# Frankfurt - one day



## Zac495 (May 19, 2008)

On our way to Marbella, we land at 6 am from the US. We leave for Magela around 3 pm. 

On our return, we land in Frankfurt at 8:30 pm and leave for the US at 5 pm. We're staying in a hotel in the heart of Frankfurt (apparently 10 k from the airport).

So what should we do on both ends? Breakfast day one? What do we see in such a short time?

By the way, the reason we did this, in case you think we're crazy, is it was the only way to get FF business class seats.


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## Carolinian (May 19, 2008)

Frankfurt is not one of my favoite cities in Germany.  I have flown in and out of Frankfurt many times but only once gone into the city, and that was probably about my tenth trip.  Frankfurt was bombed to oblivion in WWII and built back in a bland functional style.  From photographs, the old city was really nice before WWII, but not now.  Only a small area around the Romerplatz has been restored like the original.  There is also a church which was used for the Diet that tried to unite Germany in 1848, but it was reduced to a shell in WWII and the reconstruction is tacky modern.

The last time I was through Frankfurt, I stayed overnight in Limburg on the Lahn, a neat medieval town with a castle, cathedral, old town stuffed with medieval buildings on narrow winding streets, and a medieval bridge complete with defensive bridge towers over the Lahn River that is still used for auto traffic.  It is only 18 minutes from Frankfurt airport by ICE fast train.  It has light years more ambiance than Frankfurt.

The trip before that one, I overnighted in Bad Homburg, a spa town, also untouched by WWII where one can tour the former castle of the Princes of Hessen-Homburg, which was then used by the German kaisers after Prussia annexed Hessen-Homburg for being on the wrong side of the Austro-Prussian War in 1866.  Bad Homburg also has a lot more ambiance than Frankfurt.  I have also overnighted at a number of other towns with a lot of character near Frankfurt, but never in Frankfurt itself.


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## Zac495 (May 19, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> Frankfurt is not one of my favoite cities in Germany.  I have flown in and out of Frankfurt many times but only once gone into the city, and that was probably about my tenth trip.  Frankfurt was bombed to oblivion in WWII and built back in a bland functional style.  From photographs, the old city was really nice before WWII, but not now.  Only a small area around the Romerplatz has been restored like the original.  There is also a church which was used for the Diet that tried to unite Germany in 1848, but it was reduced to a shell in WWII and the reconstruction is tacky modern.
> 
> The last time I was through Frankfurt, I stayed overnight in Limburg on the Lahn, a neat medieval town with a castle, cathedral, old town stuffed with medieval buildings on narrow winding streets, and a medieval bridge complete with defensive bridge towers over the Lahn River that is still used for auto traffic.  It is only 18 minutes from Frankfurt airport by ICE fast train.  It has light years more ambiance than Frankfurt.
> 
> The trip before that one, I overnighted in Bad Homburg, a spa town, also untouched by WWII where one can tour the former castle of the Princes of Hessen-Homburg, which was then used by the German kaisers after Prussia annexed Hessen-Homburg for being on the wrong side of the Austro-Prussian War in 1866.  Bad Homburg also has a lot more ambiance than Frankfurt.  I have also overnighted at a number of other towns with a lot of character near Frankfurt, but never in Frankfurt itself.



Good advice - so that makes sense on the way home when we arrive at 8:40 pm (considering we're on time)? What about t he long lay over on the way to Spain when we have 6 am until 3  pm? Also ice train to one of them? Which one for which day would you think? THANKS!!!


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## x3 skier (May 19, 2008)

Zac495 said:


> What about t he long lay over on the way to Spain when we have 6 am until 3  pm? Also ice train to one of them? Which one for which day would you think? THANKS!!!



IF you can use the Biz Class lounge, take advantage of the showers and get refreshed.

The train station is directly connected to the Airport so you can then take a quick trip into Frankfurt after the shower to see what there is to see. As Carolinian notes, its mostly a business city in the post war modern style. The main drag directly in front of the train station has some nice shops but nothing special. You could take a short visit, lunch and then back to the Airport and say you saw Frankfurt.  

Cheers


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## MaryH (May 20, 2008)

Personally I like Heidleberg which is about 1 hr away by train or Lufthansa bus.  It cost about 20 Euro each way for the bus so it may be possible to catch the last bus to Heidleberg after you arrive at 8:30 and tour around the medival castle and river and cobblestreet of the old town before catching the bus back to the airport.


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## Zac495 (May 21, 2008)

Thank you all. We switched to Mainz - close enough for our few hours - and not Frankfurt. We're staying at the Top Hammer. I will post a review upon return.


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## Carolinian (May 21, 2008)

From an old Cook's Timetable, there appear to be two ICE trains not long after your arrival to Limburg, one at 6:34 and the other at 6:56, but the return is a choice between 11:30 and 1:30.  The Limburg trains leave directly from the Flughaven (airport) train station, but it appears that the Heidelburg trains leave from the Hauptbanhof downtown, so you would have to take the S-bahn in from the airport and change at the Hauptbahnhof.


