Ride the apple-wine express
Guardian Unlimited Travel
Published on Friday November 30, 2007
Chris Alden picks out the highlights of Frankfurt for business travellers.
A weekend in Frankfurt
Frankfurt might be a financial city, but, surprisingly for first-time visitors, it is an attractive place with a compact centre and a lively calendar of events. That means two things for the business visitor: first, you’ll feel that you get to know Frankfurt quickly as you criss-cross its central districts; and second, if one of Frankfurt’s countless festivals happens while you’re in town – where you have the chance to try local food or wine while chatting to strangers at outdoor tables – you can throw any plans out of the window, because that’s where everybody is going to be.
But assuming there isn’t a festival going on in the next street, the first thing to do if you have a weekend in Frankfurt is to take the lift to the 56th floor of the Main Tower (pronounced ‘mine’; Neue Mainzer Straße 52-58, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main; +49 69 3650-4740; maintower.de) – unless, of course, you work in the building already. The observation platform gives a view of skyscrapers all around you, green hills in the distance, and the River Main flowing through the town centre with the old district of Sachsenhausen on the other side. Three floors down, there’s a bar and restaurant.
It’s only a short walk from the Main Tower to the Goethehaus (Großer Hirschgraben 23-25, D-60311 Frankfurt; +49 69 1 3880-0; goethehaus-frankfurt.de) – a house and museum devoted to the city’s most famous son, the author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was born here in 1749. As with many German monuments, this house isn’t original – it was destroyed by Allied bombs and built brick for brick after the second world war.
The same is true of the central square in Frankfurt, the Roemerberg. It seems amazing when you look at the medieval-style, half-timbered houses in this square – they look like they’ve been ageing for centuries, but in fact they were completely rebuilt and weren’t finished till as late as 1983. But this is a perfect spot to enjoy a snack and a tipple before you build up your strength for another bout of sightseeing. A great way to while away the hours is to visit the Schirn Kunsthalle, a contemporary art gallery (Roemerberg, D-60311 Frankfurt; +49 69 29 98 82-0; schirn-kunsthalle.de).
If it’s Saturday night, it has to be Alt-Sachsenhausen. This district of cobbled streets south of the river is full of bars and restaurants, some tackier than others – but a great traditional pick is Fichtekraenzi (Wallstrasse 5, D-60594 Frankfurt; +49 69 612 778; fichtekraenzi.de), where cider and snacks are the order of the day.
On Sunday, pick up where you left off by visiting the imposing Dom (Domplatz 14, D-60311 Frankfurt; +49 69 29 70 32-0; dom-frankfurt.de), not in fact a cathedral but the church of St Bartholomaeus, where Holy Roman Emperors were crowned in the 13th and 14th centuries. Just east of here is the Judengasse Kurt Schumacher-Straße 10, 60311 Frankfurt; +49 69 297 74 19; juedischesmuseum.de) – the museum of ‘Jewish alley’, which tells the history of Jews in Frankfurt until the Holocaust. From here, circle back via the modern art museum, the wedge-shaped Museum für Moderne Kunst (Domstrasse 10D-60311 Frankfurt; +49 69 212 30447; mmk-frankfurt.de) to the centre of town.
One day in Frankfurt
If you’ve only a day in Frankfurt, and you’ve visited the centre of town already, there’s only one thing for it: make a concerted assault on ‘Museumsufer’ (‘museum bank’ or ‘museum embankment’) – the name given to the district of no less than seven important museums, and some less important ones, that sit in a row on the south bank of the River Main. There are too many museums to visit all of them in a day – but picking two or three, and then heading south to Sachsenhausen for a bite to eat, makes a perfect break from office life.
If you’re an art history buff, then the two museums you’ll want to see are in the far west of the city. The Städel Art Institute (Schaumainkai 63, 60596 Frankfurt; +49 69 605 098-200; staedelmuseum.de) contains a world-class collection of European masters, covering 700 years of history and artists from Dürer and Holbein to Matisse and Picasso. The Liebighaus next door, a sculpture museum with just about the whole of classical history within its four walls, is closed for refurbishment but set to reopen in March 2008.
Media junkies are catered for next, with the Museum für Kommunikation (Schaumainkai 53, D-60596 Frankfurt; +49 69 60 60-0; museumsstiftung.de) telling the story of postal and communications history; while two doors down the Deutsches Filmmuseum (Schaumainkai 41, D-60596 Frankfurt; +49 69 212-38830; deutschesfilmmuseum.de) is a hands-on museum about the history of film-making, with an atmospheric cafe that’s good for a spot of lunch (this is the movie industry, after all).
Next door, design buffs will be kept happy at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum or architecture museum (Schaumainkai 43, D-60596 Frankfurt; dam-online.de), itself a restyled 19th-century mansion; and a bit of a walk east, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst (Schaumainkai 17, D-60596 Frankfurt; +49 69 212 3853-0; museumfuerangewandtekunst.frankfurt.de) is the applied art museum, designed by American architect Richard Meier.
The odd man out – or, in a way, the place for everybody – is the Museum der Weltkulturen (Schaumainkai 29-37, D-60594 Frankfurt; +49 69 212 359 13; mdw.frankfurt.de), the museum of ethnography and world culture. This museum’s strong global focus is perfectly pitched at the internationalist bands of businesspeople who pass through Frankfurt each year; it’s particularly good on photography and Pacific cultures, is open until 8pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and is a great way to finish off your day’s museum-trotting.
If your eyes are starting to glaze over after all that creativity, head south to nearby Sachsenhausen for a tete-a-tete with a companion to discuss what you’ve just seen, over a meal and a glass of wine. A relaxing choice that won’t start a run on the bank would be a bistro like Maaschanz (Färberstrasse 75, 60594 Frankfurt; +49 69 62 28 86), where you can enjoy French cuisine and, if you’re all ‘arted-out’, try not to look at any of the paintings that decorate the walls.
One hour in Frankfurt
If you have just an hour to kill in Frankfurt and you want to take your mind off work, there’s only one thing for it. It’s not the most upmarket thing to do in the city, and it’s not the most scenic – but it’s certainly one of the most fun. Simply take a ride on the Ebbelwei Express – otherwise known as the Frankfurt cider tram.
Cider, if you didn’t already know, is a big deal in Frankfurt. Known in German as ‘apfelwein’ (apple wine) or by locals as ‘ebbelwei’ (hence the name of the tram), cider – or its non-alcoholic alternative, apple juice – can be enjoyed in practically any of Frankfurt’s many bars from Alt-Sachsenhausen to the Roemerberg (for a list, see the tram website at ebbelwei-express.com). But if you’ve only an hour to spare and you want to see some of the sights, simply climb aboard the Express, painted in bright colours to attract families – and for six euros, drink your Possman cider or non-alcoholic juice, eat a bag of pretzels, and get taken on a circular tour of the city at the same time.
The tram itself is a rickety old thing that would scarcely pass muster in Victorian London, so it’s great fun to see it in the capitalist centre of Germany. Once you’re inside, German nursery rhymes are played at you at excruciating volume to get you into the spirit of things; and you pass sights as far apart as the Roemerberg and the city’s zoo. But the culmination of all this silliness is you’re almost certain to start a conversation with another stray tourist, parent or lost CEO – which is the point of the exercise, after all. Just don’t mention it when you get back to the office if you want to be taken seriously. (Stops throughout Frankfurt – see route at ebbelwei-express.com or call +69 213 22425 for information.)
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