is a free day, intended for rest. But DK and I, being adventurous and not wanting to waste daylight, stepped out of the hotel and explored what we can. DK made our own itinerary.

First things first
There was quite a small commotion during our check-in and baggage drop-off. One of the tour members was upset because he was assigned to a shared room. The guy he's sharing with was okay with it, since he didn't make prior arrangement. The hotel staff told the upset tour member that they can't do anything about it because the tour agency did not make prior arrangement.

I was quite surprised with how frank the German staff was. He spoke in a manner that is firm and professional. "Sir, this is what we have arranged. Since you have an issue with that, bring it up with your tour agency to arrange with us, or you pay for the new accommodation in here." That interaction was amazing for me. It was handled really well.

After everything was settled, for whatever reason, the 28 persons (including one kid) dispersed and we honestly have no idea where they went. I think some went to the penthouse restaurant while some went elsewhere.

But since DK and I have our own itinerary, we set out. We marked our hotel in the maps app so we can get back, then went our merry way.

First stop: food
Travelling for a day really drains your energy.

Before leaving the hotel lobby, I gathered the energy to speak with the girl on the front desk. Maybe this is a culture difference but I did not get a clear answer to my question, "Where would you get food around this area?"

Maybe, they bring their own lunch. Or maybe, they have food provided by the hotel. This is Europe, after all. There's a lot of work-life balance going around.

So DK and I just went off, thinking that "there'll be an open place somewhere". And apparently, there's one bakery open.

We did the "point method" because the lady didn't understand what I was trying to say. It was wrong of me to assume that the German lady could understand English. Or maybe I was just speaking the English really badly. LOL.

I got a smoke salmon croissant and a "kaffe klein" which the lady understood from me.

I finished my sandwich and the bread was so good that I had to go back and get a pretzel.

The first thing I remembered when I finished the bread? "Mom was right. Bread in Germany is freakin' awesome."

Side story: Mom in Germany, 1970's
When my Mom was young she was able to travel to Germany with my grandfather. I think it was for a year or two in the 1970's. She told stories of how Germany was so advanced back then. Like, bus services were always running, there were no wires and wireposts, food was always fresh.

Places in Frankfurt
I'm the kind of traveller that forgets the names of the places we visit. Maybe because when travelling I'm using too much brainpower on situational awareness that I tend to forget the reason why I'm there in the first place. Maybe because partly I'm expecting to see some kind of action or maybe see an asian celebrity who is not well-known in Europe and it's my chance to have a close and personal interaction. Or maybe I'm rambling on too much that I forget what this section is in the first place.

And since I forgot to turn on location tagging on my phone at this time, I really forgot the names of the places we visited.

So after searching the names in the Internet...

We visited Frankfurt am Main. We went window-shopping in Romerberg or the central square (sorry, I can't special characters in my keyboard), we visited Frankfurt Cathedral, and the St. Paul's Church with the scary-looking trees.

All of these places we visited while it was raining. It was fairly obvious who are the tourists because they were carrying umbrellas. Near St. Paul's church we bought an umbrella for around 20 euros (a freakin' expensive umbrella it is) which I dubbed "the German umbrella". I still have that umbrella now and dare I say it's also freakin' durable.

Moving around
As usual, DK and I are used to taking public transport when touring. But for some reason the train system in Frankfurt got us.

There's the usual ticket booth, right? We bought a day pass. But we were culture-shocked: when you get on the train, there's nowhere to tap the ticket. You just get on. Then you press the button to open the door, then get off. No need to tap out.

I just had this weird thought: "this system would only work here".

Free day ended
So there's that. It was a quick long day. Travelling from Manila, taking 9 hours in the first leg, waiting for 2 hours for the second leg, travelling 6 hours for the second leg, another hour from the airport to the hotel... It was quite an adventure.

And then Frankfurt showed that there's an entirely different world out there, and the adventure really had begun.

Call time the next day is 7am, breakfast buffet is served. We'll be getting some sleep.

-- Raisondetroy