Ein Wochenende in Frankfurt (A Weekend in Frankfurt)

It had been a while since I attended any football matches and I was determined to see my favourite club, Bayern Munich, at least once during my stay in Europe. The challenge is that all of their games at home and away are sold out as soon as tickets are available and those tickets usually sell at a steep premium on the resale market. Fortunately, I was able to find affordable tickets for Bayern's Bundesliga match in Mainz, although I'd be sitting in the home (Mainz) supporters section so I'd have to refrain from showing any open support for Bayern. I found it odd that these tickets were the cheapest available because Mainz is only a 35 minute train ride from Frankfurt and it just so happened that Frankfurt was hosting their annual international auto show at the same time!

This was a great opportunity to see two events on one trip. Now while an event-focused trip also meant I'd have less time for sightseeing, Frankfurt and Mainz are modern cities and don't have a lot of historical sites to see anyway (relative to other European cities), so the major sites could still fit into a compact itinerary.

Mainz

Mainz is small enough that all of the main sites are within a short walking distance of one another. From the train station, I walked southeast towards St. Stephan's Church, stopping at Schillerplatz along the way.

The Fastnachtsbrunnen Fountain. This fountain is part of a small town square (Schillerplatz) which is surrounded by well-maintained historical buildings and which includes a small garden and a statue depicting a larger version of one of the many jesters that comprise this fountain.

The interior of Stephanskirche (St. Stephan's Church) has a unique dark blue hue from the stained glass windows. There is also a nice looking pipe organ to the right of the main altar (somewhat visible in the photo).

I then walked to the Citadel, but I didn't explore the whole area so I either missed something or the travel websites overrated this site because I didn't see much there besides a small museum and an old stone tower.

Up to that point, the city seemed sparsely attended, with a handful of tourists at each site and even fewer locals going about their weekend business (which included a group of teens practicing free running at both Stephanskirche and the Citadel). However, when I reached the old town of Mainz, the streets were much more crowded. This was due to both the football match bringing thousands of Bayern Munich fans into the small city and the fact that there was an open market being held that day (I'm not sure how often it's held but it's one of the top rated items to see). The market consisted primarily of vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables and meats, and it seemed it was geared more towards the locals than to tourists.

The exterior of the side of the Mainzer Dom (Mainz Cathedral) with the Wochenmarkt taking place below. The interior of the cathedral is spacious but relatively plain.

A shot of the Eisenturm (Iron Tower). Dating back to the 13th century, this is one of three towers that are remnants of the original city walls of Mainz. The better known Holzturm appeared to be under renovation as it was completely covered when I visited, but I think the Eisenturm looks better anyway.

Mainz is the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press, so of course there was a Gutenberg Museum dedicated to the history of printing. I only had time to check two rooms before heading to the football match.

The only site not within walking distance was Coface Arena, home of FSV Mainz 05, but fortunately there were free shuttle buses taking everyone to the stadium. It also appeared that a large proportion of Mainz fans sold their tickets (including one to me) as the stadium of 34,000 was filled with about 35% Bayern fans, and the visiting fans sitting in the home sections were dressed in their Bayern jerseys without any objection from security or the Mainz fans.

A shot of Coface Arena during the match between FSV Mainz 05 and Bayern Munich. Both Mainz and Bayern have red as their primary colour, so it's difficult to make out the composition of fan support, but it seemed like it was roughly two-thirds Mainz and one-third Bayern.

As for the game itself, Bayern Munich controlled the match from start to finish and won 3-0. Their striker Robert Lewandowski was in good form and scored two of the goals (he also scored five goals in nine minutes against Wolfsburg earlier in the week and then scored three more against Olympiacos in a Champions League game the following week). The fun part about watching Bayern in person is that with their high level of ball possession, you got an opportunity to see all of their players working with the ball frequently and for longer periods of time, so you felt like you knew each player's skillset a lot better by the end of the match. As for the Mainz side, this was the first time I sat in the supporters' section of an underdog team, and I found that the fans were still happy with the work effort and defensive discipline that Mainz displayed (it was 0-0 at halftime). The atmosphere wasn't as loud as the stadiums of larger cities, but the fans were definitely friendlier (I did not detect any tension despite the heavy intermingling of opposing teams' fans).

After the game, I had enough time to check out a few more sites in Mainz. I managed to see the Holzturm (but it was covered), the Augustinerkirche, and the Weinhaus Zum Spiegel before taking the train back to Frankfurt.

