Day 2 - Addendum

Alright, so I feel compelled to do an addendum to the previous post because after leaving Coffee Fellows, I kept on walking down Kaiserstrasse, which Eric had mentioned to do, and lo and behold I came across the Zeil Galerie... Holy Smokes, I've never seen a mall with such crazy architecture before.  There were actually a couple of maintenance guys working on the outside of the glass, up near the top I was able to snap a couple good shots of them at work.. 

After the Zeil, I made my way to the Romer (600 year old city hall) and the Paulskirsch, an old church which incidentally was pretty much completely destroyed during the Allied bombing raids during WW2.  This church was actually the first parliament of the German Federal State back in 1848.  Just outside there is a massive Christmas Market.  This was absolutely amazing.  I've always heard stories from other travellers and Germans about the Christmas Markets in Germany, and wow this did NOT disappoint.  There were food stalls all over, selling anything from popcorn, to handmade candy, even Swiss Raclette, and Flammenkeusch.  The most interesting were these stands selling various different sausages.  The crazy part though was that the sausages were being cooked on this reverse dome like contraption that was suspended and swinging back and forth over an open fire pit.  There was even a massive carousel in the middle of it all, and bands lining along the streets making it a very festive atmosphere.  Along in this area where the Christmas market were several buildings in traditional German architecture. 

One quick side note that I have to share, since I always seem to run into them in my travels around the world...  So since I started travelling extensively about 7 years ago, many of you may already know that I collect badges from each city and each country that I visit.  Some people collect post cards, some collect shot glasses, well me, its badges (and maybe Starbucks mugs!!!, oh by the way, the stupid Starbucks at the Frankfurt airport had EVERY single German city, EXCEPT Frankfurt!!! what the heck?????).
So back to my side note...  So as I'm walking around the Romer and Christmas Market area, i come across a souvenir shop, so I popped in real quick to see if they had any Frankfurt badges.  Yes, yes they did.. The great part was that the store owners were an old Korean couple... hehe... I recognized their Korean right away, and so ensured a good conversation about Korea...  I just had to take a photo because they were super shocked that I was able to bust out a few Korean words, I'll make sure to upload it when I can... 

So after walking around the city for a few hours, it did start snowing as forecast, and as I didn't dress for winter, nor did I pack any real winter clothes, I decided to head back to the airport, where I have just under 4 hours left before my flight to Bangkok...

I'll leave off here, as a nice warm shower and a bed are calling my name, oh and yes, Herr Becks is calling and so are about 4 of his friends...

Auf Wiedersehen, and the next update will be a Sawatdee from Bangkok!!!

J