Hello friends and old school peeps.... This TR is in sections as I can only upload 12 images per post.
Just got back from Frankfurt, Germany. Basically a few things fell into place before going: I got offered a new job with a big company, my girlfriend got a promotion, and it was her stepdads 60th. Before you read, I'd like to point out that most of the places I went to were outside of the main city and in some of the suburbs that I'd heard good things about. I lived close to down town Frankfurt for 6 months, so I'd seen all the main tourist bullshit before. I wanted to see the "real" Germany, if you will.
We decided to take the ferry from Dover. Honestly, the boat is much less stressful than flying. No bullshit security, no weighing of suitcases etc. I thought the 2am Boat would be pretty empty, big lol. It was pretty packed.
If you've never been on the ferry before, it's basically like a mini cruiser. Restaurants, arcades, shops and other stuff on board. Free wifi and you can go out on the deck and smoke. At this time of night though, most people just found some seats and slept.
So on the first day of arrival, we dumped the bags, and went for a walk in the woods in a rural suburb of Frankfurt. The mission was simple - we had heard about this hidden gem of a restaurant in the woods that sells wild boar Frankfurter schnitzels. This day in particular was very hot and it didn't take long to get hungry and thirsty.
This place was God. Well worth the walk.
The next day, we went to the annual German-Italian festival, in a town close to my girlfriends family. It was so uncomfortably crowded and the heat made it worse, but the things on offer included freshly made pizzas, pastas, bratwursts, specialist beer/wine etc, in addition to the usual festival antics such as live music.
It was quite difficult to sit down as it was so damn busy, so we decided to just have a beer and a quick bite to eat before making an exit into the city.
We also visited a town called Bad Nauheim, which is apparently where Elvis was stationed when he was doing his military service. They have even named a street after him on the road where he was based. The town itself is quite pleasant. Lots of designer and speciality shops as well as a traditional market.