Lauren and Dad's Frankfurt bicycle trip

After some quick planning, Lauren and Dad set off on an overnight bike ride to Frankfurt. We stopped and ate some wild blackberrys along the way. Lauren is wearing her custom cycling skirt outfit. We took "Double Trouble" aka our black Bike Friday Tandem Two'sday. We were able to pack light as we planned on staying in a youth hostel in Frankfurt.

As we were riding towards Frankfurt some very dark clouds rolled in and it began to rain very hard. Lauren was cute and started pedaling harder shouting the whole way, "Parkers Never Quit". I emphatically agreed with her but decided it was a nice time to take an ice cream break under a covered patio. After the rain subsided we started back on our trip.

There was nice paths all of the way there. We rode through the Frankfurt Airport to get to Frankfurt. We finally ended up riding along the beautiful Main River. We thought this floating Imbiss/Doner shop was cool.

It was a beautiful day and the Frankfurt Youth Hostel was right on the river. This is on the bridge that is in front of the Hostel. After checking into the hostel we went for a walk to expore town. There is a video clip after this post that shows the inside of the Hostel. It was 30 euros for both of us for one night (that included a German style breakfast).

I had heard about a Jewish Cemetary in Frankfurt and I wanted to see it. We found the cemetary but it was locked. On the wall around the cemetary is a memorial to all of the Jewish people from Frankfurt that were killed in the Holocaust. There were little metal blocks protruding from the wall. Each block had a name, dates, and concentration camp.

It was staggering to see the tragic loss that was suffered. This is a section of one of the walls. These walls surrounded the cemetary.

The gates were locked and one could only look into the cemetary from the outside. Below is a view from the closed gate of the old Jewish Cemetary in Frankfurt.




Here is an informational sign about the cemetary.

Next door was a giant Jewish Museum. Lauren and I decided to check it out. They had relocated a large amount of Jewish buildings that were excavated when they were found during a construction project. There was a large exhibit about the Milkwe. The Milkwe is a bath were women undergo a ceremonial cleansing before getting married. It was a nice museum and interesting. We were able to set up a visit to the cemetary from the museumThe cemetary was mostly destroyed by Hitler during WWII. There is a small section remaning and it is protected. The headstones are beautiful and very close together. The writings are in Yidish and most of them had an interesting picture associated with them (animal, windmill, etc...)

After the cemetary we walked over the old town of Frankfurt. There is a beautiful square with some amazing half-timber buildings. We went inside of the cathedral and there was beautiful organ music being played. In the gift shop across from the cathedral Lauren bought a snow globe from Frankfurt. She has a nice snowglobe collection started.

We were getting hungry and started walking back to the hostel. We saw a cruise boat and Lauren really wanted to go on it. It was either a 50 minute or 100 minute boat ride. Lauren wanted the 100 minute one. I thought it might be a bit long but we decided to give it a go. We cruised along the Main River learning about Frankfurt. The tour was in German/English. We had a great time.

We got hungry and ate on the boat. The food was pretty good. We rode home the next morning. It was about 24 miles home and we did it in about 2.5 hours. We got turned around at one point as the route along the river is not always user friendly. This is especially true as one is approaching Raunheim on the South side of the Main river. It is near the Airport and an industrial area. We were riding by some factories and ran into a man made port where they have giant gas tanks. I think it is a fuel reserve for the airport. That cost us an extra 30 minutes as we had to backtrack and find a new route.

We had a great time and Lauren is pretty tough and a great stoker (person on the rear of the tandem. The person on the front is called the captain).