Frankfurt am Main is not only an airport. I have never been in the city, even though I must have flown through the airport dozens of times. I remember the first time I flew through Frankfurt. I was maybe 7, and my mom bought me a nice sweater at the airport; thick and green.

My sister who lives in Pretoria had to be at a meeting in Turin, and she was flying through Frankfurt. I have a course in Heidelberg, so we decided to spend the Saturday together in the city. Wonderful idea. We saw two museums, the Modern Art Museum and the Städel Museum. Both were excellent. I saw some paintings by Gerhard Richter that I hadn’t seen before, in black and white.  He is definitely one of my favorite artists.  Expressive and such a diverse body of works. We had some good Thai food, Ethiopian, and then saw a wonderful performance at the opera, La Boheme.

The atmosphere on the weekend is relaxed. People are walking around doing their shopping and strolling or jogging along the river. My sister had coffee and I asked her if they told her where the coffee beans were from. I said that in San Francisco, you would probably know if they were from Java or Papua New Guinea and if they were bird safe etc. In San Francisco we would see people riding expensive custom bikes. People wear trendy clothes in Stockholm. Frankfurt is more crowded but there seems to be less of a need to make a statement.

 

I am sure on a weekday it would be very different, with the business people and the European Central Bank and German stock exchange. But today it was serene.

Tomorrow to Heidelberg.