If you’re flying transatlantic to/from Europe on Lufthansa airlines there is a chance your flight might make a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany. This is what happened to me last year when I was flying from Helsinki back home to Canada. I didn’t want to spend all of my time at the airport, so I got a hotel for the evening (it was an overnight layover) and went for a walk the next morning to explore some of Frankfurt. Here is the little bit of Frankfurt I got to see on my layover.
This is the Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof (a.k.a Frankfurt’s Main Train Station). It only takes about 15 minutes via train to get from the airport to here making it pretty easy to explore Frankfurt on a layover.
Frankfurt is the headquarters of the European Central Bank (hence the big Euro sign).
While I was wandering around some of the historic areas there were plenty of modern skyscrapers in Frankfurt.
This is Ampelmännchen, a.k.a the green light man you see at crosswalks. In Germany, you can find Ampelmännchen souvenirs in stores. This statue was part of an art project to celebrate the 25 years of reunification in Germany in 2015.
I don’t know what this building is for, but I liked the mosaic bird on it.
The one area I wanted to see in Frankfurt was the historic Römerberg. If I had more time, I would have taken a walking tour to learn a little bit more about the city.
I love the style of the buildings here. It reminds me of a gingerbread house.
This is the Kaiserdom, St Bartholomäus or the Frankfurt Cathedral. I was here on a Sunday morning, so I didn’t take any pictures inside during the service.
This was just a little snack shop in Frankfurt selling popcorn and some other things. I’m sure it’s pretty touristy, but seeing this made me think I should check out the Christmas Markets in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
I didn’t have enough time to do much in Frankfurt, but from my morning walk, I would love to go back and explore a bit more of Frankfurt in the future.
Things You Should Know
While in Frankfurt I stayed at the Comfort Inn by Frankfurt Train Station. The location to the train station made it an excellent choice for my layover (there is a train from the airport to Central Station). Book your stay in Frankfurt here.
What have you done on a long layover?
we did pretty much the same thing on a 10-hour daytime layover. took the train into town, wandered around romerberg, but also rented bikes and cycled around for an hour or so and then came upon a farmers market where we had lunch. the weather was lovely, and i highly recommend a long layover in frankfurt. so easy to get to/from the airport
Frankfurt seems like an awesome city worth visiting! Loved the pictures!