Our last day we had a quiet morning in Varanasi before heading to the airport for Delhi. We arranged a hotel in Delhi because we landed around 3pm but didn’t fly to Frankfurt till 230AM. It’s always nice to have a quiet dinner, maybe a nap before we do long nasty flights. We’ve learned this the hard way over the years. Now we’re smart about it.
So at 1130pm it was finally off to Delhi airport for the flight out of India. Note I didn’t say home. Nope, back through Frankfurt. The Delhi – Frankfurt leg was on a Airbus A380 – yup those big huge double decker planes. There are 50 rows of business class on the upper deck and another 75 or so economy rows on the main deck. That sucker is huge! We had that plane both ways Delhi-Frankfurt and a 747 out on the Vancouver-Frankfurt legs. Nice to see how the two largest planes compare.
In Frankfurt we had about 6 hours to kill. So onto the S-Bahn train and 20 minutes later we are downtown Frankfurt!
A short walk down the street for photos of the main guardhouse which is now a café.
The back the way we came to St. Catherine’s church.
Then it was off to find St Pauls’ Church and the Paulsplatz. A red sandstone church which is now a symbol of German democracy.
In the square are colourful buildings named Great Angel, Gordon Griffin, Black Star – all reconstructed after the bombing in 1944. The middle building was the city hall for almost 600 years.
This is where the famous Nazi book burning took place.
The Haus Wertheim, a timber building which is one of the few to survive the war is above.
Then a short walk down hill to the Rententurm tower. It was the customs house, built in 1456 to house the paymaster who collected harbor fees.
We intended to cross the Eiserner Steg (bridge) and place love lock. Except we forgot the lock at home. DARN. Oh well next trip…. It is an iron footbridge over the Main River built in 1868.
Next stop was the cathedral (not actually, as it was never a Bishop’s church) of St Bartholomew has a tower with 324 steps that you can climb. We didn’t but it was a nice stop for a photo.
Our last stop was the Staufer Wall, arches that are a remnant of the original 12th C defensive wall around the city.
Then it was time for a snack. Beer are waffles are OK right?
With that it was time to hop back on the S-Bahn to the airport for our flight to home.
Nice trip. You guys are looking particularly good in these shots. Travelling is agreeing with you.