Chapter I
Frankfurt am Main
The upward spiral
Red Eurydice
I combined 3 chapters into one (chapter 1, chapter 2 and Chapter 3 became a single textured chapter) so that the logical chain and sequence of thoughts would not be violated.
Everything will be dedicated to the tourist destination and the places I visited in Frankfurt.
It was interesting to go to Germany and learn something new about my Prussian roots, about which I knew nothing, and sometimes I heard some stories about my relatives from my parents who lived in Germany. I still remembered part of the name of the German city of Main well in my childhood, and then, when I grew up, I realized that the city was called Frankfurt am Main.
The European Union seemed mysterious to me, the mysterious world of a European person, which was interesting and curious. My parents agreed with relatives and I went to Germany to the city of Frankfurt am Main. I had never lived in another family before with people I had never known or seen, but who were my relatives, so fears and doubts overcame me. Who are these people? What are they like? I didn’t know German from the word with everything and had never been to Germany before.
I liked the city of Frankfurt am Main. The financial capital of Germany. A city of skyscrapers and fogs. I took off from Novosibirsk on a Boeing 747 plane in the morning, and arrived in Frankfurt am Main it was already late in the evening and, accordingly, in the sky above Frankfurt Airport when the plane landed, you could see in the sky, a glowing beacon or a giant antenna at the end of which a red light pulsed, which could be seen from the fuselage of the aircraft.
Most of all in Frankfurt am Main I liked the old and huge railway station, which was gigantic in size, and it also struck me not only with its size, but also with the accuracy of its work, the accuracy of the arriving Frankfurt trains. The operation of the German railway system is similar to the operation of a Swiss watch.
Frankfurt Central Railway Station (Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof) is the largest station in Germany, located near the business center of the city. Passenger traffic at the station ranks first in the country in terms of intensity - it is about 450 thousand people daily.
The station serves passenger intercity and international high-speed trains from companies: Deutsche Bahn, Fernverkehr, Hessische Landesbahn (HLB), Vias, Vlexx. All suburban and urban electric trains, two metro lines, several bus and tram routes pass through the station without exception.
Passenger Service Center (DB Reisezentrum).
Ticket terminals (Fahrkartenverkauf).
Information stand (Information).
Round-the-clock luggage storage (Gepäckaufbewahrung).
Delivery service (IC-Kurierdienst).
Lost and Found (Fundstelle).
ATMs (ec-Geldautomat).
Car rental point (Mietwagen).
Recreation area (DB Lounge).
Toilets (WC).
Automatic photo booths (Fotoautomat).
Wi-Fi throughout the station.
Barrier-free environment and facilities for people with disabilities.
Retail trade: grocery supermarket, vending machines with snacks, clothing stores, newsstand, pharmacy, cafes, snack bars, etc.
Frankfurt Railway Station schedule in 2023
The station has 25 passenger platforms, receiving 342 intercity trains and 290 regional trains daily. The timetable of all trains is available in terminals, on station boards and via the Internet.
Timetable of long-distance trains
An online scoreboard with the current timetable for all trains is available on the website of Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s main railway carrier. You can view the schedule for a specific direction on the main page of Deutsche Bahn and on the Russian-language online service for the sale of Rail Europe railway tickets/ To search, you need to enter the name of the departure and arrival station in Latin.
Commuter train schedules
The timetable and traffic patterns of commuter trains are also available on the Deutsche Bahn website. Details of the movement of S-bahn city electric trains, as well as all ground and underground transport in Frankfurt, are on the website of Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund(RMV)/
Frankfurt Main Station on video:
Buy a ticket from Frankfurt railway station
Train tickets are sold at the ticket offices and ticket terminals of Frankfurt am Main Central Station around the clock. To buy tickets online, you can use the official Deutsche Bahn website or the D8 Navigator mobile app/ The application interface is not Russified, there is an intuitive English version. To pay, you need a bank card or a PayPal account. It is not necessary to print out the purchased ticket, it is enough to show it to the controller.
For those who travel a lot by train, Deutsche Bahn offers to issue a single Interrail Pass ticket, which makes it possible to move freely on the railways of Germany and 30 other European countries. For frequent trips, a single Interrail Pass allows you to save significantly. The use of a single ticket does not cancel the need for pre-booking a seat on the selected train.
You can also purchase a single pass (Interrail Pass) in the corresponding section on the Rail Europe website.
