FRA

Eiserner Steg foot bridge is a pretty sight to see and walk across. Take a little rest at Feinkost inside Die Kleinmarkthalle. Frankurter Goethe-Haus und Goethe-Museum, Museum für Moderne Kunst, and Schirn Kunsthalle are museums worth going to. Römerberg is a must-visit site.

Quick Tips:

Purchase your Die Bahn Eurorail pass prior to entering Europe and validate your pass while at the airport. Make your rail reservations here (6€ per person per booking), as it's less expensive in Germany than doing it prior to your arrival. Get a Frankfurt Card (1 day for 7,80€ or 2 day for 11,50€). A Kombi ticket pass for public transportation and discounts to some museums are available from the hotel reservations service desk.

Resources: MD Travel Health, Let's Go Germany Spartacus International Gay Guide

Best Way To Get Around:

Taking the S-Bahn or U-Bahn and walking with a map are practical ways of moving about the city.

Steigenberger Airport Hotel, , is rated a 5-star hotel. My partner insisted on staying at this place after viewing its website and wouldn't be satisfied staying anywhere else for our last night in Frankfurt before the early morning departure. We were first looking for a hotel close to the airport with an early 5am shuttle service to the airport. This airport claims to be the only hotel with continuous 24-hour, 15-minute interval shuttle service. A bus is provided for service to Terminal 1 and a van is provided for Terminal 2.

The receptionist who checked us in was friendly, cheery, and spoke English well. Later, though, I spoke with a late-night manager about adjusting the billing rate and encountered resistance until I asked for his manager and affirmed my intent on getting the billing rate re-rated.

They have a special weekend promotion rate of €140 for two persons, a €149 rate for a room and a buffet breakfast, and a €177 rate (best value such as it is) that includes a three-course dinner at Faces Restaurant (tax and gratuity covered) and buffet breakfast from 6am to 10:30am at Five Continents Restaurant. It's €19 per person for the breakfast without the special deal.

Internet access is available for a fee. The fitness facility includes two treadmills, a sauna for an extra fee, a swimming pool, and massage service; all available from 6:30am to 10pm. Weekends it is open at 8am through swipe-card access on the ninth floor. The swimming pool in the corner closest to the receptionist blows bubbles and also will pour water from above, having the effect of a fairly strong water massage if standing under it after pressing a switch. The pool isn't real deep, so you can't dive, but you are able to swim.

The Forest restaurant, Unterschweinstiege, (here is the menu) was the place my partner wanted to dine, and on Fridays, there is the Heurigen buffet for €24.50 of Austrian specialties, but it was disappointing, with the food having been sitting at the table for too long when we arrived close to end of the buffet, and only a few of the items were good. I usually go for a second plate, but the food wasn't good enough for me to desire to. Booking may be done online. Con.nex.ion is the lobby bistro bar.

The other airport hotel I would have wanted to try was NH Frankfurt Airport Hotel for a much better value with shuttle service to the airport between 5am and 11pm hours.

Best Western Hotel Scala offers nice accommodations for €90, including a breakfast buffet from 7am to10am for €11 per person. For every two paying adults, a child under 13 is free. Check-in is at 2pm, and check-out is at 12pm. The receptionist was knowledgeable, friendly, and fluent in English, and she set a nice, pleasant tone for our stay.

The room was small and clean. We were able to get a good, comfortable sleep. The bathtub was short, but I did not have a problem taking a shower.

Email: info@scala.bestwestern.de

The Forest restaurant, Unterschweinstiege, (here is the menu) was the place my partner wanted to dine, and on Fridays, there is the Heurigen buffet for €24.50 of Austrian specialties, but it was disappointing, with the food having been sitting at the table for too long when we arrived close to end of the buffet, and only a few of the items were good. I usually go for a second plate, but the food wasn't good enough for me to desire to. Booking may be done online, though it wasn't crowded when we inquired about it with the hotel reception, so we chose to just walk into the restaurant.

In the end, though, I wouldn't recommend this place, as the food wasn't that good, the price was fairly high, and service was alright, but the atmosphere was good, with local live entertainment. It was not a good value.

Monday to Saturday 11:30am to 11pm, Sunday 10:30am to 11pm

Döner Hütte, a little Turkish restaurant established in 1980s, serves the popular, low-cost döner kebab, which consists of thinly sliced beef slow-cooked on a vertical pit served on pita bread and topped with salad, dressing, and red pepper flakes for dining in or takeout.

We were hungry late one night on our way back to Hotel Scala. As soon as we turned the corner of the block, we could smell something good to eat was in the air. Our hotel receptionist informed us of this place close by. Yum, yum. I would have preferred lamb, but the meat is beef.

This type of Turkish food has taken over by storm. The food is good, quick and low cost.

Hours: 9am to 5am

Feinkost is a small café/market on the first floor inside the Kleinmarkthalle open Monday to Friday 7:30am to 6pm and Saturday 7:30am to 4pm. It was open with side seating for some drinks. We order our drinks there and were served at our table. It gave us a chance to rest our feet and quench our thirst. They have coffee and Italian sodas, as well as other goods.

The Frankurter Goethe-Haus und Goethe-Museum is the museum and home of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Non-flash photography permitted.

The museum houses many artworks of Goethe. It's interesting to see this large four-floor home and how heating such a large place is done, the laundry press, and the library, including a unique clock with a bear that will fall over when it's in need of being rewound.

