First Stop - Frankfurt am Main

Hello friends! So sorry to be incommunicado for the past week. I've been dealing with a nasty bout of food poisoning and it's just taken a while to get back on my feet again. Thanks so much for checking in for new postings!

Our first stop is Frankfurt am Main. The city of Frankfurt is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the 5th largest in Germany itself. Its airport (where I will be flying in) is the busiest in the country.

The etymology of the name is rather interesting. It is located near the Main River and was home to the "Franks," including Charles the Great (also known as "Karl der Grosse" or "Charlemagne"). Hence the name "Frank," and "furt" is what the Norwegians would call a "fjord" or "a shallow place in the river."

In fact, the great kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected to the throne there in Frankfurt and then the coronation ceremony was held in Aachen, the birthplace of Charles the Great. This tradition held for nearly the whole duration of the First Reich (800-1871), but it was broken when Franz II was elected in 1792. They held the election and the coronation ceremony in the same place after that, at St. Bartholomew's Cathedral.

St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, the church where these things occurred in Frankfurt, is known as the "Kaiserdom." It was spared during the bombings of World War I and II, but sustained significant damage in a later fire. It has been rebuilt and restored and hopefully will be part of the tour. (If not, Ken and I will make plans to see it after he arrives at the Frankfurt airport.)

Today's Frankfurt is an exciting cosmopolitan city, very similar to our New York City in the sense that it is the center of Germany's stock exchange, market, and financial trading. It is also the only major German city with a significant number of skyscrapers.

There are several things to see in Frankfurt. In addition to what I have described above, the City Hall, St. Paul's Church (where the documents for the First Parliament were drawn up...sort of like our Independence Hall), The Opera House, and St. Katherine's Church (the largest Lutheran Church in Frankfurt) are all listed as "must sees" in my travel book as well as at Wikipedia. Apparently St. Katherine's is at the entrance of a huge shopping area, so hopefully both church and shopping sites will be on the tour as well.

Wow...and this is just the first city we will visit! I'm going to need more memory cards for my camera. I hope there is time to get to see all of this!