We stumble out onto the street and get our bearings. Then it's off to the subway to the main station. Between all the travelers and businessmen rushing hastily to their offices, we feel like having a good coffee (so much time must be).

In Plank in Elbestraße we settle down and watch the scenery. The station district exudes a charm that takes some getting used to. Somehow colourful, but also grey, surprising, disgusting, down-to-earth and hip at the same time - full of contrasts, in fact. With a spoonful of milk foam on the tongue, it is for us at least just delightfully mild - and, simply Frankfurt!

Break on a nice bench on the banks of the Main. We recharge our batteries with some sun energy before jumping back into the fray. If we look around here, how everything sportelt, strolls or stares lost in thought at the river: Has what!

From Hibbdebach to Dribbdebach: We cross the Holbeinsteg and land directly at the Museumsufer - here is the place to be for all culture fans. We head straight for the Städel Museum. Soak up 700 years of concentrated European art, including works by Sandro Botticelli, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Vermeer, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso. Art lovers could lock themselves in here for days and indulge in the works - for us, a cursory glance shall suffice today (us philistines!).

Along the entire Schaumainkai we stroll past many a museum: Museum für Kommunikation, Deutsches Filmmuseum - nanu, there's a boat floating on the Main . with kebab . We treat ourselves to a little snack on Merals Dönnerschiff! - World Cultures Museum, Museum of Applied Arts . Now first over the iron footbridge! One of THE Frankfurt motifs: we remember the song of the same name by Philipp Poisel (hach, so romantic .) and take a few snapshots of the love locks and of course of the skyline on the way.

From here it is only a stone's throw to Frankfurt's Römerberg.

When we enter the Kleinmarkthalle we feel like we are in paradise - fresh vegetables, fruits, fragrant spices and Frankfurt specialties, what could be better? Too bad that we are just so not hungry after the kebab. But after a consultation and a little tasting, we at least treat ourselves to a freshly squeezed juice - enough energy for the next adventures! By the way, just around the corner from the Kleinmarkthalle is the small, inconspicuous supermarket SuperKato (Kornmarkt 3). They have really delicious sushi there!

Now we are oriented towards downtown. Destination:Zeil! Germany's current most popular shopping street attracts almost 15,000 visitors every hour. Quite a lot! Accordingly, it is bustling here. Nevertheless: a must!

Three shoe shops and two clothes shops later, though, we've had enough - heavy shopping bags are extremely counterproductive, after all! We forge ahead and walk and walk and walk and reach the Frankfurt Zoo.

Okay, unfortunately we can't discover all 450 animal species that live in the zoo on a total of eleven hectares today - you guessed it: lack of time! But we won't miss a visit to the lions and tigers in the cat jungle, the lively meerkats and the apes in the Bogori Forest!

From the zoo we take the U6 and ride comfortably to Ostbahnhof. Since our shoes are already slightly pinching (next time we'll put on trekking shoes!), we take the tram from there towards Schießhüttenstraße to Schwedlerstraße. After a few meters on foot (luckily we can do that!) along a small sneak path we reach the Schwedlersee. Here we settle down again and take a deep breath. So much peace in the middle of the city, priceless!

When we're already in Frankfurt East, then we absolutely have to go to the sun deck. Here's one in a particularly exposed location: the Oosten! We order a delicious, tangy sundowner and briefly reminisce about the coffee in the station district. Already another world! Here the motto is: see and be seen.

Sachsenhausen by night - is part of it! So we end up at the Lokalbahnhof and stroll across Affentorplatz, peek into Wallstraße and finally stop in at the traditional pub Dauth Schneider. An Ebbelwoi, a portion of Schneegestöber and afterwards a Mispelchen: Frankfurt as we know it! While there are many bachelor and bachelorette parties in the alley, they are explicitly not welcome here.

On to the Gibson - here the motto today is "F*** L'Amour" - well well, then just no love tonight - but a portion of hip hop beats. And even without love there is a great atmosphere! In the live music club in the middle of Frankfurt's city centre there are great concerts and parties all year round.

Back home. Summary: From the skyline to the curb and back: the program we reeled off today would have easily filled a long weekend, and yet we still missed so much! We didn't go to Frankfurt's fun village Bornheim, didn't stroll up and down Berger Straße, weren't in the chic Westend, didn't go to the Palmengarten (that especially hurts). We still wanted to see so much, try so many things, eat, drink, babble with wascheschden Frankfurters .

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