Frankfurt
Germany'S Banking Capital And Biggest Air Hub: The Rebuilt Roemerberg And Neue Altstadt, The Museumsufer Run Of Museums Along The Main, The Goethe House, And The Only Real High Rise Skyline In The Country · Frankfurt am Main, Hesse
Frankfurt am Main is the German city most visitors see without meaning to. Europe's busiest airport by some measures sits about fifteen minutes from the centre by local train, the trade fair fills the hotels on weekdays, and the banking towers give the country its only real skyline. The reputation is a transit city; the reality is better than that. The Roemerberg is the civic square in front of the gabled Roemer, and the Neue Altstadt behind it was finished only around 2018 - plainly a reconstruction, on medieval plot lines, and Frankfurt itself argues about whether that is repair or stage set. Along the south bank the Museumsufer strings a dozen museums together, the Staedel among them. The Goethe House marks where the writer was born. Sachsenhausen pours Apfelwein from stoneware jugs in taverns that have not changed much, and the Kleinmarkthalle is where the city eats lunch. The Main Tower has the only public viewing platform in the skyline. Frankfurt works better as the first or last night of a German trip than as the trip itself, and it is worth being honest about that.
Central Frankfurt: the Roemerberg, the Museumsufer along the Main, and the banking towers behind them, Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany
The squares, the Main embankment and the footbridges are free and open at all hours. Museums along the Museumsufer generally open daily except Monday, as most German museums do, with one late evening a week at several of them - confirm which. The Main Tower platform opens daily into the evening and shuts in high wind, lightning or ice. The Kleinmarkthalle trades Monday to Saturday from early morning into the afternoon and is closed on Sunday. Sachsenhausen taverns mostly open from late afternoon and some close one weekday. The Christmas market runs for several weeks before Christmas and the museum embankment festival falls in late summer; confirm both sets of dates rather than trusting a guess.