The Weinhaus Zum Spiegel. This building was not on my to-do list, but I noticed that a lot of postcards on sale at souvenir shops included pictures of this building so I figured I'd take a look. The interior contains a fancy restaurant. In the background on the right is the other side (opposite from the Wochenmarkt) of the Mainzer Dom.

Frankfurt

While Frankfurt is larger than Mainz, most of its sites are still very walkable and I only needed to take the S-bahn for getting to the auto show, the football stadium and to/from the airport. With a busy day planned, I started by heading straight for the old town but came across the Euro Tower along the way.

It was fitting that the first landmark that I come across was the Euro Tower, former headquarters of the European Central Bank (they still use it as a secondary office building). Frankfurt is a modern city and a financial centre, and the presence of shiny skyscrapers was a sharp contrast to the historical cities that I've seen throughout most of Europe. It reminded me a bit of Toronto. The building just behind is the taller Main Tower, home to various investment banks.

Frankfurt has one of my favourite town squares in Europe, the Römer Square. This is a shot facing west, with the Römer (Town Hall) in the centre of the three buildings. There was also an art display in the square, Grenzen überwinden (Overcoming Boundaries) by Ottmar Hörl, which consisted of several little green statues attached to a network of narrow wooden planks. The art is a celebration of 25 years of German unification.

A shot of Römer Square facing east. The medieval style buildings are referred to as Römerberg and unlike Rouen, the wood paneling on the building exteriors is real. The Old St. Nicholas Church is on the far right.

The main church in the city is the Frankfurt Cathedral, also known as Saint Bartholomew's Cathedral. The interior was smaller than I expected and relatively modest.

 

I had enough time to visit one museum in the city and the Goethehaus was nearby. This actually felt like two museums combined into one, as it contained a reconstruction of the family house of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as well as an art museum of classical paintings completed in the vicinity during Goethe's time. 

The art museum adjacent to the Goethehaus contained several luminist works, including the one pictured: Grabmal der Plautier und Ponte Lucano, by Jacob Philipp Hackert.

I had about two and a half hours to see the Frankfurt International Motor Show. I've never been to the Detroit Auto Show, which I assume focuses on the big three American automakers (GM, Ford, Chrysler), but the Frankfurt show is much different in that it focuses on the German automakers. This includes the BMW Group (with Mini and Rolls Royce), the VW Group (with Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini and Bugatti), and Mercedes-Benz. In other words, the Frankfurt show is exponentially more exciting than Detroit, although each show has a smaller presence of the other brands. Ford was in Frankfurt, but Toyota and GM were not.

Anyways, it turns out you'd need a few days to see everything at the show, for two reasons. First, each manufacturer had a massive exhibit, which included every model and several variants of each model. Those cars were open to the public, so you could pop the hood, sit inside or simply put your grubby fingerprints all over the body before one of many cleaners would pass by and re-shine the exterior. There were also a handful of concept cars on display, but they were cordoned off and for display only. Second, the show was brutally crowded in the exhibits of the more popular brands, so getting around took much longer than usual. The crowds were likely due to it being a weekend and the last day of the event. I had enough time to take a cursory look at the Audi, VW, Porsche, Mercedes and BMW exhibits.

The Audi E-Tron Quattro Concept. This is an electric-powered SUV which is small enough to look more like a car/SUV mix (they call it a sport SUV). The three electric motors can produce 429 horsepower (496 hp using a short-term boost setting). The fully charged range is about 310 miles with conservative driving. Audi is scheduling market production for 2018.

Mercedes-Benz is also focusing on the electric market. Their IAA Concept has a gas/electric hybrid system with 279 horsepower. However, the real innovation with this car is that it has a special aerodynamic mode that is activated when the car reaches 50 mph, at which point the tail, rims and various louvers and wings will readjust to optimize air flow through and around the car. The design of the car looked a little too "concept"ual for me.

I did not have the chance to see any of BMW's concept cars, but I still managed to look at the upcoming editions of their current models. The Z4 would be a fun ride.

To end my trip, I had enough time to check out a football match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Hertha Berlin in the Commerzbank Arena. While the stadium was only filled to about 90% capacity, the crowd was still loud and provided a great atmosphere. The one unique aspect of this match was that it was the first time I had ever seen an evenly matched football game. (The Rapid Wien match in Vienna was also close but Wien was clearly the better team.) While Frankfurt looked better in the first half, Berlin had the advantage in the second, and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Commerzbank Arena during a match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Hertha Berlin.

So that was Frankfurt and Mainz over a weekend. I got lucky with the timing of a Bayern Munich match and the Frankfurt auto show (and the Eintracht-Hertha match) occurring on the same weekend, which made for a busy and engaging trip. My next trip will be just a bit further south.