Frankfurt Train Station is divided into two floors. On the second floor you can see coffee and coffee shops and small shops, as well as Western Union money transfers can be made from the station to anywhere in the world. In stores, there you can also buy a cell phone, a SIM card, a paid package of Internet services from 5 gigabytes.
Relatives from Germany welcomed me very warmly. I got out of the taxi and walked up the makeshift path to the porch of a two-story house. Pressed the doorbell. The bell rang several times. The door was opened to me by my uncle, behind whom my aunt was standing. Uncle and aunt alternately said something in Russian with a slight accent. I took off my jacket and they took me to the living room in the middle, which had a huge oak table with 8 seats, a lot of food. My aunt and uncle made a real feast in honor of my arrival in Germany., A lot of food. There was also a bottle of white wine and German port on the table. Music was playing in the kitchen.
There was an atmosphere of unique fun in the air, but still everything turned out to be completely different, since I saw relatives only in photos and talked to them on the phone a couple of times, and I heard everything else more from my parents’ stories, which led to a wrong opinion and idea about my aunt and uncle. In reality, everything turned out to be completely different.
I told my aunt and uncle about that. that I studied at Novosibirsk State University and graduated from the 2nd year. I told them a little about the city of Novosibirsk, that about 2 million people live in it. He told me about the Novosibirsk metro.
He told about Novosibirsk International Airport “Tolmachevo”.
He told me that about 400,000 Germans live in Novosibirsk, there is a German village.
The situation itself led me to a certain embarrassment and sometimes confusion, as I found myself in a completely new environment and atmosphere. I must pay tribute to my German aunt and uncle, their hospitable attitude towards me. I was allocated a separate room on the second floor, this was not a large bedroom.
I asked my uncle and aunt what products to buy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My aunt told me that I didn’t need to buy anything, that I was their guest and reminded them more of their youngest son, so that I wouldn’t worry once again and felt at home at their house. He asked any questions, asked, was not shy and was not afraid of anything. German hospitality pleased me, every minute.
Of course, the age factor also played a big role. My aunt and uncle were over 50 years old and I was really more like a son to them. They loved to torment me from the bottom of their hearts and drive me so that I would not relax. They bought me a fine leather jacket as a gift, since it was the month of May in Frankfurt, sometimes it rains or there was heavy fog with wind in the morning. The leather jacket was very useful.
I lived in Germany for about a month and in Frankfurt I got my favorite places where I liked to relax, take a walk, drink coffee, go to a bar and cafe, sometimes sit in some restaurant in the center. Undoubtedly, I liked coming to the city center of Frankfurt. During the day, this city turned into a real volcano, in which people walked back and forth through the streets in an endless stream. It was clear that Frankfurt is the financial center of Germany, through which the cash flows of the whole of Germany passed. A huge number of tourists, businessmen, business people, ordinary residents of Frankfurt mixed in a huge crowd of an endless stream of people.
30 sights of Frankfurt am Main that are worth seeing:
This old town on the Main River (hence its full name – Frankfurt am Main), due to its geographical location, has been and still remains an important commercial and economic center for many centuries. A huge number of high-rise buildings gives it a distinct North American flavor, thanks to which Frankfurt received the nicknames “Manhattan” and “Chicago on the Main”. Frankfurt is often among the top ten cities for living and doing business. At the same time, it is an important center of cultural life and tourist activity. This is a city with a rich history and many beautiful museums, and you will not have a question about what to see in Frankfurt am Main. Navigation:
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Embankment of museums;
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Shtedelevsky Art Institute (Shtedel Museum);
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The Maintower Skyscraper;
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Goethe’s House;
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Frankfurt Cathedral;
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Remerberg Square;
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Garden of Palm Trees;
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Eiserner Steg Bridge (Iron Bridge);
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Mainkai Embankment;
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St. Paul’s Church;
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Museum of Modern Art;
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The Old Opera;
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Zenkenberg Museum of Natural History;
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Historical Museum;
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Sachsenhausen district;
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Hauptwache Square;
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Shirn Kunsthalle Gallery;
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Berger Strasse;
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German Film Museum;
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Frankfurt Zoo;
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Villa Liebighaus;
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Gruneburg Park;
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Museum of Applied Art;
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Eschenheim Tower;
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Classicstadt Museum – The City of auto classics;
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Kleinmarkthalle Market;
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IG Farben Building;
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The Old Church of St. Nicholas;
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Frankfurt Stock Exchange;
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Embankment of museums
There is a cluster of 12 museums on both sides of the Main River. Most of them are concentrated on the left bank (south side). That is why this area is called the Museum Embankment. Here you will find museums of cinema, art, architecture, communications and ethnography. We will get to know some of these museums more closely later.
