Frankfurt: Geschlossen on Montag

Frank and I had a lovely day in Frankfurt yesterday. We arrived from Newark at noon and, although there were two departing flights for Bangkok prior to our scheduled 10:45pm flight, we were unable to fly standby on the earlier flights, because they are ze Germans and ze Germans love rules. So, we decided to spend several of our many hour layover in the rainy town of Frankfurt rather than stay at the airport.

After checking out the Frankfurt guidebooks at the airport and sketchily snapping photos of relevant pages and maps on our iPhones, we ventured on the S-Bahn into the city, with the hopes of checking out the Jewish Museum and maybe the Zoo. After about 15 minutes on the train we realized we had taken it the wrong way and were venturing farther and farther into the suburbs. Eventually we righted ourselves and made it into the center city. Here's where I tell you I totally appreciated bringing that fleece I was bemoaning last time, because it was about 60 degrees and raining the whole time we were there (Frank even ended up buying a 10 euro sweater from H&M).

For the most part, Frankfurt is a boring and unattractive tourist destination, a consequence of getting bombed out during Dubbya Dubbya Two along with the rest of Germany. Immediately out of the S-Bahn we walked through several malls in order to gain a perspective on international consumerism. It's about the same as the US, except a little more German:

Eventually we made our way to what was left of the Old City, a small square with some German looking buildings and a tourist info center. At the tourist info center, we confirmed our greatest fears: just about everything in Frankfurt is geschlossen on Montag (closed on Monday), including the money changer near the info center, and the Jewish Museum.

We did, however, spot a sweet restaurant called "Schwartzer Stern," which I'm pretty sure means "Black Star," or something, and would explain why I love Zwarte Piet so much (hi Emma!)

Having quickly burned through the 20 euros I had scrounged up from old drawers at home, we needed to find a way to get money. Finding a bank proved more difficult than anticipated, and when we finally did find one we discovered it, too, geschlossened early on Monday, leaving us only 12 minutes to navigate our way through the bank and find the sketchy counter in a back room that would give us some cash.

After grabbing some food and wandering around town a little longer, we made our way back to the airport, and onto our flight to Bangkok. In Bangkok, we made our connection to Siem Reap, and, miraculously, so did both of our bags.

Frank and I have been told by several Cambodian people now that we look alike, so we've decided we're going with "cousins" for the trip. We grabbed dinner (a smorgasbord of authentic Khmer eats) and watched some Wimbledon in downtown Siem Reap, and are now settling in for the night in our fabulous hotel room at the Golden Banana Resort just outside of town. Night night everyone!