Day 6 - Thursday 27th April 2023

We woke to another cool sunny morning and once again had breakfast at the hotel restaurant.

Yesterday the tourist information office had suggested that we go to the Main Tower which offers great views of the city. However, when Suzy researched it, she found that the lift doesn't go all the way to the observation level and you have to climb ten flights of stairs after that. Clearly that wasn't going to be an option with my heart condition.

Instead she booked for us to go to the Staedel art museum which is located on the river about 20 minutes walk from our hotel. You need to book a two hour window and she booked for midday to 2pm.

This time we walked on the south side of the river where there is a wide tree-lined path like the one on the north side that we used yesterday to get to the cathedral and the new old town. Once again, there were geese all the way along. The geese probably outnumbered the people.

On the bank we also saw tulips of various colours.

I'm not an art enthusiast but this museum was impressive. It displays art works going back centuries from famous artists including Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Rodin and many others. It took us about an hour to slowly walk from room to room.

Then it was time for lunch and so we decided to go to the museum's cafe. It turned out that it's not really just a cafe - it's more like an upmarket restaurant with excellent food and professional service. Apart from museum visitors like us, there seemed to be plenty of locals who came from the street entrance rather than through the museum. Probably a good place for a business lunch.

Suzy and I weren't particularly hungry and so we both ordered a chicken teriyaki sushi dish from the starter menu. Apart from high quality wines, they seem to specialise in sophisticated soft drinks and so Suzy ordered a fancy carrot juice drink that the restaurant named after a famous actor.

There seems to be a different rule in Europe about having dogs in restaurants. Even though this is an elegant high-class restaurant, there was a dog asleep under a nearby table.

On the way out at about 2pm, Suzy wanted to visit the museum shop. Although every tourist establishment has a gift shop, this one was special. High class with impressive merchandise over two levels.

Wherever we go in the world, Suzy likes to see the city and the countryside from the water and so on the way back to our hotel, she booked a 100 minute river cruise (Primus-Line) starting at 3pm. It would go one direction on the river for 50 minutes and then 50 minutes in the other direction.

It was a great choice. There was a recorded commentary in German and English pointing out landmarks along the way. The ship passed under bridges at regular intervals - some modern and others dating back centuries. Most were road bridges and there were some rail bridges too.

The traditional architecture was probably the most interesting. We also saw the modern tall skyscrapers which result in the city often being referred to as Mainhattan (a play on words indicating it is similar to New York's Manhattan).

On the second leg of the cruise, we got a good view of our hotel from the river. There was no shortage of photo opportunities throughout the cruise.

The cruise is obviously popular. It runs all day and into the evening. They serve food and wine and so many people use it as a dinner cruise in the evening. We ordered a glass of Merlot for each of us.

On the way back to the hotel, the path next to the river was quite busy. You need to be very careful of the cyclists because they shoot past you very close and very fast.

Rowing is a popular pastime here too. There were regular kayaks on the river with one, two, three or four rowers.

Many of the geese were enjoying a family outing too. We noticed that baby geese seem to come in pairs and that they are accompanied by both adults - mum and dad and the two kids.

We were back in the hotel soon after 5pm. At the beginning of the day, we had been wondering how we were going to do to fill in the day. As it turned out we had a great day here in Frankfurt.

Just after 7pm, we went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner. This time they had the door open to the outdoor area and some people were sitting outside. It was warmer than on previous nights. In fact, it was over 16C.