Tours are available at 10:30am-2pm.

Goethe House and Museum: Sunday to Friday and holidays 10am-5:30pm, Saturday 10am-6pm, and the last Saturday of each month 10am-8pm.

Library: Monday to Friday 10am-12pm and 1pm-4pm, after registration until 5:30pm

Tel: +49-(0) 69-1 38 80-0, Fax: +49-(0) 69-1 38 80-222

Museum für Moderne Kunst displays a wonderfully done architectural design by Hans Hollein, a Viennese architect, resembling a triangular shape from the outside. It is an experience to wonder through the inside and enjoy the large, light space and angles.

One of the highlights is the artist Joseph Bueys, with his recording of Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee playing through a series of speakers in the walls.

Non-flash photography is permitted after filling out a form agreeing that the photographs are only for personal use, not for publication. A tag is given you to put on so the guards will not bother you.

Admission 6€, reduced 3€; free last Saturday of each month.

Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday 10am to 5pm and Wednesday 10am to 8pm; refer to website regarding holiday schedules.

Tel: +49 69 212 30447, Fax +49 69 212 37882

Email: mmk@stadt-frankfurt.de

Kleinmarkthalle is a market with many vendors selling meats, fish, fresh fruits and vegetables and bakeries.

We wanted a place to sit, rest and have a drink. We found a place in the back on the ground level with tables and chairs.

Monday-Friday 8am-6pm, Saturday 8am-4pm

Schirn Kunsthalle, a museum next to the Dom, has no permanent exhibits, changes 8 to 10 times a year. We went to see the exhibit "The Naked Truth."

Telephone: (069) 299882-0

Tue, Fri, Sat 10am-7pm; Wed, Thur 10am-10pm
Admission varies by exhibit €4-7

Eiserner Steg is a footbridge for pedestrian use that was built in 1869 connecting central Frankfurt/Main with the apple/wine district of Saxonia. They charged a use fee until 1886.

You see pretty sights walking across this bridge.

Römerberg is a picturesque scenery of wooden timber architecture with a fountain in the square but was drained when we visited. This is where a lot of the picture postcards of Frankfurt are photgraphed.

Römer U-bahn U4; Hauptwache S-bahn S1-6, U8, U9, U-bahn U1-3, U6, U7

Struwwelpeter Museum displays the works of physician/illustrator Heinrich Hoffmann from the 19th and 20th century of children's books, who used his drawings and manuscripts as a tool to keep his patients occupied and stop crying while he examined them. No photography permitted.

Tuesday-Sunday 11am-5pm, free

Tel +49 (0) 69 28 13 33

Frankfurt International Airport, established 1936, is a large busy airport in central Germany connected with other transportation modes and with two terminals.

Terminal 1 has gates A, B, and C and Terminal 2 has gates D and E. They are connected via the Frankfurt Airport Sky Line - People Mover, an internal rail transport taking about 2 minutes to ride between the two terminals.

There's a shower facility on the ground level of Terminal 1, and the restroom is by a bookstore vendor. See the restroom attendant, and the cost is €6. You better have the correct change, as the attendant was reluctant to give change back if you strongly desire a shower. There's only one shower stall for the men's and women's restrooms. Towel, shampoo, and soap are provided.

There are two main railway stations at Terminal 1, one are for local and regional service and the other for long distance. Hopefully, you've already purchased your EuroRail pass prior to arriving to Germany, or else you'll pay more once inside. Proceed to the rail office to get your pass stamped and activated prior to your first use. It's better for you to buy your EuroRail Pass prior to arriving (but make your reservations once you arrive), as it'll cost less.

You may wish to consider buying a Frankfurt Card. You can get either a 1-day for €7,80 or 2-day for €11,50 Kombi ticket pass for public transportation and discounts to some museums available from the hotel reservations service desk.

There is complimentary airport hotel shuttle service outside the arrivals hall, Area A, at Terminal 1, and outside the check-in hall, Area E at Terminal 2. There's a direct-dial phone at the pickup points with a list of hotels offering this service. Shuttle service times vary depending on your airport hotel, but they usually run between 5am and 11pm. This makes sense if you have an early morning departure the next day.

Upon checking in, arrive at least 2 hours or more before your scheduled departure, as airport security was tight on departing, requiring two passes through security screening prior to arriving at your departure gate. My Northwest flight was overbooked, and I volunteer to be bumped, believing that I would get compensated via a large credit voucher and a night's hotel accommodation and rescheduled for a next-day departure. Wrong. I was released from my scheduled departure 5 minutes before the flight and instructed to go back outside of security to the ticketing/check-in area, only to be told abruptly that when I volunteer, I give up my rights to any airline miles and have no choice of which airline I would be rescheduled on - EC rules - and no compensation if they could not reroute me to my final destination within a couple of hours of my original arrival time. I wouldn't have volunteered if I had known these were the rules. Let this be a warning - don't agree to volunteer to be bumped unless you accept those terms flying out of EC. Don't give up your confirmed seat unless you can get confirmed ticketing on the next flight and only if this can be done right at your departure gate, and if it doesn't work, insist on taking your original flight. After the ticketing person told me this, he walked away from his position, as I wasn't pleased with what I was just told. My travel experience was marred from this incident.