Germany Day 7

This morning I decided to make it a nice and relaxing day so I slept in. That was a mistake. I had my relaxing breakfast and then checked out of my hotel and caught the train to Frankfurt airport. There were two trains going to Frankfurt. One said Frankfurt Main and the other said Frankfurt Luchthaven (that would be airport). The one to Frankfurt Main left first so I asked the guy in the information booth if the one to Frankfurt main would also stop at the airport. I would guess that well over half of the people in Germany speak English well enough to be able to help me out and half of them speak remarkably good English. You’ve got to wonder why they would have someone in an information booth in a major German City who can’t speak any English. One of the few other people I’ve come across who can’t speak English was the guy at the gate going into the company I’ve been visiting. Why would they put someone at the gate of the company who probably gets hundreds of foreign visitors?

I don’t know what it is about my directions here but almost every single time when I’ve gotten on a train on this trip it heads out in what seems like me to be the wrong direction. We’ve always made it to where I wanted to go so I guess they’re right and I’m wrong.

My hotel in Frankfurt is just a mile or so away from the airport so I just take a shuttle from the airport to my hotel. On the way here I sat by a guy who seemed like he wanted to talk so I struck up a conversation with him. It turns out he’s been living in China for eight years and is now transferring to Frankfurt. When I asked him where in China he lived he said Xiamen. He was stunned when I told him I’ve been there several times and it is one of my favorite places in China. When I ask him about being transferred back to home he says, “Oh, I’m not actually German, I’m Dutch.” When I start speaking Dutch to him he was even more shocked. It’s too bad we got to our hotel so soon; I wanted to keep talking to him.

I checked in and unloaded my bags and then headed in to the temple. I took a train to downtown Frankfurt and then took the subway to Friedrich’s Dorf. How do like that? The Frankfurt Temple is in Fred’s Town. I’m finding out that I’m quite popular around here.

I got to Friedrich’s Dorf and not knowing where the temple was I headed towards the downtown area then I stopped these three women and asked them if they knew where Talstrasse was. They didn’t know where that was so I asked if they knew where the Mormon Temple was. They then got all excited and said very loudly, “Ah, MorMON (accentuating the second syllable) U turn right here and dan ven u see da golden statue u turn left.

By the time I got to the temple it was 2:30 but to my great dismay the last session was at 2:00. I shouldn't have slept in I then asked if they would still let me do some initiatory and they wouldn’t let me do that. And nope, they wouldn’t let me do any sealings either. I was kind of annoyed because they didn’t even seem to care but as much as I would like to; I know I can’t blame them. It’s my own fault I was late. All I know is if someone came late to the San Diego temple I would be glad to stay an extra half hour and let them do a few initiatories. Oh well, I picked up a schedule so next time I will know.

So I took a few pictures and walk around the temple for a few minutes and then headed back to Frankfurt. I’d picked up a map at the hotel and it had marked tourist sites so. Most of them appeared to be in the down town area so I figured I’d go and see them all.

I stepped off the subway and headed first to the Frankfurt Exchange. I figured that would be a bust but it was actually a beautiful building and best of all it had a giant bronze statue of a Bear and Bull in front of it.

Next I wandered over to the Old Opera house. It too was a beautiful building. Too bad the fountain in front of it was shut down but all of the statues in Germany have been turned off.

I then walked past a building labeled Maintower. It was an interesting skyscraper but I’m not exactly sure why it was on the list. It was just a skyscraper.

I then headed down a cluster of three dots labeled Theater, Opera, Ballet Frankfurt & Theater Frankfurt. As far as I could tell they were all one building. I think they thought they were being all artistic when they wrote the word Frankfurt in reverse but it just made it look weird to me. I give you my picture and I couldn't find any on line that looked very good so you don't get a picture of this building. Sorry.

Next was a building labeled Comedy. It was in behind a wall so I’m still not sure what it was.

While I was in the area I decided to check out the river. The river wasn’t listed as a sightseeing place but it was my favorite. It did look awfully cold though. This river is the Main River and it is pronounced Mine and not Mane.

From there I went to the Roemer house. I think that translates as City Hall and from adds I’ve seen it didn’t seem all that impressive to me. I was very wrong. The Roemer House was in a market area and the entire plaza was very German and very cool. The shops and everything in the square are beautiful. The buildings are 600 years old and I guess the Mayer actually lives in the center of the three buildings.

I then checked out the Kaiserdom which they translate as Imperial Cathedral. It was rather impressive and it looks very old but I didn’t learn too much about it. What was impressive was next to it they had dug out the foundation of some old buildings and you were allowed to walk down and around these old foundations. I think the original buildings may have been bombed out during the Second World War.

I saw a postcard of Frankfurt in 1945 and the entire city was in ruins. It really was very sad. Isn’t it amazing how much wickedness one person can bring upon a nation? Sure, a lot of people were way too willing to carry out his evil orders but I think much of the innocent blood that was shed will be on Hitler’s head.

It was then on to Paul’s Church which was quite ugly and that was the end of the tour. Back at the subway entrance I saw an outdoor vendor selling Bratwurst and I’ve been hoping to find something like in Germany this whole time. It was really very good but I’m not sure it’s a whole lot different than the Polish Sausage you can get at Costco. At least I can say I ate it in Germany. Also in the same area were some street performers. One was rather strange but the other one looked like three Canadian Eskimo’s playing flutes and they were really good. I videotaped them for a minute or two and if I can ever figure out how to get these off my phone I’ll post them for you.

I then hopped back onto the subway and headed back to the airport. Most hotels I’ve been to recently give you free access to the in the internet but the hotels here in Germany charge you an arm and a leg. I finally broke down and signed up for some time on what appeared to be a large networked company called “HotSpot”. It looked like they had a lot of hotspots including on the trains. Guess what, they don’t have a hot spot here at this hotel. Rather than pay even more money to get this internet connection I’m writing this blog in my hotel room and then I’m going to take the shuttle back over to the airport and send it from there. I’m then coming back here and going for another swim. I’m in real trouble for my flight home. I actually brought two books to read but they’re both Lous L’Amour books and so a very quick read. I finished them both on the flight over here. I’ve been awfully busy during the week so I haven’t been too bored but what am I going to do on the flight home? Hopefully they sell English books at the airport.