The idea of creating a museum complex arose relatively recently – in the 1980s and 1990s. Some museums have moved into the mansions that already stood here. For others, new buildings were specially built with the involvement of such outstanding architects as Oswald Mathias Ungers and Richard Mayer.
On the last weekend of August, the Museum Embankment becomes the center of a grand celebration – Museumsiferfest. During this festival, open-air music and dance performances and other mass cultural events take place on the embankment. In addition, these days you will be able to watch an exciting two-day sailing regatta along the Main.
Address: Museumsufer, Brückenstraße 3-7, 60594 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Shtedelevsky Art Institute (Shtedel Museum)
The Stedel Museum, one of Germany’s main cultural attractions, was recently named the German Museum of the Year. The museum was founded in 1815, when the banker Johann Friedrich Stedel presented the city with an invaluable collection of paintings by old masters.
The current museum building was designed in 1878 in the luxurious Grunderzeit style. Today, the Stedel Museum houses a huge number of paintings painted from the 1300s to the present day. Among them are works by Rembrandt, Sandro Botticelli, Hieronymus Bosch, Jan Vermeer and Jan van Eyck.
Illustrations of later movements, such as Romanticism, Impressionism and expressionism, can serve as paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Edgar Degas and Ernst Kirchner.
Address: Städel Museum, Schaumainkai 63, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- The Maintower Skyscraper
Frankfurt is gradually turning into a “forest” of ever-growing skyscrapers. Despite this, there is still only one tower with a public observation deck. The 200-meter Maintower, built in 2000, is the fourth tallest building in the city (and the fourth tallest in all of Germany).
The tower is located in the eastern part of the Bankenviertel, and it offers a beautiful view of Altstadt and Main. On Fridays and Saturdays, the observation deck is open a little longer (until 21:00 in winter and 23:00 in summer), these days you have the opportunity to see Frankfurt in lights.
The skyscraper was designed by the architectural firm Schweger und Meyer. In the Maintower foyer you will be able to see two works of modern art – a video installation by Bill Viola and a wall mosaic by Stefan Huber.
Address: Main Tower, Neue Mainzer Str. 52-58, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Goethe’s House
German writer, thinker and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in 1749 in a beautiful house located at Groser-Hirschgraben, 23. The facade and interior of this medieval dwelling were renovated in Rococo style shortly before Goethe’s parents moved here. Goethe lived here until he was 16 and later returned for a long period between studies in Leipzig and Strasbourg.
Just during a break in his studies, he wrote “The Sufferings of young Werther”. The house destroyed during the war was restored to its original form. And the interior of the house today looks the same as in the days when Goethe lived here.
For example, there is still an astronomical clock here, which the future poet admired. Next to the house-museum there is an art gallery, where the works of German artists from the time of the young Goethe are exhibited.
Address: Goethe House and Museum, Großer Hirschgraben 23-25, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Frankfurt Cathedral
Frankfurt Cathedral was built in the 1300s-1400s. It had to be restored twice: once after the fire of 1867, the second time after the bombing of the Second World War. The status of the cathedral of this former collegiate church was assigned in 1562, when the coronation ceremonies of the Holy Roman emperors began to take place in it.
In total, ten emperors were crowned in this very place in the period from 1562 to 1792. Going inside this cathedral, built in the Gothic style, pay attention to the choirs of the XIV century, the Baroque Assumption altar and the fresco of the XV century “Life of Mary” in the south transept. Address: Frankfurt Cathedral, Domplatz 1, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Remerberg Square
The most bizarre square in the city – Remerberg – is surrounded by photogenic medieval houses, a church and historical administrative buildings. The first thing that will attract your attention on this square will be the Remer – a complex of three medieval buildings standing in one row with very pretty facades that once belonged to rich citizens. In 1405, the authorities bought two houses.
The middle house, called, like the whole complex, the Remer, which means “Roman House” in Russian, houses the city hall (the Frankfurt mayor still sits here). A little later, the third house, the Golden Swan, was also annexed. It’s just that the city council decided to move into buildings that were already standing, instead of building new ones.
In front of the Remer there is a sculptural Renaissance fountain “Justice”, built in 1543, and on the opposite side of the square stands the Church of St. Nicholas of the XV century, which incredibly survived the war without serious damage. Bars and restaurants are located on the ground floors of most of the beautiful half-timbered houses in the eastern and western parts of the square.
