Dossier Frankfurt and Cologne – a good weekend

Frankfurt am Main is one of the better organized transport hubs in Europe. The Rhine-Main airport, which is the largest airport in Germany, has a train station with domestic and international connections. Frankfurt is crossed by a high-speed rail route that is 177 kilometres long, linking, among others, Frankfurt with Cologne, which is worth visiting during your stay. Moreover, two motorways – A3 and A5 – which are important communication arteries in the world, intersect in the city.

If you want to get from the airport to the city, it is best to use the overground train – the S-Bahn line will take you to the city centre in approx. 11 minutes, with trains running every quarter of an hour.

Frankfurt am Main, like most German cities and towns, boasts a well-kept and picturesque historic city centre. Römerberg, as the town hall square is called, was completely destroyed during the Second World War as a result of Allied bombing, but was successfully rebuilt after 1945. It is worth paying attention to the Grosse Engel building at number 28. The first mention of it comes from 1342. It is considered one of the most decorative and representative private buildings of the late Gothic period. In 1458, it became the property of Friedrich Nachtrabe, a mint master, who opened an exchange office on the ground floor. Over the next centuries, it was used for financial activities. Until the end of the 19th century, the tenement house was called die Wechsel, which means an exchange or a bill of exchange. In the southern part of the square, you will see the late Gothic, restored Church of St. Nicholas – one of the oldest in the city.

It will take you literally a few minutes to get to the Historical Museum. This is the oldest museum in the city, where you can learn about the rich, turbulent and complicated history of the fifth most populated city in Germany. About 800 meters away is the Goethe House. Johann Wolfgang Goethe, a poet and forerunner of the Romantic era, was born in a three-story, restored tenement house. Even if literature at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries is not your passion, a visit to the museum is a great opportunity to see the conditions under which a well-to-do family lived 200 years ago. After an intense day, you can go for a walk along the Main or go for a dinner.

It is best to start your tour with a walk towards the Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew, a must-see spot on the tourist map of Frankfurt. Built of red sandstone, it is the oldest, largest and most important church in Frankfurt am Main. In the past, the coronations of emperors took place there. You are only a few hundred meters away from discovering a completely different face of the city. Of course, we are talking about the Bankenviertel business district, the so-called Mainhattan. It is full of skyscrapers – the Commerzbank Tower, with a total height of 300 meters, was the tallest building in Europe until 2003, and the Messeturm (257 meters) was considered the tallest office building until 1997. Right in front of the Eurotower skyscraper, there is a rather unusual monument. It represents the euro currency surrounded by yellow stars symbolizing the European Union. Next, you can go to the largest shopping street in Germany. Zeil is the perfect place not only for shopping, but also a moment of relaxation – there are plenty of cafés and restaurants. If you do not like noisy and crowded places, go for a walk along the Main or to the Nizza city park. On the other side of the river – from the Schaumainkai boulevard – there is a wonderful view of the historic and modern skyline of Frankfurt.

Trains to Cologne run from the largest train station, Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, on average three times per hour. The price of a return ticket for an adult, purchased several weeks in advance, ranges from approx. PLN 170 to 320. However, the journey itself takes from 60 to 130 minutes.

In the immediate vicinity of the main railway station in Cologne is the Cologne Cathedral of St. Peter and the Virgin Mary. The Cathedral is considered one of the finest examples of medieval architecture. The body of the five-nave basilica delights with its lightness and the play of lights characteristic of the Gothic style. Particularly noteworthy in the temple is the reliquary of the Magi, made by the eminent French goldsmith-artist Nicholas of Verdun (1130–1205). The relics of the Three Wise Men, patrons of Cologne, are kept there. In turn, the light penetrating the stained glass windows, including the oldest one from 1260, presenting selected scenes from the Old and New Testaments, gives the interior a sublime, almost heavenly aura. In 1996, the cathedral was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

There is a magnificent view of a Gothic church from the equally imposing Hohenzollern Bridge.The banks of the Rhine in Cologne are connected by seven bridges: five city and two railway bridges.Without a doubt, the Hohenzollernbrücke is considered – next to the cathedral – a symbol of the city.       In 2008, couples in love started hanging padlocks on the railing of the bridge and throwing the keys into the river.It is estimated that in thirteen years the weight of the padlocks reached 40 tons!Although the custom is romantic, it is controversial due to safety reasons – due to passing trains, the padlocks move, damaging the coating of the railings.In 2018, the city authorities decided to carry out thorough renovation works to prevent further corrosion of the structure.

From the Hohenzollern Bridge, it is worth going to the nearby Lindt Chocolate Museum (approx. 1.1 kilometres). It is also impossible not to mention the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, with one of the largest collections of medieval paintings in Europe, as well as the Roman-Germanic Museum, with a mosaic of Dionysus from around 220-230, coming from a Roman villa, that was discovered in 1941 during construction works on an air-raid shelter.