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## abdibile (May 22, 2008)

Frankfurt is really nothing special. For Germany it is the only city that has more than one skyscraper, but that is probably nothing special if you live in the US.

I would not risk going to Heidelberg or Limburg on such a short layover. Too much can happen with the busses or trains which could make you miss your flight. I often used the trains to go to Cologne and if something is wrong on the tracks, there are just no trains for some hours....

If you want to take the risk, Cologne is probably the most scenic city. Although it is about 150 miles, the ICE train from the airport takes only an hour (and a nice experience going on a 200 mph train).

Bad Homburg is an hour by (very slow) S-Bahn, which goes through Frankfurt, so you see something of Frankfurt on the way to Bad Homburg.

As you would have to change S-Bahns anyway you could also spend an hour or so around Hauptwache station and basically saw everything "interesting" of Frankfurt.

Bad Homburg is really nice as mentioned above. And if something is wrong with trains (huge delays or something) you could just take a cab back to the airport which is less than 15 miles.


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## Carolinian (May 22, 2008)

One fail safe in traveling to Limburg is that in addition to the ICE train directly to the airport, you can also take a regular slow train to the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt and connect to the S-bahn back to the airport.  That takes longer than the 18 minute ride on ICE, but uses completely different tracks and so is an alternative if there is a problem on the ICE line.  ICE stops at the Limburg Sud station on the outskirts of Limburg and there is a bus from there into the center.  The regular train runs from a station in the center of town.

From my recollection, there are also at least two alternative rail routes between Cologne and Frankfurt.


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## Giselherr (May 23, 2008)

*Perhaps it has really changed, but*

When I was stationed in Frankfurt/Main in the mid 60s (so it probably really has changed greatly) some of our favorite places were Sachenhausen to taste the local "Apfelwoi" (apple wine).  Sachenhausen is just across the Main river from the previously mentioned Romerplatz with the cathedral and some oldish half timbered houses, there is the "Wall anlage" which is (or at least was) very nice walking park with circles the oldest part of Frankfurt.  We also used to really enjoy the Palmengarten which is the arboretum (or was) located a few blocks from the IG Farben building (IG Farben was the provider of the poison gas used in the death camps and thus does deserve some (ill) fame, and was the headquarters of the US Military Command in Germany.  Another place is the Zoo.  I don't know what it's like now, but in the days I was there it was a nice place for a walk and to pick up a "Bratwurst & Brotchen".  
As I said, this is based upon my last visit in the early 80s, so things may have changed very much for the worst, but I really can't imagine that they have destroyed the Wall Anlage or the Palmengarten.




r


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## Zac495 (May 23, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> One fail safe in traveling to Limburg is that in addition to the ICE train directly to the airport, you can also take a regular slow train to the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt and connect to the S-bahn back to the airport.  That takes longer than the 18 minute ride on ICE, but uses completely different tracks and so is an alternative if there is a problem on the ICE line.  ICE stops at the Limburg Sud station on the outskirts of Limburg and there is a bus from there into the center.  The regular train runs from a station in the center of town.
> 
> From my recollection, there are also at least two alternative rail routes between Cologne and Frankfurt.



Pardon my total ignorance - but if we're going to Mainz, do we go to Limburg? As you can see, we have no clue about anything. The first day we will go straight to Frankfurt and just spend 7 am until noon - then catch our flight. 

The night we'll stay over -we're doing Mainz. THANKS and again - pardon my clear ignorance.


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## Carolinian (May 24, 2008)

Mainz has a train direct from the airport, an S-bahn as I recall.  The distance from the airport is not much differenct from Frankfurt.


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## Zac495 (May 24, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> Mainz has a train direct from the airport, an S-bahn as I recall.  The distance from the airport is not much differenct from Frankfurt.



Thank you!


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## Carolinian (May 24, 2008)

According to Cook's Timetable, the train directly from the airport into Mainz takes about 20 minutes, although some trains seem to vary by a few minutes.

My mention of the Limburg info was in the event you were considering 7AM to 11:30AM in Limburg.


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## MaryH (May 26, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> It appears that the Heidelburg trains leave from the Hauptbanhof downtown, so you would have to take the S-bahn in from the airport and change at the Hauptbahnhof.



Hi Carolinian,

There are some direct train to Heidelberg and I think they leave from the Hauptbahnhof and stop off at the airport but they are less frequent.  Otherwise, you take the train I think to Mainz and change.   

The last time I did it on the train in March, I think it was 32 Euros so I far prefer the Lufthansa bus at 20 Euros direct to Crown Plaza Heidelberg and then I take a 6-8 Euro cab to my hotel if I am not staying at Crown Plaza.  The bus tend to leave every hour at busy times and ever 2 hours some times.  But it is a small 9-12 passenger van now rather than the big bus from a few years ago.


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