Address: Römerberg, Roemerveg, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Garden of Palm Trees
The Frankfurt Botanical Garden “Palmengarten”, founded in 1871 and handed over to the city in 1960, covers an area of 22 hectares. Here, in greenhouses and in the open air, a large number of plant species grow from all over the globe, from various climatic zones – from the Subarctic to the tropics. The samples are divided into groups according to the place of their natural distribution.
For example, one of the glass pavilions contains a subarctic landscape, two more greenhouses are designed for desert plants, and the Tropicarium shows the richness and diversity of tropical forests. Some of the plants were planted in the “Palmengarten” in the 1980s, while others have been growing here since the XIX century.
Thematic exhibitions are regularly held in the Palmengarten. And there is also a historical festival and Jazz im Palmengarten – the world’s oldest open-air jazz festival, leading its history since 1959.
Address: Palm Garden Palmengarten, Siesmayerstraße 61, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Eiserner Steg Bridge (Iron Bridge)
150 years have passed since the completion of the iron pedestrian bridge spanning the Main River and connecting the city center and the Sachsenhausen district. During this time, the Eiserner Steg was rebuilt twice: the first time in 1912, when the bridge became an obstacle for large ships that began to sail along the Main, and the second time after the Nazis blew it up in the last days of World War II. There is a special elegance in the metal frame of the bridge.
The best time to cross the river along it is the end of the day, when the low sun illuminates the high–rise towers in the Bankenviertel. At the end of the XX century, Eiserner Steg became another “victim” of the fashion for fixing so-called love locks.
Address: Eiserner Steg, Mainkai 39, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Mainkai Embankment
On both banks of the Main on the embankment there is a park strip planted with lawns, flower beds and trees. On sunny summer days, citizens come here with whole families to have a picnic, and in the evenings, mini-corporate parties are held here – office workers gather at the end of the working day to relax, drink beer and chat.
The best photos can be taken from the left bank, east of the Museum Embankment. Be sure to come to the embankment at sunset or at night when the lights of the Bankenviertel are lit.
Address: Mainkai, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- St. Paul’s Church
The Church of St. Paul, standing on Paulsplatz, is of great importance not only for Frankfurt, but also for the whole of Germany as a nation. This Lutheran church was built in 1789. Its circular plan corresponded to the Protestant canons of that time: every member of the community had to have the opportunity to hear a sermon.
In 1848, this circular format made St. Paul’s Church an ideal venue for the meeting of the first democratically elected German parliament. And this, in turn, would form the basis of the German constitution. The sessions of the parliament lasted only a year here, then religious services were resumed. But St. Paul’s Church has gone down in history forever as a symbol of freedom and the birthplace of German democracy.
Address: St. Paul’s Church, Paulsplatz 11, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Museum of Modern Art
The Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art is widely known as one of the most important contemporary art galleries in Europe. In 1991, the museum moved into a stunning new building in the heart of the city. The museum’s collection includes about 5,000 paintings by more than 450 leading artists.
The museum includes MMK Zollamt, an exhibition area where works by young and as yet unknown artists are presented, as well as the Frankfurt Museum of Applied Art, which houses more than 30 thousand objects of European and Asian applied art, including furniture, tapestries, glass, ceramics and books.
Address: Art City: The Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art, Domstraße 10, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- The Old Opera
The Old Opera (Alte Oper) was built in 1880 in the center of the Opera Square (Opernplatz). The building in the Italian High Renaissance style, destroyed during World War II, was restored and reopened in 1981.
Today it is one of the most important concert venues in the city. There is also a New Opera in Frankfurt. It shares with the Drama Theater a modern building located about half a mile from Willy Brandt Platz, near the river.
Address: The Old Opera House, Opernplatz 1, 60313 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Zenkenberg Museum of Natural History
If you are traveling with a child who is currently undergoing a huge interest in dinosaurs, Germany’s second largest natural history museum should definitely be on your agenda. At the entrance to the museum you will be greeted by anatomically realistic life-size dinosaur models, and inside there are fossils of triceratops, Iguanodon, Tyrannosaurus, diplodocus, Parasaurolophus and Psittacosaurus.
In addition to dinosaurs, you can see a lot of interesting things in the museum, for example, an amazing collection of stuffed birds and animals, among which you will even find a quagga – a kind of zebra that died out in the 1880s. You can also see a cast of the skeleton of Lucy – Australopithecus Afar, a close ancestor of modern humans who lived more than 3 million years ago.
