Frankfurt...old and new and beautiful

Cool Building on the river in Frankfurt
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Emily and I arrive in Frankfurt from Prague after another long days drive.  Our hotel is fairly easy to find...again I attribute this to Emily's navigational skills.  We are here for 2 nights and then she flies out so we decide to get dressed up and head out for dinner.  We find a beautiful hotel with a very attractive outdoor lounge and patio area overlooking one of the cities squares and decide to treat ourselves to a drink...which turned into dinner and although a bit out of our snack bracket, it was well worth it to feel like movie stars.

Emily on Boat Cruise on Rhine
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When we arrive home, Emily hears sirens outside the window of our hotel and we look out to see thousands of rollerbladers coming down the street.  I read later on that some European cities designate one night every week in the summer for people to skate through the city.  It was an amazing spectacle and the pictures, although a bit fuzzy I think are cool.

it was well worth it to feel like movie stars

The city of Frankfurt is relatively new as it was heavily bombed during the war, but there are occasional sights that remain of the old architecture, mostly churches.  As our hotel is located very close to the river and we take a walk along the river bank boardwalk and come upon a boat which has a 1 1/2 hour cruise down the Rhine River.  It is a great value and very informative about the architecture along the shore.  Although Germany has attempted to utilize renewable energy (primarily wind turbines like the one at the CNE Grounds) it still has a coal processing plant and a lot of Frankfurt's coal supplies are transported to town on barges via the river.

Rollerbladers in the City of Frankfurt on a Skate Through The City Night
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Our last night we head out to an Irish Pub and have our homesick favorites of stew and mince and mash.

The next day we drive to the Airport and I literally put Emily on the plane.  Ross and Deirdre had sent her as an UM - Unaccompanied Minor on Air Canada and as they were short staffed in Germany, I got to walk her on the plan and hand her off to the Flight Attendant on board.  It was very good, but very sad and her trip was too short.

I head for Turin the next day to return the rental car nearly 8,000 km and 5 countries later...