Searching for Dark Purple Dot 5

When traveling in a new country you're lost. And without a sufficient map you can risk missing the whole point of the city. Well I wasn't going to let this be in Frankfurt. You see I only had just over a day to be going around Frankfurt. Not that Frankfurt is described as the centre of the world in the tourism market. In fact far from it. One of their main things in the city centre, a giant sign dedicated to the Euro. Wow!



What this meant was I was committed. Committed to buying the 50 cent tourist map all in order to not miss the main tourist sights. Fankfurt's stature in the Tourism world did not though stop them from charging for their map. Hmmm, they mustn't like the tourists. Hit them up for everything.


In the morning before finding the tourist information centre I actually achieved much more with not more than a simple colour hostel map without the dots of interest. I managed to stumble upon Country Fair in the main street. All I could think was heck Frankfurt you've outdone yourself here, Munich has Oktoberfest, and at the same time you've got a mini train for the kids, a few cows, and a bundle of barbeque stalls doing their wurst. Seriously I thought nearly every city did their own version of Oktoberfest. Apparently not. But anyway the festival, or whatever it is was quaint, and a pleasant change to the US cities I had been frequenting recently. Plus their wurst beats out the America's best hotdog stand anytime.

Near the market stalls I also managed to find the local marketplace, and the historical tourist square where they bus in the tour groups wondering what they're doing in Frankfurt. Sure the square had the neat photo but this was not where the action was.

Frankfurt is located on a river. No not the Rhine, the Main River. As I was very tired having lost several hours due to flying back through the time zones so I took the offer of a 2 hour boat cruise up and down the river. I managed to sun myself like a reptile during the tour considering it was a a mild 15 degees. All the time thinking it was barely Autumn.


I've found terror evidence for the authorities in the afternoon. This sign has left me in no doubt that the Germans are out to cause harm to America's most beloved family.

Day 2 I was more aware than anything that I had to get to the airport in the afternoon. But this left the morning to investigate more dots on my 50 cent map. But when looking to the map I found much more. Take a look below and think, if you saw this same map what are you now going to go search for?


Damn right, you're going to search out the Giant Pretzel in the bottom right. Why waste your time with numbered dots on a map when you've got a big pretzel and water urn to search out. And well the pretzel was twice the size of the 'points of interest' dots. So I was left thinking this thing must be huge. Yet there was no mention of the worlds biggest pretzel anywhere on the guide. This I thought silly. So I set out with a mission. What earns the Pretzel a big icon but no write up.

Alas my search ended in only disappointment. No Giant Pretzel to be found. I did find some little water spout fountain though. I suspect this was in reference to the water urn. The search wasn't in vain though. This district was bar central. So later when I fly out of Frankfurt if I have time I'll search out what the nightlife has to offer. Hopefully more than just pretzels.


In Frankfurt I did re-discover why I love Germany. And its not just the accent. They have the best bakery snack places around. The donuts, pastries, bread, and sandwiches. It's the last item which attracts me. For a price lower than a Subway Sub you can get a sub with a mixture of alternatives. And best of all its done on the german breadrolls. The enjoyment of this breadroll is enhanced if you've been in North America for a while. The other item of food the Germans do great cheap is the simple Ice Cream, or Eis. For just 80 euro cents you can get a scoop. Oh and they have beer too. But it doesn't mix with the Eis.

On departure from the airport Lufthansa again attempted to re-assert this dominate position as the airline I most hate. Especially when flying out from Frankfurt. I mean this partly because I missed a flight years ago out of the airport, but more so because this time they wanted to charge me 110 euros for excess baggage. What the! It seems that whereas everwhere else in the world has a 2 bag limit of 30kgs with one bag no more than 20kgs, Lufthansa has a 20kg maximum full stop. Much like when you fly a discount airline like Ryanair or Easyjet. And any excess is charged at 10 euro per kilo. Damn.... I managed to reduce the penalty down to 20 euro after splitting out a backpack, and throwing out old stuff I really was hoarding for no reason.

In retrospect I'm also wondering how much this bottle of duty free Vodka I bought and kept (for consumption in Greece) is really costing me...

Oh well bring on Greece.