A highlight of Rebecca and Peter's time here was being together in our childhood home of Frankfurt. Above we are at the Eschenheimer Tower, a quick five minute walk from our old apartment, and part of the old city wall. We really lived right downtown and loved it.
Yes, we're pointing to my bedroom window on the left. Our father built a wall with a sliding door through this room so that each of us had our own room. Rebecca's was with the window on the right. What a wise man he was!
Lots of the downtown streets have been converted to pedestrian zones, which is a great improvement.
At the Hauptwache, a shopping area, we saw this sign (Protestant and Catholic City Church) outside a church. The bells were ringing noon.
We went in and listened to an excellent homily on a Christian's responsibility to be inclusive, welcoming of strangers, helpful to the needy etc... It could have come from a Mennonite pulpit. It was just a regular day. Apparently these "midday prayers" happen daily. We were impressed.
We met up with Johannes, the son of my father's maternal cousin. This was a rare treat!
We retraced our path to school, which always led through the Holzhausenpark and past this tiny "castle" surrounded by a moat with ducks and swans.
Above is our high school named after Goethe's mother, Elisabethenschule. We couldn't go inside because renovations were going on. It's a beautiful old building and we recalled lots of memories.
In the late 1960's Frankfurt voted to restore the bombed out old opera house, even though we'd long been enjoying the new opera house. I remember donating a bit of money and feeling like I'd done a good deed. Now no one questions the wisdom of that earlier decision to restore its glory.
Frankfurt has been a financial and commercial hub since the days of the Romans. Today it's the financial capital of the European Union.
I could show lots of sleek skyscrapers, but this will have to suffice. Rebecca and I both felt that the city was cleaner and more beautiful than when we were young.
Rebecca and I loved having Peter and Jack there with whom to share the experience. They were good sports about all our nostalgia and hard-to-explain peals of laughter!
And I mustn't omit the famous Römer Rathaus
and the eggs with "Grüne Soße" (7 green herb sauce! cost $12.50! way more expensive than the various sausages the rest ordered)
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