Address: Senckenberg Natural History Museum, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Historical Museum
There is no better way to learn more about Frankfurt than to visit its Historical Museum. It contains many exhibits telling about the city’s past. One of the most popular exhibits of the museum are models showing what the central part of Frankfurt looked like during the Middle Ages and after the bombing of the Second World War.
There is another model of the city here – based on the opinion of ordinary people (museum employees interviewed 1,166 residents of Frankfurt about their city, about favorite and unloved places, etc. and the results of the survey were reflected on the model). Every last Saturday of the month, except August and December, admission to the museum is free.
Address: Historisches Museum, Saalhof 1, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Sachsenhausen district
Once in Frankfurt, be sure to cross the river over the Eiserner Steg Bridge to stroll through the cobblestone streets of Old Sachsenhausen.
The fertile left bank of the Main was originally given over to agriculture (mainly grapes were grown here). And for hundreds of years, the Sachsenhausen district, located on the left bank, was essentially a village, very different from the rest of Frankfurt, but still protected by a ring of city walls.
When the climate became a little cooler during the Little Ice Age, apple orchards replaced the vineyards, and since the XVIII century, cider (Aplfelwein) was served instead of wine in the bars of the quarter. Today’s Alt-Sachsenhausen is a cozy provincial streets, many taverns, pubs and restaurants where you can taste Frankfurt cider, this is the charm of typical German conservatism.
Address: Sachsenhausen, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Hauptwache Square
Hauptwache Square, which is Frankfurt’s busiest transport hub, is located in the geographical center of the city, west of Zeil, a long pedestrian shopping street filled with large German department stores such as Karstadt.
In the center of Hauptwache there is a baroque building built in 1730, which gave the square its name. At the time when Frankfurt was a free city-state, it served as the headquarters for the Stadtwer city militia (Hauptwache or Guardhouse - translated from German as “guard”). Later, a prison was located in this building, then a police station, and today there is a cafe loved by all citizens.
Address: Plaza Hauptwache, Biebergasse, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Shirn Kunsthalle Gallery
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If you are preparing for a trip to Frankfurt, the first thing to do is to find out which exhibitions are currently taking place in the Schirn Kunsthalle. Designed in the 1980s, this hall is the main venue for all the most important temporary art exhibitions in Frankfurt.
The Kunsthalle is part of an international network and cooperates with the Pompidou Center, the Guggenheim Museum, the MoMA Museum in New York, the St. Petersburg Hermitage and the British Tate Gallery. The Shirn Kunsthalle hosted retrospectives of Edvard Munch, Alberto Giacometti, Frida Kahlo and Marc Chagall, as well as exhibitions of a wide variety of subjects – from Matisse collages to Parisian art of the Belle Epoque.
- Eschenheim Tower
From the medieval city walls of Frankfurt, little has survived until the beginning of the XXI century. Most of them were demolished in the early 1800s, during the French occupation, because by that time they were no longer of any value as fortifications. The ten-storey Eschengeimer tower guarding the northern part of the wall was also subject to demolition.
But, in the end, it was “spared” and preserved as a monument. The tower, designed by Madern Gertener (who also worked on the Frankfurt Cathedral project) and erected at the beginning of the XV century, is the oldest landmark of Frankfurt am Main.
Today, the tower houses a chic restaurant. Even if you didn’t manage to book a table there, at least just walk around the tower to admire it – it deserves it.
Address: Eschenheim Tower, Eschenheimer Tor 1, 60318 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Classicstadt Museum – The City of auto classics
To visit this magnificent museum of classic cars, you need to go to the industrial zone, and for this take the RB or RE train going east and get to the Frankfurt-Mainkur station. There, on the territory of the former clinker brick factory, there is a restoration center for prestigious private cars.
You will be able to look over the shoulder of experienced craftsmen and engineers servicing engines, repairing mechanisms and stitching leather accessories. The Porches, BMW, Jaguars, Mercedes and many other world brands presented here will force true car enthusiasts to cancel all plans for the rest of the day.
To show how seriously Classicstadt takes its business, the machines are stored here in glass boxes that allow you to regulate humidity. There are also Aston Martin, McLaren and Lamborghini dealerships in Classicstadt.
Address: Prüfstelle Frankfurt/Main – Klassikstadt, Orber strasse, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Kleinmarkthalle Market
The Kleinmarkthalle, a hangar-like indoor market, is located next to the Zeil shopping street. Every day, except Sunday, there are 156 kiosks where you can buy the best cheeses, meat, vegetables, fruits, confectionery, bread and pastries from all over the region.
