Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

So, because I obviously don't get enough quality time with VIE airport during the week, I decided to book flights to Frankfurt for my Mum and myself last weekend. Ia actually already booked them when I was in KLU in August and Air Berlin sent a newsletter with offers to several destinations, most of which I had already been to. My "Duracell-powered" Mum is a willing partner in crime and since none of us knew the city, we decided to explore what else it had to offer apart from its airport that we had stopped over in several times already. I'm happy to report that we both really liked it. Mum who loves taking pictures of reflections, be it in mirrored facades of skyscrapers or water, was in overdrive as there were skyscrapers aplenty in "Mainhattan":

We were really lucky with the weather: crisp and cold, but partly sunny, unlike the torrential rain Vienna apparently experienced:

 Trees with skyscraper backdrop: the comparison with NY is quite apt here:

Pretty reflections of foliage:

We stayed at one of Frankfurt's 2 25hoursHotels, the Levis one. It was my first time in that chain and it was nice, but not spectacular. I liked the colourful staircase and "wood plank" carpet in the corridors more than the actual room which had really bad lighting.

Christmas markets were in the process of being put up everywhere in the old town and had we come a week later, we would have been able to sniff a bit of German Advent atmosphere.

On Saturday we went shopping (more about that in a separate post) and visited the Städel Museum in the evening. Yesterday, we visited the Schirn museum and the Museum of Modern Art. All 3 of them had really good exhibitions going on that would have warranted a visit on its own. Speaking of museums - the only thing that really annoys me about Germany every single time is their paranoia about bags that are bigger than a pack of tissues and which you need to leave at the cloakroom and the new "photo permission" sticker that requires you to sign a kind of contract before being allowed to take pictures. Bureaucrazy.

On our way back from Städel Museum I took a picture of Frankfurt's famous skyline:

I can definitely recommend Frankfurt as a destination for a weekend trip or extended layover. Everyone in the service industry was extremely friendly (not always a given in Vienna...) and there are plenty of things to see and do. I had printed out train times to Wiesbaden as a plan B if we got bored, but we definitely didn't.