Germany -- Day 1, Frankfurt

Carlos and I arrived at Frankfurt International Airport directly from Miami (via Lufthansa) early in the morning of 24 July 2009. The airport was pretty huge and intimidating, but eventually we bought our one-way S-Bahn tickets from the airport to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and arrived downtown. The Hauptbahnhof was really beautiful with lots of glass windows and metal and stone architecture -- there were people everywhere!

From the train station, we walked to our hotel (the Ibis Frankfurt Centrum) near the Main River. We got to the hotel around 7:30 am and were told that our room wouldn’t be ready until 2 pm. So...we stored our bags there and headed out to the Senckenberg Natural History Museum. We were really tired and wanted to rest, but ultimately it was good that we were forced to walk around and stave off jet lag.

We walked to the natural history museum (~30 minutes north of our hotel), paid our entrance fee, and looked around. This museum was great! The collections of dinosaur bones, rocks, fossils, birds, and mammals were extensive and well kept. The exhibits were also very well done artistically and scientifically. I especially enjoyed looking at all the rocks and minerals on display, the dinosaurs, and the stuffed/mounted bird and mammal collections. Senckenberg is a very old and revered museum -- Darwin was a member back in the 19th century!

Carlos and I managed to stay awake until 2 pm, whereupon we left the museum, walked back to the Ibis hotel, and checked in. Our room was on the 3rd floor and was very clean and nicely decorated. We also had a view of the Main River and some of the Frankfurt skyline. After resting for most of the afternoon, we went out for dinner at a nearby Döner Kebab and had some inexpensive but tasty sandwiches before heading to bed for the night. Tomorrow would be another full day to tour Frankfurt!