And, since Frankfurt is a multinational city today, there are dozens of places on the market where you can taste Turkish, Spanish and Italian cuisine.
Address: Kleinmarkthalle, Hasengasse 5-7, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- IG Farben Building
This building was built in the late 1920s to house the headquarters of the world’s largest chemical concern IG Farben. There are some pretty terrible pages in the past of the latter. During the Second World War, the Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie factories supplied the Nazis with gas, with which millions of Jews were killed in gas chambers.
Despite its dark history, the IG Farben office building itself still looks amazing (currently it is called the Pelzig Building and belongs to Goethe University). The curving interior walls, covered with travertine marble, look magical.
Visit the impressive lobby, inspect the “scattered” works of art everywhere and take a ride on innovative elevators that do not have doors and constantly rotate.
Address: IG Farben Building, Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- The Old Church of St. Nicholas
Crowned with a single spire, the Protestant red sandstone church, built in the XIII century, is located on the south side of the Remerberg. This is one of the few Altstadt buildings that survived after the Second World War almost in its original form. In the quiet interior, under the late Gothic arches, there are carved stone figures and tombstones of the XIV and XV centuries.
Address: Alte Nikolaikirche, Römerberg 11, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Frankfurt Stock Exchange
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which closed for six months after the collapse of the Nazi regime, reopened in September 1945. Today it is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world. During the excursions that take place here from Monday to Friday, visitors can see the trading floor with their own eyes.
Outside the beautiful building with columns there are two bronze figures created by Reinhard Dahlauer in 1985 – a bull and a bear, which symbolize the ups and downs of the world stock markets.
Address: Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Börsenpl. 4, 60313 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Headquarters of the European Central Bank
In 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) moved from Frankfurt’s Eurotower tower to this striking 180-meter-high building built on the site of the city’s former wholesale market.
Guests have the opportunity to attend a free 90-minute guided tour, but you need to book it at least four weeks in advance.
Address: European Central Bank Headquarters, 60314 Frankfurt am Mainers, Germany.
End of June. It was unbearably hot and in the evening I decided to go to my favorite restaurant “Zur Schoenen Mullerin” where you could taste classic dishes of German and regional cuisine of Hesse, such as Apfelwein sausage and a special kind of cider “Grüne Soße”, and next to it was one of the oldest hotels in Frankfurt, which was built in 1896. At the end of winter there is a carnival. The reason I liked to go there was because it was a cool cider brewed according to a special old German recipe. Most of all we liked this particular cider “Grüne Soße” the best in Frankfurt and possibly in all of Germany.
This time I decided to sit at the bar. After a while, the bartender and I started a conversation. The bartender took with his index finger and thumb of his right hand a cross, which he weighed on his neck, and with his left hand pointed to my cross, which I had on my neck.
I extended my right hand to the bartender as a greeting and introduced myself: “My name is Nikita.”
The bartender held out his right hand to meet me and said in a low voice: “David, Nikita, glad to meet you.”
David said a little louder: "On the house and poured me a mug of cider “Grüne Soße”.
Nikita: A smile spread across my face as a sign of gratitude: “Thank you, David.” I drank a little sidor from the mug and we continued our conversation with David.
It turned out that David and I are Orthodox Christians and co-religionists. David said that he lives in Greece and the Greek state religion is Orthodoxy. It is practiced by about 98% of the country’s population. According to the Constitution, all citizens have the right to freedom of choice of religion, however, propaganda of other religious denominations is prohibited in the country. This should be taken into account by every traveler, so as not to offend the faith of the local population.
David, for a while, talked about his life in Greece.
David and I were about the same age. David was a couple of years older than me. As a result, I asked him to show me Frankfurt at night in more detail. I had a desire to go to some night club in Frankfurt, but there was no suitable company.
David knew Russian not badly, as he lived and worked in Moscow at one time. I have repeatedly visited the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, which is located on Volkhonke Street. David was a funny guy with an incredible sense of humor and he liked my idea to get out somewhere on the weekend and light up in the night Frankfurt.
David told me about five popular hotel clubs in Frankfurt:
- Gibson club;
- Velvet club;
- Adlib club;
- MTW club;
- La Louve .
David and I agreed to meet here on Saturday at the entrance to the restaurant “Zur Schoenen Mullerin” at 21:00 pm.
Chapter II
“Adlib club”
Karlsruhe
