Yes, this incident happened last week (April 7) when we decided to spend our 3 day weekend in Frankfurt, the capital city of Germany.
We boarded the 6:25 am ICE train to Frankfurt from Brussels and boy, I don’t have any words to describe how superb the train was (we only travelled in a 2nd class compartment) and it was still very much luxurious.
The train started on time and we were cruising at a speed which is almost reminiscent of a flight in a run way.
We reached Frankfurt at around 9:40 am and we were very much in fear for 2 reasons:
1) About the place we were planning to stay as it was too far from the city (I was cursing myself for booking that hotel)
2) About how to roam about in Frankfurt as we didn’t have any clear idea of how many places we are planning to visit. (many people were surprised, when we said we are going to roam around Frankfurt)
But all our fears vanished when we reached the tourist office, whose staffs were very friendly.
I was surprised by their suburban train and bus connections. For my hotel, I had to board a train S-bahn 2 and get down at Nied station and then board the bus 59 and get down 4 stops after.
Most of the stations were environment friendly non smoking station, which had 90% people obeying the rules.
The frequency was simply good and the waiting time and pin point time arrival of bus was simply amazing. Max waiting time was 8-10 mins. When we arrived in Nied, we decided to walk to our destination and to our surprise, the road was more than 2kms. But since the weather was good, we walked till the hotel and reached there around 11:15 am.
We were given a room in the skyline floor (9th floor is skyline for Hotel Ramada) from which we could have a very good view of the city.
Did I forget to mention that we were in the middle of a small forest area? ;-).. That made it doubly thrilling as we enjoyed a peaceful atmosphere.
The room was very luxurious to say the least.
Frankfurt has many sky scrapers which are very famous (the sad part is of course we tourists are not allowed inside any buildings except for one cathedral which we didn’t visit).
But that did not deter our spirits, as we roamed in and around the city center (Romer) where there were many heritage buildings and museums.
We also had a boat ride in river Mine which was awesome as it took us to the most places in the city.
On the first day, we were just going around the city in a bus enjoying the scenic beauty of the river and the skyscrapers.
The second day was unforgettable, as we were spending our day in one of the largest zoos in Europe.. The Zoo was amazing for its different collection of animals.
The best part was the penguin. We missed elephant.. Lions and Tigers were in good numbers as well… Not to forget some birds like peacock and flamingo, which were not caged. I wondered how those were still residing inside the zoo. :-)
The sparrows which are a near extinct in Chennai were in good numbers in Frankfurt and kept our smiles high.
On the third day, we got up late and we checked out the hotel and travelled to Frankfurt. We deposited the luggage in a locker and we began to walk around the city. On that day, I spotted a heritage tram and decided we take a ride on that one too.
From what I understand, it was one of the oldest tram in Frankfurt, which was in operation during 1954. Believe me, the tram was very well maintained with the heater and window panes in perfect shape and not to forget the old paints and wooden floor. We were offered a apple juice and a snack as compliment.
We went around the city for around1 hour and by the time we were back it was around 5:00 pm..
We took away Veg Burgers for dinner from McD and boarded the train at around 6:20pm. The train again reached Midi on time and we reached home at around 10:15 pm.
It was a very satisfactory trip. ICE train and Zoo made it doubly special. Also, the sheer quantities of pics that we managed to click, leave alone the quality ;-)
On the whole, it was a wonderful trip outside Belgium.
We boarded the 6:25 am ICE train to Frankfurt from Brussels and boy, I don’t have any words to describe how superb the train was (we only travelled in a 2nd class compartment) and it was still very much luxurious.
The train started on time and we were cruising at a speed which is almost reminiscent of a flight in a run way.
We reached Frankfurt at around 9:40 am and we were very much in fear for 2 reasons:
1) About the place we were planning to stay as it was too far from the city (I was cursing myself for booking that hotel)
2) About how to roam about in Frankfurt as we didn’t have any clear idea of how many places we are planning to visit. (many people were surprised, when we said we are going to roam around Frankfurt)
But all our fears vanished when we reached the tourist office, whose staffs were very friendly.
I was surprised by their suburban train and bus connections. For my hotel, I had to board a train S-bahn 2 and get down at Nied station and then board the bus 59 and get down 4 stops after.
Most of the stations were environment friendly non smoking station, which had 90% people obeying the rules.
The frequency was simply good and the waiting time and pin point time arrival of bus was simply amazing. Max waiting time was 8-10 mins. When we arrived in Nied, we decided to walk to our destination and to our surprise, the road was more than 2kms. But since the weather was good, we walked till the hotel and reached there around 11:15 am.
We were given a room in the skyline floor (9th floor is skyline for Hotel Ramada) from which we could have a very good view of the city.
Did I forget to mention that we were in the middle of a small forest area? ;-).. That made it doubly thrilling as we enjoyed a peaceful atmosphere.
The room was very luxurious to say the least.
Frankfurt has many sky scrapers which are very famous (the sad part is of course we tourists are not allowed inside any buildings except for one cathedral which we didn’t visit).
But that did not deter our spirits, as we roamed in and around the city center (Romer) where there were many heritage buildings and museums.
We also had a boat ride in river Mine which was awesome as it took us to the most places in the city.
On the first day, we were just going around the city in a bus enjoying the scenic beauty of the river and the skyscrapers.
The second day was unforgettable, as we were spending our day in one of the largest zoos in Europe.. The Zoo was amazing for its different collection of animals.
The best part was the penguin. We missed elephant.. Lions and Tigers were in good numbers as well… Not to forget some birds like peacock and flamingo, which were not caged. I wondered how those were still residing inside the zoo. :-)
The sparrows which are a near extinct in Chennai were in good numbers in Frankfurt and kept our smiles high.
On the third day, we got up late and we checked out the hotel and travelled to Frankfurt. We deposited the luggage in a locker and we began to walk around the city. On that day, I spotted a heritage tram and decided we take a ride on that one too.
From what I understand, it was one of the oldest tram in Frankfurt, which was in operation during 1954. Believe me, the tram was very well maintained with the heater and window panes in perfect shape and not to forget the old paints and wooden floor. We were offered a apple juice and a snack as compliment.
We went around the city for around1 hour and by the time we were back it was around 5:00 pm..
We took away Veg Burgers for dinner from McD and boarded the train at around 6:20pm. The train again reached Midi on time and we reached home at around 10:15 pm.
It was a very satisfactory trip. ICE train and Zoo made it doubly special. Also, the sheer quantities of pics that we managed to click, leave alone the quality ;-)
On the whole, it was a wonderful trip outside Belgium.
