Day #200 - Frankfurt, Germany

Romer - the City Hall Building

Romerberg - Historical City Center

St. Nicholas Church - located in the City Center

One of the many skyscrapers

Overlooking the Main River

Thursday, September 30th

Coming to you live from Frankfurt, Germany. I had a couple days to get some things organized and also gain some needed rest - back in the game.

On Thursday, I headed out of Schrobenhausen very early. I took a 2 train combination arriving into Frankfurt around 12 noon. First thing I noticed, the city is called Frankfurt am Main. What's that all about? I just looked it up. I guess the old English name was Frankfurt on the Main - because the city of Frankfurt is located on the Main River. Nice - but I'm loosing the "am Main" bit as a continue with my blog.

Remember a while back when I passed through Hamberg, I was surprised that this city was the second largest in Germany (to Berlin). I would have guessed Munich or Frankfurt as the second largest. Today, I'm surprised to find out that Frankfurt is only the 5th largest city in Germany - behind Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne.

Frankfurt is the financial and transportation center of Germany. When I arrived into the central train station - it was enormous and very impressive. I've actually been eating lunch the past 2 days at the rail station because they have some nice options. Walking out into the city, you see many skyscraper buildings. Many more than I remember seeing in either Berlin or Munich.

I'm reading that Frankfurt is the financial center in continental Europe. It's the seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and the Frankfurt Trade Fair. Frankfurt is also a major aviation hub - with one of the largest international airports in the world. It's also considered an "alpha city" - meaning it's deemed to be an important node point in the global economic system. It's ranked 20th in the list of "Alpha Cities". This lists (in order from #1 to #20): New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, Chicago, LA, Singapore, Sydney, Seoul, Brussels, San Francisco, Wash D.C., Toronto, Beijing, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, Boston, Frankfurt.

If you're wondering why I continue to present lists like the one above - I'm a big-picture type of guy. I like to start from the top and peel the layers back. It helps me gain perspective on things. It's how I attack problems. I can make alot of assumptions about places based on location, size, world rank, etc. Example, there's currently 6.8 billion people in the world - 2.5 billion in the countries of China and India alone. This figure, with the fact that only 2 cities in these countries make the "Alpha Top 20 list" - tells me that China and India have alot of very poor areas. The US has 6 representives in the 'Alpha List" - that's why we're the 'Big Dogs'.

OK - back to Thursday. First order of business, like I mentioned yesterday, was to do some shopping. Running shoes - check, watch - check, power gels - check. Solid. I will say this - stick with buying your running shoes in the US. I've priced these in several countries - very expensive. I was waiting for Germany, because I felt comfortable here and thought maybe I could swing a better deal - not so much. I basically paid double versus US prices.

I'm staying at a place about 10 minutes out of the city - with a 1.5 mile walk from the train station. It's a nice place however. I walked around the city for a little while after making my purchases. It was rainy and dreary. The last 5 days have been like this. I decided to call it an early night. I caught up on some emails and went to bed.

Here's to some sunshine tomorrow.