Barcelona: Day 44 : Rapid-Fire Frankfurt .

Already it is the last day that we have in Frankfurt, not to mention that it's only a partial day in Frankfurt as it is. We met back up with our tour guide, Petra, who is just a friend of Kathrin's. We started by heading to the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität.

Before we headed in, she added something interesting about the way German cities are settled. In almost every city, the rich people live in the west, and the poor in the east. The reason is that the industry from the winds blow from the west, so all of the smoke and industrial fumes will not blow into the richer areas. I found this to be quite entertaining... but honestly, someone was really thinking when they placed the pricier homes!


The University has 4 wings which considered the street system around it and helped to open up those views. It's almost a bit of a maze inside, and it's kind of hard to find your way around. You're also limited in your movement -- you can only move from wing to wing via the 3rd floor. There are 2000 windows, and is thus dubbed the House of 2000 Windows. One interesting thing about the windows is that they get smaller as the floors increase. From the ground, this makes the building appear taller and more majestic than it actually is. I think everyone's favorite part about the university were the elevators -- Instead of your average lift, there are single person lifts that move continuously, and you just hop on when you want to go up or down.

We moved into an area called the Römerstadt, which is aptly named for the area that used to be under Roman control. The homes are small here and everyone almost has a tiny little garden in their backyards. I liked it, but it seemed like there was absolutely zero activity in the whole place, which seemed very weird. The homes are small, but often have balconies and roof gardens; there are also other gardens available for rent. It all sounds like a really nice space -- but the feeling is not as communal as was desired.

 The last stop of the day of was the Saint Michael's church designed by Rudolf Schwarz. The architect developed a specific way of relating together the plan, structure and the congregation. As with many other things in Germany (beginning to sound like a broken record, I know...) this church was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. However, the tower from the original church is still standing. An interesting thing to note is that many German churches are closing down because there are no longer communities to use them. This particular church is actually no longer a used church, so much as it is a community center. Despite its original Catholic intent, it now serves a Baptist community.

the lady with the long hair was our guide, Petra -- most German woman I have ever met

After rushing to visit an architectural museum (which was honestly a shame because it was absolutely sick) we were back at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, ready to travel to Düsseldorf.