This is a very visually attractive museum. As you stand in the lobby, you can look up several floors into the rotunda. The lobby has a nice-size gift shop, and we immediately lost Joe for a good 15 minutes. Entrance is 8 euros, and the coat check is half a euro, nothing gratis here. We had lunch in the Holbein Restaurant; service was less than perfect, and the prices are terrible, but the pumpkin-ginger soup was so good, I am willing to forgive them any shortcomings. The lentil soup was also excellent, so I have to recommend that you try them--just be patient and bring along your credit card.

There were two special exhibits going on while we were there: one, Nackt (naked), was particularly popular. I was personally more attracted to the other, which was a collection of German drawings whose highlight for me was several by Albrecht Durer.

The technique for displaying the painting in this museum is unique in that, although it is done quite traditionally by age and nationality, interspersed with, say, a collection of early Flemish paintings will be a modern German painting. For example, in a room with Lucas Cranach, Rogier van der Weyden, and Hans Memling, we have Max Ernst. At first, you are a little startled when you see this painting of a man's submerged head in a pool that so obviously doesn’t belong with the others, but after a while, you are looking forward to each new room to see what the surprise will be.

Some of the paintings are displayed in cases set in the middle of the room, and then in other rooms, they are hung from metal grids. Very interesting. The depth of the collection here is excellent. I loved the round painting by Hans Holbein, the Younger of Simon George; he is holding a small red flower, and the colors are still so fresh and beautiful that you can almost feel him breathe. They own a Vermeer, several Rembrandts, Rubens, Goyas, a Van Gogh, and more. Check your map of the museum carefully, or you will miss some of the collection. You need to search to find some of the Impressionist works. Allow 1.5 to 2 hours, at least, to appreciate this collection.

The immense and significant collection of the Städel encompasses paintings, drawings, and sculptures from various periods and schools starting from the 14th Century. Featured artists include German masters (Durer, Memling, Cranach, Holbein) European greats (van Eyck, Vermeer, Rubens, Boticelli), French Impressionists (Renoir, Monet), and Modern artists from across Europe (Kirchner, Picasso, Dubuffet, Tapies).

The Städel is one of those massive museums that you can spend countless hours and days in. If you have only a limited amount of time, try to pick a few artists or periods that you would like to concentrate on. Since you are in Germany, it may be your civic duty to peruse the extensive galleries of German art. Of course, you can just wing it and casually waltz through the galleries for a random but exciting spin of great artworks. There are occasional guided tours conducted in English. The building was damaged during World War II, but fortunately its collections were stored elsewhere for safekeeping at that time. A renovation campaign of the galleries was completed in 1999.

The Städel features a sizable bookstore, as one would expect. The Holbein restaurant is open until midnight six days a week. The museum is closed on Mondays, and it is open late, until 9pm, on Wednesdays and Thursdays.