Frankfurt was a good city to start our European travel. Although definitely a business city and commercial hub, it had enough historical sites to get us out of the hotel room and into the sun to walk and become accustomed to the different time zone. Tuesday, we explored Frankfurt by foot all day, strolling again to the Main River, back to the Romerberg, then farther east to a historic Jewish cemetery.

We returned to Romerberg so I could photograph the plaque in the ground that commemorates the Nazi youth-led book burning on the square at that location in 1933. The quote written in German around the plaque reads "When books are burned, in the end, people will also be burned." The words were prophetic when written by Heinrich Heine in 1823. Nazi youth were protesting outside ideas when they had the massive book burning, an event that is considered by some historians as the beginning of the Holocaust.

About a kilometer east of Romerberg was the Old Jewish Cemetery. The earliest burials there date to 1272. As you can imagine, during 1938-1942 it was almost completely destroyed. The cemetery itself was locked, but it is the cemetery wall, built in 1995, that is now the somber reminder of lives lost. This 6' wall totally encloses the city block. Jutting out from the wall are small blocks with the name of a Jewish person killed by the Nazis. If known, a date of death is noted. Many of these have a name, date of birth, and "Auschwitz." If you look closely, you can see pebbles placed on the name blocks. It is a Jewish custom or tradition to place small rocks on tombstones, not flowers.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for dinner at a small restaurant. Although I found it by a TripAdvisor review, it was a local restaurant (waitress obviously knew the other patrons, no other non-German speaking customers). Our waitress knew a few words of English, but we had no problem pointing to the schnitzel to order. Delicious, with a salad, fried potatoes, and a beer for me. It was a pork cutlet, pounded thin, breaded and fried. I had mine "hunter style" so it came with mushrooms in the gravy. Delicious! It was served quickly after being made, so the coating on the pork was still crispy, the gravy hadn't made it soggy yet.

On Wednesday morning, we left Frankfurt on the high speed train to Paris. Boarding the train was easy. The Frankfort train station has 24 platforms, but the overhead monitors list the trains by name, destination, time of departure and platform number. At the platform, another monitor directs you where to stand based on the train car indicated on your ticket. No security lines, just hop on the train when it arrives. Once the train left the station, an offical came thru checking tickets. She checked my Eurail pass and ticket, stamping them both. On this train, I needed the ticket with a seat reservation in addition to the pass. On some future trains, I just need the pass. The train didn't become high speed until after we left Germany and entered France. 315 km/h = 189 mph.

street view outside our hotel

And we are now in Paris! It was about a km walk to our hotel from the train station. Narrow, cobbled streets and sidewalks, so the wheels on our suitcases are getting a workout. Our hotel had one small sign, but Google maps took us right to it. English-speaking staff at check-in to our 6th floor balcony room. We met up with Julie when she got off work and went for dinner. It was wonderful to see Julie again! She still looks exactly like that 18-year old exchange student from 2003. She works today, so we are walking around Paris and then going to her apartment for dinner. Julie's apartment building is just across the street from our hotel, so convenient. Pictures of Paris and of Julie in my next post.