Day 2: Frankfurt

Welcome to the next installment of possibly the world’s least read and least informed travel blog. Today was the day that some may have been waiting for: the day when the 4 year old yells at me in German.

Today I was able to spend a few hours with L’s cousin S, and S’s 4 year old Tochter A. Last time we were here, we met one of L’s other cousins, K, who was 3 and had a huge personality, an didn’t understand why I didn’t speak much German. So she spoke at me slower, and louder, and when that didn’t work, most of the time just yelled “Nein! Nein!” at me. I was expecting a similar time with A.

I’ve been doing a bit more work on my German (to be fair, firstly I’m fairly crap at other languages, and secondly, the lat time I was in Germany it was the trip that also included Cuba, so I’d been focussed on studying Spanish) but suffice to say my German isn’t up to 3 year old standard. Then again, I know enough to order beer, and I’m old enough to drink it, so that’s one up on the kinder.

Young 4 year old A was a little kinder (both in German and English) and didn’t yell, but she did throw some shade in a way that only children can. I should also add that I did indeed commit the prime German sin and was late to meeting them, as I misread the instructions and thought they were meeting me at my hotel, not the Hbf (3 minutes away from my hotel). Once I worked this out, I hurried to the station. S had told A to look out for a man “with red hair”; sadly my hair is no longer that colour, and A pointed this out. Shady shady.

Greetings done, we caught the train to Frankfurt’s wonderful new old town. A dozen or so years ago Frankfurt decided to turn one of it’s large parking lots back into a collection of buildings to recreate the old look — if I understood correctly. The result is beautiful, wonderful buildings, lots of mini stalls selling all manner of German things, restaurants, food stalls selling a thousand flavours of popcorn, icecream stalls, beer and, of course, Frankfurt’s local trink of choice, Apfelwein. And on a day like today, when the sun was out and the temperature was in the mid 20s, it was delightful.

After a wander through the area, and a quick retelling of the tale of Struwwelpeter (about a boy who doesn’t cut his hair or fingernails) as there is a shop dedicated to this book (I’ve just read the wikipedia article about the whole book, probably not recommended for bedtime reading…) we wandered over the Eiserner Steg, a historic and rather beautiful iron bridge that has been rebuilt a few times, and in the way these things work is now the target for any couple with a padlock.

We grabbed lunch and I went for the Frankfurt experience, a schnitzel mit bratkartofflen und grune sosse, und apfelwein. A was hoping for pommes, but as we were on a restaurant boat on the river apparently they aren’t allowed to use deep fryers due to risk. The schnitzel was good, the roast potatoes tasty, and the green sauce a good accompaniment. Green sauce is like mayonnaise, with the addition of 7 specified herbs resulting in something quite green and fresh. I like it.

After lunch was a schokolade eis, which A had been hanging out for, and a bit more walking, before it was time to put S ad A on their train home. My German scraped in as a pass with A, probably because I knew what she was saying when she wanted chocolate icecream. I also brought a bag of presents: Australian souvenirs, plus the obligatory Tim Tams and Vegemite.

It was back to the hotel where a short nap turned into over 3 hours, before I got up and took a wander in search of food. There appears to be a large middle eastern/Turkish population around here, and lots of Turkish restaurants, so I went for a place offering much grilled meat. Had their Iskender kebab, presented as lots of thinly sliced meat on a layer of cubed bread to soak up the juices, and covered with sauce and some wonderful labneh on the side and a separate bowl of veggies. It was sehr lecker.

Tomorrow is planned for museums, as Frankfurt has a few very good ones. Hopefully airconditioned ones, as we’re a long way from a sea breeze so these days of mid-20s are making the place quite warm.