Day 10 (July 28, 2015): Homeward bound

We were up at 3am this morning, before many of you had even watched last night's news hour and had gone to bed. Our taxi left for the Belgrade Airport at 4:25am, and our Lufthansa Airbus A-321 pushed back right on schedule at 6:05am. It arrived at Frankfurt on time, two hours later, and by 8:45M, we were on the train to Frankfurt Haupftbanhof (train station), arriving 9am on the dot. We threw our carry-ons in a locker and set out to explore Frankfurt. 

Our Lufthansa Airbus A-321

Deutche-Bahn is fast, clean, efficient

The Hauptfbanhof (train station)

80% of Frankfurt was destroyed in Allied bombing raids in 1944.  When the post-war reconstruction began, Frankfurt quickly grew into a modern city. It is well-planned and organized, with gleaming financial towers and a small Old Town core that shows how life was in the 14th and 15th centuries. 

The ultra-modern Frankfurt in the background, with the older city in the fore

The Romer area is at the heart of the old town and was restored to its 14th/15th century glory post-WW2

St. Peter's was rebuilt shortly after the war

The Altstadt is the historic administrative area for the city

Besides the above sights, showing both the old and new cities, a highlight was climbing the 328 stairs to the top of the Cathedral's spire - wonderful views!  (Amazingly, the Cathedral was spared in the bombing raids.)

The Imperial Cathedral or the "Dom" as it's called in German. We climbed the 328 steps of the spire

The city is split into south and north by the Main River, with many bridges connecting the two.  One is a pedestrian bridge, which affords great views of both the old city and the financial district. 

The pedestrian bridge, linking south and north portions of the city

Cruise boat on the Main River, with the "Dom" and Altstadt behind

Other highlights of the morning were:

...having coffee and pastries in the Romer square while watching the hordes of tourists pass by

...drooling over all the goodies on offer at the Kleinmarkthalle

...taking in the large and impressive An der Hauptwache square 

...and finding the house of Goethe (famous German poet).

At 12:15pm we hopped a tram back to the Haupftbanhof and caught the oh-so-efficient Deutsche-Bahn train back to the airport. Unlike our late departure from Halifax, the return Condor flight left Frankfurt and arrived Halifax on time. 

Our Condor Boeing 767-300ER

Vacations leave many memories which take awhile to process and which feed the emotions for a long time into the future. We thoroughly enjoyed the Balkans and would highly recommend any of the four countries we sampled for a trip.  Indeed, we hope to return to take in Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Montenegro. 

Thank you for taking the time to tune into this blog and for sharing the journey.