Day 3: Frankfurt

The final actual day in Frankfurt, and I’ve done a lot of walking the last couple of days, so I took things a bit slower. I had planned to take in a couple of museums, the Senckenberg Natural History Museum and the Stadt Museum, but I stuffed up on the research as the Stadt is closed on Mondays. Fortunately the Senckenberg wasn’t, so I went and checked out the dinosaurs and other wonderful attractions.

I had one of those moments, coming out of the U-bahn station, where I wasn’t sure if I’d emerged in the right place or was heading in the right direction. Fortunately, after 20 or so metres of wondering, I spied a large statue of a tyrannosaurus rex, and then a diplodocus, so I figured I was on the right track. If in doubt, head towards the dinosaurs.

Aside from the wonderful dinosaurs, and the Senckenberg has many, including a couple of actual original triceratops heads, and a diplodocus, as well as cast reproductions including an iguanadon (I can’t remember if the tyrannosaurus was original or cast, and wifi is playing up so it’s anyone’s guess), there are active learning areas (there was at least one school trip going through while I was there) and other impressive reproductions and exhibits .So of course I got a selfie with the almost complete dodo skeleton. I got a little sad going through the preserved bird section, as each one on display had where it could still be found, while a number now extinct just had a big red cross through the map.

The highlight had to be coming face-to-face with a first generation cast of Lucy, I believe the only one in Europe. (The original bones have been returned to Ethiopia.) I was surprised by how small she was, just over a metre, and how similar her skeleton was to a modern human’s.

After all the science, I took a walk down Berger Strasse, a street reputed to host a number of little interesting shops, full of wonders. I think the descriptions were a few years old, and COVID has left its mark, as some were now closed, and I was expecting more variety. I was hoping for Brunswick Street in the late 90s, and instead got Brunswick St today. Except with more bakeries, there were many of these, filling the senses with amazing aromas and colourful desserts. Mmmm, salty pretzels.

There were a couple of interesting bookshops, including one that also sold wine, but it’s early in the trip so trying to keep the luggage down. I was kind of tempted by the German version of Danny Trejo’s autobiography, just for the crazy novelty value.

Lunch was at an old school Frankfurt restaurant, Zum Dicken Fritz, that I found on a street off of Berger Strasse. It wasn’t crowded, and I think I was the youngest there by 20 years. But it had some old Frankfurt treasures, handkase mit musik (a cheese ball served with onions and is supposed to make you fart, hence the musik) and Wurstsalat mit bratkartoffeln, a cold salad of sliced wurst, cheese, and gherkins, with hot roast potatoes on the side. Very tasty, I don’t know the story behind why this dish is a Frankfurt thing, especially the hot and cold combination, but it went very well with Apfelwein.
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering along the U4 route, including a stop to check out the most interesting U-bahn entrance at Bockenheimer Warte, which was created to look like a train car smashing its way to the surface.

Tomorrow is a busy day, I’ll be awake early to do a very short stop in London, before ending up in Glasgow in the evening. I’m kind of looking forward to the opportunity to speak English badly, as my German really sucks.